Whats Happening?!

[nickcmp]

(I have a jpc vps) I run a little forum with about 40 members, the forum provides free hosting to members, I only just started it and I'm already getting some complaints I don't understand, these complaints are about downtime, I get messages like "why am I getting so much downtime" and "im leaving from your kruddy service", my other sites work fine, I havent noticed any downtime, Ive signed up for an uptime service and I'll see what that has to say. I think it is to do with DNS, I've had problems with one of my sites, like not being able to access it etc. People also complain about parking domains and about how they dont work, some people say the server goes down for hours a day, which isnt true because one of my sites has many many hits per day and has them every minute, no changes, checked virtuzzo for alerts, nothing except when it says "backing up" which I don't know if that is causing it. I need to find whats going on otherwise I'm going to be alone in my forum!
does anyone know what is wrong or what I can do?

thanks

[the_ancient]

(I have a jpc vps) I run a little forum with about 40 members, the forum provides free hosting to members, I only just started it and I'm already getting some complaints I don't understand, these complaints are about downtime, I get messages like "why am I getting so much downtime" and "im leaving from your kruddy service", my other sites work fine, I havent noticed any downtime, Ive signed up for an uptime service and I'll see what that has to say. I think it is to do with DNS, I've had problems with one of my sites, like not being able to access it etc. People also complain about parking domains and about how they dont work, some people say the server goes down for hours a day, which isnt true because one of my sites has many many hits per day and has them every minute, no changes, checked virtuzzo for alerts, nothing except when it says "backing up" which I don't know if that is causing it. I need to find whats going on otherwise I'm going to be alone in my forum!
does anyone know what is wrong or what I can do?

thanks

well you need to get more information about their reported downtimes.

if your setting up free hosting with custom domain names, do your "customers" understand they need to wait 48-72 hrs for full progation? within that time their site may work, and then not work, as the ISP;s update and change their DNS cache's

[nickcmp]

Oh really? would that result in ports not functioning such as :2082 (cpanel)?

[the_ancient]

Oh really? would that result in ports not functioning such as :2082 (cpanel)?

It could yes.

To give you some brackground on DNS, overly simplified for time sake, incase your not filmiar with the process.

Every computer on the internet is assigned a IP address, this address is the ONLY way computers can find each other, Most people will not be able to remember IP address so the Domain Name System (DNS) was created, the DNS system stores a Domain name and the IP address attached to the domain name.

When the user request a domain name the users computer asks the DNS server assigned to the network it is attached to for the IP address, in most cases this is the users Local ISP DNS cache, The update process for these cache's vary by ISP, so it can take some time to update.

Plus if the user has a Dialup, or is a part of a LARGE ISP there is probally more than one Cache which causes the problem of sometimes the site works and some times it does not.

[nickcmp]

I have just checked an account made 7 days ago and they are still reporting problems maybe I'll submit a ticket to check my DNS set up.

[the_ancient]

I have just checked an account made 7 days ago and they are still reporting problems maybe I'll submit a ticket to check my DNS set up.

well you can test most of it yourself, fixing it may be another matter but.....

First what problems are their reporting, No loading? Slow loading?

if it is no loading, can you access it?

If you can, ask the Customer to do a Trace the next time the site in unaccessible on windows that is

start -> run -> "cmd"

then type in "tracert YOURDOMAINNAME.com"

this will tell you where the failure is and if it is even your server.

you can also use dnsstuff.com, look up the A Record for the site in question and make sure it is the same as IP assiged to your server

Also use user DNSreport.com to do a full dns diagonstic on that domain, some errors are common but it will tell you the big ones

[nickcmp]

Many Many problems have shown and a few that I have noticed in WHM.

1. In Whm when I create accounts, (as its going through the creation process) I noticed that it says under nameservers: ns3.nocdirect.com and ns4.nocdirect, which I understand is jpc's but because I have a .co.uk domain I have to self host on my ip's (in the domain cp, namecheap) so I have this: (example ip's) (and this is what namecheap told me to do) 123.123.123--ns1.numberonehost.co.uk
321.321.321--ns2.numberonehost.co.uk
So I give people these nameservers: ns1.numberonehost.co.uk and ns2.numberonehost.co.uk, should I be giving them ns3.nocdirect.com and ns4.nocdirect.com?

2. On one of the problem domains I done a DNS report: these are the errors:

WARN Glue at parent nameservers

FAIL Open DNS servers

FAIL Missing (stealth) nameservers

FAIL Missing nameservers 2

WARN Nameservers on separate class C's

WARN Single Point of Failure

FAIL Stealth NS record leakage

WARN SOA MNAME Check

WARN SOA REFRESH value

WARN SOA EXPIRE value

FAIL Reverse DNS entries for MX records

[the_ancient]

did you have Jag set up Custom Name Servers?

If not this could be the problem

[nickcmp]

yea jagpc set it up, I'm no good at DNS as you can see.

[the_ancient]

yea jagpc set it up, I'm no good at DNS as you can see.

well I would open a ticket and have the check the settings making sure WHM is set up to use your Custom DNS servers.

if you want PM me with a offending domain so I can look at it directly, might be able to give you some insight

[jason]

If you haven't already done it, you'll have to contact NameCheap and register the nameserver IPs that JPC gave you for your custom nameservers. Many registrars have an option to "register nameservers" on their site somewhere. If not, try contacting the registrar's tech support department for help. Until you do this you won't be able to use your custom nameservers (because registrars won't allow your clients to add them to their domain records until they're registered).

Once that's done you should give your custom nameserver addresses to your clients. When you set up sites in WHM, it should automatically populate your DNS servers with the necessary information about the domain. Don't give them namecheap's server addresses--namecheap won't know anything about their domains unless they use namecheap as their registrar, and even then, they'd need to set up the information manually.

--Jason

[the_ancient]

If you haven't already done it, you'll have to contact NameCheap and register the nameserver IPs that JPC gave you for your custom nameservers. Many registrars have an option to "register nameservers" on their site somewhere. If not, try contacting the registrar's tech support department for help. Until you do this you won't be able to use your custom nameservers (because registrars won't allow your clients to add them to their domain records until they're registered).

Once that's done you should give your custom nameserver addresses to your clients. When you set up sites in WHM, it should automatically populate your DNS servers with the necessary information about the domain. Don't give them namecheap's server addresses--namecheap won't know anything about their domains unless they use namecheap as their registrar, and even then, they'd need to set up the information manually.

--Jason

that has been done.

So I give people these nameservers: ns1.numberonehost.co.uk and ns2.numberonehost.co.uk

And those 2 name servers return 2 differant IP's on the JPC Network.

So he has that set up, but it does not look like WHM is setup to use those name servers but rather the jag generic servers, which may or may not be causing the reported problems but should be fixed regardless.

[JPC-Veena]

nickcmp,

Please open a support ticket if you haven't already so we can check your dns settings and problems with the sites.

[AlexKall]

Remember that co.uk propogate slower then for example .com.