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Domain not resolving after DNS host change

Forums: Questions and Answers About Building Your Site
Created on: 12/28/11 04:18 PM Views: 2261 Replies: 26
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 4:18 PM

I cut over from Go Daddy's DNS to Namecheap's FreeDNS nameservers today after copying over all of the info from the old zone file to the new one. All of my CNAME and MX records seem to be working, and Namecheap tech support says that the A record (69.41.171.62) is resolving properly, but I can't get to my class website via pikesville75.info or www.pikesville75.info.

The URL lookup fails on both Google's and OpenDNS's DNS servers. The site is still accessible at https://www.classcreator.com/Pikesville-MD-Pikesville-Senior-1975/ but that's not what I want.

Is there something else that I need to do on my end, or is the problem on your end?

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 4:37 PM - Response #1

There have been reports recently of GoDaddy holding up domain transfers by not providing full information to the receiving registrar. I do not know if this also applies to DNS transfers.

In either case, there is nothing on our end related to this problem. Our server knows that incoming requests for pikeville75.info should return your site's content, but if the request never gets to our server then there is nothing we can do about it.

The Whois data for your domain reports:

Domain ID: D37898513-LRMS
Domain Name: PIKESVILLE75.INFO
Created On:06-May-2011 03:47:56 UTC
Last Updated On:28-Dec-2011 09:39:39 UTC
Expiration Date:06-May-2012 03:47:56 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R171-LRMS)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Name Server:FREEDNS1.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM
Name Server:FREEDNS2.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM
Name Server:FREEDNS3.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM
Name Server:FREEDNS4.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM
Name Server:FREEDNS5.REGISTRAR-SERVERS.COM


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Edited 12/28/11 4:43 PM
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 8:56 PM - Response #2

The WHOIS is what it should be. Go Daddy as my registrar (Dump Go Daddy Day isn't till tomorrow), and Namecheap's name servers.

Checked propagation of the A record on whatsmydomain.net, and it looks like it's everywhere. My computer is seeing it too, as I confirmed by running host -a on the command line (slightly redacted response reproduced below).

Tried flushing DNS caches; that didn't help either.

Are you sure the problem isn't on your end?

--Ben F


MBP13B:~ ben$ host -a pikesville75.info
Trying "pikesville75.info"
;; Truncated, retrying in TCP mode.
Trying "pikesville75.info"
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 24336
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 16, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;pikesville75.info.      IN   ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   NS   freedns5.registrar-servers.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   NS   freedns2.registrar-servers.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   TXT   "google-site-verification=xxx"
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   NS   freedns3.registrar-servers.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   TXT   "google-site-verification=xxx"
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   A   69.41.171.62
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   NS   freedns4.registrar-servers.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   10 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   NS   freedns1.registrar-servers.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   30 ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   20 ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   30 ASPMX4.GOOGLEMAIL.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   30 ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.com.
pikesville75.info.   3401   IN   SOA   freedns1.registrar-servers.com. hostmaster.registrar-servers.com. 2011122800 10001 1801 604801 3601
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   30 ASPMX5.GOOGLEMAIL.com.
pikesville75.info.   1600   IN   MX   20 ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.com.

Received 572 bytes from 8.8.8.8#53 in 18 ms

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 9:32 PM - Response #3

I can't resolve www.pikesville75.info where I am. Not even getting to CC.

No tracert, no ping, nothing

I was a bit confused though. Did you register using namecheap now or ?? If you now registered via namecheap what Eric wrote sounds right. It still shows godaddy as your registrar.

http://www.whatsmydns.net also shows lack of propagation

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Edited 12/28/11 9:38 PM
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 9:55 PM - Response #4

Jack--

I haven't (yet) changed the domain registration. I've just changed the name servers.

I don't know what you're looking at on whatsmydns.net, but I'm seeing blanket propagation of A, NS, and MX records for pikesville75.info in the US. Also CNAME records for mail.pikesville75.info, docs.pikesville75.info, etc. As shown in my previous post, I'm also seeing all of the A, NS, MX, and TXT records from my Mac via host -a.

