Importance Of DNS For Website Uptime

The smooth functioning of the DNS or Domain Name System is crucial for guaranteeing uptime and optimum performance of a website. This is true for any website, irrespective of the site being hosted on a dedicated server or on a shared web hosting service. Even if the whole infrastructure of the web server is working perfectly, a DNS problem can give rise to an unresponsive site. Therefore it is necessary to include a DNS monitoring strategy in a company’s website monitoring goals so that there is consistent online visibility of the site. By making sure that the DNS for the site is working perfectly, it is possible to make sure that the end user experience of the website is positive.

The DNS plays a crucial role in translating a website name that a person uses into an IP address of web server that the computer systems use to find the location of the website on the Internet. When a web user sends a request for opening a website by typing the name of that site in the browser, its DNS infrastructure directs it to the IP address of that web server. In case the website is hosted in numerous locations, the DNS is going to point it to the one that is closest to a requesting user. After the browser obtains IP address of web server, it is going to issue HTTP request for that web page. Therefore, proper working of the DNS for a website is extremely crucial for making sure that the website is visible to the customer or end user.

There are many issues that can affect the DNS server. It is to be remembered that DNS configuration as well as DNS resolution is technically complex. Due to the fact that DNS resolution is carried out in multiple steps, issues can crop up in any of these steps which in turn can lead to the failure of the whole process. Here are some of the critical issues that can affect the DNS server.

Unavailability of The DNS Server

Just like any other kind of technological infrastructure, the DNS server can also experience scheduled as well as unscheduled outages and fail to work effectively. Once the DNS server presenting information about a particular website goes down, its client cannot get the details of the site’s web server which can make it difficult to issue HTTP request. The net result is that the users experience a website downtime.

Latency in The DNS Resolution

Latency leads to a site loading slowly even though the web hosting infrastructure of the site is working perfectly. In case DNS cache is not able to serve the request for the site, it has to try and get the request passed through the other servers. This eventually leads to latency of the DNS resolution. Overloading of the DNS server can also lead to the latency of the DNS requests.

DNS Cache Poisoning

Local DNS resolvers having little security can frequently get attacked by hackers who can easily insert fake addresses for the domain name into DNS. This can be used to tamper the cache records of resolver and direct the domain name into a phishing site.

There are a hundred reasons why a website may experience downtime.  The advantage of having DNS monitoring included in the website monitoring service is that it allows to pinpoint the specific issue that is causing the downtime.  This gives advantage of both quickly identifying the root cause of a downtime issue, and also in early resolution in restoring the website uptime.