301 Redirect
This is a HTTP response code. For URL forwarding, it indicates a permanent move of the URL as its shown in search engine results. The optimal redirect for when you’ve moved your website to a new domain or perhaps you’ve merged two websites or have used multiple domains/URLs. This is also the method used to transition from HTTP to HTTPS so search engines are updated.
A Record
Maps hostnames to the IP address of the host. For example, the A record for easydns.com points to the IP address 205.210.42.135.
AAAA Record
A Records are used for IPv4 addresses. An AAAA record [or quad A record] ties a domain name to an IPv6 address in the same manner. See IPv4 / IPv6
Administrative Contact
The administrative contact is the primary contact for the domain for receiving notices of renewal. The registrant contact is the only contact to receive either WDRP or WAP notices. Typically, the admin contact is the contact who’s managing the domain for the registrant.
Afilias
Afilias is the registry for .INFO, plus other TLDs such as .PRO, .BET and .MOBI domains. Identity Digital (formally Donuts) now owns Afilias – as of 2020.
AFRINIC
AFRINIC – African Network Information Center – manages the distribution of internet number resources as in IPv4 and IPv6. They are the regional internet registry for Africa. Their website is https://www.afrinic.net/
AFSDB
AFSDB records are used to connect domain names to Andrew File System (AFS) servers.
Alias CNAME Record
See CNAME Record
Aname
easyDNS provides the ability to create the root name [Apex record] as a Cname, which then becomes an Aname. Cnames have a limitation preventing the root name from being created, so Anames work around that to allow the record creation. easyDNS also monitors the record to update the destination in case there’s a change.
Anycast DNS
Anycast is the fastest responding nameserver for any given request. When a query is made for your domain, these servers will reply with the information. This dramatically speeds up response time. Most of easyDNS’ service levels include Anycast nameservers.
API
API – Application Program Interface – simply put is a set of routines, protocols, and tools used to build software applications or web tools. An API is a software to software interface and not a user interface. Please visit our API Documentation page is you wish to sign up and use our API. We are currently working on developing a new API – we do not have an ETA at this time.
APNIC
APNIC – Asia Pacific Network Information Center – manages the distribution of internet number resources as in IPv4 and IPv6. They are the regional internet registry for the Asia Pacific region. Their website is at https://www.apnic.net/
ARIN
ARIN – American Registry for Internet Numbers – manages the distribution of internet number resources as in IPv4 and IPv6. They are the regional internet registry for the United States, Canada, many Caribbean countries, and the North Atlantic islands. Their website can be found at https://www.arin.net/
ASCII
Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. These are the common characters from the Latin based languages – A-Z alphabet, numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-) characters.
Non-ASCII would relate to characters that are from [but not exclusive to] alphabets in Arabic, Hebrew, French, Cyrillic, and Chinese. For example characters é, ë, ê, è, â, à,æ, ô,œ, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, ù, û, ü, ÿ.
Auth-info code / Auth code
Auth-info code (authorisation code) is a unique string of characters like a password that is assigned to each domain by the current registrar. It is an essential requirement to transfer a domain between registrars. It is mandatory to be provided for most domains when being transferred from the losing registrar to the gaining registrar. The auth-info code is obtained through your current registrar and provided to the gaining registry during the transfer process. Also, see EPP code.
Authoritative Nameserver
Any of the nameservers that a domain name has been pointed to by the domain registrar. With easyDNS, you can set your domain’s authoritative nameservers by selecting the ‘nameservers’ link to the right of the domain or via the Whois link.
AXFR
AXFR – Authoritative Zone Transfer – is an asynchronous transfer of the entire zonefile from the master nameserver to secondary nameservers.
BIND
BIND – Berkeley Internet Name Daemon – is the most common DNS software on the Internet and what easyDNS uses.
CA
CA – Certificate Authority – is the issuer of SSL certificates. easyDNS sells certificates from CA’s such as Comodo, GeoTrust/DigiCert, and Trustwave.
CAA Records
CAA – Certificate Authority Authorisation – records are a stated DNS record that states what certificate authorities [CA’s] are authorised to issue certificates for that domain. If one only wants a Comodo certificate issued for the domain [or subdomain/wildcard], they would create a CAA record. easyDNS supports the entry of CAA records.
Cache
The last results from looking to the authoritative servers for a given domain. This stored information is used so that nameservers can respond more quickly to requests.
CDS
CDS (Child DS) records are used to signal changes in secure entry points. This is one method to maintain delegations that can be used when the DNS operator has no other way to inform the parent that changes are needed.
CentralNIC
CentralNIC is a British registry firm that handles many TLD/ccTLDs such as .AM, .FM, .ART and .XYZ.
CERT
Certificate (CERT) records are a type of resource record that stores certificates and their related certificate revocation lists in the domain name system.
