[wellylug] Just discovered server is not serving up pages

[Mark Harris]

On 2/01/11 7:22 PM, John Durham wrote:

> The domain name is modecideas.com which has been mine for years.
> So far I tried a bunch of commands, but the shutdown/reboot followed by
> results just refused to happen.

It seems to me like you are merely suffering some confusion about how to 
manage your self-hosted domain name.

As I understand your situation:
1) you've been hosting your website on a server in your office (I do 
hope that you are not doing anything else with that server, like running 
your workfiles or applications)
2) it is running off a TelstraClear Cable connection
3) you have been using ehost as the domain name registrar
4) the website has been running recently (that's a question/guess, as 
the Web Archive has not taken a refresh since 2008 
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.modecideas.com)
5) you have recently decided to change your registrar to kiwihost, so 
that you can work in NZ currency.

Is this correct?

In order for kiwihost to become your registrar, they have to gain 
control of the name from ehost.

Currently, that name is registered through ehost:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Registration Service Provided By: Domain Name Holding Company, Inc.
Contact:
Domain name: modecideas.com

Registrant Contact:
eHost
Domain Support ()

Fax:
70 Blanchard rd.
HASH(0xbd731c0)
Burlington, MA 01803
US

Administrative Contact:
eHost
Domain Support ()
+1.8665634678
Fax:
70 Blanchard rd.
HASH(0xbd64450)
Burlington, MA 01803
US

Technical Contact:
ModecInstrumentsLtd
John Durham ()
+64.45286786
Fax: 64 4 5286786
16HudsonAve
UpperHutt, Wellington 6007
NZ

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
ns1.ehost.com
ns2.ehost.com

Creation date: 19 Sep 2000 00:27:41
Expiration date: 19 Sep 2012 00:27:41
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

and that shows that ehost's nameservers are still handling requests for 
the name.

Ping, which will be using those nameservers, is trying to access a 
server at IP 38.113.1.111 which may be ehost's redirect server. 
(Interesting, it's actually their SMTP server 
http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip/38.113.1.111 - note to self: never use 
ehost for anything)

Did you change anything at ehost recently?

The way this should work is that browser requests to modecideas.com 
should be routed to the ehost nameservers by the DNS, which then send 
the requests to your site. If you were hosted on ehost, as most of their 
clients probably are, it would be an internal redirect within their 
system. As you host the site yourself AND you don't rely on them for an 
IP address (as yours is issued through TelstraClear), ehost probably has 
a single redirecting server with a lookup table which they send such 
requests to, so that they rarely have to change their nameserver records 
if you change your IP address - they only have to update the lookup table.

Given what I can see of their site, I'm guessing they don't want every 
Tom, Dick and HelpDesk Harry poking around in the nameserver making 
changes.

If you have asked kiwihost to become your domain registrar, then they 
have not yet managed the transfer of name from ehost to themselves, 
possibly due to the name being locked to prevent inadvertent transfer 
away from ehost. Also, it may be that Xmas/New Year has interfered (this 
is never a good time to do shit that relies on other companies in other 
countries, BTW)

If they have done it, then the DNS has not propagated the change yet, 
which it should have. This is nothing you can affect within your system. 
Stop fiddling now, as you may inadvertently break something trying to 
get a response :-D

Here's some points to consider:
1 Have you authorised kiwihost to become your domain name registrar?
2 Have you advised ehost that you are changing registrar?
3 Has this website actually been operational recently (on the web, not 
just in your office)?

I think you need to talk to kiwihost about this situation - it's not a 
Linux issue, it's purely related to the Internet.

Good luck.

~mark