Domains
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Why can't I see my new account when I type my domain?- This is normally due to DNS propogation. It can take between 24 and 72 hour for any DNS changes to propogate. In the mean time you can access your site using http://83.223.116.145/~username.
- How do I get a domain?
- You purchase a domain through a Doamin registrar many company will provide this, we recommend 123-reg, it is a major player and has an excellent control panel for managing your domains, click on their advert in our Links section.
- Will Rightmark be offering domain purchasing?
- Though there are no plans for offering this service , it is under constant review.
- What are names servers and why do I need to change my nameservers?
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This is an area, which causes a great deal of confusion amongst both webmasters and end user clients. Before we go any further, let's look at this quick analogy: DNS can be considered something similar to that of a phone book. When you move from one location to another, your last name stays the same, but your phone number may change. In order to point your name to the new phone number, you must contact the telephone service provider, which will assign you the new phone number. In addition, they update all directory information data basis to reflect you as pointing to this new phone number.
Your "Name Server Settings" must be updated to point to your account on our servers. You originally purchased your domain name from a register, and this register is where your current DNS settings reside. That is, unless you transferred your domain name to an alternate register, in which case, you would control your DNS settings from there.
The "Register" your domain resides on, communicates your 'current' DNS settings with the International Root name servers, which is turn share this information with ISP's, routers, and cache engines around the world. In essence, it's like a worldwide directory that other computers can refer to when they want to match a domain name with its associate IP number. This IP number is how the particular server your website resides on is located.
Where do the Root Name Servers receive their information from?
The Root Name Servers will query "domain registers" several times a day. Domain Registers, being entities such as Network Solutions, and the newer OPEN SRS based systems. The Root Name Servers will gather this information from the many registers now in existence, and update their master records accordingly. Now your ISP must access the Root Name Servers, and update their DNS records, which reside on their 'local' DNS server. This process is fully automated and most ISP's will check the Root Name Servers for updates every 24-hours. Beware however, that some lame ISP's will delay this process for as much as 2 to 4 days in some cases. If that happens, it will no doubt cause additional confusion, as everyone else will be reaching your new account on our servers except you. This is because your ISP has not updated their DNS records, and or have not cleared their DNS cache, which means they'll still be pointing your domain name to your old server. If it's a new domain name you've registered, then you'll receive a blank "Site Not Found Page." - What is DNS?
- DNS stands for "Domain Name Server". The domain name server acts like a large telephone directory in that it's the master database, which associates a domain name such as (http://www.mydomain.com) with the appropriate IP number. Consider the IP number something similar to a phone number: When someone calls http://www.rightmark.net, your ISP looks at the DNS server, and asks "how do I contact rightmark.net?" The DNS server responds, it can be found at: 83.223.116.145. As the Internet understands it, this can be considered the phone number for the server, which houses the http://www.rightmark.net web site.
- Where are all of the DNS records kept?
- This is slightly more complicated, but for the purpose of this overview, we'll try to keep it as general as possible. There are 2 basic places DNS records reside:
International Root name servers (13 exist throughout the world)
Your domain register, where your current DNS settings reside.
When you register/purchase your domain name on a particular "registers name server", your DNS settings are kept on their server, and in most cases point your domain to the Name Server of your hosting provider. This Name Server is where the IP number (currently associated with your domain name) resides.
The entire hierarchy is somewhat involved, but in short, the world Root Name Servers can be considered the master listing of all DNS records, and there are currently 13 of them in the world. These name servers are where all the master DNS records are kept. The DNS server of your ISP will typically query the Root Name Servers once every 24-hours. This is how they update all of their DNS tables, which in turn, resolve www requests to the IP number of the server they reside on. - How do I access my domain manager?
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Simply go to your domain registrars web site, and look around for links, which point to something like, domain manager, manage domain, or something of that administrative nature. Next, refer to your welcome email where there is a section detailing the DNS changes you need to make.
Most of the newer registers such as the (OPEN SRS) based entities have turned this into a 5-minute process. You simply login to the register, select 'manage domain' and you'll be presented with an option to update your new DNS numbers. Contrary to popular belief, Network Solutions 'now' also provides an online interface to change these settings, so this process with them is no longer as complicated as it use to be, however it's still not as simple as the OPEN SRS based systems. If your particular register 'does not' provide a domain manager of some type, then you'll need to send them a message requesting a change of DNS. This is an unlikely scenario, as most every register now allows you to manage your own domain settings from a web based interface.
Once you've accessed the "management interface" of your domain name, look for a setting, which says "change or manage DNS settings." In most cases, you can simply cut and paste the DNS settings we've sent you directly into the spaces, which correspond to your DNS management settings. - Why should I worry about DNS Cache and my ISP?
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There is also the issue of DNS cache, which is something we won't go into great detail about here, but here's the short version. Every time you access a site from your ISP, they cache the URL, as well as its associated IP number. If their network is properly setup, these DNS cache records should "Expire" at least every 24-hours. If they did not (which is often the case), you'll experience this: You enter your http://www.yourdomain.com URL, and it keeps taking you back to your old server account.
In a large number of cases, it's the result of an ISP who "Did Not" configure their servers to "Expire" the DNS cache records at the appropriate intervals. Unfortunately, this adds additional confusion to their clients, and especially the ones whom are trying to point their domain name to a new server. Yes, it will make you want to scream sometimes, however if you understand whom is actually at fault, then you'll know who to scream at.
