DNS testing - try these automated tests

Have you ever wondered if your DNS mad skillz are really up to par?  Would you like to test your DNS implementation?  Are you tired of pouring over the standard text books and looking at whitepapers?  Hey, I don’t blame you one byte.  So stop fretting and head over to https://www.dnsreport.com/.  The site is simple and allows you to crank a number of tests against your domain to see if any problems are identified.

I stumbled across it trying to diagnose an email issue.  One of the domains I was hosting was seeing blockage from an email domain we were trying to send to.  The DNS Report test reported enough information to get us on the right track for resolution.

As you might recall, I am hosting five domains from my fiber connection.  All inbound and outbound email traffic flows through my Exchange 2003 server.  All of this is running on Windows Server 2003 Standard SP1 with protection provided by Sig Arms and ISA Server 2004.  I’ll be writing a lengthy article soon about the firewall rules, media server implementation, DNS implementation, webfarm, etc.  The SBS support dudes said I’d never get it working correctly…    By the way, it’s all on one box.  So how did I implement a primary and secondary DNS server?

I’ll be building a SBS 2003 SP1 box as soon as I get official media.  We’ll definitely put it to the test when that happens.  Stay tuned…