Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Dedicated Server : How long does this take.....

[brainbox]

Hi,
I have a raq, it's been running just fine. Now we had to switch our ip of our name servers because our provider told us to.

We switched it on Feb 20, the server responded normally until Feb 28, then no domains could be reached.

Would it have taken 8 days for the propegation of the new name server info to get across the net? As of Mar 3, the domains still couldnt be reached, we switched the name server info in Network Solutions to our original IP address of our dns on our own raq, to try and bring the sites back online by domain name.

I understand that it usually takes a couple of days, so by tonight or tommorrow it theoretically should be operating correctly again, but....

Why would the domains be fine for 8 days after changing the name servers ip address, then all of a sudden quit? Some people reported they could get to some of the domains, others they couldnt reach, while others as well as myself couldn't reach any domain names on the server.

I tried 4 different isps, from two different computers and all of them produce dns errors.

Thanks,
Brainbox

[vizi]

If you changed the IP addresses of your name server, you have to change the whois info for all of your domains to point to the new IP's.

If the only thing you changed was the IP addresses of your DNS server, then changing the whois info is all you need to do.

[brainbox]

Thanks,
Heres what I did,
I went to Networksolutions and changed the ip address's of both my name servers, i.e. ns.mydomain.com was 1.x.x.x
I changed it to 2.x.x.x

Now, some domains that were registered with network solutions when looked up on a whois, showed the correct dns info with the new ip address, whereas domains registered with other sources like domain monger still showed old ip address for the name server, so a change to one of those, changed all of them, since that forced domain monger to update their dns info in their database.

Anyway, the one site that was registered with netsol, had the correct info, but still couldnt be brought up, that is why it led me to believe that it was a problem beyond propegation of name server info, since one site showed the correct info, but yet still coulndt be resolved.

Any other info or suggestions gladly appreciated.

[vizi]

You want to verify that your DNS server is setup properly. Take one of the domains that was setup right (or that you think is), and run an nslookup.

Do: nslookup domain.com

Do that on your dns server. If that comes up fine. Do:

nslookup domain.com rs1.arin.net

If you get a different IP, or an error saying the domain couldn't be resolved, then there is a problem.

If the lookup on the first one fails, its your setup. If the lookup on the second fails but the first works, its most likely that the whois info is incorect.

[brainbox]

Sorry if this seems like an assenine question but:

Where do you do your nslookup?

Are you talking about network solutions whois lookup? Or some other method?

Thanks for indulging my lack of informational fortitude.

Bb

[tymonhall]

If you are running windows from the dos prompt.

Was this from 4webspace?

[brainbox]

Yes to that, Im on 4webspace.com

Also though Im running win ME at the moment, and I dont think there is any command called nslookup, since I go to the command prompt, otherwise known as dos prompt, and type in nslookup domain.com and it says: Bad command or file name, so they must have removed it from windows ME??

Thanks though,
Bb

[iplexx]

nslookup is only contained with NT, not Win9x.

Download SamSpade, http://www.samspade.org/ssw/, an excellent tool for nslookup/traceroute/zone-xfer, etc.

[tymonhall]

So its not with W2K or ME?

[Keeg]

you can actually do the nslookup right from your server telnet in and tpye nslookup domainname.com

Steve

[brainbox]

Originally posted by vizi
You want to verify that your DNS server is setup properly. Take one of the domains that was setup right (or that you think is), and run an nslookup.

Do: nslookup domain.com

Do that on your dns server. If that comes up fine. Do:

nslookup domain.com rs1.arin.net

If you get a different IP, or an error saying the domain couldn't be resolved, then there is a problem.

If the lookup on the first one fails, its your setup. If the lookup on the second fails but the first works, its most likely that the whois info is incorect.

Okay, thanks Keeg for the info on running it on the server, I tried this
nslookup skiresorttycoon.com ns1.iwebhost.ws and got back the following:

[admin@www admin]$ nslookup skiresorttycoon.com ns1.iwebhost.ws
Server: ns1.iwebhost.ws
Address: 216.234.186.251

Name: skiresorttycoon.com
Address: 216.234.186.253

I also tried nslookup skiresorttycoon.com ns1.tera-byte.com and got back:

[admin@www admin]$ nslookup skiresorttycoon.com ns1.tera-byte.com
Server: raptor.tera-byte.com
Address: 216.234.161.11

Name: skiresorttycoon.com
Address: 216.234.186.253


Which is correct, though when trying to get to the site, its a dns error in internet explorer, so the waiting game continues to see how long it takes to propegate, the dns ips were changed on Saturday, and it's only Tuesday morning so I've heard from elsewhere that it can take up to 7 to 10 days for name servers to propegate, though if my nslookup works, wouldnt that mean that everything is now functioning.

