I've hosted all of my sites on GoDaddy shared Linux hosting for the past 5-6 years, so my knowledge of DNS and server configuration etc. isn't too great yet.... that said...

One of my sites started getting 100,000 hits a day, and needless to say GoDaddy started shutting me down and disrupting my service since I was using more then the 'typical' level of bandwidth alotted for the $3.95 a month accounts.

Anyway, I opened a basic VPS account on LiquidWeb, and I'm trying to get my domain names and hosting moved over there. I point the domains to the correct name servers, setup the new hosting account in my LiquidWeb control panel, but it takes a solid 3-4 days for my site to come online. Is this normal?

I understand DNS propogation... but I've been told usually within a few hours max I should be able to view the site. With Godaddy it was instant... hosting, domain, boom, up and running in 60 seconds. How long should I be waiting for sites to come online?

Thanks!

glad you think it's cool... any suggestions mr. 1-post-wonder?

depends on your ISP's cache

its usually 5 minutes as per rapid dns at registires


check it from dnsstuff.com checkdns.net or dnsreport.com and see if it resolves on the new IPs already

Assuming you have new DNS servers, you have two things that you're waiting for in that switch.

1. The registrar making the change on the root DNS servers. That change happens nearly instantly, so anyone who has never visited the site before won't have a cache timeout to wait for.

2. Whatever the TTL (time to live) record was set on your old dns servers.. you have to wait for that to expire on any DNS servers that have a cached entry of the record before they will look up a new one from the new server.

So that being said, all you're really waiting for is however long the TTL was on the old dns server before you made the changes... and that could have been anything, so hopefully you would know. :)

So that being said, all you're really waiting for is however long the TTL was on the old dns server before you made the changes... and that could have been anything, so hopefully you would know. :)

Also the TTL on the nameservers themselves, which you don't have any control over, and is typically 24-48 hours.

So yeah, a couple of days is normal. You can cut that down with proper cutover strategy though.