GeoDNS: route your traffic based on visitor location

A single origin server is simple, but every visitor far from it pays a latency tax on every request. GeoDNS solves this at the DNS layer: instead of always returning the same address, it answers each query with the IP of the server nearest the person asking.

How GeoDNS decides

When a resolver asks for your domain, Airfree DNS looks at the network location the query is coming from and matches it against the regions you have defined. A visitor in Sydney is handed your Australian endpoint; a visitor in Frankfurt is handed your European one. Everyone still uses the same domain name.

Setting it up

• Deploy your application to two or more regional endpoints.
• In the DNS panel, add a GeoDNS record set and map each region to its endpoint IP.
• Set a default answer for regions you have not mapped explicitly.
• Keep the TTL modest (60–300s) so failover is quick without hammering resolvers.

Latency and failover, together

Because GeoDNS shortens the physical path, the biggest win is lower time-to-first-byte for distant users. Pair it with health checks and it doubles as regional failover: if an endpoint goes unhealthy, Airfree DNS stops handing out its address and routes those visitors to the next-nearest healthy region instead.