Late last night, I decided to change my domain record to use a different DNS server. I had good reasons, reasons that I will explain in a moment. But the thing about making DNS changes is that they take hours to propagate. Knowing I wouldn’t see the effects of my change for several hours, I made the changes then went to bed.
This morning, cradling a cup of coffee, I thought I’d do a little blogging. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that testobsessed.com couldn’t be found. “Oh crud, what did I do?” I wondered.
I started with a whois query. Yup, the change I made last night was there. So far, so good. My domain record had the new DNS server as expected.
So was there a problem with the DNS server? I did a dig query to find out what that DNS server had to say. Aha! Sure enough, there was a problem. No A record. The A record is like a listing in a phone book. Without an A record, my domain was like an unlisted number.
Since I don’t run my own DNS server, that meant a call to tech support. If there’s anyone I don’t want to talk to at 6AM while I’m still on my first cup of coffee, it’s tech support. Well, tech support and credit card fraud departments. And yeah, I’ve had to talk to credit card fraud departments lately too. Identity theft sucks. It’s been a splendiferous several weeks. But I digress.
Before I describe my conversation with tech support, I should back up and explain why I wanted to switch to a different DNS server.
The testobsessed.com domain is registered with Network Solutions and hosted on godaddy. My DNS records had been managed by Network Solutions DNS servers. But godaddy allows customers to use their DNS servers no matter where your domain is registered, and that lets me take advantage of some of godaddy’s other spiffy features. So I decided to manage my DNS records using godaddy’s DNS servers.
It’s an easy two step process:
- On the godaddy site, specify the domain name for godaddy’s DNS servers to manage. Godaddy then provides DNS server names.
- On the domain registration site, in my case Network Solutions, point the domain record to the DNS servers godaddy provided.
See, simple. What could go wrong?
So I entered “testobsessed.com” on godaddy’s site and got my shiny new DNS server names: MNS1.SECURESERVER.NET and MNS2.SECURESERVER.NET. I went over to Network Solutions and changed my domain record to point to those DNS server names. Then I went to bed confident that when I awoke in the morning, my dns records would be safely in the hands of godaddy servers and all would be well with the world.
You know what happened next: I experienced the slow dawning awareness that the “server not found” error wasn’t just a hiccup in the dns propagation, followed by an exclamation of “Crud,” and then “Where’s that tech support phone number?”
I got through to tech support quickly. I have to say, every time I’ve needed godaddy’s tech support, I’ve gotten through fast. Gotta love it.
Once they confirmed I’m me, I rattled off my problem: “I changed my domain registration record to point to the DNS server name your offsite DNS service provided me, but something’s wrong with my A record.” I went on to explain what I’d learned using Whois and Dig.
I figured tossing around words like “A record,” “Whois,” and “Dig” could only help. When you’re talking to tech support folks it’s important to make sure they understand you have a clue. Otherwise they tend to give you some silly suggestion to get you off the phone fast, like “wait a few hours for the DNS change to propagate.” Godaddy’s tech support folks are better than most, but it’s just a fact of life that tech support people want you off the phone as fast as possible. It’s not their fault: they’re usually measured on stupid things like # calls handled per hour, so getting people off the phone fast is a priority.
Anyway, the guy on the other end listened attentively, then said: “I see your DNS server is set up as MNS1.SECURESERVER.NET. That’s weird.” Hmmm. When tech support people say “that’s weird,” it’s both good and bad. Good: they understand there’s a real problem here and you’re not just trying to use the mouse as a foot pedal. Bad: they don’t know what’s wrong either.
He kept asking me where I got the “MNS1.” I kept telling him that godaddy’s software TOLD me to use that server name. He couldn’t believe me.
“I didn’t make it up,” I asserted.
“Didn’t you enter that name here?” he asked, incredulously.
“No, I just entered the domain name. The form doesn’t let me enter a DNS server name. Your software responds with a DNS server name. Your software did this to me.”
“Well, it should be NS1.SECURESERVER.NET,” he insisted.
I did another dig, this time on NS1.SECURESERVER.NET. Bingo. He was right. I’m still not sure he believes me about godaddy’s software giving me the MNS1 server name, but it doesn’t really matter. By this time I understood what was wrong and how to fix it. The minute we hung up I changed my DNS server names on my domain record at Network Solutions.
