Premium DNS Service

Date: April 2017

1. Service

1.1 The Service allows you to host and manage your Client Zone(s) with us; and resolve DNS Queries for the Client Zone(s). The Service is delivered over IPv4 and IPv6, and uses the Premium DNS Name Server(s).

1.2 The permitted number of DNS queries per month is defined in the Service Description. Excess usage may incur a charge of $5 per 100,000 queries.

1.3 Certain Premium DNS plans may allow additional Zones to be added. Where the allowed Zones is exceeded, an excess fee of $25 per additional Zone will be charged on a monthly basis.

2. DNS Configuration

2.1 You represent and warrant that you have all required information, authorisations and consents that enable your use of the Client Zone(s) with the Service;

2.2 You are responsible for ensuring Zone Files are in the required format, providing any requested information regarding the Client Zones, and for the full and proper configuration and maintenance of the Client Zone(s), including in respect of use with the Service.

2.3 From time to time we may make changes to the Service which may require you to make updates or changes to the configuration of the Client Zone(s), or update parent delegations. Where you fail to make changes as advised by us in a timely manner, we will not be liable for any failure to deliver the Service as a result.

3. DNSSEC Signing

3.1 From time to time, and depending on your Premium DNS plan, we may offer a DNSSEC Signing service for the Client Zone(s). Where offered, and requested by you, we will sign Zone Files provided by you implementing DNSSEC.

3.2 All cryptographic information relating to the provision of DNSSEC Signing for the Client Zones (including without limitation cryptographic keys) will remain under our control and ownership.

3.3 You acknowledge that DNSSEC Signing may increase the overall processing time of commands as a result of the additional cryptographic operations that must take place. A noticeable change in propagation time will be evident for Client Zones that contain in excess of one-hundred (100) Resource Records.

4. Zone branded name servers

4.1 From time to time, and depending on your Premium DNS plan, the Service may allow you to associate your name(s) or brand(s) with the Premium DNS Name Servers (for example, ns1.clientbrand.com and ns2.clientbrand.com).

4.2 The name(s) or brand(s) that may be used for this service must be the same as the Client Zone.

5. Service Uptime Guarantee

5.1 All Premium DNS plans have a 99.99% service uptime guarantee (Uptime Guarantee). The Uptime Guarantee will be measured against the overall availability of the Service to respond to, or process, DNS Queries from various probe locations around the world during the applicable month of delivery (Month).

5.2 We will endeavour to have:

  1. no less than twenty (20) probes in operation at any time; and
  2. at least one (1) probe located within North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia; and
  3. a distribution of probes aligned to global Internet penetration.

5.3 Probes will ‘query’ each Anycast Node at a frequency no less than once per minute. Any probe that is unable to connect to an Anycast Node, or does not receive a response from that Anycast Node within a specified period will consider the parameter being measured to be unreachable. At least 50% of the probes must detect the parameter being measured to be un-reachable in order for the parameter to be considered ‘unavailable’.

5.4 If in any Month, the availability of the Service to respond to, or process, DNS queries does not meet or exceed the Service Level, you will be eligible for a refund (in the form of credits to your account with Melbourne IT) of a percentage of fees paid for the Service in that Month in accordance with the following table (Service Credits):

Service availability in Month Service Credit applicable
(% of fees paid for Month)
99.98% – 98.99% 10%
98.98% – 89.99% 15%
89.98% – 60% 20%
59.99% – 50% 50%
49.99% – 40% 60%
39.99% – 30% 70%
29.99% – 20% 80%
19.99% – 10% 90%
9.99% – 0% 100%

5.5 Service Credits must be claimed in writing to _customerservice-escalations@melbourneit.com.au within 15 calendar days of the Month in which the Service Level was not met. If your claim in valid, we will issue the applicable Service Credits to your account within 60 days.

5.6 If the Service is in suspension, or any money is owed to Melbourne IT for the Service, you will not be eligible for Service Credits.

5.7 We are not responsible for any failure to comply with the Uptime Guarantee, and Service Credits will not apply if that failure, including an infrastructure or system failure, is caused, or materially contributed to, by:

  1. scheduled maintenance windows, and any emergency maintenance and upgrade work;
  2. a requirement, direction or any other order from a Regulatory Body;
  3. unauthorised or illegal access by any party to any part of the computer systems used to provide the Services (including without limitation hacking, cracking, virus dissemination and denial of service attacks);
  4. your act or omission (or a person under your direction or control) or your breach of Contract; or
  5. an act or omission outside of our direct responsibility or control.

5.8 You acknowledge and agree that the application of Service Credits under these Service Terms does not exceed a genuine pre-estimate of the loss that you, or any other party, may suffer as a result of our failure to meet or exceed the Uptime Guarantee.

