[terydinho]

Hi all

I am no server guy - I am much more of a front end coder, so some of this server stuff goes straight over my head.

Basically, this is my predicament. A client of mine has a site: My Site and he wants to move server.

I have gone onto his new server and uploaded the site to it and can now see it via the IP address, but how do I re-assign the Domain Name to point at his new server?

I have logged into his 1&1 account (old server) - but what do I need to change? Do I change the DNS to his new IP address? HELP!!!

Thanks guys

[MH-Nick]

If you're able to edit the DNS record of his domain in the 1&1 panel, then you need to find the "A" record and update the IP address on that line to the new server IP address.

Edit: That is of course assuming the domain is using 1&1's name servers.

This post has been edited by MH-Nick: 05 April 2011 - 02:23 PM

[terydinho]

Thanks Nick - I have updated the a-record with the new server IP address - how long should the change take?

Thanks
Rob

[MH-Nick]

Anywhere between instant to 24 hours.

There are a couple of ways to get round it, though most of them will only apply for you individually. You can try and force through a DNS update on the DNS servers that you (or your ISP) use. This method will help other users too if they're using the same DNS servers. This can be done if you use OpenDNS, I'm not aware of many others.

After that, you can try flushing the DNS on your computer (instructions are different for every OS), then you may need to flush your browsers DNS cache (or just restart it).

If neither of these work, you can edit your Hosts file on your computer (again, instructions are different for every OS) to point the domain directly to the IP address, this change will be instant, but will only affect you - as you're skipping the need for any DNS servers in the way.

Basically, there's no simple way to tell as your DNS is cached in many places. Externally and locally.

[MikeChipshop]

MH-Nick, on 05 April 2011 - 02:33 PM, said:

Anywhere between instant to 24 hours.

...just registered a new client a domain last week. Took 80 hours for the domain to propagate properly!
Hard to explain that they just had to wait lol

[joe2011uk]

Thats a long time Mike, never waited more than 3 or 4 lol. I must just be lucky:)

[MikeChipshop]

joe2011uk, on 05 April 2011 - 03:36 PM, said:

Thats a long time Mike, never waited more than 3 or 4 lol. I must just be lucky:)

Tell me about it! I had my finger hovering over the 'Contact Support' button i can tell you.

Quickest i had was pretty much instant!

This link is always good for checking the status DNS propagation.

[MH-Nick]

MikeChipshop, on 05 April 2011 - 03:33 PM, said:

...just registered a new client a domain last week. Took 80 hours for the domain to propagate properly!
Hard to explain that they just had to wait lol

Ouch!

I'd bet most of that time the registrar hadn't submitted the registration, or was learning how to operate their DNS servers

[joe2011uk]

What a great resource +1'd

[joe2011uk]

MH-Nick, on 05 April 2011 - 03:42 PM, said:

Ouch!

I'd bet most of that time the registrar hadn't submitted the registration, or was learning how to operate their DNS servers

lol yeh a newbie, or a slow registrar totaly agree MH-Nick

[MikeChipshop]

MH-Nick, on 05 April 2011 - 03:42 PM, said:

Ouch!

I'd bet most of that time the registrar hadn't submitted the registration, or was learning how to operate their DNS servers

Haha yeah if it wasn't the same registrar that I'd had my quickest propagation with then I'd agree.

I usually register my domains at daily.co.uk and point their name-servers at my host, stormhosts.com. Sometimes it's almost instant and sometimes it can take a few hours. 80 hours though was ridiculous! Using a DNS tracker i narrowed it down to a server in Canada... who'd have thunk eh?

joe2011uk, on 05 April 2011 - 03:42 PM, said:

What a great resource +1'd

Why thank you very much sir

You may like this one, however it takes more time (does check more though) and if you're not watching it, you can miss the result!

This post has been edited by MikeChipshop: 05 April 2011 - 03:50 PM

[joe2011uk]

MikeChipshop, on 05 April 2011 - 03:49 PM, said:

You may like this one, however it takes more time (does check more though) and if you're not watching it, you can miss the result!

lol my domain amazinghost.co.uk hasn't propagated in 5 places thats been months since that was registered lol.

[MikeChipshop]

I've got a feeling some of them servers (or the checks) are defunct. Some of my domains that have been registered for years are showing up as a fail on some servers.

[MH-Nick]

joe2011uk, on 05 April 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

lol my domain amazinghost.co.uk hasn't propagated in 5 places thats been months since that was registered lol.

You'll want to check that website over as its spewing out some rather dangerous looking code, and has triggered my malware protection:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://lafaramizda.com/counter.php"></script><br />
<b>Warning</b>:  Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/amazingh/public_html/index.php:1) in <b>/home/amazingh/public_html/wp-includes/pluggable.php</b> on line <b>897</b><br />

I don't recommend viewing the page.

[MikeChipshop]

MH-Nick, on 05 April 2011 - 05:03 PM, said:

You'll want to check that website over as its spewing out some rather dangerous looking code, and has triggered my malware protection:

Wouldn't say it's a Malware problem but it is definitely a problem!

@Joe
Normally 'header modify' problems come from random characters being added at the start of the code.
Try opening the offending file and checking that there are no random characters or white-space before the page begin.

This post has been edited by MikeChipshop: 05 April 2011 - 05:11 PM

[MH-Nick]

joe2011uk, on 05 April 2011 - 04:13 PM, said:

lol my domain amazinghost.co.uk hasn't propagated in 5 places thats been months since that was registered lol.

Was distracted by strange code, back on topic.

Try altering your DNS record and swapping the SOA entry "ns68.1and1.co.uk" with "ns1.amazinghost.co.uk". The DNS servers that can't resolve you domain are most likely querying ns68.1and1.co.uk for your domain (for which there's no result), as its set as your authoritative name server. Though most DNS servers are smarter than that and work around the issue.