DNS, Google, TTL

How long does Googlebot cache DNS?

[MarkHutch]

Does anyone know how long Googlebot caches it's DNS data? We're changing IP's and I was just curious.

[diddlydazz]

Hi mark

I can't say it varies.

One site I moved took googlebot around 3 weeks to find the new DNS.

I moved one site around 3 months ago (dns fully propagated) and STILL googlebot goes to the old server.

I am not going to pay for 2 hosts just to keep google happy, so I am waiting for the next update and then I will be taking the old site down.

I have emailed them but never a reply and still googlebot goes to the old site.

Dazz

[MarkHutch]

Did your old host take your zone data out of their DNS servers? We had one once that didn't do it and that did mess things up until we got that straighten out.

[diddlydazz]

I will get it checked ;)

thanks mark

dazz

[diddlydazz]

although other bots haven't failed to hit the new server only googlebot going to the old one, would this indicate they had?

dazz

[MarkHutch]

They may only look for something new when the old one doesn't return zone data. It would save a lot of time for them, but it sure isn't the best way to get current DNS information.

P.S. In defense of Googlebot, they do spider more pages more often than all the other search engines combined, in my opinion. To do that, they have to move fast.

[diddlydazz]

Is there a way i could check it?

dazz

[MarkHutch]

If you could sticky mail the IP address of your former ISP's DNS server... (It can be found via Whois at netsol.com) I could try to poll that server and see what IP address they are giving for your domain. I would need their DNS IP address and your domain name. I can only try. No promises.