Important nameserver question

[Gillespie]

I switched servers recently and also trasnferred one of my nameserver domains to another registrar.

In the middle of the transfer between registrars, I remembered to change the IP that it resolved to so I did it.

The domain transfer still insn't complete, but everything was working flawlessly until a while ago.

All of the sudden, my computer started displaying the sites that were stored in my old server (still have them for backup) and when I pinged the domains, the IPs addresses were the old ones!

How is this possible?

My ISPs DNS cache had obviously been refreshed since I was already seeing the new sites. My PC's DNS cache was also fresh.

I just can't explain it. Help?

[directfiesta]

check from here to see what is really happening:

http://www.checkdns.net/quickcheckdomainf.aspx

[Gillespie]

Awesome link. Thanks!

Domains are in fact pointing to their new IPs. I'm not really sure what the fuck is going on with my ISP or my PC...

[directfiesta]

Probably your ISP is running on an old cache .... DNS are pretty tricky ...
You could and should also consider adding some other name servers ( free at zoneedit.com ).
Aside from being good for SE , it gives you a fail safe and control if needed .

[Gillespie]

Thanks for the tip. I didn't know what tertiary and quaternary ns were for...

The weird thing is that my ISP's cache had already caught the changes. I'm wondering why they would roll back...

[rowan]

Next time you do a transfer or server switch which involves changing the IP of your site, back off the TTL (Time To Live) value on BOTH your old and new nameservers to something like 120 seconds (2 mins) a couple of days prior to the switch. This value limits the amount of time the data is cached, so even people already browsing your site will swap over to the new IP within a couple of minutes of the change. (Save for some stuck behind non compliant software which ignores the TTL and caches records for longer than it should.)

Remember to set the value back to 86400 or whatever it was previously at a day or two after the switch.

[Gillespie]

Thanks!

For some reason, what was happening was that I was jumping back and forth from the old server to the new one. I din't even know this was possible.

Once I deleted the stuff on the old server, everything was back to normal again...

[natas]

check from here to see what is really happening:

http://www.checkdns.net/quickcheckdomainf.aspx

ok great thread, I am having major hassle this week trying to add a domain to my hosting.
I've done it hundreds of times but for some reason this .co.uk is giving me the mother of all headaches.

domain nameservers are changed over and domain is added in hosting as usual.
everything should check out... from the checkdns site I get the following...


CheckDNS.NET is asking root servers about authoritative NS for domain

Got DNS list for 'flyingink.co.uk' from ns6.nic.uk or ns6.nic.uk
Found NS record: ns1.rocketflow.com[130.94.75.209], was resolved to IP address by e.gtld-servers.net
Found NS record: ns2.rocketflow.com[72.35.75.201], was resolved to IP address by e.gtld-servers.net
Domain has 2 DNS server(s)

so far so good........... but then

CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive

DNS server ns1.rocketflow.com[130.94.75.209] is alive, but not authoritative for domain 'flyingink.co.uk' and didn't return SOA
DNS server ns2.rocketflow.com[72.35.75.201] is alive, but not authoritative for domain 'flyingink.co.uk' and didn't return SOA
0 server(s) are alive
No DNS servers alive, tests stopped


I have no idea what the above means I'm afraid... nor what an SOA is.
As I said normally I just add my domains as I have done in the past and they work fine after just a few hours.
I know .co.uk's can take 24 hours or so, but this problem has been going on for 2 weeks.

The only further help checkDNS can give (clicking the little ? icon next to the result) is :

CheckDNS received an answer to the query. However, the DNS server indicates that it DOES NOT host the domain (does not have a zone copy).
Usually this is a problem, because this DNS server will not be able to serve queries when other DNS servers responsible for the domain will be down.

Again, I have no idea what this means, but there seems to be some guys in this thread who know their onions....

can someone please help?

