Changing Name Servers

[deejay33]

Hello All,

I have a quick question about changing name servers for your domain. Right now, we are using Sprintlink to host our name servers. The problem is DNS changes are taking up to 4 days to complete which is ridiculous. We have our domains registered with Network Solutions and they do free Name Server hosting with a DNS Management tool, so we are going to switch to their name servers.

Does anyone know if there will be an email/website outage when the change happens? Network Solutions says there could be a 24 to 36 hour outage while the Name Server change propagates across the Internet. I am wondering if that is true or just a CYA answer. To me, it seems like if someone has not gotten the updated Name Server info, they would be still directed to Sprintlink and resolved there. The only way I see what they are saying is if the change would cause Sprintlink to stop processing requests to resolve our domain. Maybe that is the case.

Has anyone gone through this or know how the process is done?

Thanks,
Daniel Joaquin

 

[WhoKilledKenny]

That is standard answer I get when changing hosting companies, 24 to 48 hours. The only way I know how to get around this is to host your own external DNS on the Internet.

 

[lhuegele]

Just don't cancel your current host for at least 72 hours after the change takes place. That should give the internet plenty of time to fully propagate. You can also use TTL to try and get your changes propagated faster.

Good luck.

 

[lgarner]

You're right. As long as you don't cancel your original service, your DNS will continue to work.

 

[deejay33]

Thanks for the tips. I spoke with Sprintlink and they said that as long as I don't cancel their service they will continue to service any requests that come to them. I think maybe Network Solutions just operates under the assumption that if you are moving to them, you are turning off your old service.

Thanks,
Daniel Joaquin

 

[lhuegele]

Yes, I think you're right on that assumption. Our experience is that it usually takes between 24-72 hours for DNS changes to be fully propagated.