Having problems clearing my DNS cache

[macamateur]

Hi all,

I just helped a client move their site to a new hosting provider. For some reason the old site is appearing in my browsers. I tried clearing my cache, cookies, and DNS cache (dscacheutil -flushcache) but, the old site is still showing. Everyone else can see the new site. Help?

 

[tyr2]

It's probably cached in your ISP's DNS servers (or whoever's DNS servers you use), so it just gets fetched from there when you do a query.

You could try changing your servers to the OpenDNS ones temporarily (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)?

 

[macamateur]

It's probably cached in your ISP's DNS servers (or whoever's DNS servers you use), so it just gets fetched from there when you do a query.

You could try changing your servers to the OpenDNS ones temporarily (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220)?

Thanks Tyr...do you know if the ISP will update theirs in time?

 

[TEG]

A simple refresh in the browser usually fixes that, use shift or ctrl when refreshing, and it will force the browser to go get a new copy of the page, regardless of what the DNS server says. That being said, it can take upto 48 hours for cached versions of pages to be updated.

TEG

 

[tyr2]

Yes they will in due course.

You can figure out when by firing up the terminal. Type 'dig whatever.the.domain.is @x.x.x.x' where x.x.x.x is the IP of the name server. Eg for www.macrumors.com against the OpenDNS server

$ dig www.macrumors.com @208.67.222.222

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P1 <<>> www.macrumors.com @208.67.222.222
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 57467
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.macrumors.com.		IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.macrumors.com.	58	IN	CNAME	macrumors.com.
macrumors.com.		358	IN	A	74.86.132.180

This means that the link from www.macrumors.com -> macrumors.com will expire in 58 seconds and that the IP address for macrumors.com will expire in 358 seconds.

You should see something along the same lines, quite probably only the 'A' record line rather than the CNAME line.

 

[macamateur]

Yes they will in due course.

You can figure out when by firing up the terminal. Type 'dig whatever.the.domain.is @x.x.x.x' where x.x.x.x is the IP of the name server. Eg for www.macrumors.com against the OpenDNS server

$ dig www.macrumors.com @208.67.222.222

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P1 <<>> www.macrumors.com @208.67.222.222
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 57467
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.macrumors.com.		IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.macrumors.com.	58	IN	CNAME	macrumors.com.
macrumors.com.		358	IN	A	74.86.132.180

This means that the link from www.macrumors.com -> macrumors.com will expire in 58 seconds and that the IP address for macrumors.com will expire in 358 seconds.

You should see something along the same lines, quite probably only the 'A' record line rather than the CNAME line.

right on, thanks tyr and teg.