My site has been having trouble for the past few months and I think it's gotta be a DNS issue.

Here's what is happening:

I've had many, many users tell me that they can not get into the site at certain times (totally random) and they get DNS error messages.

I have not run into this problem at all so I'm oblivious when it is happening.

But, there are way too many people reporting this to be just something random. I've contaced my host and they say nothing is wrong but I'm convinced that something is going on.

http://www.rotojunkie.com

Any ideas?

I will agree that it is a DNS problem. Using my DSL connection I get inconsistent results looking up your domain name. Sometimes I get a response, other times I get a 2s timeout, other times I get a complete timeout.

assuming we're right and its a DNS issue, what are some of the possibilities? I've been running sites for a few years and have everything setup the same as I usually do.

I guess the biggest difference is that I switched registrars awhile ago and now use ******** for my domains. Could this be an issue with them or is it something with my hosting company?

It is definitely a DNS issue.

I just checked your domain (rotojunkie.com)...it's in all of the gTLD servers with consistent results...so that's not the problem...both of the name servers for your domain name (ns5.nocservers.net and ns6.nocservers.net) are in all of the gTLD servers with consistent results...so that's not the problem...the domain name of the name servers (nocservers.net) is listed in all of the gTLD servers with consistent results, and both of the name servers for nocservers.net (ns.nocservers.net and ns2.nocservers.net) are in all of the gTLD servers with consistent results...so that rules out all of the registry problems...

I just checked your host's name servers, and they've got a really big mess. The NS records for nocservers.net aren't consistent with the ones in the gTLD servers, nor are the NS records consistent between all of their name servers. They also don't have ns5.nocservers.net and ns6.nocservers.net in their name servers, which is what I believe is causing the problem in your case.

Contact your host again as this is definitely a problem on their end, and if they continue to deny something is wrong, then they're incompetent and you need to find a new host.

Originally posted by bdjncox
assuming we're right and its a DNS issue, what are some of the possibilities?

I second everything that ToastyX said regarding your hosts nameservers, but will also add that I could not get either NS5.NOCSERVERS.NET or NS5.NOCSERVERS.NET to resolve.

-Bob

LOL :D

rotojunkie.com IN SOA server: ns5.nocservers.net
email: tim@paradise-designs.net
serial: 1020205711
refresh: 28800
retry: 7200
expire: 3600000
minimum ttl: 86400
14400s (4h)

Service scan
FTP - 21 220 ProFTPD 1.2.4 Server (ftp.rotojunkie.com) [64.247.34.59]
SMTP - 25 220-viper.nocservers.net ESMTP Exim 3.35 #1 Fri, 26 Jul 2002 06:00:06 -0400
220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited,
220 and/or bulk e-mail.
HTTP - 80 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 10:00:11 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.26 (Unix) mod_bwlimited/1.0 PHP/4.2.1 mod_log_bytes/0.3 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510 mod_ssl/2.8.9 OpenSSL/0.9.6b
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

POP3 - 110 -ERR Cpanel License is invalid

Made me laugh.... tim@paradise-designs.net
CPanel license invalid LOL :D

NS5.NOCSERVERS.NET

DNS records
Error from DNS server: Queried domain does not exist

NS6.NOCSERVERS.NET

Network Whois record
Don't have an IP address for which to get a record

DNS records
Error from DNS server: Queried domain does not exist

Service scan
Don't have an IP address to scan for services

I checked your register WhoIs, you did not add the IP numbers for the NS and NS2, that is a must there - just go to your control panel at the registrar, click name servers and add them.

Any other problems you have post here - I don't think it'll take long to get your site back up.

NAMESERVER RECORD:
-----------------------------
; <<>> DiG 2.1 <<>> @maggie.menandmice.is rotojunkie.com NS
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
;; flags: qr rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 2, Auth: 0, Addit: 2
;; QUESTIONS:
;; rotojunkie.com, type = NS, class = IN

;; ANSWERS:
rotojunkie.com. 172537 NS NS5.NOCSERVERS.NET.
rotojunkie.com. 172537 NS NS6.NOCSERVERS.NET.

;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
ns5.nocservers.net. 172537 A 64.247.34.61
ns6.nocservers.net. 172537 A 64.247.34.62

;; Total query time: 157 msec
;; FROM: us.mirror.menandmice.com to SERVER: maggie.menandmice.is 217.151.171.7
;; WHEN: Fri Jul 26 06:42:21 2002
;; MSG SIZE sent: 32 rcvd: 136
__________________________

START OF AUTHORITY RECORD:
---------------------------------------
; <<>> DiG 2.1 <<>> @maggie.menandmice.is rotojunkie.com SOA
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
;; flags: qr rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 1, Auth: 2, Addit: 2
;; QUESTIONS:
;; rotojunkie.com, type = SOA, class = IN

;; ANSWERS:
rotojunkie.com. 13883 SOA ns5.nocservers.net. tim.paradise-designs.net. (
1020205711 serial
28800 refresh (8 hours)
7200 retry (2 hours)
3600000 expire (41 days 16 hours)
86400 ) minimum (1 day)

;; AUTHORITY RECORDS:
rotojunkie.com. 172283 NS NS6.NOCSERVERS.NET.
rotojunkie.com. 172283 NS NS5.NOCSERVERS.NET.

;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
ns6.nocservers.net. 172283 A 64.247.34.62
ns5.nocservers.net. 172283 A 64.247.34.61

;; Total query time: 147 msec
;; FROM: us.mirror.menandmice.com to SERVER: maggie.menandmice.is 217.151.171.7
;; WHEN: Fri Jul 26 06:46:37 2002
;; MSG SIZE sent: 32 rcvd: 193
_____________________________

A RECORD:
--------------
<<>> DiG 2.1 <<>> @maggie.menandmice.is rotojunkie.com A
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
;; flags: qr rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 1, Auth: 2, Addit: 2
;; QUESTIONS:
;; rotojunkie.com, type = A, class = IN

;; ANSWERS:
rotojunkie.com. 13873 A 64.247.34.59

;; AUTHORITY RECORDS:
rotojunkie.com. 172229 NS NS6.NOCSERVERS.NET.
rotojunkie.com. 172229 NS NS5.NOCSERVERS.NET.

;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
ns6.nocservers.net. 172229 A 64.247.34.62
ns5.nocservers.net. 172229 A 64.247.34.61

;; Total query time: 147 msec
;; FROM: us.mirror.menandmice.com to SERVER: maggie.menandmice.is 217.151.171.7
;; WHEN: Fri Jul 26 06:47:31 2002
;; MSG SIZE sent: 32 rcvd: 152

_____________________________________


MAX POWER :homer:

What you really need to do to nail down the issue if its DNS or not is when your customers call complaining about not getting to a site, ask them for the DNS server they are using, then do a nslookup using their DNS server, and that should give you a clear picture of whats going on, also make sure to use the "set d2" option so you can see what nameservers it forwards the query to.