Bizarre computer/internet question

[LiveMusic]

I'm at wit's end on this one. The facts...

 

1. I have a domain registered at Ipower.com.

 

2. I have the site hosted at hostgator.com.

 

3. Upon registering a domain at Ipower.com, it will show a default parked page.

 

4. I changed the name servers at Ipower.com to point to the proper name servers on hostgator.com.

 

5. Within a few hours, it showed in my browser the correct site. Then, it went back to showing the parked page at Ipower.com. I changed the name servers again.

 

6. I contacted Ipower.com tech support and got ring around the rosey about domain name server propagation time. Yeah, yeah, yeah... but I told them everyone can see the new page (the correct page, not the parked page at Ipower.com) except me. (Friends of mine.)

 

7. I then contacted my DSL provider, Centurytel and they basically told me all is well on their end.

 

8. Friends all over the USA could see the correct page. Except me.

 

9. Something like this has happened before with another domain. Same run around from all concerned except that the tech person at Centurytel, who upon exhausting all other possibilities had me physically change something in network settings (I think it was) so that the DSL would directly address two name servers. She had me literally type in the name of two servers. My understanding of that is that the DSL would no longer search for any open line or whatever you call it but it would always go to those name servers.

 

10. I just went back to Ipower.com tech support. They can't figure it out... everyone, including them, can see the correct page. The head dude finally had me hit www.megaproxy.com and choose the try-it-free service. Which I did. (Typed in my domain name.) It showed the correct page, not the Ipower parked page. He said that this means it is your ISP, not Ipower.

 

11. The Ipower guy, after a long hold, told me to try again. In Firefox, I still get the parked page. In IE, the screen is totally white. Like it didn't hit anything at all. Before the long hold time at Ipower, IE also showed the parked page. I don't know what he did at Ipower but I assume he changed some configuration there. IE still shows a blank white screen when I hit the site.

 

12. I just had a revelation... to try another computer on this same DSL connection. I connected an old laptop. It shows the correct page!

 

So, anyway, it's something within my computer? They have had me clear cookies, clear internet pages.

 

Anyone got a clue what to do? All other sites, it appears that all surfing is normal.

[yermej]

I'm guessing you're running Windows. Try this:

 

-- close all browser windows

-- click Start, then Run

-- enter 'cmd' (without the quotes) and click OK

-- enter 'ipconfig /flushdns' (again, without quotes) and hit Enter

 

Try loading the page again.

[LiveMusic]

Thanks for your help. Duh... I rebooted and it now works. I went through this same routine one month ago with another domain and rebooted twice and it never fixed it. This time, just now, it worked upon reboot. Thus, I didn't have to try your method but hopefully, I will remember where I saw this in case it happens again.

[blue2blue]

 

I'm guessing you're running Windows. Try this: -- close all browser windows -- click Start, then Run -- enter 'cmd' (without the quotes) and click OK -- enter 'ipconfig /flushdns' (again, without quotes) and hit Enter Try loading the page again.

 

 

yermej

 

Do you have any info on what might have happened to livemusic?

 

I have clients (typically using Firefox or Safari but sometimes IE) who will email me after I've sent them a change completion notice on their site, saying they don't see any changes) who have to be reminded to force a refresh on their (overly-aggressively caching) browsers. I'm used to that.*

 

But it sounds like you know of a significantly different issue that is sure to come up sooner or later. More info?

 

 

 

*They never seem to figure it out though. Though I may make a practice of sending out the rambling and piquish 6:25 AM pre-coffee long explanation [not unlike the ramble of this very paragraph -- but much longer] of why my Mac-lovin' client should do a forced refresh [the key commands for which apparently just keep changing in Safari for Mac.] Hint: filled with praise for the relative standards compliance of Safari and Firefox and contempt for their bogus speed claims; full disclosure, I am a loyal FF user and my contempt for MS's extraordinarily inept historic handling of standards in IE knows few bounds -- but the extravagant speed claims sometimes made for FF have clearly been mostly about aggro caching. Let's be real.

[Lee Flier]

Ordinarily the DNS is cached as well, both by your ISP and by your own computer. So clearing your browser cache doesn't necessarily clear the DNS settings unless you explicitly flush them. If you change web hosts, lots of people might therefore still be pointing to the old server for quite some time. I think if the old site is actually shut down, that wakes everybody up enough to check the DNS settings, but otherwise it may not.

 

Also, DNS caching on your own computer is something that happens at the OS level, not the browser level, because other network services (FTP, ODBC etc) also refer to DNS settings. I am guessing that since IE is made by the same company as the OS, it might have ways of detecting changes to the DNS earlier than other browsers.

[blue2blue]

Doh! [slaps forehead; hard this time]

 

I kinda forgot what the initial issue was... [particularly by the time I got done with my rant about browser refresh]

 

I knew I should have had this second cup of coffee before writing that!

 

 

 

But it's good to be reminded. Obviously, if it didn't jump to the front of my mind this time (with no client on the phone) it might not in a pinch. I guess I'm better off for the auto-dope-slapping. That said, I usually play up the propagation delay big to new customers because it seems so contrary to newbie expectations of instantaneity. [Can you believe FF spell-checking flags instantaneity? What's up with that? What a small, gray world FF spellchecking must live in.]

[LiveMusic]

This just happened again with me and reboot did not help. In the next room, on another computer, I could see the new site. On my computer, nope, it still showed Ipower.com. Even though, again, it DID show the new site this morning.

 

This time, I did the flush dns thingy suggested by yermej above and it worked.

[Jeff da Weasel]

The good old dns thingy. If you don't flush enough, you'll need a dns plunger.

[John Sayers]

maybe if you hold control as you refresh the site IE will reload instead of accessing it's cache.

[LiveMusic]

This is such a PITA. This morning, it's doing it again, showing the Ipower.com page instead of my new page. The flushdns does not work now. Neither FF or IE.

[yermej]

If you want, either post the domain name here or PM me with it. I'll have a look at DNS records and whatnot. Seems odd that it would go back to the old IP once you've flushed the dns cache and browser cache and all that. At this point it sounds like something might be going on with the dns records/server.

 

Uhhh...I'll go ahead and guess it's the one in your sig. I'll take a look...

 

One more edit...if you could send me the dns servers your computers use that would help too -- maybe they aren't updating correctly. On Windows, go to the command prompt and enter 'ipconfig /all' and the dns servers will be listed.

 

Stuff looks mostly fine as far as I can see (if I'm even checking the right domain). For some reason, Guadalupe River Trout Unlimited (grtu.org) seems to have a reverse dns entry with your domain's IP, but that shouldn't cause what you're seeing. You might want to have it fixed if you start sending mail from your domain though.

[yermej]

LiveMusic, I tried to reply, but your PM inbox is full. Let me know when you've made some room.