dns.he.net is Hurricane Electric's free DNS hosting tool for forward and reverse zones, with dynamic DNS, slave zone support, and full IPv6 compatibility.
dns.he.net is the free DNS hosting service run by Hurricane Electric, a Fremont, California-based internet service provider founded in 1994 that operates one of the largest IPv6 backbones in the world. While Hurricane Electric's core business is IP transit, colocation, and dedicated servers, dns.he.net is a standalone free tool that lets anyone register an account and manage authoritative DNS zones.
The service is aimed squarely at technically inclined users — network engineers, IPv6 early adopters, and site operators comfortable managing raw DNS records — rather than consumers looking for a simple domain-management dashboard.
Accounts can host both forward DNS zones (for a domain's normal records) and reverse DNS zones (mapping IP addresses back to hostnames), which is a capability many free DNS tools skip entirely. The service supports a wide range of record types, including A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT, and SRV, and includes sanity checks that flag delegation misconfigurations before they cause resolution problems.
Dynamic DNS is supported over both IPv4 and IPv6, letting users with changing IP addresses keep a hostname pointed at their current address automatically. The platform also supports slave zone hosting, letting it serve as a secondary, redundant DNS provider alongside a primary nameserver, and a single account can manage multiple domains.
dns.he.net is entirely free, with open registration for new accounts and no paid upgrade tiers within the DNS tool itself. Anyone can sign up for a free account, though the service has historically been closely associated with Hurricane Electric's IPv6 certification program, Tunnelbroker service, and colocation/transit customer base.
Because the DNS tool carries no direct monetization, it functions as a value-add that supports Hurricane Electric's broader paid services rather than as a standalone revenue product — a common pattern among free tools offered by infrastructure companies with a paid core business.
Yes, it's a free DNS hosting service with open registration and no paid tiers of its own.
It's operated by Hurricane Electric, a Fremont, California-based internet service provider founded in 1994.
Yes, it supports dual-stack IPv4 and IPv6 operation, including dynamic DNS updates over both protocols.
Yes, it supports hosting reverse DNS zones in addition to standard forward zones, which many free DNS tools don't offer.
No, registration is open to anyone, though the service has historically been closely used by Hurricane Electric's Tunnelbroker, IPv6 certification, and colocation customers.