And even as I write this, I’m still waiting for the new new DNS server information to propagate. It will be a few hours yet. I’m sure this change will fix it. No really, this time for sure. Long feedback cycles. Ick.
So what should I have done differently? Before changing my DNS servers, I should have verified the DNS server names that godaddy provided. It’s easy to do with dig.
Lesson learned.
You’re not the only one!
Check out the nameserver listed below the domain name in this screenshot:
http://www.gosammy.com/misc/incorrect_dns.jpg
Thanks for posting this article though, I had such a hard time figuring out why calmedi.com wouldn’t resolve. Hopefully everything should go well now tomorrow.
Yep, same thing happened to me last night. I’m up this morning wondering why propagation hasn’t happened yet, and hopefully now I know why. Jeez.
THANKS FOR POSTING!
I was having this exact same problem, and like you, cannot stand being on the phone with most tech support. I was trying to avoid that, as I do have a decent understanding of all this. So simple, yet I was so far away.
THANK YOU FOR THAT! I am doing the same exact thing and I made sure i have the right DNS spelling, etc….but I’m doing my changes tomorrow since we have a nice long weekend…it’s for the company I work for – you know I can’t screw that up! cheers.
Godaddy has two DNS “areas”
If you are registered with godaddy then you use
ns1.secureserver.net
ns2.secureserver.net
…
But they also have a separate DNS “area” (database) called “Off-Site” DNS (available in their control panel)
This is a free DNS service that allows you to keep DNS records for Domains not registered with Godaddy.
If you are using Offsite DNS, then these are the name servers
mns1.secureserver.net
mns2.secureserver.net
The reps at GoDaddy aren’t well versed with this service since most people don’t use it (they use the DNS of their registrar).
Thing is, the way you’ve described it, the “mns” servers should have worked.
Thanks,
I remember that I just changed back the DNS server, and forgot the whole thing. But as I read you, I may reconsider…
Hi Elisabeth-
Thanks for the post. I just had the same problem. I was using the Off-Site DNS entry at godaddy.com. I called customer support and while I love their customer support, the person I spoke with knew nothing about their Off-Site DNS section.
After some sleuthing and similar problems, I found that when using the Off-Site DNS at Godaddy.com, the servers that are supplied (mns1.secureserver.net and mns2.secureserver.net) do work.
Here’s how:
Start by gathering the infromation from your current DNS entry. If you are moving your website to godaddy, upload the files and verify that you have set up the domain on the hosting control panel. Make a note of the new IP address for the new files on godaddy.
Entering the information for the Off-site DNS, godaddy will supply nameserver names. Write down these names and then double click the domain name that you created the Off-site entry for. This will open the Total DNS Control panel for the domain. Here is where you enter your A record, CNAME, mx record, etc.
Finally, go to your registrar (NetSol, Register, etc.) and change the DNS names to the ones godaddy.com supplied.
If you follow these steps and your new A record is pointing to the correct place, the new nameserver and DNS entries should propogate with out incident.
In summary, it looks like the Total DNS Control panel entries were overlooked (I did this too, but then figured it out…).
Thank you, very helpful!
Thanks for the post. Saved the Day!!!
ten (10) months latter and the “off-site” DNS system still telling people to use mns1 and mns2 and the worts thing is that Since January 2007 all domains entered in the system are on ns5 and ns6 so I waited 6 hours to be told a partial anser in that direction from email support.
Thanks for hooking me up with dig! I was able to understand why I was getting intermittent service using ns1 and ns2!
THANKS for your posting.
U are not the only person, I also encounted this problems.
I used another option, more powerfull that I’ve just found.
It seems that they have included a tool to allow total control over the DNS values.
If the domains are registered with GD you use the Total DNS Control, if the domain are not registered with GD (another registrar) you can use the Off-site DNS option.
Wow. I am going through the exact same thing. The tech support guy at Go-Daddy even responded the exact same way to me when he saw that mns1.secureserver.net was where my domain was pointing to unsuccessfully. He said, “That’s weird”. As I write, I too am waiting for propagation – if it works with ns5.secureserver.net. I am in the process of transferring my domain name from another registrar to GoDaddy and have all my eggs in the same basket. Thanks for validating my own recent confusing experiences!