Verisign opens up its DNS

Verisign is throwing its hat into the “free DNS” ring, promising not to retain information about recursive requests to its just-launched service.

Verisign Public DNS is at 64.6.64.6 / 64.6.65.6, alas nowhere near as easy for people to remember as Google's 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4.

In the blog post launching the service, the director of product management for the service Michael Kaczmarek says most people don't understand that their recursive DNS requests can be, and routinely are, harvested, stored, mined and “sold to the highest bidder”.

There's also the practice of redirecting failed DNS queries, which regularly becomes a sore point for in-the-know Internet users.

“Verisign will not sell your public DNS data to third parties or redirect your failed queries to sites that serve you ads. It also offers improved DNS stability and security over other alternatives”, Kaczmarek writes.

For the more advanced users, there's also IPv6 servers at 2620:74:1b::1:1 / 2620:74:1c::2:2.

Because Verisign, like everybody, has lawyers, there's a Terms of Service document. Don't get cranky if a server goes down – or at least, don't say so in public, because by using the service you agree not to “disparage Verisign, the Service or any other products and services Verisign may offer”. ®