DNS Funkiness with Maddog
Off the bat I admit that maybe, just maybe, part of the problem is using a little known DNS registrar like Maddog, though I do not think that is the problem. At this point I am just frustrated and want to vent a little bit, as I have a clear work around of just using the free DNS associated with my Linode account and pointing the name servers there. I just would like to try to have a little bit better understanding, because I just hate it when something simple and extremely logical fails to function as it should.
What is DNS some of you are probably wondering, right? A quick little refresh or tutorial depending on your personal situation. DNS – Domain Name System, is in a simple explanation a hierarchically arranged phone book that aides in finding computers on the internet. All computers that are public addressed (and indeed, today most that are not) have an IP address. In IPv4, which most use today is a set of four numbers that range from 1 to 255, typically presented as something like 192.168.1.1. Rather then having to remember that number that is associated with a specific computer or service, DNS allows easily remembered names like mephistos.com to be associated with the number. Quick lesson over, but if you want more detail just ask, I am happy to geek on such topics.
So, I am the process of moving some of my domains to a different server. The different server has a different IP address. That reminds me of another advantage of DNS, I can move things and in theory you never know it was moved – because I change the IP address in DNS and so long as I have made an exact copy on the new server, you never know. Anyway, I started the move with a few of the domains that host for other folks and a couple of my simple ones. All has went smoothly, as one should expect, replacing the name servers used for my old hosting with actual DNS records that include an A-record pointing to the specified IP address. It was worth noting, this is exactly the same as I have done five other domains already, including the IP address of the new server.
So, I wait for things to get propagated throughout the DNS world, as it should do. I flush all the cached local information. And boom, it should work, but instead I get a domain not found, using even the low-level command tools. Verification from other computers verify it correctly only about 10% of the time. Maybe I just did not wait long enough for some strange reason, despite the usually TTL actually be recognized of about one hour. No, that is not it, after waiting for forty-eight hours the problem and 10 % seems to be about right. Why?
I mean, once it is pushed for the registrar, it should go to all the DNS servers of record pretty quickly and once it is out of the cache locally, all DNS servers downstream should eventually pick it up. I tried changing it again, just to flush things through, or some theory like that and I got the same results. Again, I am left with only the question of why? And especially the why if not this one did the other five work correctly? Is this just an odd quirk that is coming up because of the registrar? As stated, I know they are an off name, small company (Maddog) but in over four years I have never had any other problems and they are cheap!
Anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to what I may be missing?
** – Image is of typical DNS diagram and believed in Public Domain.
Hello! I wanna ask, how did it go now after almost 2 months? I'm also thinking of buying a domain name from Maddog for my tumblr account and I have to change the ip address to tumblr's given ip address. Thank you. ^^
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like