Help with domain name move

[ColinZylka]

Recently (two weeks ago) I moved my website (<url here>) and hosting from <old host> to <new host>.

My problem is that some can see my site (if they use AOL, for example), but I cannot through my ISP. I can access the temporary site which is <alt url here>.

When I tried to ping my site, it ends up going to 169.207.40.174, which is my old host, <host>
The same thing happens when I try to use traceroute to find out where the problem may lie.

What is happening, and is there anything I can do to fix this? Everyone I've talked to says it a "propagation" issue and will be resolved in time, but how long should this take?

Thanks,

Colin.

[edited by: txbakers at 5:43 pm (utc) on Jan. 9, 2004]
[edit reason] no specific URLs please per TOS [/edit]

[txbakers]

Hi Colin, welcome to the Webmaster World.

Propagation is an issue when you change domain names and servers, but it shouldn't take two weeks. Generally 4 days is enough time for the world's name serves to realize the name/ip has been changed and update their records accordingly.

I would double check that the domain name A records are indeed all pointing to the new web hosting IP address.

[ColinZylka]

By A name, I'm assuming you mean the DNS servers? I've checked, and they do indeed point to the correct nameservers. But why does my friend, who uses AOL see the site, but I can't through my ISP?

This is what puzzles me greatly.

Colin.

[txbakers]

No, the name servers are different from the Zone files.

The name servers host the translation from domain.com to IP address.

Once that is resolved, then there are zones for the domain name also. "A" records point to websites, FTP sites, etc. "MX" records point to mail servers. there are a few others as well.

It could be that some of your A records are still pointing to the old host.

[ColinZylka]

Sounds interesting....anything I can do to check or fix, or is that up to my new hosting company?

Colin.

[jdMorgan]

ColinZylka,

It sounds to me like maybe your ISP's DNS has not been updated... Your ISP, not your hosting service.

Your hosting company or your domain registrar should have a "zone file editor" tool that you can use to view or change your DNS records. Alternately, you could use a tool like SamSpade to read the DNS info from your nameservers and check it.

If the DNS info is correct on the authoritative nameservers, then your ISP (or whoever your browser is set to get DNS info from, if you set it manually) has simply not updated their locally-cached DNS info, and so your browser is getting the wrong IP address when it requests your site by domain name.

Four hours to one day is quite long enough for your new DNS info to propagate across the world, as long as all the DNS servers are updating properly.

Jim

[ColinZylka]

Thanks guys for all your help, this really gives me something to work on.

Much appreciated!

Colin.