The very first thing we do after booking a domain name is setting up hosting account and then updating the nameservers. Many time we have faced a problem where we see that after booking a domain name and setting up the nameservers it takes quite sometime to update the nameserver to reflect the nameservers change you did. There are few common mistakes that we wll do in excitement unknowingly.
When we book a domain name we open the website to check whether the name is booked or not. If it is booked then the website’s ip address is cached in your ISP’s nameservers, though the initial DNS ttl is kept usually kept low by the registrars, still as it is cached on your ISP’s nameservers, even if you update the domain nameservers or alter the DNS record, it will not be refleted to you until the DNS ttl is expired. Hence untill then you will keep seeing the old page and it takes time for it to update on your ISP’s nameservers.
So in short follow these steps to quickly setup your website:
- Book the domain name [dont open it to test, check email from registrar for confirmayion]
- Set up hosting account
- Update the nameservers
- Wait until a min or two [depending upon registrar] and then open the website
- If you think you opened the site early then dont worry, change your nameservrs and try in few moments again
You may use Open DNS nameservrs or google nameservers
- Open DNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
- Google DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
You can use this website to check the propogation of nameservers update across the globe. Hope find this article useful. Feel free to leave your feedback in comments.