Bbox

[iplexx]

nslookup shows you what a specific nameserver has stored...

when you do a nslookup on your main ns (at TB) you can check what your're propagating(?) to the rest of the internet (nslookup, ls -d mydomain.com)

when your ns at TB is correct, it usually takes up to 72h until the rest of the internet ns are updated, but it could be more.

try nslookup on your local/ISP's NS.
also a ping www.yourdomain.com (locally) shows you to what IP a name is resolved.

in worst case it just could be that it's your local browser cache....

[brainbox]

Ping locally on the server shows the correct ip address, heres what I got from nslookup -d kuplo.com

[root@www admin]# nslookup -d kuplo.com
;; res_nmkquery(QUERY, 250.186.234.216.in-addr.arpa, IN, PTR)
------------
Got answer:
    HEADER:
        opcode = QUERY, id = 20828, rcode = NOERROR
        header flags:  response, auth. answer, want recursion, recursion avail.
        questions = 1,  answers = 1,  authority records = 1,  additional = 1

    QUESTIONS:
        250.186.234.216.in-addr.arpa, type = PTR, class = IN
    ANSWERS:
    ->  250.186.234.216.in-addr.arpa
        name = ns.iwebhost.ws
        ttl = 86400 (1D)
    AUTHORITY RECORDS:
    ->  186.234.216.in-addr.arpa
        nameserver = http://www.iwebhost.ws
        ttl = 86400 (1D)
    ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
    ->  http://www.iwebhost.ws
        internet address = 216.234.186.18
        ttl = 86400 (1D)

------------
Server:  ns.iwebhost.ws
Address:  216.234.186.250

;; res_nmkquery(QUERY, kuplo.com, IN, A)
------------
Got answer:
    HEADER:
        opcode = QUERY, id = 20829, rcode = NOERROR
        header flags:  response, auth. answer, want recursion, recursion avail.
        questions = 1,  answers = 1,  authority records = 1,  additional = 1

    QUESTIONS:
        kuplo.com, type = A, class = IN
    ANSWERS:
    ->  kuplo.com
        internet address = 216.234.186.253
        ttl = 86400 (1D)
    AUTHORITY RECORDS:
    ->  kuplo.com
        nameserver = http://www.iwebhost.ws
        ttl = 86400 (1D)
    ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
    ->  http://www.iwebhost.ws
        internet address = 216.234.186.18
        ttl = 86400 (1D)

------------
Name:    kuplo.com
Address:  216.234.186.253

What does ttl = 86400 (1D) mean exactly, I understand ttl meaning time to live, but why the number and what does it mean in laymans terms all together.

Also did the following:
nslookup kuplo.com rns1.earthlink.net and got back the following:

[root@www admin]# nslookup kuplo.com rns1.earthlink.net
Server: rns1.earthlink.net
Address: 207.217.126.81

*** rns1.earthlink.net can't find kuplo.com: No response from server

But when I do a nslookup ns.iwebhost.ws rns1.earthlink.net I get back the following:

[root@www admin]# nslookup ns.iwebhost.ws rns1.earthlink.net
Server: rns1.earthlink.net
Address: 207.217.126.81

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: ns.iwebhost.ws
Address: 216.234.186.250


It appears to me that it's resolving correct, or at least propegating correctly to the ip assigned, and perhaps it's just a matter of waiting for the propegation, but 3+ days and counting has me a wee bit concerned.

So, with this info, where do you suppose the holdup is at this point.

Thanks for the help,
Bbox

[Edited by brainbox on 03-06-2001 at 05:06 PM]

[brainbox]

Okay, just to put my mind at ease, I logged in via telnet, and issued tail -f /var/log/httpd/access and found this

http://www.skiresorttycoon.com 216.239.46.34 - - [05/Mar/2001:22:02:15 -0800] "GET /viewtopic.php?topic=95&forum=1 HTTP/1.0" 200 27013 "-" "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.googlebot.com/bot.html)"

I assume then that the googlebot can get to the site at skiresorttycoon.com which is one of the domains we have on the server, so now it really is just a matter of waiting until it propegates, right? I mean if googlebot can get to it, then its slowly making its rounds, right?

Thanks,
Bbox