Slight DNS confusion...

[Charles Capps]

I guess this fits here.

A few moments after I got online, I cheked my newly transfered domain (solareclipse) by trying to access the CNC, and all worked well. I was quite surprised that the InterNIC had done its job so fast. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif Most of my friends and associates were able to access the transfered domain.

So I popped open my favorite all purpose net utility and did a whois on the domain. I was a bit surprised to find that the InterNIC's whois database still showed my previous host's info, and that it claimed to have been updated nearly 12 hours before!

So what's up with that? Does the whois database lag behind the rest of the InterNIC or what? http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

Just wondering. http://www.aota.net/ubb/smile.gif

------------------
"Okay, so I'm not "SANE" so to speak, but uh... I'm the lovable kind of psycho"
http://solareclipse.net/

[Benson]

My understanding is that the WHOIS database is updated once a day. I guess that changes made to domains during the day can start propagation before you'd ever see the WHOIS update.

[Terra]

Believe it or not, who is the Authoritive DNS for your domain does *not* rely on the whois database... This is mostly for human edible consumption and can lag for a few days..

The database that *does* count are the root-servers... They tell people where the Authoritive DNS is...

On transfers, your old host can delay matters by having a high 'TTL' on your domain... FQuest has ours set at the normal 86400 seconds (1 day)... I have seen some hosts have this as high as 1 week... http://www.aota.net/ubb/frown.gif Which means that if someone visits your domain on the old host, then Internic updates the root-server, that same person will still go to your old domain until that TTL value times out... In a nutshell, this is what DNS propagation is all about...

Below is a paste from Linux 'dig'...
#dig @b.root-servers.net solareclipse.net.

; <<>> DiG 2.2 <<>> @b.root-servers.net solareclipse.net.
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
;; flags: qr rd; Ques: 1, Ans: 0, Auth: 4, Addit: 4
;; QUESTIONS:
;; solareclipse.net, type = A, class = IN

;; AUTHORITY RECORDS:
solareclipse.net. 172800 NS NS1.FUTUREQUEST.net.
solareclipse.net. 172800 NS NS2.FUTUREQUEST.net.
solareclipse.net. 172800 NS NS3.FUTUREQUEST.net.
solareclipse.net. 172800 NS NS1.VOLTAGE.net.

;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
NS1.FUTUREQUEST.net. 172800 A 209.192.41.2
NS2.FUTUREQUEST.net. 172800 A 209.192.41.3
NS3.FUTUREQUEST.net. 172800 A 209.192.41.4
NS1.VOLTAGE.net. 172800 A 204.214.227.1

;; Total query time: 126 msec
;; FROM: taz.futurequest.net to SERVER: b.root-servers.net 128.9.0.107
;; WHEN: Sat Mar 6 23:43:02 1999
;; MSG SIZE sent: 34 rcvd: 193


Hopes this helps to demystify why Whois does not always reflect what the DNS servers see...

--
Terra
--Where did you want to be today?--
FutureQuest

[This message has been edited by ccTech (edited 03-06-99).]