Vps – Why are some users still using the old DNS records

domain-name-systemhostingnameservervps

I moved from my reseller hosting to a VPS about a month ago now. I transferred a bunch of client accounts and changed the nameservers on their domain names to match the new server. All of the accounts have been working fine.

I've been getting reports however from one of the website owners saying that a lot of users are getting redirected to an Account Suspended page, which sounds like the one that would appear if they were still visiting the old server.

I've checked the DNS A record for the domain name with whatsmydns.net and the IP address shown is for the VPS. However I checked with a different tool (preshweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/dns-propagation-tracker – sorry hyperlinks limited to just 2) and it shows the nameservers as still being set to the old one.

Old Server
Nameservers: ns1.quksdns3.net/ns2.quksdns3.net
IP address: 82.147.22.2

New Server
Nameservers: ns1.cenix.co.uk/ns2.cenix.co.uk
IP address: 94.76.247.193

Domain name causing problems
usedjohndeere.co.uk

I would have thought DNS propogation should have finished completely weeks ago. So what might have happened and does anyone know how to rectify the problem?

EDIT:

I just noticed this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2536480/Web%20Host%20Manager%2011.30.5.3%20-%20Edit%20DNS%20Zone-142152.png

…in the Edit DNS Zone settings in Web Host Manager, I don't know what I'm doing here but I wonder if this could be fixed by changing the "ns1.quksdns3.net" listed in there to the new nameservers?

Best Answer

The NS records contained within your new nameservers still have the old server names in them:

% dig +norec @ns1.cenix.co.uk. usedjohndeere.co.uk ns
...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
usedjohndeere.co.uk.    86400   IN  NS  ns2.quksdns3.net.
usedjohndeere.co.uk.    86400   IN  NS  ns1.quksdns3.net.

You need to change those to match the new names.

Resolvers looking you up in .co.uk will find your new nameservers, but then some will lookup the NS records that are actually in your domain, and find that they're different, and use those for subsequent lookups.

Having fixed the new zone data, you should also get the old nameservers updated to match the new names, otherwise "child sticky" resolvers will fail to notice the change already registered in the parent zone.

See https://serverfault.com/a/322524/216 for more info on child sticky resolvers.

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