I have an existing DNS domain (registered with godaddy) that is current using name servers from my web host. I want change this zone Go Daddy's name servers and their total DNS control.

As far as I know this is the process

1. In Domain Manager change the nameservers to Godaddy name servers (they aren't listed of course you have to find them)
2. Wait for some undetermined amount of time until the 'Total DNS' link becomes available.
3. Within total DNS setup your various DNS record for this zone.

So for at least the period of time between when the link shows up (before 2)and you enter your details your domain (after 3) is actually pointing to one of godaddy's parked domains things. This isn't theoretical. I've had it happen to me. My ISP picked up the IP in that 'in between' period and my site resolved to a parked domain for about an hour. I can't seem to find anyway around this problem.

Why do they not let you set what you want your zone record to be before you change the name servers? If they really wanted to they could actually automatically import the current setting from your previous nameservers. Do they just not want people using this service? :mad::mad::mad::confused:

Surely there must be some way of avoiding this?

If that's truly the case, maybe they want the income from the parking page they show.

Just to confirm:
You are complaining about a free DNS service that a registrar provides?
You are upset that you do not want to pay for DNS service for your company and are upste that you do not get complete and instant DNS transfer?

GoDaddy is great for domain's i simply change the host summary and then add the name server's and BAM! it's good no need to wait. Also do a dns flush cause it might be a minor delay as you most likely are running on old cookies.

Just to confirm:
You are complaining about a free DNS service that a registrar provides?
You are upset that you do not want to pay for DNS service for your company and are upste that you do not get complete and instant DNS transfer?

Total DNS is one component of the paid service which is Go Daddy domain registration. They advertise it as being part of the package and it comprises part of the value of the service. Some other registrars may offer different packages that do not contain domain management but this does not mean the service is 'free'.

Even if it was free I think it is reasonable to point out this deficiency and to criticise them when it is not fixed. Imagine if webhostingtalk.com logged you out every time you did a search? That would be stupid and most users would legitimately complain.

There is no reason why an existing domain should ever have to be pointed to a parked domain just because you are changing nameservers. If both the old and the new nameservers have the correct information for your domain then it doesn't matter how long the changes takes to propagate.

GoDaddy is great for domain's i simply change the host summary and then add the name server's and BAM! it's good no need to wait. Also do a dns flush cause it might be a minor delay as you most likely are running on old cookies.

I'm not sure you have understood what I am talking about. I'm talking about a domain that is used for a web site that is up and running and has many users. Let's use webhostingtalk.com as an example

If WHT decide to go through this process then there will be a period (in my experience this can be up to 15 minutes) were WHT will resolve to a parked domain. So if you go to look at WHT during that period you'll see parked domain. Worse still you as a user probably won't decide to run 'dns flush' so the site may appear to be down for as long as the DNS lookup is catched. It is possible also that your ISP will catch the lookup result for a long time, ignoring the official expiry time, and so everyone on that ISP will see WHT as being a parked domain.

I'm pretty sure these parking pages are the default records for new domains added to the godaddy dns.. So when you change your DNS back to them, they put in those records automatically until you fill in your own.
Technically this is how many registrars do it, with the exception of namecheap.. What namecheap does is save your records even if you change nameservers. So a few months later when you change back, all the records are still there.

This is how it should be done..

I'm pretty sure these parking pages are the default records for new domains added to the godaddy dns.. So when you change your DNS back to them, they put in those records automatically until you fill in your own.


What they should do is allow you to set up your record before you change your DNS to them. The other domain management system I've used allow this. It doesn't seem like rocket science.

I don't know what other registrars do but I'd be surprised if most of them hadn't worked out how to avoid the problems with the way it works at Go Daddy. All they need to do is allow you to use Total DNS control before you've moved your nameservers. How hard is that? If they are worried about user confusion they could have a massive message on each Total DNS page page saying 'The changes you are making will not have any effect until you move your DNS servers to go daddy ones'.

I think I've worked it out. GoDaddy don't want sites that have any decent amount of traffic using this service because sites with more traffic usually require more DNS lookups which costs GoDaddy money. Allowing such a serious and obvious problem to exist is a way of discouraging those who actually care that their domain could be unavailable for a period of time.

Personally I would prefer it if they were just upfront and offered a professional level paid service for those with volume rather just the currently 'included but defective' service. I guess I'll have to look elsewhere for a fully paid option.

I really doubt that's the reasoning for that behavior.
1. Godaddy loves ads and
2. It's the default records for new domains added to their dns servers.

I haven't heard of godaddy doing anything if there are a lot of lookups.

I really doubt that's the reasoning for that behavior.
1. Godaddy loves ads and


I don't quite understand how this connects? Are you saying they are doing this to earn extra money from the ads they get to show while your domain is in limbo. That's worse than incompetence. That's theft, and I don't think they would stoop that low.


2. It's the default records for new domains added to their dns servers.


Yes that's obviously how the bug came about, similar to any bug in a system. What I'm talking about is why they haven't fixed it.


I haven't heard of godaddy doing anything if there are a lot of lookups.


No they wouldn't want the bad publicity as it might make people see their service as second rate. However not fixing a problem like this tends to just slide under the radar for a long time.

I could be wrong but I still think my explanation is the best so far. I'd be happy to hear others or better yet someone who can tell me this problem can be avoided.

If you are talking about the event where default parking page records are added to new domains, then that's not a bug.
Many other registrars also add default parking page dns records for new domains.

If you are talking about the event where default parking page records are added to new domains, then that's not a bug.
Many other registrars also add default parking page dns records for new domains.

No I'm not talking about that. Read the post.

No I'm not talking about that. Read the post.
Weird, what else could you have meant?
You spoke about how godaddy shows their parked pages after you change the nameservers to theirs..
Like I said earlier this is expected behavior for new domains.

Weird, what else could you have meant?
You spoke about how godaddy shows their parked pages after you change the nameservers to theirs..
Like I said earlier this is expected behavior for new domains.

I'm not talking about new domains. If you don't understand the difference between DNS hosting and domain registration then you don't have a lot to offer this discussion.

I'm not talking about new domains.
They are new domains. They might be old domains with established traffic, but they are new domains on Godaddy's DNS servers.

Now I understand your frustration with this, but you could try making the changes at night, say 4am, to impact the less users possible.

They might be old domains with established traffic, but they are new domains on Godaddy's DNS servers.


Maybe they are new to GoDaddy DNS servers but there is no reason they need to be. If you could enter the setting ->before<- you made the switch then everything would work fine. Any proper DNS hosting service would let you do this.

The solution of doing it late at night is probably the only option apart from using a more serious DNS host.

This is still the case, even if you use their new Premium DNS paid service. You cannot access the zones to edit them unless the name servers for the domain are already pointing to GoDaddy's name servers.

I was so surprised at this limitation that a Google search about it brought me to this thread from 2009. Looks like I'll be checking out some of the alternative providers for DNS.

This is still the case, even if you use their new Premium DNS paid service. You cannot access the zones to edit them unless the name servers for the domain are already pointing to GoDaddy's name servers.

I was so surprised at this limitation that a Google search about it brought me to this thread from 2009. Looks like I'll be checking out some of the alternative providers for DNS.

It is completely contra-intuitive that anyone would want to create the records after the fact.

In fact, any responsible provider would almost insist, that is, strongly suggest that client administrators populate their records and manually do lookups against those records using dig or nslookup pointed at the new dns server before changing the domain name server settings to point at the new dns servers.

It is foolish and dangerous for both the client and provider to not check the actual ability of the new server to answer queries properly before making them authoritative.

fwiw, $0.02 and all that.

++