As far as I can see, the problem clearly isn't with my zone file and it isn't with the DNS system.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 10:48 PM - Response #5

You'll like this

For a reference: Type in www.bothellhigh61.com at http://www.whatsmydns.net and you'll see it resolving to 69.41.171.62 And so is bothellhigh61.com (this is a CC site).

www.pikesville75.info records are empty with a red x
However, pikesville75.info is now resolving to the correct IP.

I can also now ping and could not before (since last post).

However, tracert pikesville75.info is pretty weird. It's ending up here:

mail.ourladyoflourdescollegeex-students.org which just so happens to be another CC site http://www.ourladyoflourdescollegeex-students.org

I saw that before online, but thought it was a mistake. The only reason it won't pull up is because of the "mail." but it is the incorrect location which is controlled by CC.

So something fishy at CC and also with your registrar records.QuestionQuestion

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 11:16 PM - Response #6

It doesn't look like there is an A Record reporting anywhere for the domain with the www in front of it. Your current DNS will need an A Record pointing to the same IP for the www. 69.41.171.62

I just reset the domain in our system - you can ignore the email it automatically generates to you from us if it sent one.

It looks like the A Record for the domain without the www is still updating. I'm getting inconsistent results. It can take 24 to 48 hours for some systems to fully update.

Jessica
Class Creator Support


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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 11:30 PM - Response #7

Jessica--

Thanks for the reset. I'm not seeing any results yet, but I'll sleep on it. Smile

I didn't have an A record for www in my old Go Daddy zone file for pikesville75.info; I never saw any instructions here calling for one. I assumed that once the A record for pikesville75.info was pointing at you, you were taking care of the rest.

When I registered my domain with Go Daddy, which was several months before I set up a Class Creator account, it created CNAMES for a number of subdomains having a value of @. One of those subdomains was www. I left it unchanged after pointing my A record to you folks on the principle of "if it ain't broke don't fix it." Namecheap's zone file editor won't allow the value @ in a CNAME, so I have no www entry in the zone file at all.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 11:35 PM - Response #8

OK, so I just checked the "Register Domain" menu item on my site, and it was empty. Perhaps that's what you meant by resetting it.

Or maybe it's not. I entered www.pikesville75.info, went away, came back, and the box was empty again.

I'm thoroughly confused. Hope you have it straightened out by morning.

Reply
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 11:37 PM - Response #9

Jack—

Actually, I'm not liking this at all. I guess it'll be good if I learn a few things as a result of this exercise, but for now it's just annoying.

—Ben

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 11:39 PM - Response #10

You can just add the www as another A Record pointing to 69.41.171.62 and that should work fine. The record has to be added at the DNS servers that the domain is pointing to.

The only reset we can do is to basically take the domain out of the system, reinitialize the page that looks for domains and then add the domain back in - it shouldn't and didn't have any impact but I wanted to make sure there was no caching on our end.

We have no control over external DNS systems so we'll all have to wait for that to finish.

Jessica


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Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 11:50 PM - Response #11

Ben, at Namecheap enter www in the hostname field and then the CC IP 69.41.171.62 in the IP/name field as an A record. The @ record is done the same way. @ in the hostname, etc.

That's how I have another (non CC site) done anyway.

Tracert is now resolving to CC (after the CC reset, so there was something wrong there). But browsers are adding www, so I can't test. But it's going to work.

Know what you mean about annoying if you don't do this on a regular basis.

Reply
Edited 12/28/11 11:55 PM
Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 12:17 AM - Response #12

OK, I added an A record for www.pikesville75.info to the Namecheap zone file. It's already visible on my machine with host -a www.pikesville75.info, and whatsmydomain.net shows that it's making its way through the system. I'm still having no luck in my browser on either the naked domain or the www subdomain, but perhaps it's now just a matter of time.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 12:25 AM - Response #13

works for meVery HappyVery HappyVery Happy

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Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 12:37 AM - Response #14

It is working for me now too. If you are still not seeing it you might want to try resetting your internet router and rebooting your machine. There is no way of knowing where it might be caching.


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Thursday, December 29, 2011 at 12:56 AM - Response #15

The lights just came on here as well.

