DNS flip-flopping?

[jjorgali]

2 days ago I switched web hosts and changed my DNS to point to my new host here at jaguarpc. Yesterday morning, my domain was pulling up from jaguarpc. Yesterday afternoon it was pulling up from my old web host. Last night, it was pulling up from here again. This morning, it's pulling up from my old web host again. Is this normal?

Thanks for your time.

[Oldfrog]

Did you actually change the name servers associated with your domain?

Try going to http://www.dnsstuff.com/ and doing a DNS lookup for your domain name. You will find that in the upper right corner of the test page, enter your domain name, and use the drop down box to select "All" records. This will show the nameservers currently listed for your domain. Once that is complete you can do a reverse DNS traversal to make sure that the 13 TLD servers all contain the same information.

[jason]

Also, are all of these checks being made from the same place. The whole reason why propagation takes as long as it does is that local DNS servers cache data so that they don't have to keep asking for the same thing over and over. So it is possible that the servers you're using at one location have a different cache than at others.

For example, say you are at home. You go to your registrar's site and change your DNS servers. You then try to go to your site. Updates usually take up to 24 hours to be effective in the central registry, so when your ISP's DNS server asks where it can find your site it is directed to your old host. It downloads the info about your site and caches it for 48 hours.

The next morning you go to work. By this time the change has been made in the central registry and your employer's DNS server is directed to JPC's servers. It too downloads and stores this info for two days and directs you to the new site.

You get home for the night and bring up your site again. Since your ISP still has the cache from yesterday it doesn't bother trying to find your site again and just sends you to what it knows from "memory," which happens to be your old site, even though you know that the new site is working already.

If you see this happening and it is always from the same location it is probably due to multiple DNS servers at y your ISP that aren't talking to each other properly.

Hope this helps.

--Jason

[jjorgali]

Oldfrog, the 13 TLD servers all contain the correct jaguarpc nameserver info.

Jason, your last paragraph must explain what I'm seeing because this is happening from the same location.

Thanks for the info. My domain is being pulled up from the jaguarpc server now...hopefully it will stay that way!

[Ron]

If it persists past 72 hours, you might need to check your windows HOSTS file, assuming you're using windows where you're encountering the problem.

[jjorgali]

Ron, I am using Window XP Home. Can you give me more details about what you mean in regards to "checking your windows HOSTS file"?

[Ron]

Sure, you probably have THIS file:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost

Located here:

C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

If there's an entry for your website in there, you will need to either delete the entry or update it to reflect the new IP address.

Good luck