[mzltest]

Personally I am not using the provider's dns as the cdn's provider often provide a ns server(the progration seems to be better for these cdn's ns)and yes,freenom is harder to apply now.I've heard that your country in the details you provide at the registeration must match the ip address when you make the order otherwise it gets automatically rejected.

And for the renewal,yes I miss them too.Without notifications set ahead you hardly remember the thing after almost a year.