Is my host telling the truth?

Kevin Darcy kcd at daimlerchrysler.com
Thu Jul 20 20:33:20 UTC 2000


DNS is just a way of translating names to other kinds of data, like network
addresses. It has nothing inherently to do with web content. There is no
such concept in DNS as a record that means "display a blank screen to the
user" -- that's totally up to the web browser and/or server. So I would
highly doubt their explanation. Ask them *why* the update process would
cause the user to get a blank screen. Does the name resolve in DNS or
doesn't it? If it does, what is it resolving to that would cause blank
screen? If it doesn't resolve, WHY NOT? And why should *any* DNS update
take 2-4 days? Even if the normal TTL for the relevant records is in the
2-4 day range, if they knew about the change ahead of time, they should
have changed the TTL to something more appropriate. I have no idea what
they mean when they say that accessing the site slows down the DNS update
process. Smells like BS to me.


- Kevin

Daniel wrote:

> Subject: Same ISP & DNS, but different IP.
>
> Hello! Hope you can help me out here.
>
> I am keeping the same host (and hence same DNS), but I am transferring
> my website from Server 1 to Server 2 (both owned by the same host). This
> is done on the recommendation of the host as they say the old server is
> less reliable.
>
> This is what happens. Keeping my old site "live", I duplicate all the
> files on the new server. When this is done, I ask my host to do the
> necessary updating. And within a day, I realised that when I tried to
> visit my site, instead of seeing either the old or the new site, I see a
> blank screen!
>
> A call to the host reveals this (or rather what they claim to be):
> 1. DNS is updating, that's why you see the blank screen.
> 2. The more you try to access the site, the slower the updating.
>
> I am terribly pissed with them because now they tell me my site will be
> like that (ie showing a blank screen) for 2-4 days! And they didn't warn
> me before hand! From past experience, this hasn't happened before. I
> will either see the old site OR the new site...never a blank screen.
>
> Are their replies true? Or are they telling me a big white lie? Hope you
> can really help me out there. Thank you so much in advance!






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