- What
are the necessary steps to transfer my website to
Easy-To-Build?
- Why
can some people see my website, while others can't?
- Why
are changes to my domain name taking longer than
normal?
- I
could see my website yesterday, but not today?
- Why
can't I perform a ping or traceroute on my website?
- Why
can my ISP's support department see my site and I
can't?
- Is
there anywhere else I can get more information?
When you transfer your website to a new web hosting company you
will need to do a few simple steps:
- Transfer your Domain Name
Go to the website where
you registered your domain name (yoursite.com) and log in.
Most registrars will have several domain name management options
for you to choose from. You will want to choose an option
that will say something like "Change Web Hosting Companies" or
"Change DNS Info". Your domain registrar may have slightly
different terminology. If you have difficulty their
technical support department will be able to assist you.
Once you have found the correct area at your registrar you
will need to supply them with the Primary and Secondary DNS
information that you were sent when you received the login
information for your website.
- Upload your files
When you receive your username and
password you can use any standard FTP program to upload the pages
and images to your website. A guide for Using FTP is located
Here.
- Wait
It takes 24-48 hours for changes to the DNS
information at your registrar to be available to the vast majority
of the internet, although it may take from 1-2 weeks for 100%
propagation. During this time it is normal for some people
to be able to view your website, while others may not be able
to. This is due to the way that domain names are resolved by
your local dialup or broadband ISP. If you are transferring
a website from another web hosting company it is recommended that
you keep both your old and your new website active and allow at
least a week before you shut down your old website. This
allows people that have ISP's that update their records less often
continuous access to your website.
When you type a domain name (somesite.com) into your browser it
has to have a way to find the correct website. The way that
this happens is that your browser sends a request to your local
ISP's DNS (Domain Name Server). Every ISP has to keep a
complete record of where every single domain name on the internet
should resolve or nothing would happen when you type something.com
into your web browser.
Your ISP gets it's list from the Internic which
maintains the central domain name registry. The Internic
database is updated daily based upon changes submitted to it by each
domain name registrar. Because the list is constantly
changing, your ISP needs to update it's list quite often in order
for your browser to always find the correct website. Every ISP
will update it's list at a different interval than the next.
Some get the new list twice a day, while others update once a
week. Generally speaking the larger ISP's Earthlink,
Ameritech, AOL, etc... will have a more current version of the
registry than small town ISP's, but that is not always the
case.
Typically it takes 24-48 hours for new registrations or changes
to a domain name to be visible to the vast majority of the
internet. However, because of the dependency upon so many
local and national ISP's to update their DNS records, it is very
common for you to be able to see your website sooner than your
friends and colleagues, or vice versa.
When you register or modify a domain name with your domain name
registrar it has to be submitted to Internic in order for the entire
process to start. Most registrars submit changes twice daily,
however, some discount registrars have been known to submit changes
to Internic only once every several days. The processing time
of your registrar, combined with the DNS updating schedule of local
ISP's, can delay changes to your DNS records to be unavailable to a
portion of the internet for up to a week or more. If you are
changing web hosting company's during this period it is recommended
that you keep your old site active for at least a week in order to
allow for the lag time by your registrar, and all ISP's.
Don't forget to check your domain name in the Whois record at: http://www.internic.net/
This can be caused by a number of factors during the propagation
period - troubleshooting tips are as follows:
- Temporary internet files:
Clear out your
history, and your temporary internet files, close your browser,
and try again. If your browser is trying to use stored data,
it may try to pull files from your old website.
- Check your site with a second dialup
connection:
Check your site with a second dialup connection
such as AOL, or call a friend that has a different ISP than you
do. If they can see your site, while you cannot, then it is
an issue with your ISP.
- Call Your ISP's technical support department:
When
you notice that it's taking a longer than normal time for your
changes to propagate, it is a good idea to call your dialup
provider's technical support department to troubleshoot your
situation.
Typical reasons to have intermittent availability of your
website during the propagation period are:
- Multiple DNS servers:
Your ISP may have multiple
DNS servers which can take turns answering request from
browsers. They may rotate duties for each request, or you
may have a specific DNS server for each session that you are
logged into the internet. Each DNS server may be operating
from a different version of the master DNS file from the
Internic.
- Cached DNS:
Check with your ISP to see if they are
using a "cached" (pronounced "cashed") DNS file, and how long it
has been since it has been "flushed". Caching means that the
server has a copy of recently requested domains in it's active
memory so it will not have to access it's hard drive for new
requests for domain names that it has recently retrieved. If
you are browsing to a site that has been cached, even if the
server has the correct info in it's DNS file, it may have a cached
version that has the old information. This will mean that
you will not be able to view your website until the cache has been
flushed. Most ISP's flush their cache daily.
- Corrupted DNS:
Occasionally your ISP's DNS records
will be corrupted. The ISP's DNS file can become corrupted
if there was some loss during the data transfer, or part of the
file was written to a bad sector on the DNS server's hard
drive. While this is a rare occurrence, it has
been known to happen, and will usually be fixed by waiting until
the next update of your ISP's DNS file.
As a security precaution, our hosting servers will have ICMP
turned off. This prevents the server from responding to ping
or traceroute requests. This helps to prevent DOS (denial of
service) attacks by hackers, and is done to help keep your website
safe.
This is a common occurrence when a website is in it's propagation
period. The most common cause is that your ISP's support
person may be using a different DNS server than you are assigned as
a dialup customer. This is especially true with larger ISP's
that may have customers in many cities, and many DNS servers.
When the technician checks your website, he may also be bypassing
the cache in the DNS server, allowing him to view your site.
Note: Occasionally an ISP's tech support will suggest that
you are being blocked by your web host's server from some
reason. If you are hosted with Easy-To-Build that is simply not
true. As long as your website is visible to people dialing in
from various ISP's then everything is configured correctly, and is
running properly, and the only thing you can do is wait for your ISP
to update their DNS file.
For more information on how DNS system woks read the Internic FAQ
located at:
http://www.internic.net/faqs/authoritative-dns.html
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