CIDR
CIDR – Classless Internet Domain Routing – is a notation used for specifying a range of IP addresses. This involves the IP address followed by a slash and a number indicating the size of the block. The number used indicates the proportion of the last section of the address used for the block. The larger the number the smaller the block, so a block like 23.17.42.93/24 represents a block of 256 host addresses which would all begin with 23.17.42, while a /27 includes 32 addresses, and a /32 is one specific host address.
CIRA
CIRA – Canadian Internet Registration Authority – is the registry of the .CA ccTLD domains. https://cira.ca/
CNAME Record
CNAME – Canonical Name Record – records point one name to another. CNAMEs are sometimes referred to as an alias.
ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain)
These include country codes .CA, .UK, .IN, .AM, .EU, .TV, .CO, .ST domains. Every country is assigned a ccTLD by ICANN and there can be restrictions for purchasing these domains. For example, presence requirements are often mandatory to obtain that country’s ccTLD. There is also ccSLD‘s, which is Country Code Second-Level Domain – these are the second level under the ccTLD. An example would be .CO.UK or .ORG.IN.
CMS
CMS – Content management system – is basically a software application that is used to create/build and manage your digital content [a website for example]. There are many popular content management systems like Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal which are available in our easyWEB hosting.
cPanel Hosting
cPanel is the Linux-based webhosting control panel easyWEB uses. cPanel offers a graphical interface to update and build your website – there are many tools provided for site-building in a simplified process. Such popular content management services like Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal are available in easyWEB. For a detailed comparison between cPanel and Plesk, please visit this page.
CSR
CSR – Certificate Signing Request – is a text file generated by a Web server that contains the following: 1. Information about your organisation (organisation name, country, etc.). 2. Your Web or WAP Server’s public key. The certificate issuer [eg GeoTrust, Symantec, etc] will use the Certificate Signing Request to generate your signed digital certificate.
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting or domain squatting is basically registering a domain with the intent of selling it to the ‘rightful’ owner – via brand or trademark interests. The initial registrant recognises the opportunity to sell the domain at an inflated price to the person or company who should own the domain [trademarked].
DANE Protocol
DANE – DNS-Based Authentication of Named Entities – is a new protocol that allows us to securely specify the exact TLS/SSL certificate a service or application should use to contact a website. This protocol is used along with DNSSEC.
Delegation
The process of assigning responsibility for a zone file to nameservers. This is done via NS records which are called delegation records. See glue records.
DKIM
DKIM – Domain Keys Identified Mail – is a protocol for signing and verifying the authenticity of an e-mail’s sender. It does not provide any encryption for e-mails themselves, nor does it provide any actual control over whether mail is received or not, unlike SPF. Mail is always received and accepted, regardless of whether it is correctly signed. The main value of it is for senders with large mailing lists who wish to avoid being throttled by large systems such as Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google, all of whom support DKIM. Please see TXT record below.
DMARC
DMARC – Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance – is an e-mail authentication protocol that expands on the more popular SPF and DKIM records. DMARC adds a reporting function to help improve and monitor the protection of fraudulent e-mail. DMARC is added to the TXT record section.
DNS
DNS is an acronym for Domain Name System or Domain Name Server. DNS service is, in essence, the central directory for the internet, which directs traffic to the appropriate servers for the different functions of a domain. If someone is trying to access your webpage or send you an email, the servers they’re using to connect to the internet first look to the DNS to find out what servers are responsible for those functions of your domain.
DNS Caching
DNS caching is the length of time that a DNS server will retain existing DNS records before checking for updates. The length of time that records are cached is usually determined by the TTL (see definition below) set by the authoritative nameserver, but some Internet Service Providers may have their DNS servers set to cache records for a longer period of time. This delay in updating the DNS cache is commonly called DNS propagation.
DNS Propagation
This term is generally used to describe the time taken for the cache of nameservers to be updated after changes are made to a domain name’s authoritative nameservers. For example, after changing your domain’s nameservers, the TLD nameserver may still direct queries to the old authoritative nameservers until its cache has expired. DNS propagation is also used sometimes to describe the time taken for Internet Service Providers to update their own local DNS caches since some Internet Service Providers do not always update their local cache based on the TTL of authoritative nameservers.
DNSSEC
DNSSEC – Domain Name System Security Extensions – is a means of securing the authenticity of the DNS response. Since DNS lacks security, and with the prevalence of cache poisoning for phishing, DNSSEC is a way to authenticate the DNS response. DNSSEC should be used for all domains [zones] that deal with financial, medical, and personal information. DNSSEC zones prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
Domain Hijacking
Domain hijacking is domain theft. This is when a domain’s registration is stolen from the proper registrant and likely transferred to another registrar making it very difficult for them to gain access back to the domain. This is why it’s important to make sure your domain is locked and you keep your access credentials up to date and private. See Registry Lock
Domain Name Resolvers
Across the internet, there are thousands of servers strategically located amongst ISPs that routinely cache information from the rootservers. They respond to queries to resolve a domain name.
