DNS confusion

[JonEast]

I am building a site for someone who had registered their domain (mercenaryfilms.co.uk) with register.com (http://www.register.com).

I initially hosted it with Digitalspace (http://www.digitalspace.net), but there were various problems, so I moved to FutureQuest for reliability reasons.

While hosting with Digitalspace:
Using the register.com account, I initially changed the 'A' record to point to the IP address of the website to test it.[nbsp][nbsp]After propagation, this worked.[nbsp][nbsp]Later, I used their 'Modify DNS' option to change the nameservers to Digitalspace's.[nbsp][nbsp]DNS resolution continued to work.

Then I cancelled the Digitalspace hosting account, telling them that I was moving to FutureQuest, and asking them whether there was anything else I needed to do to facilitate this.[nbsp][nbsp]They cancelled the hosting about a week ago.

Now I am with FutureQuest, I can't figure out how to get DNS resolution to work for the new hosting!
register.com says:
that my site is on someone else's nameservers (presumably Digitalspace's, right?) and that they can't do anything.
The 'Modify DNS' option no longer appears in register.com's account manager, which seems consistent with this.

However, dig says:
01/21/01 17:32:50 dig mercenaryfilms.co.uk @ dns23.register.com

Dig mercenaryfilms.co.uk@dns24.register.com (209.67.50.88) ...
failed, couldn't connect to nameserver
Dig mercenaryfilms.co.uk@dns23.register.com (209.67.50.87) ...
Authoritative Answer
[nbsp]Query for mercenaryfilms.co.uk type=255 class=1
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk NS (Nameserver) dns23.register.com
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk NS (Nameserver) dns24.register.com
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk SOA (Zone of Authority)
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]Primary NS: dns23.register.com
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]Responsible person: root@register.com
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]serial:200007275
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]refresh:10800s (3 hours)
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]retry:3600s (60 minutes)
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]expire:604800s (7 days)
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]minimum-ttl:86400s (24 hours)
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk A (Address) 216.222.193.134
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk MX (Mail Exchanger) Priority: 10 mxmail.register.com
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk NS (Nameserver) dns23.register.com
[nbsp][nbsp]mercenaryfilms.co.uk NS (Nameserver) dns24.register.com

(Doesn't that mean that register.com's nameservers are authoritative?)

Could anyone help me?
I'm not sure who to ask, or what to ask them, in order to establish whose nameservers are really 'authoritative for the domain' mercenaryfilms.co.uk - nor can I figure out what I need do to clear up this mess!

Hopefully yours,
Jon East

[Deb]

From the Register.com FAQ .co.uk and .org.uk domain names registered through register.com before July 21, 1999
For .co.uk and .org.uk domain names registered through register.com prior to July 21, 1999 (and/or for domain names for which Compusolve Associates is the official Registrar), you will need to contact Compusolve Associates at http://www.compusolve.com/alteruk.htm to submit your name server changes to the registry.

.co.uk and .org.uk domain names registered through register.com after July 21, 1999 For .co.uk and .org.uk domain names registered through register.com after July 21, 1999, and/or for which register.com is the official registrar, you can edit your DNS Information through Domain Manager, which is located at http://mydomain.register.com.

Please follow the Modify DNS instructions listed above for .com, .net and .org names registered after June 2, 1999.

If the Modify DNS link does not appear, an indicator that the Internet systems used to verify certain domain name information were unavailable, you may need to reload or refresh the Domain Manager page by clicking on the active domain name in the domain name list.

If you experience additional problems editing DNS Information for your .uk domain name, please click here to open a customer support ticket.[nbsp][nbsp]Within the body of the Ticket, please include the domain name in question, as well as the current information and the information you would like to change it to.

Click Here (http://www.register.com/create_ticket.cgi?1|2255712194|) to open a service ticket If the above proves untrue for this account I would recommend opening a service ticket with them to seek out the solution.

Deb
[nbsp]- Confusion

[JonEast]

Thanks, Deb.

That's what I read the first time round (several times, scratching my head) - I have read all of the register.com FAQs.
Saw no 'Modify DNS' option.
Then I sent in a service ticket, saying what I had done: they replied "You are on someone elses DNS'. We cannot help you with that. You will have to ask them to do that for you."
That's the position I was in when I posted the first message on AOTA.
Does anyone know what tool I can use to find out who is definitely responsible for my domain?

[Deb]

I would have to recommend responding to them showing (as I'm sure you did the first time)...

[nbsp][nbsp] Domain Name: MERCENARYFILMS.CO.UK
[nbsp][nbsp] Registered For: mercenary films
[nbsp][nbsp] Domain Registered By: REGISTER-DOT-COM
[nbsp][nbsp] Registered on 28-Jul-2000.
[nbsp][nbsp] Domain servers listed in order:
[nbsp][nbsp] DNS23.REGISTER.COM[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]209.67.50.87
[nbsp][nbsp] DNS24.REGISTER.COM[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]209.67.50.88
[nbsp][nbsp] WHOIS database last updated at 00:10:01 22-Jan-2001

The simple question being, "If REGISTER-DOT-COM is not you, who is it?"

Customer Support Inquiries:
Toll free in the U.S. and Canada: (800) 899-9724
Outside the U.S. and Canada: +1 (212) 798-9200

It seems a second email is in order here... I'll also toss an email from the backside referencing this thread.

Deb
[nbsp]- Service a thing of the past?

[This message has been edited by Deb (edited 01-21-01@10:26 pm)]

[JonEast]

Wow, Deb![nbsp][nbsp]What a response time.[nbsp][nbsp]That's some ping!

I *didn't* previously send them that 'whois' result, as I assumed I was getting something wrong.[nbsp][nbsp]Now I've done so, adding it to the original service ticket with a recap and the question you suggest.

I'd really like to understand all this myself, so I need not bother you over such stuff: I've read the stuff at inetdaemon (http://www.inetdaemon.com/compendium/internet/index.html).
Should I really buy O'Reilly's 'DNS and BIND, 3rd Edition'
by Albitz & Liu, or is there a better resource for understanding such practical problems that you'd recommend?

Anyhow, thanks for the backup - it's a great relief to know I'm not asking completely foolish questions,
Thanks again,
Jon East

[Deb]

Just a quick follow-up...

The ticket number I have for it is: 1399046427 JIC you want to reference it in your next email...

Deb
[nbsp]- Now to wait the standard 24 - 72 hours..

<edit>
Oooppsss, didn't see your follow-up post :)[nbsp][nbsp]They aren't foolish questions at all.[nbsp][nbsp]I doubt you need a deep education on the subject though unless you are planning on working a lot with DNS.. for most the ability to pull off a transfer is enough -- the key is the transfer actually working :P
[This message has been edited by Deb (edited 01-21-01@11:20 pm)]

[JonEast]

Thanks again, Deb!
Have added my reply to register.com using their Web interface, so it was an edit to that ticket number.[nbsp][nbsp]I'll face them with confidence now,
Thank you for all your help,
Cheers,
Jon East

[pqwabbit]

Im just curious - did the register.com guys ever get back to you with an answer?[nbsp][nbsp]I'm not having any luck with them.[nbsp][nbsp]<img src="http://www.aota.net/ubb/confuse.gif" alt=":/" width=15 height=15> bleh

Lea
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