I bought a domain here a few weeks ago, and after setting up a hosting account for it everything ran smoothly for a few days, after which it became unavailable for short periods, and then the www. version became unavailable, but without the www. it resolved just fine. Now it's not showing up at all, and hasn't for a week.. and my host assures me everything is fine. Can anyone check for me if www.xpicme.com works for them, and if so, is there any reason it doesn't for me ?
I cannot access it in anyways...If your host says that its ok, then its your DNS server. where are you hosting your dns? EDIT: DNS is down. See this: http://www.checkdns.net/quickcheck.aspx?domain=xpicme.com&detailed=1
Currently the DNS is 'custom' nameservers as set up by the host. The previous default nameservers were being used when the problem first occurred. I'm thinking it's time I just found a new host.
name servers are ns1.hardcoreblinky.com and ns2.hardcoreblinky.com dns is namecheap.com If host is responsible for name servers, then its probably something wrong with the host and their setup. You can always call namecheap.com for correspondence. They will tell you if it is them or the host. "No really meant to be an AD. I just seen he may have been having host issues.. Sorry! "
Advertise properly, like everybody else. This is a call for help, not a call for hosts to advertise. I've found the problem, at least I think. ns1.hardcoreblinky.com resolves to 72.9.145.45, while your registrar is reporting 216.66.18.74 ns2.hardcoreblinky.com resolves to 72.9.145.46, while your registrar is reporting the same IP as above 216.66.18.74 The problem resides with your registrar, I'm assuming. I would try changing the nameservers to the default ones provided by your registrar, then re-assign the ns1 & ns2 hardcoreblinky.com nameservers. If this doesn't work after a while, you can assign the IP's directly using the registrar control panel, by assign IPs I mean you have to explicitly put the proper IPs of ns1.hardcoreblinky.com & ns2.hardcoreblinky.com while changing the nameservers. Sometimes this is read as 'register DNS server' or something similar at the registrar.
cname's have nothing to do with it. The root DNS provided by the registrar is not providing accurate IPs for the specified nameservers, which is why the DNS server (at the host) is not being queried.
I changed the nameservers to the default and the http://xpicme.com is loading fine. However, http://www.xpicme.com is not loading at all. This happened for 24 hours before the site stopped resolving. Is this normal ? What would be causing this ? Last time I raised it with my host they didn't understand the issue.
The DNS is working now, however for some reason pointing to two separate sets of nameservers (dnsbox30.com & casualnerd.com <- which isn't reporting any IPs, and is probably a problem with your DNS zone file at your host). In either case, it says there isn't a valid A record for the www. entry. This would have to do with your host, ask them to create a cname record (now it has to do with cname's!) and point it to xpicme.com
Thanks diligenthost especially for your answer. My host insists everything was always fine, and now the domain is loading slowly but at least it's there ! Is there any way for me to monitor my server's performance (reachability, DNS problems etc) without paying too much ? It's been a big headache not knowing why things aren't working.
I use http://siteuptime.com/ to do some very basic monitoring of my site. For the free service I get a very basic "site down" email when my site becomes unresponsive, and then a "site up" email when it comes back to life.