The DNS propagation process is not limited to ISP's!
Just when you thought you had it all figured out! Unfortunately, there's more. The Internet itself must update/clear its DNS cache as well. When we say the Internet, we mean the numerous intermediate "points of access" you're routed through before reaching your final destination. For the most part, these intermediate points of access consist of "Internet Routers" and "Internet Caching Engines." These too, maintain their own DNS cache, which assists them in routing traffic/resolving URL's to the correct destination IP's. Don't worry though, as Internet routers are usually faster at clearing their DNS cache than ISP's are. - Tell me about the propagation period.
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In most cases, the propagation process will take at least 48 hours to complete. The first thing that happens is the "World Root Name Servers" will check all of the various "Domain Registers for updates. Ok, so now the Root Name Servers have done their job. The rest of it is up to the many ISP providers who "should be" updating their DNS records (at least every 24 hours), but a number of them will not.
Side effects that can be expected during the propagation time frame
It's perfectly normal for strange things to happen within the 48-hour propagation period, but sometimes longer. While we could provide a full list of all the anomalies that can occur during the DNS propagation period, we'll stick to some of the most common scenarios that most people experience:
HELP! My friends can reach my new site, but I'm still being directed to the OLD ONE!
This is a classic case of your friends ISP (who did update their DNS records), but yours unfortunately did not. As a result, your ISP is still pointing your domain name to the old DNS record, which is your old hosting account. Wait a couple more days, and if it appears that everyone but you can access your new account, then contact your ISP and tell them to expire their old DNS cache records.
WOW! http://www.mydomain.com was taking me to my new rightmark.net account just a minute ago, but when I try it now, I'm being taken back to my old hosting account - what's up with this?
In all likelihood, your ISP may be in the process of clearing their DNS cache, and or updating their local DNS server records. During this small interval, it's normal to fluctuate between the new and old web site, as the old DNS records may not have completely expired from their cache yet. Give it another several hours and it should be fine.
HEY! My new site comes up for me, but my friends are being directed to my old one!
Break out the coffee and consider yourself lucky. Your ISP is on the ball and updates DNS records/clears their DNS cache in short regular intervals. Your friends may be using an ISP, which is not as fast, and or efficient at doing so. The only remedy for this is time. Eventually, the other ISP's DNS cache will expire and be replaced with the updated DNS records. - Microsoft FrontPage will not accept a Username and Password, or displays the error message (FrontPage Extensions Are Not Installed).
- While you should be able to access FrontPage with your associated IP number (until your domain is resolving to our servers), this is not always the case. FrontPage can behave in a number of different ways depending on which direction the wind is blowing. In some cases, it will allow you to initiate an upload session, but upon asking for your Username and Password, will not recognize them. If this happens, the best thing to do is wait until your domain name is answering to our servers. One thing we know for sure, is FrontPage will work without much of a problem if you're using the full www.mydomain.com URL to manage your site with. Feel free to try it with your IP, but we cannot guarantee it will work.
- It's been over a week. Everybody else can access my new site except me!
- Was your domain originally hosted by your ISP? If so, they may not have deleted this entry in their DNS files. This results in you, and or anyone else accessing the net from this "particular ISP" being directed to your old web site on their servers. A number of ISP's forget this small detail, which can result in weeks of utter confusion and frustration. If this is happening to you, contact your ISP and make sure they've made the necessary changes to their DNS records.
- Checking your DNS update status (outside of your ISP)
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In the event you're becoming impatient, and or are wondering if the rest of the world outside of your ISP can access your new site, you can proxy yourself to another network and test it there. In many cases, you'll be surprised to see your site responding perfectly, yet when you attempt it directly from your ISP's servers, it does not exist.
There are several services, which allow anonymous surfing across the net. While this is not the intent here, they can be used for trouble shooting domain resolution problems. How? Because they proxy you through their network, which means your URL requests are controlled by "their" DNS cache records. These services update/expire their DNS cache far more often than ISP's, which makes them well suited for testing your domain name through a network, which operates with the latest DNS updates across the web.
To run this check, you can try accessing your site through this service:
http://anonymizer.com/
This allows you to enter a URL, and proxy your request through their servers. If your site is accessible from these servers, then chances are, your ISP has yet to expire their old DNS cache records.
You can also do a trace route for off site checks. Do a trace route of your domain and you can see the IP it goes to according to DNS servers other than those of your ISP:
http://geektools.com/traceroute.php - Working on your account during the DNS propagation period
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You can still work on your new account until your domain name finds it way to our servers using the server "IP Number", which was included in your welcome email. Some accounts come with their own IP number which will simply be used as a replacement for your URL while the DNS changes are happening.
If your account does not have it's own IP number, use the shared one for the server, which needs your username tagging onto the end as shown below:
http://123.123.123.123/~username/
Obviously replace the IP number with those shown in your welcome email and just use the above for web access. For FTP and other things, just use the IP number it's own.
One easy way to check and see if your domain is answering yet, is to create a file called "test.html" and place it in your web directory. Keep checking the URL http://www.yourdomain.com/test.html and see if it works. When it does, you'll know your domain name is answering to your account, and has been officially transferred.