Domain Slamming
This is a scam employed by duplicitous domain registrars by sending out false renewal notices to another registrar’s customer base. The hope is that the customer will make a payment on this and unintentionally start an authorised registrar transfer. Fortunately, registrar locks and transfer codes often prevent this from going much further than the payment.
DomainSure
easyDNS’ corporate brand protection service. We monitor and protect client domain names and DNS infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.domainsure.com
Domain Tasting
The practice of registering a domain under the initial 5-day grace period – domains can be cancelled and fully refunded. This can lead to front running via Whois lookups. Someone will run a Whois lookup via a registrar and that registrar will go ahead and register the domain in hopes of selling it at an inflated price.
Donuts
Donuts is the registry for over 200 of the new gTLD domains. These include .INFO, .CAFE, .IO, .EMAIL and .ROCKS. Donuts is now owned and rebranded as Identity Digital.
DoS / DDoS
DoS – Denial-of-Service – is an attack against a network to cause disruption or unavailability for the website/domains. A DDoS – Distributed Denial-of-Service – is a coordinated attack from multiple sources causing an overwhelming amount of traffic for a network to handle. DoS / DDoS typically target high-profile websites.
DS
DS records (Delegation Signer) are used to secure delegations (DNSSEC). A DS record with the name of the sub-delegated zone is placed in the parent zone along with the delegating NS Records. This DS record references a DNSKEY record in the sub-delegated zone.
Dynamic DNS
A method of updating a static hostname that is pointed to a dynamic IP address automatically. This is done with software or programmed commonly in a router.
D-ZONE
D-Zone is an anycast secondary DNS service offered by the .CA registry, CIRA. We have built-in D-Zone into your control panel as one of the Integration options for quick activation and nameserver management. Please visit easyDNS D-Zone page or CIRA’s info page.
easyPress Hosting
easyDNS in-house fully managed WordPress hosting service.
easyWEB Hosting
easyDNS’ webhosting service that is based in cPanel [see above]. Popular CMS’s like Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal are available in easyWEB amongst many others plus Website Builders.
ENS Integration
ENS –Ethereum Name Service – means that it will now be possible to use your domain names or hostnames as various identifiers within the Ethereum ecosystem: as more dapps [decentralized applications] and applications pick up support for this, you’ll be able to reference your wallets, smart contracts, and other endpoints using a domain name like example.xyz instead of a native Ethereum address like 0xf7004095d2d81fe3b5937241c106aace6d6e8e4a. easyDNS is the first DNS provider and domain registrar to provide native support for ENS integration on .XYZ domains.
EPP
EPP – Extensible Provisioning Protocol – is a protocol that provides communication between registries and registrars. This has created uniformity in the domain industry. This protocol is now used by a vast number of ccTLDs. The EPP transfer code/key is used for transferring a domain between registrars.
EPP Code / Auth code
EPP [Extensible Provisioning Protocol] code or key is an essential requirement to transfer a domain between registrars. This is now mandatory for .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .INFO and many ccTLD [Country level] domains. The EPP code [or Auth code] is obtained through your current registrar and provided to the gaining registry during the transfer process.
Failover DNS / Host Monitoring
These are services easyDNS provides to monitor your domain name [or provided hostname] where we check for a positive response from the destination IP [HTTP, HTTPs, FTP, Ping, SMTP, SSH]. If a failure is detected, we will notify you via e-mail. For Failover, you provide us with a backup IP address so we can revert the hostname for further DNS queries.
FQDN
FQDN – Fully Qualified Domain Name – is the full hostname that directs to a server [web, e-mail, etc]. It must consist of a host and domain name. For example, www.easydns.com is a fully qualified domain name – www is the host, easyDNS is the second-level domain, and the .com is part of the top-level domain (TLD).
FTP
FTP – file transfer protocol – is used to transfer files between computers & servers on the internet. SFTP is a secure file transfer protocol and runs over a secure channel. FTP uses port 21 and SFTP uses port 22.
Front Running
Front Running – domain front running – is a technique for some registrars to get insider knowledge on whois lookups people have been doing. They will realise there’s interest and hope that when you discover it’s registered you’ll contact them to purchase the domain at an inflated cost. This practice also is used to generate revenue from ads placed on the parked/landing page.
General Availability
For the new gTLDs, after all the pre-registration periods, the domain is now available to everyone (with the exception of special presence requirements) on a first-come first-served basis.
Geolocation
Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computer, mobile device, website visitor, etc. IP address geolocation data can include information such as country, region, city, postal/zip code, latitude, longitude, and timezone. Geolocation may refer to the practice of assessing the location, or to the actual assessed location, or to locational data.
