Encrypted DNS (DoT/DoH) and Redundant SMTP — Now Across the Entire No-Ack Network

Two infrastructure upgrades for you as a customer

We’ve expanded two parts of our core infrastructure that directly affect performance, security and reliability for you as a customer: a global recursive resolver cluster with encrypted DNS, and a redundant SMTP cluster for outbound and authenticated email.

Both are designed on the same principle as the rest of our network — redundancy in multiple layers, no single points of failure, and secure by default.

Part 1 — Global resolver cluster with encrypted DNS

Most people associate DNS with authoritative DNS (the name servers for your domain — we wrote about that in Anycast DNS). But just as important is the recursive DNS service: the one your servers, VPS instances and devices use to actually look up names on the internet.

We now operate a recursive resolver cluster announced via anycast — the same IP address from multiple nodes simultaneously — which is being rolled out across all No-Ack sites as we expand (Stockholm today, with Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Helsinki and Oslo on the way).

What you get

• Faster lookups — your traffic reaches the nearest resolver node automatically via anycast.
• Silent failover — if a node goes down, traffic is seamlessly redirected to the next one, without the “sticky failover” that plagues typical primary/secondary setups.
• Encrypted DNS — we support DNS-over-TLS (DoT, port 853) and DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH, port 443). Your DNS queries can no longer be intercepted or tampered with in transit.
• DNSSEC validation — responses are cryptographically validated so you aren’t fooled by forged records.
• Hardened and private — only known client networks may recurse, with aggressive caching and full observability on every node.

How to use encrypted DNS

If you run a VPS or dedicated server with us, our resolver IPs are provisioned automatically. To use encrypted DNS, simply point your client at our DoT/DoH hostname:

DoT/DoH host:  dns.noackhosting.net
DoT:           port 853
DoH:           https://dns.noackhosting.net/dns-query

The certificate is issued per service (no wildcard) and validates against dns.noackhosting.net. If you need help setting it up on your client or operating system, just reach out to support.

Part 2 — Redundant SMTP cluster for web hosting customers

Email is still business-critical, and deliverability is hard to get right: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, reputation, cold-IP warmup and greylisting. Instead of every customer wrestling with all of that on their own, we now run a fully containerized, redundant SMTP cluster that handles it for you.

What you get

• Higher redundancy — multiple clustered components instead of a single mail server that is an obvious point of failure.
• Better deliverability — proper SPF and DKIM signing on outbound email, so your messages land in the inbox instead of the spam folder.
• Easy to use per site — if you host with us, your site can send email through our relay without you having to build your own mail infrastructure.
• Authenticated and secure — outbound email is authenticated with SASL over TLS, so only your authorized senders can send.

How to get started

All you need to do is request a SASL account for your site or domain. You’ll receive a username and password to enter into your application’s SMTP settings:

SMTP server:   smtp.noackhosting.net
Port:          587 (STARTTLS) — authenticated submission
Authentication: SASL (username + password)

At the same time, we set up the correct SPF and DKIM records for your domain so signing works from day one. Contact support and we’ll set up your SASL account.

Summary

Both services are part of our ongoing work to build a hosting platform that is fast, secure and redundant at its foundation — not as an afterthought.

Questions or ready to get started? Contact us and we’ll help you out.