[Gillespie]

CheckDNS received an answer to the query. However, the DNS server indicates that it DOES NOT host the domain (does not have a zone copy).

Your server didin't add the correct DNS Zone or didn't add one at all?

[natas]

hey gillespie i just added you to icq, please msg me when you get a second

15655034

many thanks

[Gillespie]

Sure thing!

[pussyserver - BANNED FOR LIFE]

I switched servers recently and also trasnferred one of my nameserver domains to another registrar.

In the middle of the transfer between registrars, I remembered to change the IP that it resolved to so I did it.

The domain transfer still insn't complete, but everything was working flawlessly until a while ago.

All of the sudden, my computer started displaying the sites that were stored in my old server (still have them for backup) and when I pinged the domains, the IPs addresses were the old ones!

How is this possible?

My ISPs DNS cache had obviously been refreshed since I was already seeing the new sites. My PC's DNS cache was also fresh.

I just can't explain it. Help?

none of the other people who answered you have the slightest clue about bind and they have no idea what happened here

I do

and just from the information given I can gather that your old host is either XO, qwest, Godaddy or Dell

1 out of the 4

am I correct

since you are not on my ignore list... ICQ me and I will explain it to you and what you should do to own a few keywords in the process

[Gillespie]

none of the other people who answered you have the slightest clue about bind and they have no idea what happened here

I do

and just from the information given I can gather that your old host is either XO, qwest, Godaddy or Dell

1 out of the 4

am I correct

since you are not on my ignore list... ICQ me and I will explain it to you and what you should do to own a few keywords in the process

Nope. I don't host with any of those.

The problem was solved by getting rid of the stuff from my old server.

[pussyserver - BANNED FOR LIFE]

Nope. I don't host with any of those.

The problem was solved by getting rid of the stuff from my old server.

who was your old dedicated server with?

[Gillespie]

See sig.

I'm still with them, just upgraded though.

[directfiesta]

ok great thread, I am having major hassle this week trying to add a domain to my hosting.
I've done it hundreds of times but for some reason this .co.uk is giving me the mother of all headaches.

CheckDNS.NET is verifying if NS are alive

DNS server ns1.rocketflow.com[130.94.75.209] is alive, but not authoritative for domain 'flyingink.co.uk' and didn't return SOA
DNS server ns2.rocketflow.com[72.35.75.201] is alive, but not authoritative for domain 'flyingink.co.uk' and didn't return SOA
0 server(s) are alive
No DNS servers alive, tests stopped

The zone has not been added to the dns servers... If you are on a dedicated, you can do that yourself. If you are on a virtual, open a support ticket so that the host can add the zone.

[Gillespie]

nameservers arent his. They are his host's. I told him the same thing and he's waiting to hear back from the host.

[pussyserver - BANNED FOR LIFE]

See sig.

I'm still with them, just upgraded though.

so you host with a GNAX reseller

"http://www.gnax.net"

and they are included in the list

[natas]

big BIG thanks to gillespie for all the help he just kindly gave me

waiting to hear back from rocketflow now...

[directfiesta]

nameservers arent his. They are his host's. I told him the same thing and he's waiting to hear back from the host.

One good example to add extra OUTSIDE dns.

A big host a few weeks ago had his dns down ... A thread was done here on that and a follow up yesterday on the sla reimbursement not effective for DNS ....

[Gillespie]

so you host with a GNAX reseller

"http://www.gnax.net"

and they are included in the list

Ok, I'm all ears. What happened?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[tranza]

Probably your ISP is running on an old cache .... DNS are pretty tricky ...
You could and should also consider adding some other name servers ( free at zoneedit.com ).
Aside from being good for SE , it gives you a fail safe and control if needed .

Good advice!!

[Gillespie]

lol @ no pubes tgp! Great name!

[natas]

ok my host seemed to sort things out, domain working woot woot!!

[Gillespie]

ok my host seemed to sort things out, domain working woot woot!!

Good to hear!