GDPR
The European Union’s GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – is a set of rules for people living in the EU regarding how their personal data is handled. The objective is for transparency, consent & control, and the right to be forgotten [meaning EU-local individuals will have the right to revoke consent for a service provider to use their data]. This came into effect on 25 May 2018.
Glue Records
A glue record will assign an IP address to a specific domain name or subdomain at that domain name’s respective registry. A .COM domain name glue record would be created at the registry Verisign while a .CA domain name glue record would be created at CIRA. The most common use of a glue record is for domain name holders that would like to run their own DNS servers (nameservers) based on host records on their own domain names (i.e. dns1.yourdomain.com).
Glue record hostnames must also be added to the nameserver list for all foreign registries. This must be done if you want to delegate a .CA nameserver to a .COM domain name for example.
Greylisting
Greylisting (or graylisting) is an anti-spam measure employed on an opt-out basis by easyDNS. A server with greylisting enabled will temporarily reject any e-mail from a sender it does not recognise. This is done with a 451 temporary error, requesting the server to try again. Spam servers operate in large batches and will rarely retry an IP that has rejected it, whereas legitimate servers will, and the message will be accepted on the next attempt.
gTLD (Generic Top Level Domain) [also knows as nTLD New Top Level Domain]
Outside of the core group of gTLDs .COM and .NET, there is now a new expansion of 1000+ domain extensions. These cover a wide range of themes and uses from buzzwords, industries, brands, and geo-locations. Some examples are .GURU, .NYC, .UNIVERSITY, .ROCKS, .ADULT, .FINANCIAL, .EMAIL, .LINK, .DENTIST, .PRESS, .CLUB, .BERLIN, etc.
Headers
A section of an e-mail detailing the path the e-mail took from sender to recipient, including servers, the time the servers were reached, and any messages they returned when dealing with the e-mail.
Hostname
A host is any system connected to a network and assigned a unique IP address and/or name. The name easydns.com, for example, is a host with the IP address of 205.210.42.30 and the hostname easydns.com. Mail hosts, web hosts, and so forth are all specific types of hosts.
Hosts File
The hosts file is a text file in your computer’s operating system that you can use to override external DNS records. It is similar to a zone file, but it is local to your computer system. You can edit your hosts file to force your computer to use a specific IP address for a domain name. Editing your hosts file should be done with extreme caution. If you change your hosts file to point www.easydns.com at 205.210.42.135, for example, then your computer will ALWAYS use 205.210.42.135 for www.easydns.com. This will prevent you from being able to load a website if the server IP address changes in the future until you remove or edit the entry in the hosts file.
HotDNS
Please see Proactive Nameservers below.
HTML
HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – is the programming language of the World Wide Web and HTML software turns a document into a hyperlinked web page.
HTTP
HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol – is a protocol used to transmit data like webpage components over the internet. When you’re going to a website, your browser will send a request to the webserver and that server will respond back with an HTTP status code. Codes can include 200 which means a successful request, 301 which means moved permanently, 401 for an unauthorised request, 403 means forbidden access and 500 indicates an internal server error likely caused by a misconfigured server/file. Also, see HTTPS.
HTTPS
HTTPS – Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure – is the secure protocol that is now widely used on the internet. This provides protection of the privacy and integrity of data when visiting a website. Having a website with HTTPS will help with your Google SEO ranking.
IANA
IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority – is the authority originally responsible for the governing of IP address allocation, the management of DNS, and the oversight of the root name server system amongst other things. Their website is at https://www.iana.org/
ICANN
ICANN – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – is an international non-profit corporation that is responsible for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. ICANN’s website can be found at https://www.icann.org/
Identity Digital
Identity Digital (iD) is the registry for many TLDs such as .INFO, .ROCKS, .EMAIL and .CHAT domains. Identity Digital (formally Donuts) acquired Afilias in 2020 and they also provide backend service for PIR (.ORG).
IDN
IDN – Internationalised Domain Names – are domains that contain character sets outside of the standard ASCII format, normally reflecting the registrant’s local language such as Arabic, French, Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese, and Korean. An example of an IDN is éasydns.com (in Punycode: xn--asydns-9ua.com).
IMAP
IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol – is the two-way e-mail management preferred by users with multiple devices (mobile smartphone, laptop, tablet, etc). If you are viewing your e-mail via your mobile phone, then it will show as viewed on any other device you check your mail through. All e-mail management is synchronised cutting downtime if you happen to check e-mail from multiple devices. IMAP normally uses ports 143 and 993 over SSL.
Intellectual Property
Domains are considered the intellectual property of the listed registrant. According to WIPO, ‘Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names, and images used in commerce.’. Further to that, intellectual property is protected by law. IP can also include patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
IP Address
IP address – Internet Protocol Address – is a numerical address assigned to computers and servers on the Internet. It’s like a civic address for a computer. Computers need to have an IP address in order to find and communicate with each other over the Internet. There currently are two popular versions of Internet Protocol, IPv4, and the newer, IPv6.
