TTL

TTL meaning and definition

Time is a critical factor to be considered almost for everything. Every project, business, process, fixing, etc., you try is marked by a specific time. Computing and networking are not exceptions. Lots of processes must happen in determined periods of time, actually in milliseconds, to be considered efficient and successful. 

TTL meaning and definition

The letters TTL are the initials for time-to-live. It is the value that points to the exact period of time or number of hops that data packet is configured to be alive on a network or in the cache memory. Once that time expires, or it hops the number of times, routers will discard it. There are different kinds of data-chunks, and they all work with their specific TTL. Meaning, the time such data will be held in a device to complete determined tasks or functions.  

Continue reading…

DNS AAAA record

AAAA record explained

Domain Name System (DNS) is very important for the Internet to be as simple and friendly as it is right now. DNS is a game where different players have a position to cover for everything to work smoothly. DNS records are among those players. They play a key role in making domain names accessible. Without DNS records like AAAA, the DNS resolution could not be possible. In other words, the process in which domain names are linked to their corresponding IP addresses.

What is an AAAA record?

AAAA record is a DNS resource record. Whenever a domain name is requested, this record has to link such a domain name with its corresponding IP address in order for the site to be served and accessed. 

The browser could not find the required domain names’ IPs successfully by users without the AAAA record help.

Why do you need an AAAA record?

Continue reading…

Host command

Host command explained

What is Host command?

The Host command is a tool with a command-line interface for Domain Name System lookups. You can use it straight from the Terminal application since it is usually pre-installed on Linux-based and Unix-based OSes. You can use it on Ubuntu, CentOS, macOS, or others, without any difference in syntax or functionality?

Who created the command?

Continue reading…

DMARC record

DMARC record explained

What is DMARC?

DMARC is an abbreviation of Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance, and it is a mechanism for secure email exchange that uses both SPF and DKIM. Having set up DMARC properly for your domain will reduce email phishing (thanks to the reporting of SPF) and spoofing (thanks to the encryption of DKIM). You will have a lot higher email sent success rate, and fewer emails of yours will end up in the spam folder.

Using DMARC will allow you to add an extra level of security on top of the SPF and DKIM.

You can set it up stronger, and even if SPF and DKIM pass, the DMARC still fails because of criteria.

You can make it lighter and limit the use to only SPF or only DKIM.

Why use it?

  1. To send emails uninterrupted. The emails will be encrypted, and the receiver will be able to unlock them with the public key. The presence of DMARC will indicate that the domain could be trusted.
  2. To stop others from using your domain name for phishing attacks. DMARC has the power to tell to the receiving servers – the domain is related to those particular servers. Anything different should be discarded immediately. It can work with allowing only good emails or stopping all bad emails, or both.

How to create a DNS DMARC record?

Continue reading…

IPAM IP Address Management

What is IPAM (IP Address Management)?

Do you remember when the Internet meant a connection to a desktop computer? Later laptops came to your business, followed by tablets, printers, and all your colleagues’ smartphones, etc. Have you considered how many devices are looking for Internet connection in your business facilities right now?

And this happens daily all around the world. The number of devices grows in such a way that managing networks are getting very complex. Just IP addresses’ assignation or tracking can take a lot of time. And network administrators have so many more tasks to comply with.

To do this manually is not really a choice. In such a scenario, IP address management (IPAM) is very convenient for you.

IPAM Integration with DNS and DHCP

Continue reading…

UDP User Datagram Protocol

What is UDP?

UDP stands for User Datagram Protocol, and it is an efficient and fast communicating protocol to exchange messages between networks and devices. 

It’s very used on the Internet for tasks sensitive to time, like video transmissions, real-time systems, and DNS lookups. 

This protocol is a David P. Reed creation (1980). An American computer scientist whose contributions helped wireless communications networks and computer networking development. UDP has become fast an important Internet protocol suite’s element.

Learn what UDP header is!

Continue reading…

Dynamic DNS vs Static IP

Dynamic DNS vs Static IP

When you want to have a server at your home or office, but you are using a typical Internet service provider, you have 2 choices for connectivity – Dynamic DNS or Static IP address.

The Dynamic DNS could automatically change the IP address each time the ISP changes it. The Static IP address will remain the same as long as you pay it. What is better? Dynamic DNS vs Static IP.

What is Dynamic DNS

Continue reading…

HTTP error codes

5 Most common HTTP error codes

To manage a business website is challenging but also exciting. Every step running it drives you to a different corner of the tech world. It can be hard to get involved in every detail, besides the daily business tasks, but honestly, it’s very helpful. Sometimes you get HTTP status codes errors, but don’t get desperate.

What are the HTTP status codes?  

Continue reading…