DNS Hosting Service Now Anycast Enabled!

tl;dr

LaneChange.Net DNS Hosting Service is now using Anycast technology. Anycast brings our global DNS network closer to clients, using only 2 IP addresses. DNS requests are routed to the nearest DNS server, which reduces latency. Automatic health checks remove any bad servers without the need for a DNS client to re-transmit a request to another server.

Current DNS Manager customers have been migrated to the new platform. Some minor tweaks to your name server settings should be made to take full advantage of the service. DNS Hosting prices remain unchanged -- this is a no cost upgrade!

Big News!

LaneChange.Net is pleased to announce a major upgrade to our DNS Hosting Service server infrastructure. Anycast routing is now fully deployed across our DNS network. We have also upgraded our back-end server software for better compliance with today's modern DNS protocol extensions. 

What is Anycast?

Anycast uses existing Internet routing technologies to advertise the same IP address from multiple locations around the globe. Clients connect to an Anycast IP and are routed to DNS servers closest to them - network topology wise. This reduces response times, making name resolution faster. Built in health checks remove unresponsive servers, so network traffic routes to only healthy machines - reducing timeout delays and alleviating the need for clients to make subsequent requests.

What changes are needed to take advantage of the new Anycast DNS Hosting Service?

To ensure your domain is optimally configured, you should verify the Name Server list recorded with your Domain Name Registration. Only 3 Name Servers should now be listed for each of your domains:

Name Server 1:   NS1.LANECHANGE.NET
Name Server 2:   NS2.LANECHANGE.NET
Name Server 3:   E.NS.LANECHANGE.INFO

To avoid typo's, make sure you copy and paste each of the 3 hostnames above and removing any other Name Server's not listed here. Pay special attention to the 3rd hostname - it ends in .info and not .net.

If your domain name is registered through LaneChange.Net - you can edit your name servers in our Domain Manager under the LOGIN button > Domains & Hosting Login drop-down off our main web page. If your domain name is registered elsewhere, visit your domain name registration provider to make your changes.

Do I need to update my name servers or will things still work as-is?

Our new offering no longer requires the 5 name servers it did before, so you should remove references to NS3 & NS4.lanechange.net. We have no immediate plans to remove these A Records from our DNS configuration, so your domain will still resolve correctly. However, we have removed the old NS3 & NS4 NS Records from zones hosted on our servers. If you happen to run a third party DNS analyzer against your domain, it will likely report warnings about mismatched name servers. Because of this, we recommend removing the superfluous name servers at your convenience. 

Why do you use 3 name servers for 2 IPs and what's with the .info domain?

In a couple of words: Flexibility and diversity. Having 3 hostnames gives us the flexibility to bring a third IP into the mix should the need arise - like, say if something went wrong with the Anycast IPs.

e.ns.lanechange.info is not new and has been apart of our DNS network for many years. The idea of having a hostname in another top level domain (TLD) is that it adds diversity to the mix. This domain is registered with a different Registrar, that is also operated by a different Registry than .net domains. In the extremely unlikely event that something should happen to our .net domain, the .info domain would continue to function.

Happy 15th Birthday DNS Hosting!

LaneChange.Net's DNS Hosting Service just celebrated 15 years of operation. Our goal has always been to deliver the best service at a reasonable price. Anycast has been on our radar for a very long time, but until recently, the costs to deploy this technology was too prohibitive. We are excited to announce that this great service enhancement comes without a price increase to our DNS Hosting Service.

Thank you to all our loyal customers for your support! If you like our services, don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues and click the links below to share the news on the socials. 

If you have any questions about this change, contact support@lanechange.net anytime.