Should DNS jump back and forth?

[cloakvai]

Hi,

I've just had my DNS repointed to a new host. After about 12 hours when i vistied my site i could see the new site rather than the down for maintenance that was shown on the old host.

I've just revisited my site some hours later and its now showing the old hosts site as the down for maintenance is back showing.

I am using the same ISP as earlier today when the new host was showing and the same computer. Is it normal for it to keep switching between Hosts as this seems very worrying. I assumed that once my ISP had updated then it would always go to the new host from then on.

[stevesh]

No, that's not normal. I'd report it to the host, and if you want to post links here we can take a look.

[cloakvai]

Thanks for your reply.

www.empiregamestore.co.uk

As it happens i have just mentioned to my host that it has gone back to the old site even though i was connecting to the new one earlier. Although it was an in passing comment refering to another issue.

I was just thinking that maybe my ISP uses more than one DNS? or something and so when it switched the current one has not been updated even though the earlier one had..

[Merlinpa1969]

just because your using the same browser dosnt mean the path to the site is the same

route1 has propagated to the new host
route2 hasnt

Just depends on the TTL

[schoolboy]

Try doing a tracert from your command prompt...

See what the final IP address is...

[cloakvai]

According to the final IP its ending up at the correct host despite showing the site from the old host. (which strikes me as just plain odd)

Must be something to do with the route as Merlinpa mentions.

Can't say it makes any sense to me, but I was told that it can take up to 72 hours for it to propagate fully. So i guess this is just part of the process.

Just trying to ease my worries is all, these little things can be quite stressfull when you are dependant on your site for a living.

[schoolboy]

Empty your browser cache.

[cloakvai]

Empty your browser cache.

Thanks, that was my thought for a while and had already tried that and tried a different browser. Hasn't changed anything though.

[mprough]

Everything looks ok, see below....

Note that propagation happens in different data centers at different times and can fluctuate quite a bit the first 24 hours. Add the fact that co.uk is a subdomain and the issue can be further complicated, but in the end it will propagate.

As far as your PC to resolve the new site, you can edit your hosts file on your PC update it with the new IP.

DNS servers
ns1.stargate.terrassl.net
ns2.stargate.terrassl.net

Answer records
empiregamestore.co.uk 1 MX
preference: 10
exchange: mf3.spamfiltering.com
86400s
empiregamestore.co.uk 1 A 89.145.78.137 86400s
empiregamestore.co.uk 1 SOA
server: ns1.stargate.terrassl.net
email: [email protected]
serial: 2009060808
refresh: 3600
retry: 600
expire: 86400
minimum ttl: 3600
3600s
empiregamestore.co.uk 1 NS ns2.stargate.terrassl.net 3600s
empiregamestore.co.uk 1 NS ns1.stargate.terrassl.net 3600s

~Melanie

[cloakvai]

Thanks.