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Old September 5th, 2004, 12:41 AM   #11 (permalink)
tzs
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Joined in Aug 2003
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Some tricks

Here are some things that are useful when you have a new domain that isn't resolving yet. These are for people on Linux or other Unix-like systems, but there are equivalent things you can do on Windows--but someone else will have to jump in with those.

Let's assume your domain is foo.com, and the IP address of the server Surpass has assigned for your website is 1.2.3.4.

1. Edit /etc/hosts and add this line:
1.2.3.4 www.foo.com
You will then be able to browse to your site, assuming you've put something there.

2. You can check the progress of the DNS information for your domain getting published using the "dig" program.

Start with this:
dig foo.com [at]a.root-servers.net
That will give you one or more NS records back. Pick one of those, and repeat, substituting the server named in the NS record for a.root-servers.net. For example, for foo.com one of them is a.gtld-servers.net, so you might then do this:
dig foo.com [at]a.gtld-servers.net
Repeat this until you either end up at the nameserver you specified when you registered the domain, or you end up somewhere that doesn't know where to send you next. In the former case, your domain is resolving! In the later case, the DNS data hasn't propogated yet.

If you ever change name servers, you can use this to see when the change has taken affect (although rememeber that people may have cached this information, so if digging gets you to the right name server, there still may be people whoi use the old data for a while).
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