DNS Setting Changes to Subdomain - How Long to Wait?

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2002 8:11 pm (22 years, 1 month ago)

About 3 months ago, I moved from F2S to a couple of paid accounts using subdomain addresses. The hosting service, to accommodate its move to a new data center, changed its DNS settings about a week and a half ago, and this has made both my accounts, with their subdomains linked to the new settings, pretty much inaccessible for the last ten days, depending on when or where I try to access them.

When I first discovered this problem, I posted in the service's support forum, and the service's owner said I should give the changes 24-72 hours to 'propagate.' However, it's now been about 10 days (240 hours), and my accounts keep flip-flopping back and forth between accessibility and inaccessibility both by HTTP and FTP.

The service owner has posted that as far as he knows, the settings were done correctly, and if I don't want to wait, I can purchase a domain name and wait a couple of days for them to set it up. So my first question would be: Do the DNS settings for a domain name usually propagate more quickly than those for a subdomain?

I've usually been trying to access my accounts on large public networks, such as those belonging to MIT and the City of Cambridge MA. I also tried checking some remote servers using NSLookup at http://www.infobear.com/cgi-bin/nslookup.cgi, and only two of the four servers can see my accounts (ATT and Mindspring do, and IBM and WebSiteSource don't).

My second question then is: Can anyone can offer me any general info or advice about what's going on?

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

If you're talking about the site in your sig, I can see it fine.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Just tried with Anonymizer.com, even that works.

4WebHelp Addict Joined: 07 Jan 2002 Posts: 1060

Works fine here too

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2002 1:30 am (22 years, 1 month ago)

Can't you guys give me any help?

I'm not really trying to start a database of what locations in the whole world can see my site. Besides the two questions I asked about, I'd also wonder why the IBM and WebSiteSource servers can't see my main account, and also why I can't currently view it on the network I'm on now.

Can you understand that it doesn't help me very much to know that a couple of people in the UK, someone in PA, and someone in Maine say they can see it while several folks in continental Europe, someone in Alaska, some other servers at infobear, and myself can't?

If you can't help me, then just say so, OK?

4WebHelp Addict Joined: 07 Jan 2002 Posts: 1060

Have you tried another ISP, as some people are right sods and block certain sites, we have one in this country (Tiscali) that black listed my site until i threatened legal action.

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2002 2:14 am (22 years, 1 month ago)

Well, I'm not directly using an ISP to access my sites right now -- besides the two large public networks I mentioned above, I'm also using another city network in a neighboring town.

All my sites in both accounts were just about always accessible on these networks before 10 days ago. The only real exception was when Internet service was interrupted as a whole (to all Internet sites). Also, why would my sites keep flip-flopping back and forth during the last 10 days between accessibility and non-accessibility? That sounds like a weird kind of blocking, if you could call it that.

And what about the IBM and WebSiteSource servers at http://www.infobear.com/cgi-bin/nslookup.cgi -- would they be blocking stuff like that? Aren't they reliable indicators of accessibility?

Junior WebHelper Joined: 18 Mar 2002 Posts: 1

Well, here's my 2 cents worth.

I believe I know who your hosting service is, because I had been experiencing the same problem.

My access to my subdomains settled down days after they said it would. I seem to have no problems accessing my subdomains now.

There is no difference concerning the propagation time for a domain versus a subdomain. It is determined by when a DNS server is updated. The reason that your site pops in and out of existance, is the routing through the net. Your request(s) may not always take the same route, thus sometimes, it seems most of the time for you, your site is not found/accessible.

Just a side note. If you are planning on moving to a domain name with your web provider, I suggest just purchasing a new account, rather than moving your existing account to a domain name, as the price is currently cheaper that way.

Please feel free to contact me, and maybe I can help further if needed.

Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2002 12:03 am (22 years, 1 month ago)

I get "bad request"
when I try to access:
http://www.sinnett.cyberwings.com/~ulist/

Go speak to cyberwings, they probably haven't something right.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

Yeah, but he's already done that! Shawn hasn't figured it out yet.

Junior WebHelper Joined: 18 Feb 2002 Posts: 9

I have the same problem the others talked about. so... something needs to be fixed.

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

What's your subdomain, infopage?

Shawn has said he'll give people with subdomains refunds if they want them.

Senior WebHelper Joined: 08 Jan 2002 Posts: 150

Loads fine for me Very Happy

Ex Team Member Joined: 12 Jan 2002 Posts: 11 Location: UK

Andrew wrote:

Generated Mon, 18 Mar 2002 07:21:36 GMT by server.ntlworld.com (Squid/2.2.STABLE5)

I am on NTL, and I cannot get through the page, but when I proxy through another server, it works well. So it looks like an NTL thing.

Email them to tell them to get their act together!

Team Member Joined: 06 Jan 2002 Posts: 2564

34SP are having the same problem: some of the people on NTL can't access sites on their servers...