I have a client with a .info domain who's site has been down for over 3 days now after a DNS change.

First the dns was ns01.ourcompany.com and ns01.backupdns.com
For technical reasons we requested the customer to change this to ns01.ourcompany.com and ns02.ourcompany.com

This means that only the backupdns changed and not the primary. Add to that the fact that the backupdns was a slave for the primary dns server and got all it's information directly from the primary dns.

So... WHY is it that after the dns change was made the site went totally and completely off the air over 3 days ago?

Since the primary didn't even change... what on earth is going on?
Is this normal? Does anyone have previous experience with this?

This is going to be one of my least informative posts, but I remember there being some issue with .info domain names and DNS, though even after searching can't be any more specific. Sorry, and good luck.

Obviously, the master zone file for the domain didn't migrate back to the primary name server, and still resides on the backup which is not in use by that domain name. The suffix of the domain (.com, .info. .stupid) don't mean anything. DNS is DNS. This doesn't apply to special cases such as the NewNet domain suffixes which require third-party modification (.golf, .inc, .mp3) Usually, the primary talks to the slave, and the slave doesn't talk back. Better luck next time.

If you will PM or email me the domain name, I'll see if I can tell you any more about what's happening here.

-t

.info domains can be a bit touchy where nameservers are concerned.

You need to register the nameservers you wish to use with a .info domain with the .info registry (http://www.afilias.info). Usually this can be taken care of by the registrar of your domain (ourcompany.com and backupdns.com) - just let them know that you are trying to use nameservers on these domains with an info domain and they should be able to sort it for you by informing the .info registry.

Theres only one .info domain hosted here but the above is the process that needed going through before it would use our nameservers without error. Hope it helps :)

Well as it turns out when the customer made the change in DNS the domain name got (partially) put on hold by the registrar.

I contacted them and they confirmed something there appeared to be wrong as a) the domain was put on hold and b) there was only one nameserver listed in the whois.

They promised me to quickly sort it out and so they did. By the end of the day both the host and the customer could finally smile again :)

Thanks go to thewitt for helping me out on this one!