Subject: Re: Switching ISP's and DNS records
From: Arthur Corliss (arthur@corlissfamily.org)
Date: Wed Apr 24 2002 - 21:35:09 AKDT
On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Mike Barsalou wrote:
>
> One of the things that I run across on a fairly regular basis is people
> wanting to switch ISP's who host their DNS records. Most of the time I hear
> people saying about how their mail etc hiccuped for a few days while this
> took place.
>
> Would you folks consider this normal?
>
> What steps can you take to avoid these problems?
>
> Hopefully I have given enough info.
It's regrettable that it happens, and while I wouldn't call it "normal", it's
definitely common. One thing you can do to avoid this: coordinate with the
new provider to provide DNS and secondary SMTP services in advance. Update
your whois records with the new services and give it 48 hours to migrate.
Switch your box over to the new IP, and you're golden. Anything that goes to
the new IP before you get there should get queued on their server. Once your
box goes live, it'll transfer all that mail over.
For an added bonus, see if your old provider will slave to the new DNS server
for a week once you get the new zone file set up. If you get that, you'll
almost definitely catch all the traffic you should.
Another good idea during the transition (an obvious aid that Michael Fowler
pointed out to me) is to set your TTL a few hours or so days prior to the
move. This should keep caching DNS servers from storing your old address for
too long, and pick up the change as soon as the root servers do.
--Arthur Corliss
Bolverk's Lair -- http://arthur.corlissfamily.org/
Digital Mages -- http://www.digitalmages.com/
"Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a23 : Wed Apr 24 2002 - 22:33:11 AKDT