IPv4 / IPv6
There currently are two popular versions of Internet Protocol, IPv4, and the newer, IPv6. IPv4 was developed back in the 1980s and has a limited capacity of IP addresses, around 4 billion. [205.210.42.135 is an example of IPv4]. The most recently deployed IPv6 has an impressive 340 undecillion [ 1036 ] addresses. IPv6 allows for 128-bit address space and 2001:1838:f001::10 is an example of IPv6.
ISP
ISP – Internet Service Provider – is a company that provides internet access to individuals and businesses.
IXFR
IXFR – Incremental Zone Transfer – is a zone transfer request of a given zone but only the differences from the previous serial number.
KEY
The ‘DNS Key Record’ contains a public key used to verify Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) signatures.
LACNIC
LACNIC – Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre – manages the distribution of internet number resources as in IPv4 and IPv6. They are the regional internet registry for Latin America and many Caribbean countries. Their website is https://www.lacnic.net/
Landrush Period
The landrush period is not mandatory for new gTLDs. Landrush is often open to anyone to submit their application prior to General Availability at a premium fee. This is the phase when the most sought-after domains will be secured. The registry will often block off some premium domains and put special terms and higher prices on them for registration.
LOC
is a means for expressing geographic location information for a domain name. It contains WGS84 Latitude, Longitude and Altitude (ellipsoidal height) information together with host/subnet physical size and location accuracy.
MX Record
The MX – Mail Exchange Record – record specifies where e-mail should be delivered. For example, easyDNS’ MX record is mail.easydns.com. An MX record also contains a numeric priority. The lower the priority number, the higher the priority (yes, it sounds a little backward). Some mail systems have different MX records for different inbound servers. If the first server is busy, the e-mail gets routed to the next available server.
Nameservers
Nameservers, or DNS servers, are the computer systems that use the Domain Name System to translate hostnames into IP addresses that can be used by computers to communicate with each other over a network or the Internet. The fully qualified domain name, www.easydns.com, is not recognisable to a computer system until it queries the nameserver and finds out that the IP address for www.easydns.com is 205.210.42.135. Computers locate each other using numbers, while human beings are better at processing and understanding language. Domain names registered with easyDNS are pointed to our nameservers by default (i.e. dns1.easydns.com, dns2.easydns.net, and dns3.easydns.ca). easyDNS’ nameservers are Unicast and Anycast and we use a hidden primary that is not published nor will answer any DNS queries – its only responsibility is to provide zone transfers to our public nameservers (and other secondary nameservers).
NAPTR Record
NAPTR – Name Authority Pointer Records – are often used for internet telephony such as voice or video calls [SIP Session Initiation Protocol].
Neustar
Neustar is the registry for .BIZ domains. They are also the registry for .US, .IN, .CO and .NYC.
NIS2
The NIS2 – Network and Information Security Directive – is EU-wide legislation (directive) on cybersecurity to achieve “a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union”. NIS2 is an expansion of the scope covered by NIS1 by including a larger range of sectors and entities. As a digital service, this will affect how domain application data is verified, collected, disclosed, and published for domain holders in the European Union member states. Since this is a directive, not a regulation, each EU member state will need to come up with how this will be law in their country. This could result in each EU-based ccTLD having different validation methods. Also, each of the 27 states could in effect have different procedures for validating registrant data used to register a domain name for any TLD. The official launch is 17 October 2024 and easyDNS will update as we are provided information on the specifics to manage EU-based clients and their domains.
NS Records
NS records are used to delegate a subdomain to another set of nameservers outside of what the root domain is using. For example, easydns.com is delegated to easyDNS’ nameservers, and to have example.easydns.com be handled by another set of nameservers, and NS record would be set up for example.easydns.com pointing to the 3rd party nameservers.
nTLD (New Top-Level Domain)
See gTLD above
OPENPGPKEY
OpenPGP public keys are used to encrypt or sign email messages and files. To encrypt an email message, or verify a sender’s OpenPGP signature, the email client Mail User Agent or the email server Mail Transfer Agent needs to locate the recipient’s OpenPGP public key.
Park Page / Parked
The ‘Park page’ is a default setting easyDNS puts in place for new domains/zones before the domain administrator enters the DNS records. Until the root name is provided with an IP address to be directed to, it will go to the Park page. The Park page displays that the domain is registered but there isn’t a website at that time. easyDNS does allow for Park page customisation where you can provide contact information, logo, Twitter feed, etc on the Park page.
Phishing
Phishing attacks are a technique used to steal consumer’s personal identity data and banking information. Often engineered using a spoofed e-mail address leads consumers to counterfeit websites – which then request information like banking, passwords, and other critical information for a person’s identity. Another technique is to plant crimeware onto personal computers via Trojans to steal credentials. Spearphishing is when you’re being targeted by an e-mail address that appears to be coming from an individual or business that you know.
