Strange domain propagation issue

[ADAM Web Design]

After working for many moons on a site for a client, we're finally ready to make it go live.

The site is at http://www.hibiscusflorals.com (mirrored, apparently correctly, at http://www.hibiscusflorals.ca ).

If it's propagating correctly, the new site should look like this (another mirror set up for development purposes):

http://hibiscusflorals.adamwebdesign.com

We got the domain login/password for the domain and I logged in and changed the nameservers at 2:00 AM this morning.

As of 11:00 AM this morning, the .ca domain name had propagated to the point where both myself and my client could see the new site. This in itself doesn't surprise me, because .ca tends to propagate a lot more quickly than .com .

But here's the weird part, all pertaining to http://www.hibiscusflorals.com :

1. hibiscusflorals.com had propagated on my client's machine at approx. 11:30 AM this morning, and he received a prompt from Outlook Express asking for his new email password.
2. At 1:00 PM, the client went to the site to check for last-minute typos, etc. The opening page loaded as expected with the new site, but then when he went to subsequent pages, he received a "Not Found" page from the old server! (Note: I've created a custom 404 for this site.)
3. When I got the client to reload the opening page, he saw the old site again!
4. It hasn't yet propagated on my end to the point where the new site shows up.

So my question is two-fold:

1. Does anyone see the new "blue" site vs. the old "pink" site?
2. Has anyone ever seen a domain name propagate to a new server, and then back to its old one? This is a new one for me.

Thanks.

[ADAM Web Design]

Update:

I spoke to the registrar, Blue Genesis, about the issue. The tech rep (a Serge) directed me to xwhois.com to verify the domain record.

At this point, I typed in hibiscusflorals.com and looked up the record (I won't post a direct link since it contains an email address and I want to protect them from spam-type purposes if possible):

Domain Name: HIBISCUSFLORALS.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Name Server: NS1.MEGANAMESERVERS.COM
Name Server: NS2.MEGANAMESERVERS.COM
Name Server: NS3.MEGANAMESERVERS.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 26-jun-2004
Creation Date: 26-jun-2003
Expiration Date: 26-jun-2005

Naturally, the registrar initially saw that information as being the correct information.

However...I was smart enough to scroll down the page and found this:

Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 15-Jun-2005.
Record expires on 26-Jun-2005.
Record created on 26-Jun-2003.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS10.SERVDNS.COM 216.91.137.15
NS11.SERVDNS.COM 216.90.116.4


Domain status: ACTIVE

This is the information I provided at 2 AM.

In other words, what's happened is that there are two totally different sets of nameservers for the same domain.

So I'm not sure if this means OpenSRS is having problems or not, but at least the issue has been isolated to them.

[brian.mark]

It works fine from here. I've had propagation take up to 3 full days at times, although not usually. Some registrars take longer than others to see the new data (they have to update their cache), so it really depends on where the DNS servers you use get their data from. It is possible that it has to go several levels upstream, each one waiting for a cache timeout until it gets updated data.

Anyway, it should clear up soon.

Brian.


BTW, site looks very nice.

[ADAM Web Design]

Thanks, man. This has been a long time coming, getting this site live, and I'm just trying to get it going because the previous site was actually costing the owners $1000s a month in lost revenue.

And I've had propagation take up to 2 myself (although not usually.)

What I haven't seen is a single domain record contain two completely different sets of nameservers (old and new). And I certainly haven't seen the domain name alternate between servers when the domain is typed in multiple times.

All I've ever seen before today is Domain points to old server-->Domain points to new server-->Done. Not Domain points to old server-->Domain points to new server-->Domain points to old server-->Domain points to new server-->Domain points to old server...that's what makes this so bizarre.

The registar, Blue Genesis, confirmed my suspicions (after 10 minutes of trying to convince me that the domain record was correct.) So I'm going to call them at about 8:30 tonight if this isn't fixed.

I hope it does clear up soon. This is just brutal.

[brian.mark]

It looked correct when I did a whois through my command line script. Whois.sc shows both (one is cached, one is live data), but that's still fine. As long as the live data portion is correct you should be ok.

Naturally, you probably have 2 DNS servers configured on your PC. I've seen times where one from an ISP gets the updated stuff, then the other gets it the next day.

Patience, grasshopper.

Brian.

[ADAM Web Design]

Bo don't know patience. :) But thanks, man.

[MarcieZoob]

A DNS flush of your PC is a quick fix. At your Dos Prompt (Start->Run->cmd for you Windows newbies), type in:

ipconfig /flushdns

Try to access your site again.

[ADAM Web Design]

Thanks, Marcie, but I tried that and my client did as well.

Tucows later on admitted that it was their DNS caching that was causing it, but neither they nor their reseller (Blue Genesis) would give us any kind of credit for their error.

[MarcieZoob]

Darn, I thought I had an IT answer. :)

We set our clients up with Enom for registration. Transfers take about 15 minutes globally. New domains are live in about 2 hours globally.

[ADAM Web Design]

heh :) Good thought, though.

In the end, I just resolved the issue by transferring the domain to the good people over at Go Daddy. Go Daddy rocks.