DNS.com

Type:	Privately Held
Industry:	Managed DNS Service
Headquarters:	Louisville, KY
Country:	USA
Products:	DNS services, traffic management services
Website:	http://www.dns.com
Key People
Dan Kimball, CEO

DNS.com is an enterprise, proprietary DNS service. The company provides an external managed DNS service that directs traffic on the Internet. It was the first service to offer the ability to geotarget a company’s website using a web based control panel and DNS.

It provides two separate networks or constellations mapped to the nameservers:

• ns1.dns.com
• ns2.dns.com
• ns3.dns.com
• ns4.dns.com

History

The DNS.com website first appeared in 1991, and has been used to provide DNS service for the past two decades. In 2010, Comwired Inc. acquired the domain name and now operates its enterprise DNS service at the site. Comwired was founded in 2008 as a service that redirected web visitors based on geography using DNS. The company is headquartered in the historic terminal of the Bowman Field airport, known as the Administration Building, in Louisville, KY.

Founders

The company was founded by Dan Kimball (CEO), Brian Smith (CTO), Sean Stafford (COO) and Eric Radtke (CMO). The founding team met in Louisville working at ModernGigabyte, later acquired by Parallels, Inc.

Business overview

DNS.com was the first commercial service to introduce hyperlocal geotargeting technology (also recognized as geolocation or IP location technology) to DNS. The service detects the location of Web visitors and allows website administrators to determine traffic rules to route visitors to geographically appropriate content or servers. This process can be used to target advertising, localize content, manage geographic rights, and optimize speed and performance among a group of web servers or content delivery networks.

Patents

The company’s technology utilizes provisional and patent-pending methods for website creation and segregation, identification and routing of Internet visitors.

Domain security

DNS.com, jointly with Phillip Hallam-Baker, VP and Principal Scientist at Comodo, proposed the following DNS mechanisms to complement use of Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC):

• DNS Extended Service Parameters (ESRV) Record
• DNS Packet Layer Security

Customers

DNS.com serves direct customers including ecommerce websites, Software as a Service applications, and advertising and marketing agencies. DNS.com also provides transparent authoritative DNS services through its reseller distribution channel to Internet service providers such as domain name registrars and web hosting companies.

Industries that can benefit from the company's geolocation technology include online advertisers, online advertising networks, online retailers, and technology companies.

Services

Current services are managed DNS hosting and blocking DDoS attacks at the node level. Through the DNS.com administrative control center, geo-location or geo-targeting of websites is made possible. A JSON API allows developers to integrate the service into existing applications. The Comwired application itself is now offered as a white label solution using the DNS.com API.

As of November 2010, DNS.com has server nodes in 14 locations in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The cities in which DNS.com's nodes are located are

• NY/NJ Metro
• Chicago IL
• Dallas TX
• Miami FL
• Atlanta GA
• Louisville KY
• Los Angeles CA
• Seattle WA
• Luxembourg
• Dublin Ireland
• Manchester England
• Frankfurt Germany
• Amsterdam The Netherlands
• Singapore

The service is in direct competition to NeuStar UltraDNS and Dyn Inc. Dynect.