Plesk
Plesk is a user-friendly control panel to manage your website. It is one of two options easyDNS has for our easyWEB webhosting service – the other being cPanel. For a detailed comparison between Plesk and cPanel, please visit this page.
POP
POP – Post Office Protocol – is a one-way ticket. You connect to our easyMAIL server in a one-time pop and download a copy of your e-mail before disconnecting. With a POP setup, you can’t be managing your easyMAIL via multiple devices (mobile smartphone, laptop, tablet, etc). There is no two-way synchronisation between easyMAIL and your device like IMAP. You have to delete or file the same e-mail on every device. POP normally uses port 110. The default port for SSL-enabled POP is port 995.
Port Numbers
Besides the IP of the server itself, any given function of the server will also have an associated port number specifying which port to connect to. HTTP connections are made through port 80, SMTP through port 25, and so on. Every type of service has its own standard port number. The standard list of what ports are used for what protocols is maintained by the Internet Assigned Names Authority (IANA).
Premium Domains
These are carefully selected domains designated by the registry based on anticipated market value. The registry determines that they are of higher value based on popular brand names, related industry terms, common words & acronyms, and two characters to name a few. The cost can increase from $10+ to $100,000+. Often this fee is not just for registration but also for the annual renewal. easyDNS does support Premium domains but you will need to contact support for pricing and registration/transfer coordination.
Proactive Nameservers
Proactive Nameservers is a patent-pending system that optimises the nameserver delegation for your mission-critical domain names. It defines a backup or spare nameservers and populates your domain’s zone data on them. These servers are monitored and in sync with the primary nameserver. If it finds that the current nameservers are unhealthy, degraded, or non-responsive, it automatically switches over the nameserver delegation to backup or spare nameservers. When your main nameservers are back in business it will switch it back. Also called HotDNS / Hot Swappable Failover DNS. Click here for more information and an instructional video.
Propagation
The process by which changes to a domain’s DNS settings are picked up through the internet. This is determined by the domain’s SOA record and the variables for each zone. If the domain’s TTL is set to 3 hours, then you should allow up to 3 hours for DNS changes to fully propagate.
PTR Record
PTR records – Pointer Record aka Reverse DNS Record – are the opposite of A records; rather than pointing the name to the IP, they point the IP to the domain or hostname.
PIR
PIR – Public Interest Registry – is the registry for .ORG domains. Identity Digital runs the back end.
RDAP
RDAP – Registration Directory Access Protocol – is the successor to the Whois database. RDAP supports internationalisation, secure access to data, and tiered access to the domain registration data. Please see ICANN’s page on RDAP.
Redemption Grace Period
Redemption Grace Period (RGP) occurs when a domain has either surpassed the registrar’s grace expiry period or has been deleted by the Registry. Redemption is typically a 30-day period when the registrar can redeem the domain on behalf of the registrant. The domain will not function during the Redemption period. Requestors will be required to authenticate the request and are subject to a redemption service charge on top of the renewal fee. Some registries don’t have a grace renewal period and domains are immediately put into a redemption period on the expiry date.
Registrant
The owner of the domain name as listed in the registry whois record.
Registrar of Record
The registrar is the retail front for the registry that manages the domain reservation for the registrant and provides access to domain management. The Whois record and nameserver delegation are done through the registrar. easyDNS is an accredited registrar for .COM, .CA. INFO, .ORG, .NET and .BIZ.
Registry
The organisation that manages the TLD/gTLD or ccTLD domain extensions – the Registry employs registrars or resellers to handle the retail administration of the domain management.
Registry Lock
Registry Lock is a service that provides an extra layer of security for your domain. There are certainly higher-risk domains that can have attempts of hijacking and registry lock helps prevent this. The domain is locked down at the registry level – it can’t be deleted, transferred, or have any domain name information changed. In order to change any of this information, would require a series of processes to take place with the pre-authorised contact for that domain name. easyDNS currently supports Registry Lock for .CA, .COM and .NET domains.
Reverse DNS
Reverse DNS is a means of checking that a computer/server claiming to be a specific server isn’t actually faking it. When people send out spam, viruses, and so on, they don’t tend to use their real names and e-mails. To cut down on the amount of spam that comes in, many mail servers use reverse DNS to confirm that the server trying to deliver mail to them is genuine. A reverse zone is a zone whose purpose is the mapping of IP addresses to names. Nearly all reverse zones are descended from the IN-ADDR.ARPA zone. For more information on Reverse DNS please click here.
