DNSstuff recently announced an updated service that would alert customers if their DNS settings were improperly configured and offer tips on how to remediate the issue before the issues impact network performance.

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DNS is the network function that translates domain names, such as www.networkworld.com, into an IP address, for instance, 65.214.57.165. If DNS doesn’t work properly, a user won’t gain access to the Web site, and that would become a perceived network failure. DNS is "essentially the phone book for the Internet," says DNSstuff CTO Paul Parisi.

DNSstuff recently performed a survey that showed the DNS settings for almost 70% of the 130 million active domains on the Web were improperly configured - which the company says "means more than 90 million sites could have incorrect domain settings and are at risk of site outages or improperly routed e-mail, either of which can negatively impact a company’s brand and finances."

The company featured in this year's "Untraceable" movie is set to make available an updated service customers can rely upon to keep their DNS available and secure. DNSalert 2.0, based on DNSreport technology, runs 55 tests against domain and mail servers and sends alert notifications when a problem is identified. The service also offers customers instructions on how to remediate the problem with IETF RFC-compliant mitigation steps.

"We monitor DNS from the outside point of view to discover whether public-facing resources are available. For instance, is e-mail up? Are the DNS settings correct? Is the Web site available?" Parisi says. "We observe those things and we send customers an e-mail to alert them out-of-band of the network and offer steps to fix the errors."

DNSalert 2.0 allows customers to configure and customize alerts based on their "desired level of sensitivity." For instance, the alerts can be configured on only warning states or complete fail states. The service also enables customers to apply mass updates to all DNSalerts (per domain) and specify the e-mail notification type, either short text or HTML.

DNSalert 2.0 is priced as a subscription at $99 per year for one domain.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.