DNS Problems

[Joshua]

Well, i just changed the DNS settings 2 days ago. But it seems to have a wierd effect on my domain name. So far it has went to the website, then went back to the old server, then back to the new one, and so on.

Is this normal? Or do i have something set up on the server incorrectly?


Thanks in advanced!
Joshua

[vps-vince]

Hard to say Joshua, without knowing your domain name.
Could just need a little more time to propagate all over the internet World.

Try these online tools in the meantime:

www.dnsreport.com
www.dnsstuff.com

- Vince

[ndndixie]

Maybe if you could give an example of how you have it?
I use DirectI as a registar and as soon as I go in and put the nameservers and ip..it's resolved. I have found that it's easy to make a slight mistake when you're typing it in though, so that could be it.

[Joshua]

Well, I am going to wait one more day. But today seems to be working pretty well. It has not switched over to the old IP for 4 hours now. So, it might be safe to say it is good.

Thanks for the advice, and help!
Joshua

[Fred]

Next time you change your dns ... Two days before the change, change your TTL to something low... say 3600 i think it's low enough ...

Then two days later, change your dns as you wanted...
it always worked fine for me, so if it can help others :)

[Robert]

Hi there,

This is normal. Most ISPs have multiple DNS servers and they can update at different periods. So depending on how your request is routed, it can end up at one destination or another. The first 24-72 hours can have a lot of flip-flop until caching is cleared totally.

[IgnisOlly]

... and to make it worse, sometimes ISPs will cache on their own schedule, regardless of what your TTL is. Or so I've been told - never actually experienced it. There's a TTL threshold below which I have read almost all ISP DNS servers will ignore DNS updates, but I think that's 180 which is very very short anyway. heh, all anecdotal. I'd agree with Fred - use something short like 3600 before a change. To make absolutely *sure* all requests get to the right server, you can redirect - all requests that get through to the old server (through cached records), get redirected to the new server, but my DNS kung fu is weak... any ideas?

Olly

[ndndixie]

Hi there,

This is normal. Most ISPs have multiple DNS servers and they can update at different periods. So depending on how your request is routed, it can end up at one destination or another. The first 24-72 hours can have a lot of flip-flop until caching is cleared totally.
Question: I use DirectI. I've never had a domain take over just a few minutes to resolve using them.....do they just update automatically?

[IgnisOlly]

directi as ISP? didn't know they were one. the flipflopping comes when your internet connection company has multiple DNS servers. I think registrars make updates pretty quickly, and don't cache. Although, weak kung fu and all that...

Olly

[Robert]

It depends on the ISP and how fast the ISP refreshes it's DNS cache. Say I'm RoadRunner in Tampa, FL. I've got a ton of customers doing a lookup for domains. I get 10,000 requests in a day for cnn.com. Instead of looking up cnn.com each time, if I look it up once, I'll know most likely cnn.com is not going to be changing again really soon. So I'll store it and just keep passing it to folks to go to the first result's location.

They'll store it for 1-2 days, then rince and repeat.

Some of those "power update" sites that claim to have it updated in minutes are using a different technology to push updates. Though your ISP may still cache it's results (say you change a site, it works in a minute, change it again somewhere else, and check to see if it updated again.. you may not see the NEWEST update as your ISP cached it.)

[IgnisOlly]

ah, I've found the seamless transition link, it uses iptables to redirect requests to the new server, although that would be for all accounts. Original post is at http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=298085

Apologies if I've just breached etiquette...

Olly