RFCs
RFCs – Requests for Comments – are a series of documents detailing internet standards that are published by IETF (internet engineering task force). Their website is https://www.ietf.org/standards/rfcs/. For domain-specific RFCs, please visit https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035
RIPE NCC
RIPE NCC – Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre – manages the distribution of internet number resources as in IPv4 and IPv6. They are the regional internet registry for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia. Their website can be visited at https://www.ripe.net/
RIRs
RIRs – Regional Internet Registry – are five non-profit organisations that are currently responsible for distributing and managing IP addresses on a regional level. These include ARIN, AFRINIC, LACNIC, APNIC, and RIPE NCC.
Root Servers
These are the authoritative servers of the DNS root zone – it is a network of hundreds of servers all across the globe. They are configured into 13 named server authorities.
Secondary DNS
Assigning a second delegation of nameservers that slave off of the primary nameserver for that zonefile to create redundancy over two DNS systems. easyDNS supports Secondary DNS through our DNS-Standard service level.
SEO
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – is how your webpage appears in search engine results. It’s ranking in the results of a specific lookup of a name/word/expression/etc.. The higher a site is ranked, the likelihood of more visitors. It is an important marketing component to get properly indexed with keywords and search terms.
SOA Record
SOA Record – Start of Authority Record – is the first record in every zone file that contains the serial number and how nameservers get the zonefile information. SOA record includes Refresh, Retry, Expire, and TTL.
SMTP
SMTP – Simple Mail Transfer Protocol – is the protocol easyDNS uses for sending e-mail messages between servers. This is by far the most common method e-mail providers use to send mail. The method of receiving e-mail is done either by POP or IMAP. SMTP is normally implemented through port 25, yet there are other non-standard ports that can be utilised.
Spam / UBE
Spam, junk e-mail, or unsolicited bulk e-mail [UBE], is unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail, basically advertisements sent over e-mail to extremely large numbers of people at once. Also used sometimes in reference to other intrusive forms of online advertising, eg. Usenet spam or comments spamming on online journals.
Spearfishing
Spearphishing is when you’re being targeted by an e-mail address that appears to be coming from an individual or business that you know. See Phishing above
SPF Record
SPF – Sender Policy Framework – is an anti-spam measure that attempts to block messages that come from senders pretending to be someone else (called spoofing). SPF records are entered as a TXT record in your domain’s zonefile. SPF records have a limit of 10 DNS lookups required to fully resolve. To create your SPF output, please visit click here to access our wizard. A good SPF validator to use is found at https://www.kitterman.com/
SPOF
SPOF – Single Point of Failure – is when a domain is relying on a single provider or network to handle all of the DNS. This can be especially troubling when a domain is high traffic and critical to have 100% uptime. This is why easyDNS has integrations with Amazon’s Route53, CIRA’s D-Zone, Linode and Digital Ocean so we can team with these systems to ensure your domain is always up.
Spoofing
The practice of falsifying e-mail headers to disguise the origin of an e-mail for the purpose of spamming.
SRV Record
An SRV record – Service Record – is a general record that can be used in a generic fashion rather than creating protocol-specific records such as MX.
SSHFP
A Secure Shell fingerprint record is a type of resource record which identifies SSH keys that are associated with a host name. The acquisition of an SSHFP record needs to be secured with a mechanism such as DNSSEC for a chain of trust to be established.
SSL Certificates
SSL certificates – Secure Socket Layer – provide security by encrypting the data between the web browser and the webserver. This is especially important to e-commerce websites and websites requiring sensitive data. Having an SSL certificate will provide confidence to web users that they are dealing with a secure website. SSL Certificates are verified by the issuer via Domain Validated [DV], Organisation Validated [OV] and Extended Validated [EV].
Sunrise Period
Sunrise is a pre-registration period that is mandatory for all new gTLD launches. This is a limited period where parties interested can submit an application to register as they are holders of a validated trademark record from Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH). There may be extra requirements but this can be different from registry to registry.
SVCB
SVCB records allow a service to be provided from multiple alternative endpoints, each with associated parameters (such as transport protocol configuration), and are extensible to support future uses (such as keys for encrypting the TLS ClientHello).
TBR
TBR – To Be Released – is previously registered .CA domain name that has lapsed and is now deleted and is available for re-registration during a special registration session known as a TBR session. The TBR process allows Registrars to compete for TBR domain names. easyDNS charges $50 for TBR requests on top of the registration service package cost. Also known as CIRA DropList. Domains are released on Wednesdays at 2pm Eastern and the release list can be found at https://cira.ca/ca-domains/tbr
Thick Registry
This is the information provided in a Whois output for a domain name. Similar to a Thin Registry which displays the registrar, status of registration, registration, and expiry dates, the Thick Registry will include a broader set of information. These include contact information for the registrant along with the administrative and technical contacts. An example of Thick Registry are .BIZ, .INFO, .ORG, .PRO, .ASIA, .COOP. Thick Registry most often includes EPP extensions.
Thin Registry
This pertains to the Whois output for a domain name. A Thin Whois output includes only a minimum amount of registration information – this identifies the registrar, the status of the registration, the registration date, and the expiry date. This will likely also include the nameservers currently delegated to the domain. An example of a Thin Registry is .COM and .NET.
