Est. 1983 · Still Happening

It's not always DNS.

A resource, a support group, and a diagnostic service for network professionals affected by The Condition.

// No input required. We already know.

The Diagnostic Tool

Describe your issue. Our proprietary engine will identify the root cause with 100% accuracy.

user@ops:~$ ./diagnose.sh
Describe the issue:
Global outages attributed to DNS today
47,392
Last updated: a few seconds ago. Updated again: now.

The Five Stages of DNS Grief

Based on the Kübler-Ross model, adapted for on-call rotations.

01 · DENIAL

"It's not DNS."

You have personally verified the records. You are sure. The records look fine.

02 · ANGER

"Who changed the TTL?"

You are reviewing the commit log with the energy of a homicide detective.

03 · BARGAINING

"Just one more flush."

ipconfig /flushdns. dig +trace. systemctl restart systemd-resolved. Maybe this time.

04 · DEPRESSION

"It's been six hours."

You are eating cold pad thai at 2am while staring at a packet capture.

05 · ACCEPTANCE

"It was DNS."

It was always DNS. You are writing the post-mortem. The title is "DNS."

From Verified Sysadmins

Real stories. Unverified identities. Absolutely DNS.

"I spent six hours on the load balancer config. I rewrote the firewall rules. I escalated to the network team. It was DNS."

MR
Marcus R.
Senior SRE, undisclosed FAANG

"My CTO asked why the site was down. I said 'probably DNS' as a joke. It was DNS. He thinks I'm a genius now."

PK
Priya K.
DevOps Lead

"I told my wife I'd be home for dinner at 7. It's 11:43pm. It's DNS. It has always been DNS."

JT
Jake T.
Platform Engineer

Official Troubleshooting Flowchart

Developed in partnership with a team of on-call engineers who have stopped sleeping.

                    ┌──────────────────────┐
                    │  Is something broken? │
                    └──────────┬───────────┘
                               │
                    ┌──────────┴──────────┐
                    │                     │
                  Yes                    No
                    │                     │
                    ▼                     ▼
          ┌──────────────────┐   ┌────────────────────────┐
          │ Is it the code?  │   │ It will be DNS soon.   │
          └────────┬─────────┘   └────────────────────────┘
                   │
           ┌───────┴───────┐
           │               │
          Yes              No
           │               │
           ▼               ▼
    ┌────────────┐   ┌────────────┐
    │ It's DNS.  │   │ It's DNS.  │
    └────────────┘   └────────────┘
"And in the age of the Cloud, when the packets do flow free,
the Name shall not resolve, and the Ops team shall weep.
Lo, they will check the firewall; lo, they will blame the CDN;
but the fault, as ever, shall lie with the Resolver."
— Nostradamus, 1558 (Quatrain IV, Verse 53)

The Gift Shop

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It's not DNSIt was DNS
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Okayest
Resolver
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I Survived
the Route 53
Incident of '19
Commemorative Hoodie
Sold out (again)
dig +trace
or
die trying
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$4.00