Chang IP address

[fourbit]

Just a couple of general question.

I just changed an IP on an existing account. And now I have to wait for propagation before the site shows up.

First question. Is there a way to do this so that there is no down time due to propagation?

And the second. Since I already did this, is there a way to redirect the request to the correct IP?

I know I could get my answer from the Great support team here. But, this way, the answer is visible for all to use. 'course, that assumes that there are others out there that are as ignorant/slow as I. :D

Thanks,
Paul

[PvUtrix]

You should set TTL for the domain down to 180 24 hours before you make the switch. This will minimize downtime.

You could also use apache mod rewrite to redirect requests...

[canuck]

Where do you set the TTL for the domain ?

[Chris]

In WHM, DNS Functions>Edit DNS Zone>Choose domain

[canuck]

Within the In WHM, DNS Functions>Edit DNS Zone>Choose domain, i see an area at the top that says $TTL 14400 and after that there is a box with @ followed by another box on the right with 14400 in it. Is this the area to midify ? I gather that 14400 is seconds ?

[PvUtrix]

yep, change 14400 to 180 or 300 for all the records in the zone, 24 hours before the switch. After the domain propagates completely you should change it back to a higher value...

[fourbit]

Thank you very much. That's a lesson well learned. It's all finally propagated. But, I see that changing the dns would have helped.

Pv, you mentioned using Apache's redirect to redirect it while waiting for propagation. What would you have used and where would you have placed the code?

[PvUtrix]

you need to make a rewrite rule and put it into your .htaccess file to forward everything to your new IP.

There's a nice manual here:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/misc/rewriteguide.html