Why changes matter more than errors
Most DNS problems are not outages but changes: the client moves hosting and the name servers, a colleague tidies the zone and deletes the SPF record, a vendor adds a new MX. The zone is valid afterwards, an uptime check stays green. You notice when mail stops or the website points nowhere.
That is why DomainWarn stores a snapshot of the important records on every check and compares it with the previous one. Every difference is confirmed against a second name server so that a single lagging server does not raise a false alarm, then reported as an incident with before and after.
What is monitored
For every domain and every additional host name:
- NS: name server changes, the clearest sign of a hosting move or a takeover.
- A and AAAA: new target addresses of website, shop, subdomains.
- MX: new mail provider, missing or unresolvable mail servers.
- TXT: SPF, DMARC, DKIM selectors and verification records, with syntax evaluation.
- CNAME and CAA: alias targets and permitted certificate authorities.
- DNSSEC: DS record and validation; a broken signature chain makes the domain unreachable for Google and Cloudflare users.
Authoritative, not from a cache
DomainWarn does not ask a public resolver but the authoritative name servers of the zone. A resolver cache can be hours old; the source shows the state right now. That is also why changes surface within minutes rather than once a TTL has expired somewhere.
Compared to Zabbix, Nagios and uptime tools
Zabbix and Nagios can run DNS queries as checks, but need templates, thresholds and someone to maintain the server. Uptime services check the HTTP response and at most whether a record exists. DomainWarn is built for client domains: no installation, no agents, clients and domains as the structure, a digest every morning and incidents instead of one mail per check.
Set up in five minutes
- Sign up, create clients, add domains or import them as a list.
- DNS, MX, SPF and DMARC monitors are created automatically; the interval depends on the plan.
- Choose a channel: email, Slack, Discord, Telegram or webhook, overridable per client.
- The first snapshots exist after the first check; from then on DomainWarn reports every change.
Frequently asked questions
- Does every small change trigger an alert?
- Every change to the monitored record types, yes. Dynamic values such as remaining TTLs or changing order are filtered out so no false alarms arise.
- How fast is a change noticed?
- Within the check interval of the plan: DNS every 15 minutes on the Agency plan, every 30 minutes on Freelancer. Confirmation against a second name server takes seconds.
- Do I need access to the client's zone?
- No. DomainWarn only reads publicly queryable records. Nothing has to be installed or enabled at the client.
- Can I monitor subdomains?
- Yes, additional host names such as shop. or api. can be added per domain; the number depends on the plan.