TTL
The TTL – Time To Live – is an SOA record that defines the time a server should hold onto the DNS information for a particular record before checking to see if there’s been an update. This information is measured in seconds and is usually lowered before a change in DNS. However, lowering this value can cause a significant increase in DNS queries (and potentially overage fees) so the TTL for a static page should be kept higher. easyDNS nameservers have a minimum TTL allowance of 5 minutes. This means that other DNS servers are instructed not to query our nameserver more frequently than every 5 minutes for new DNS updates. You can set the TTL for the whole zone or individual records.
TLD (Top Level Domain)
These would include popular .COM, .NET and .ORG domain extensions. See also ccTLD and gTLD.
TMCH
TMCH – Trademark Clearinghouse – is a centralised global database of verified trademarks that are used in the launch of the new gTLDs. Once your trademark[s] are registered in the TMCH, then you’ll be able to take part in the Sunrise period launches of new gTLDs.
TSIG
TSIG – Transaction SIGnature – is the ability to secure your zone transfers via TSIG Transaction Signatures for domains using us for secondary DNS.
TXT Record
TXT Record – Text Record – is a free-form field that allows any text to be entered in up to 4096 characters. Mostly used for verification such as SPF and DKIM records.
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication – 2FA – is a security method we have available for easyDNS accounts. When logging into your account, you can preset either a mobile telephone number OR e-mail address to receive an immediate SMS/e-mail with a code that you’ll be prompted to submit to enter the account. We have also integrated Google Authenticator as you would be prompted to provide a security code to enter the account.
UDRP
UDRP – Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy – is an ICANN policy for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of a domain name [between Registrant and a third party]. This procedure has three components: the domain is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark, the registrant doesn’t have any rights or legitimate interests in the domain, and the domain is registered and being used in ‘bad faith’. The policy can be found at ICANN’s site here.
Unicast Nameservers
Nameservers with a single network destination. Unicast nameservers are not as responsive and fast as Anycast nameservers. Our DomainPlus service level uses Unicast nameservers.
URL
URL – Uniform Resource Locator – is a reference/address on the internet. There are two components: protocol identifier [HTTP for example] and resource name [easydns.com].
Verisign
Verisign is the .COM & .NET registry. They operate two of the 13 root servers. Verisign is also the registrar of .NAME, .TV and .CC.
WAP
WAP – Whois Accuracy Program – is an ICANN-based registration verification program that will require the listed registrant contact to verify their first name, last name, and e-mail address. Changes to the domain can trigger this 15-day verification program – the changes are updating registrant information, transferring the domain, and registering the domain. If the registrant does not act swiftly and the 15 days pass, then the domain will have its DNS suspended until verification is accomplished.
WDRP
WDRP – Whois Data Reminder Policy – is an annual reminder to domain registrants that providing false information in the Whois record can be grounds for cancellation of their domain name registration. Corrections must be made to avoid further action. If the registrant’s e-mail address bounces back indicating it is false/inoperable, then this will trigger the WAP process.
WebForward or URL Forwarding
A web forward creates a hidden A record pointing to our webserver. When our web server gets a request for your site from a visitor, our web server is designed to forward the visitor to the URL you’ve provided. easyDNS also offers Stealth Redirection which masks the end destination URL/webname and keeps the hostname in the browser address field.
Whois
Whois – “Who is?” – is a utility used to look up information on domain names. This includes contact information as well as some technical information such as the domain’s nameservers used for DNS service. Whois also includes status information such as if the domain is locked, when it was registered, and when the domain next expires. To see if a domain is available through a Whois search please click here. The visibility of whois information has changed considerably since the activation of the EU’s GDPR [see above] as this forbids the disclosure of EU citizens’ data. RDAP will be the successor to the Whois in how domain data is displayed
WIPO
WIPO – World Intellectual Property Organisation – is part of the United Nations. They are an intergovernmental organisation based in Geneva Switzerland tasked with the responsibility for the promotion of the protection of intellectual rights worldwide.
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source CMS that is offered in both our easyWEB and easyPress webhosting services. WordPress features include a plugin architecture and a template system. It is widely regarded as the most popular website management & blogging system in the world now.
XMPP
XMPP – Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol formerly named Jabber – is an open, XML-based protocol originally aimed at near-real-time, extensible instant messaging (IM) and presence information.
Zone File
The concept of a zone within DNS is somewhat broad but for the purposes of most users, the best definition would be “the range of hosts and systems defined by and responsible for the domain name referred to.” It helps to understand that a ‘zone file’ is the basic DNS blueprint that defines the servers responsible (for example) for e-mail, web, and any other services based on that domain name. For the zone of ‘easydns.com’, the zone file will include such information as our webserver, our mail server, and any other subdomains that we have created.