DNS flipping back and forth?!

Hi,

I recently switched my site tdnforums.com over to a new server about a week ago. Some folks are still complaining that they are viewing the forums on the OLD SERVER. Perhaps DNS is taking a long time to switch over but get this... for many people tdnforums.com is switching BACK and FORTH between the old server and the new server. So, on some visits it'll resolve to the new server... on other page refreshes you'll be viewing the forums on the old server. What the heck?! This has actually happened to me a few times myself so I know that they aren't crazy.

Why is DNS doing this? Sometimes the site resolves on the old server and then the new? What's going on here? Why isn't it flipping over 100%? Are there any things I can check as troubleshooting, or is this normal? I've had some long DNS switches before but never this "back and forth" stuff...

Thanks in advanced.

 

Hi tipem,

Looks like your still pointing to your old and new dns servers. extremahosting.com and mydyndns are both returning different IP addresses for tdnforums.com which is why you're getting people going to both sites.


; <<>> DiG 9.4.1-P1 <<>> tdnforums.com ns
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 15606
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;tdnforums.com. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
tdnforums.com. 43089 IN NS ns1.extremahosting.com.
tdnforums.com. 43089 IN NS ns2.extremahosting.com.
tdnforums.com. 43089 IN NS ns2.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 43089 IN NS ns3.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 43089 IN NS ns4.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 43089 IN NS ns5.mydyndns.org.

;; Query time: 30 msec
;; SERVER: 208.67.222.222#53(208.67.222.222)
;; WHEN: Sat Apr 26 14:57:32 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 166

Regards - Matt

 

Could you do another

dig tdnforums.com ns

for me? What's the results now? I have a feeling it may have something to do with GLUE since we're running secondary DNS through a .org TLD (mydyndns.org). I just deleted tdnforums.com off the old server and everything's pointing in the right direction...

Let me know what the dig brings up and let me know if there are any other tips you have for me...

Thanks

 

I'm still getting the following ...

What are the correct NS servers supposed to be?

*****

[root@web sysadminman]# dig tdnforums.com ns

; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> tdnforums.com ns
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 14937
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 6

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;tdnforums.com. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
tdnforums.com. 42556 IN NS ns3.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 42556 IN NS ns2.extremahosting.com.
tdnforums.com. 42556 IN NS ns2.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 42556 IN NS ns1.extremahosting.com.
tdnforums.com. 42556 IN NS ns4.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 42556 IN NS ns5.mydyndns.org.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.extremahosting.com. 172156 IN A 66.230.199.197
ns2.extremahosting.com. 172156 IN A 66.230.199.198
ns2.mydyndns.org. 70816 IN A 204.13.249.76
ns3.mydyndns.org. 70816 IN A 208.78.69.76
ns4.mydyndns.org. 70816 IN A 91.198.22.76
ns5.mydyndns.org. 70816 IN A 203.62.195.76

;; Query time: 1 msec
;; SERVER: 67.207.128.5#53(67.207.128.5)
;; WHEN: Sat Apr 26 16:13:29 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 262

*****

[root@web sysadminman]# dig @ns3.mydyndns.org tdnforums.com ns

; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> @ns3.mydyndns.org tdnforums.com ns
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 28276
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;tdnforums.com. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
tdnforums.com. 3600 IN NS ns2.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 3600 IN NS ns5.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 3600 IN NS ns2.neogems.com.
tdnforums.com. 3600 IN NS ns1.neogems.com.
tdnforums.com. 3600 IN NS ns4.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 3600 IN NS ns3.mydyndns.org.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.neogems.com. 86400 IN A 70.60.138.26
ns2.neogems.com. 86400 IN A 70.60.138.28

;; Query time: 52 msec
;; SERVER: 208.78.69.76#53(208.78.69.76)
;; WHEN: Sat Apr 26 16:13:46 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 191

*****

[root@web sysadminman]# dig @ns2.extremahosting.com tdnforums.com

; <<>> DiG 9.3.3rc2 <<>> @ns2.extremahosting.com tdnforums.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 31734
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 6, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;tdnforums.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN A 66.230.199.198

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN NS ns1.extremahosting.com.
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN NS ns2.extremahosting.com.
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN NS ns2.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN NS ns3.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN NS ns4.mydyndns.org.
tdnforums.com. 43200 IN NS ns5.mydyndns.org.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.extremahosting.com. 43200 IN A 66.230.199.197
ns2.extremahosting.com. 43200 IN A 66.230.199.198

;; Query time: 44 msec
;; SERVER: 66.230.199.198#53(66.230.199.198)
;; WHEN: Sat Apr 26 16:14:10 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 214

 

The name servers are supposed to be:

ns#.extremahosting.com
ns#.mydyndns.org

The records 70.60.138.26 and ns1 and ns2.neogems.com are of the OLD SERVER! What I don't understand is that both GoDaddy and DynDNS are pointed to the NEW SERVER! These records shouldn't even exist anymore! What could possibly be going wrong here? Could it have something to do with glue?

Thanks for your help.

 

So it's mydyndns that are returning the incorrect records (both A and NS).

Querying those servers directly still returns the wrong records so it doesn't look like it a propagation issue.

Do you have to manually configure your records on mydyndns?

When did you configure the correct records on there?

Matt

 

Oh my goodness. My server administrator had an "idiot" moment when setting up DynDNS. He screwed up one number in the config... now that it's pointed to the CORRECT place it should update within a few days and correct itself.

Next time I won't trust my server admin so much... or just fire him.

Thanks for your help.

 

No problem.

Don't be too hard on your sys admin - it's easily done

 

Just a note to let the OP know that dns resolution for a .com/.net domain is slightly faster when the name servers themselves are in the .com/.net tld. A discussion of the reasons can be found at:

dns traversal paths