GloboDyne.gr Blog

Close Open DNS Servers
For those of you who check your nameservers and other DNS related issues using the popular site dnsreport you’re probbaly seeing Fail Open DNS Servers. We’ll show you have to fixed named to close open dns servers.

How do I check my system?
Go to www.dnsreport.com and enter your domain name, eg webhostgear.com

You are safe if you see:
PASS Open DNS servers

You need to follow this tutorial if you see:
FAIL Open DNS servers

Closing Open DNS Servers Tutorial

1) Login to your server and su to root.

2) Edit the /etc/named.conf file such as:# vi /etc/named.conf

Look for:

key "rndckey" {
};

After this add the following, replacing mainIP and secondaryIP with your systems nameservers.

acl "trusted" {
mainIP;secondaryIP;127.0.0.1;
};

or if you want to allow your local subnet:

acl trusted {
 192.168.1.0/24;
 localhost;
 };

3) After that is done you want to add the section that says only the trusted is allowed for certain functions. Check your options area and make sure you add the following:

allow-recursion { trusted; };
allow-notify { trusted; };
allow-transfer { trusted; };

So the final result looks something like:

options {
        directory "/var/named";
        allow-recursion { trusted; };
        allow-notify { trusted; };
        allow-transfer { trusted; };
        dump-file "/var/named/data/cache_dump.db";
        statistics-file "/var/named/data/named_stats.txt";
        /*
         * If there is a firewall between you and nameservers you want
         * to talk to, you might need to uncomment the query-source
         * directive below.  Previous versions of BIND always asked
         * questions using port 53, but BIND 8.1 uses an unprivileged
         * port by default.
         */
         // query-source address * port 53;
};

4) Save the changes and restart the named service: service named restart

5) Recheck your site at dnsreport.com

When your customers buy something from you and you use PayPal to accept payments, your customer will find themselves at the PayPal checkout page. Normally your customer will only see your email address at the top of this page. It is possible to customise this page to make it look like your own website. One way to achieve this is to create a nice looking graphical banner, using the same style as your own website, and including your own business logo.You can only do this with a PayPal business account (read our PayPal FAQ about the different types of account).

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Log into PayPal
2. Click ‘Profile’
3. Click ‘Custom Payment Pages’ under ‘Selling Preferences’
4. Click ‘New’
5. Enter a name for your custom page. In the ‘Header Image URL’ field, paste the URL that we provide you with. This will be different for everyone, because you all have different business logos.

1. Click Save
2. Select the new page and then choose ‘Make Primary’ and then click ‘Yes’ when you’re prompted if you’re sure you want to do this.

Now when your customers see your PayPal checkout page they no longer see just your email address, they see your business logo instead.