6. Consent and Backups

6.1 You consent to:

  1. Melbourne IT and our supplier utilising data relating to usage of the Service for statistical purposes; and
  2. Melbourne IT and our supplier accessing Zone Files and Resource Records used in connection with the Service, and granting access to others to the same, for the purpose of provisioning the Service or as required by a Regulatory Body;

6.2 You are solely responsible for the proper backup and protection of all your software and data, as well as the implementation and maintenance of firewalls and security measures (including without limitation proper virus control).

7. Definitions

AEST means Australian Eastern Standard Time;

API means the application programming interface to the Service;

Anycast means a networking technique in which information is routed to a single member of a group of potential receivers that are all identified by the same destination address;

Anycast Node means a combination of one or more Global and/or Local Sites that have been grouped together to form one NS Resource Record to be included in the Client Zone(s);

Anycast Node Availability means the availability of an Anycast Node;

Business Day means a day when trading banks are ordinarily open for business in Melbourne Australia, and does not include a public holiday in Melbourne;

Client Zone or Client Zones means the Zone Files which contain information that defines how the Service should respond to DNS Queries;

DNS means the ‘Domain Name System’ that is a distributed database and hierarchical global infrastructure deployed on the Internet and private IP-based networks used to resolve domain names into IP addresses;

DNS Query means a request received by our Premium DNS Servers for information about a Client Zone and DNS Queries shall have a corresponding meaning;

DNS Service Availability means the time that at least one of the allotted Anycast Nodes is available;

DNS Toolkit means a library provided by us to simplify your integration with the Service;

DNS Update Time means the time as measured by us from the receipt of a change to the Client Zone, until the Premium DNS Name Servers answer DNS Queries with data consistent with the change made;

DNS User means any person utilising or enjoying the benefit of the Service provisioned under these Service Terms;

DNSSEC means Domain Name System Security Extensions which are a suite of specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the DNS;

DNSSEC Signing means the act of digitally signing a Zone File using DNSSEC;

Domain means the set of unique Labels in a Zone which are not Glue Records;

Domain Name means a collection of Labels separated by a period (‘.’);

Global Site means a Premium DNS Location, designated by us, located close to high population density areas, offering a high level of dispersion between vendors and networks, and a greater capacity than a Local Site;

Glue Records means a record in the DNS which is not authoritative for the Zone;

IP Address is a numerical identifier used as an address for resources located on the Internet;

IXFR Zone Transfer means an incremental Zone transfer as described in RFC1995 Incremental Zone Transfer in DNS, which can be found at the following link http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1995;

Label means a string of characters consisting of one or more letters, digits or a hyphen (‘-‘);

Local Site means a Premium DNS Location, designated by us, that is further from highly populated areas than a Global Site, has reduced dispersion between vendors and networks and is not a Global Site;

Premium DNS Location means a location housing the Premium DNS Name Servers that delivers the Service. A Premium DNS Location may be either a Global Site or a Local Site;

Premium DNS Name Server or Premium DNS Name Servers means the servers, hardware, software, and other information and processes owned or controlled by us (or our supplier) and used to host, and resolve DNS Queries for the Client Zone(s);

NS Resource Record means a name server resource record as specified by the Internet Engineering Taskforce;

Registry means the registry required to store and maintain details of domain names in a TLD;

Regulatory Body means any government or any governmental, semi-governmental, or judicial entity or authority, including ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), any self-regulatory organisation established or recognised under statute or any stock exchange;

Resource Record means the basic data element in the DNS that defines the structure and content of the DNS;

Round-Trip Time or RTT refers to the time as measured by our probes from the sending of the first bit of the first packet of the sequence of packets needed to make a request, until the receipt of the last bit of the last packet of the sequence needed to receive the response. If the client server does not receive the whole sequence of packets needed to consider the response as being received, the request will be considered unanswered;

TCP DNS Resolution RTT means a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) as measured by our probes of the RTT of the sequence of packets from the start of the TCP connection to its end, including the reception of the DNS response for only one DNS query. If the RTT is five (5) times greater than the time specified in the relevant Service Level, the RTT will be considered undefined;

TLD means one of the Domains at the highest level in the hierarchical DNS;

UDP DNS Resolution RTT means a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) DNS query as measured by our probes of the RTT of the sequence of two packets, the UDP DNS query and the corresponding UDP DNS response. If the RTT is five (5) times greater than the time specified in the relevant Service Level, the RTT will be considered undefined;

Web Based Interface means the web based user interface of the Service;

Zone means a sub-section of the DNS hierarchy for which administrative responsibility has been delegated;

Zone File means a data file which describes a Zone;

Zone Signing System means the servers, hardware, software, and other information and processes owned or controlled by us for the DNSSEC Signing of the Client Zone(s); and

Zone Transfer System means the servers, hardware, software, and other information and processes owned or controlled by us for the receipt of Client Zone(s).