I can't find anything about this procedure in the FAQs or here in the forums. There are a few forum references to creating an A record in the zone file with the 69.41.171.62 IP address, but nothing that I see about needing an A or CNAME record for the www subdomain. You can't even search for 69.41.171.62 in the forums.

Thanks to all for the help. Five stars for tech support, as usual. But better documentation would have saved a lot of trouble.

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Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 4:01 PM - Response #16

Similar problem here - Eric has been most helpful, and got it moved over yesterday about 4 PM Pacific time yesterday; I realize it may take more time - but this is what WHOIS shows
- Is this to be expected? and need to continue to wait a couple of days?

Registrant:
Domains By Proxy, LLC

Registered through: TotalChoice Hosting
Domain Name: HHS63.COM

Domain servers in listed order:
NS9.TOTALCHOICEHOSTING.COM
NS10.TOTALCHOICEHOSTING.COM

Tried IE8 FF 3.6 and Chrome - all show "can't find page" or similar: IE gives: Sorry, we can't find "www.hhs63.com". Please check the spelling of the web address

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Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 6:06 PM - Response #17

You didn't create an A record for www.hhs63.com See discussion above

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Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 6:45 PM - Response #18

Jack - I was told that we did. Actually WE didn't do it, the hosting company did. They told us it was completed - but it may not be showing up yet, possibly requiring up to 72 hours, as I see in the whois record. Jack the folks at the other hosting company say that the Admins at Class Creator can see this even while it's not visible in WHOIS. I'll wait for them to tell me it is pointing properly...Thanks for your concern

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Edited 12/31/11 7:01 PM
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 7:40 PM - Response #19

Don't think they did. Ping hhs63.com and tracert hhs63.com are working. However, www version is not. Therefore, since they are all from the same location, points to a mistake in that area.

Although it's true that 72 hours is possible for some far off place, in real life it's a matter of hours. It's actually "resolved", just not correctly.

Go to http://www.whatsmydns.net/ Type in hhs63.com and then www.hhs63.com Check A record and then check CNAME You'll see something odd

This site should be a reference for CC since it's so exhaustive.

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Edited 12/31/11 7:45 PM
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 8:12 PM - Response #20

Jack Very interesting stuff. I've tried those things. Don't know exactly what they mean, but the green is good and the red bad, so possibly something needs rectifying at CC site, since the address is the same for ALL sites, not just ours. Don't have any idea how this stuff operates...but thanks for the education ...

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Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 9:32 PM - Response #21

I'm thinking the people that set up the info assumed something that is not true about CNAME. They put in 69.41.171.62.hhs63.com and then didn't provide an A record for www.hhs63.com

Use our site (or any CC site) for a reference. IOW, type www.bothellhigh61.com and bothellhigh.com in that same site for A records. Or the site above www.pikesville75.info and now see what the different record types produce. Point them to those examples to illustrate what you want.

After they fix it, sometimes you have to reset your system, etc. but let's wait and see what happens before we worryCool

ALL CC sites resolve to the same IP because none of us have a dedicated web server but instead share. It's called virtual hosting. You can google that for more info. Gives all of us a chance to have a web site for very low cost.Very Happy

CC takes care of accommodating your "virtual" web server when you "register" the name with CC. But it has to come in/be routed correctly. ATM, www.hhs63.com isn't being routed to CC.

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Edited 12/31/11 9:33 PM
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 11:40 PM - Response #22

OK - I've been chatting with the domain hosting folks where my website www.hhs63.com resides - following their pointing my website to 69.41.171.62. Here is their response, when I questioned them per Jack's comments above (which appeared useful, if not valid - as I saw the same discrepancy he saw on whatsmydns.net. I guess it's back to CC folks - if you need to chat with them at TCH directly let me know. I do not believe that I can do this - correct? If I can, please advise ... Dick
==============================
Hello Dick,

I have checked your domain issue, the domain hhs63.com is not pointing to our servers. Instead, it is pointing to ns9.totalchoicehosting.com and ns10.totalchoicehosting.com. You need to assign the following nameservers to it so your domain points to our servers and your website comes from our servers.

ns1.totalchoicehosting.com
ns2.totalchoicehosting.com

You may contact your domain registrars in order to update nameserver addresses for your domain using the following contact information.
Referral URL: http://www.wildwestdomains.com

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Edited 12/31/11 11:43 PM
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 1:35 AM - Response #23

Pretty sure none of us are on the same page here. It sounds like "they" think you are still on their server and want to remain on their server. Yet they changed hhs63.com correctly? (I'm confused as to "they" identity - is that totalchoicehosting or wildwestdomains.com?)

