Where the name comes from
ethdns started in 2014 as a DNS hosting service. The idea was simple: reliable name servers for people who did not want to run their own.
Since then DNS has changed a great deal. Large anycast networks, managed DNS with built-in protection and APIs for every change are now within reach of anyone, and running a small DNS hosting service no longer made sense. We closed it. The domain and the name stayed, and we kept using them for the work that followed.
The name reads as two parts. eth is the network: the cable, the port, the link. dns is the system of names people type instead of numbers. Every request on the internet starts as a signal on a wire and ends with a name someone recognises. Everything in between, routing, transport, encryption, is the work we do. Hence the line on every page: from the wire to the name.
What ethdns is today
Today ethdns is hosting for private projects, private infrastructure and solutions, run by its administrators.
It brings together the best of hosting, DNS, cloud and DDoS protection from several providers. We pick each part on its merits and combine them, instead of relying on one company for everything. What carried over from the old DNS service is the expertise in all of these areas, a sense of responsibility for what we run, and the approach: keep things simple, understandable and working.
What runs here
ethdns carries two kinds of things, and both can be public or private.
Our own
Services the administrators run for themselves and for the people they work with: websites, tools, monitoring, mail and the internal systems that keep the rest going.
Other people’s
- websites and domains;
- media services;
- dedicated and virtual servers, and the solutions built on them;
- network links and connectivity;
- and other projects that do not fit a neat category.
Third-party projects
Projects that belong to third parties are run and published by their owners. The owner decides what goes on a site and is responsible for it. We are not the publisher of that content and we do not check it before it goes online.
That does not mean we look away. When we receive a credible report about a project on our network, we act on it:
- We check the report. A clear report with evidence is handled quickly. A vague one may get a question back.
- We contact the owner and ask them to deal with the problem, unless the harm is serious and ongoing.
- We restrict access when the owner does not respond, does not fix the problem, or when waiting would cause real harm: phishing, malware, material that exploits children.
How to send such a report is described on the Abuse page. Copyright and other legal matters go through the Legal page.
Who runs it
ethdns is run by its administrators: a small group of people with twenty years of hands-on experience in networks, servers, mail, DNS and the applications that run on top of them. On this site “we” means them.
Messages to our addresses are read by these people, not by a ticket system or a call centre.
Private and non-commercial
ethdns is not a hosting company. There is no price list, no sign-up form and nothing for sale. Projects end up here because we know the people behind them or because we agreed on it together.
We are, however, open to proposals. If you have an idea, a project or an offer that fits, the Proposals page explains how to reach us.
Is it ours?
A name that ends in ethdns.com is ours, and so is the address such a name points to.
A reverse DNS name on its own proves nothing: whoever controls an IP address can give it any reverse name, including one that ends in ethdns.com. If a host carries our name in its reverse DNS, but our name does not point back to that host, it is not ours. Someone is using our name, and we would like to hear about it at abuse@ethdns.com. If you are not sure, write to us anyway: we will check.
What we do not publish
This site names some of the providers and the hardware we work with, though not all of them, and it does not describe how our systems are built: no addresses, no software versions, no locations beyond what is already public. That is a security decision, not secrecy for its own sake. If a report or a legitimate request needs a technical detail, ask and we will tell you what we can.