1

Did I screw this up? I don’t even know how this might have happened, so I’d like to learn. I’m trying out HostGator’s reseller service and I bought a domain name through it, but I didn’t want the default name servers and so I changed them during the registration. After registration the domain name record is correct everywhere except at whois-servers.net and whois.crsnic.net and it looks like the DNS network is using that same information.

$ whois -h whois.enom.com. example.com
...
Name Servers:
   dns1.name-services.com
   dns2.name-services.com
   dns3.name-services.com
   dns4.name-services.com
   dns5.name-services.com
...
$ whois -h whois.crsnic.net. example.com
   Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM
   Registrar: ENOM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.enom.com
   Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
   Name Server: NS1.HOSTGATOR.COM
   Name Server: NS2.HOSTGATOR.COM
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Updated Date: 01-jun-2010
   Creation Date: 31-may-2010
   Expiration Date: 31-may-2011

>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:20:47 UTC <<<
...
    $ dig +norecurse @b.gtld-servers.net. example.com. NS
...
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.com.      172763  IN      NS      ns2.hostgator.com.
example.com.      172763  IN      NS      ns1.hostgator.com.
...

My next step is to let HostGator have a look, but first I want to better understand how this happened.

Thanks.

6
  • How long ago did you make the change it can take 24-48 hours for the who-is to update.
    – Campo
    Jun 1, 2010 at 19:52
  • I did it last night, but I've never had to wait more than four hours for any such change since about 2005.
    – danorton
    Jun 1, 2010 at 19:55
  • It’s probably not directly related, but it’s also interesting to note that ns2.hostgator.com isn’t actually resolved anywhere except in this glue record.
    – danorton
    Jun 1, 2010 at 19:57
  • have you tried to use your registrars who is? Do you get the same output? Does the site resolve using the correct name server? If its just the who is info and its not effecting the site then I would say wait a little longer and see if it changes. I agree it shouldn't take more than 4 hours and that's even pretty long. Check your TTL and you can try setting it lower to make the process a little quicker.
    – Campo
    Jun 1, 2010 at 20:02
  • The registrar is enom. It’s the first output above and it’s correct. Beyond that, as the DNS network is wrong, the information at the correct nameserver is moot. In any case, I have confirmed that it is correct. If this is just a matter of waiting, I wonder who’s being so abnormally slow about this. eNom? HostGator? Simply bad luck?
    – danorton
    Jun 1, 2010 at 20:16

2 Answers 2

0

I would contact the registrar to ensure they actually pushed the change out to the root DNS servers and have the correct information on file. I haven't used HostGator specifically, but some of the registrar APIs that I've had to talk to in the past have been.... glitchy.

3
  • Thanks, Justin. It’s too late now to see any external evidence, so I’m going to conclude that HostGator got something out of sync. That their name servers themselves aren’t properly listed is a pretty big clue.
    – danorton
    Jun 4, 2010 at 12:45
  • Oh, and I used eNom’s web interface in a HostGator subaccount, so it wasn’t HostGator’s use of the API, anyway.
    – danorton
    Jun 4, 2010 at 12:52
  • 1
    You do not need to contact the registrar to check that... just query the registry authoritative DNS servers. May 6, 2017 at 11:45
-1

The way it’s supposed to work is that when you update registration information for .COM, .NET, and .EDU domain names, the registrar should send the the new WHOIS information to CRSNIC. The problematic situation described above is one possible result when that transfer fails.

While it’s arguable that CRSNIC might have dropped the ball somewhere, eNom could have automatically checked to confirm that the CRSNIC record had been updated, and obviously didn’t.

I would conclude that eNom failed to properly transfer (and confirm the transfer of) the updated WHOIS name server information to CRSNIC.

1
  • 1
    Very confusing reply. CRSNIC is just an old alias of the registry for .COM/.NET and there is no "whois information", whois is a query protocol and interface. The registrar just send information to the registry, this is not called a transfer. And until now .COM/.NET is a thin registry so the registry has only information about nameservers, dates and statuses, nothing about contacts & such (that you do still see in a whois output) May 6, 2017 at 11:48

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