"domain hhs63.com is not pointing to our servers"
That's right, it's NOT supposed to. Why did they question this?

"your website comes from our servers"
That's incorrect in terms of your final goal. This is the key that is messing up everything.

What you are attempting to change is where the www.hhs63.com domain name now points. For sure, it's not going to be their server.

This is the part that is confusing to them since you still want the prior website, just not accessed via the www.hhs63.com name. You need the virtual name. I don't see how they couldn't understand if you gave the examples I used.

Anyway, all this says they have no idea what it is you are attempting to do. "They" did the hhs63.com correctly, just not www.hhs63.com.

http://www.wildwestdomains.com is the actual provider (reseller) and you bought this from them or..? So who did the original changes since that's the party who should be doing this? It is very confusing so far and it shouldn't beCool

CC for sure is not the one that controls this.

FWIW, It's much simpler to either use a URL redirect on the old home page (if it's set back to what it used to be) -or- buy another domain for $10 that you can control. Either of those creates 100% isolation in thinking about this and makes for simpler url linking from CC for storage as well independence.

It's a bit unusual to do what you want to do - thus they are interpreting and hearing what they want to hear, not what you are sayingWink

(Btw, they did not point your website to 69.41.171.62, if they had this discussion would be over:ideaSmile

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Edited 01/01/12 1:57 AM
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 4:08 AM - Response #24

Thank you Jack. I'm not fully understanding all of this. I trust you are as I am - a customer of CC's and it appears to be very knowledgable - certainly far more than I. I requested of TCH who hosted my www.hhs63.com to point to the IP address given me by CC support folks. This was instead of moving mine to classnames.net. I have no objections to classnames.net, but as I already own and pay for several GB of space at TCH, I wanted to link there instead of Classnames.net I also knew there was further work to do, once everything was pointed correctly in discussions with CC support. Wildwestdomains.com has some relation to TCH, but as far as I am concerned I deal with TCH support and pay their hosting fees/storage directly. Of course all this trouble comes on long weekends, and our classmates probably wonder what has happened to the site. As I don't know where the mis-pointing is, I'll have to wait for the CC folks as they can truly see all the admin stuff that I can't see - and I trust you can't see it either. Thank you for the education and information ... I never knew about whatsmydns.net. Happy New Year ... Dick

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Edited 01/01/12 3:08 PM
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 6:51 PM - Response #25

Jack ! KUDOS !! I got back on the support site and got back the ORIGINAL person that had migrated over hhs63.com and told him the woes and what the "other" tech support person had suggested - AND also what you suggested by seeing the differences on whatsmydns.net . He immediately "saw the light" and told me that he had forwarded it now to the www and as well as the NON www URL - and Voila ! It showed up within seconds and the remote propogating will take whatever time needed....but it now works - at least till I find some other anomoly ;(Cool

Thank you again for being there 24/7 - it's nice to hear accurate tech advise from an 'elder' HAHAHA So how was your 50th - which I trust has just happened this year?

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Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 7:16 PM - Response #26

YayVery Happy

Our 50th was terrific. It was the best reunion our class ever had. Plus the weather was just perfect - which is always dicey here in the Northwest.

CC made reunion promotion easy and fun. I doubt I would have been interested if it was done the "old" way.

We are also going to have a 70th Birthday bash in 2013. So back to the grindstone in a bit. I've been lazy after the reunionRazz

Good luck with your site. You for sure will have enough storage using your prior site. This forum is a good place to search for various questions and learn how about solutions. There's a lot of possibility with CC that is not obvious.Idea

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