Some folks like to "roll their own", and use third party registrars, and "Advanced Settings". Now, we have challenges.
This evening, we have BHG: Something Is Broken: Custom domain suddenly not working
We've had a custom domain set up perfectly for 2 years. Somehow this morning, with no changes to our DNS nor blogspot .. our blog is fubar.
As usual, I start examining Dig logs (here, unabridged) for the domain. And, I find oddities.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> crackedsidewalks.com A
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 23743
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;crackedsidewalks.com. IN A
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
crackedsidewalks.com. 9652 IN SOA dns215.a.register.com.
root.register.com. 2005111024 28800 7200 604800 14400
;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 07:42:34 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 97
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> www.crackedsidewalks.com A
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 10788
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.crackedsidewalks.com. IN A
;; Query time: 892 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 07:42:45 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 42
compared to the similar logs from my domain, "nitecruzr.net", this is not promising.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @localhost nitecruzr.net A
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 175
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;nitecruzr.net. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN A 64.233.179.121
nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN A 72.14.207.121
;; Query time: 170 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 08:41:44 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 63
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @localhost www.nitecruzr.net A
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 51847
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.nitecruzr.net. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.nitecruzr.net. 1911 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com. 436315 IN CNAME ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com. 300 IN A 66.249.91.121
;; Query time: 167 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 07:59:31 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 99
So, we Dig deeper. Why do they call it "Dig" anyway?
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> crackedsidewalks.com ANY
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 21071
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;crackedsidewalks.com. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
crackedsidewalks.com. 12398 IN SOA dns215.a.register.com.
root.register.com. 2005111024 28800 7200 604800 14400
crackedsidewalks.com. 12398 IN NS dns215.a.register.com.
crackedsidewalks.com. 12398 IN NS dns241.c.register.com.
crackedsidewalks.com. 12398 IN NS dns249.d.register.com.
crackedsidewalks.com. 12398 IN NS dns037.b.register.com.
;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 08:01:16 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 180
That should be the authoritative server for the domain.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @dns215.a.register.com crackedsidewalks.com ANY
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 55204
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;crackedsidewalks.com. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN NS dns241.c.register.com.
crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN NS dns249.d.register.com.
crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN NS dns215.a.register.com.
crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN SOA dns215.a.register.com.
root.register.com. 2005111024 28800 7200 604800 14400
crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN NS dns037.b.register.com.
;; Query time: 93 msec
;; SERVER: 216.21.231.215#53(216.21.231.215)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 08:03:06 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 201
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @dns215.a.register.com www.crackedsidewalks.com ANY
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 32514
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.crackedsidewalks.com. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
;; Query time: 89 msec
;; SERVER: 216.21.231.215#53(216.21.231.215)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 08:03:24 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 81
Huh?
ghs.google.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
Let's review.
- When we do a normal Dig, we get no address information.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> www.crackedsidewalks.com A
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 10788
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.crackedsidewalks.com. IN A
;; Query time: 892 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 07:42:45 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 42 - When we do a targeted Dig, we see this extra "CNAME" pointing to itself.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @dns215.a.register.com www.crackedsidewalks.com ANY
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 32514
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.crackedsidewalks.com. IN ANY
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.crackedsidewalks.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
;; Query time: 89 msec
;; SERVER: 216.21.231.215#53(216.21.231.215)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 08:03:24 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 81 - If we did a Dig against a non existent virtual host, we'd get the SOA for the domain.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @localhost xxx.nitecruzr.net ANY
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 54073
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;xxx.nitecruzr.net. IN ANY
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
nitecruzr.net. 10800 IN SOA ns53.domaincontrol.com. dns.jomax.net. 2008032400 28800 7200 604800 86400
;; Query time: 174 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 16:08:57 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 103 - If we did a Dig against a non existent domain, we'd get the SOA for the TLD.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> @localhost xxx.nodomain.net ANY
; (2 servers found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 49125
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;xxx.nodomain.net. IN ANY
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
nodomain.net. 3600 IN SOA promoshare.biz. hostmaster.nodomain.net. 20446 900 600 86400 3600
;; Query time: 241 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 16:09:33 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 95 - Instead, we see no result. Looks like a dropped connection maybe. Or, a query that results in an endless loop, like a "CNAME" pointing to itself.
; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> www.crackedsidewalks.com A
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 10788
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.crackedsidewalks.com. IN A
;; Query time: 892 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 24 07:42:45 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 42
This looks like a bogus "CNAME" on the Register server "dns215.a.register.com".
ghs.google.com. 14400 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
If you talk directly to a Register CSR, make sure that they assist you properly. You'll need a proper custom domain configuration. Avoid URL forwarding, in any of its many variants.
(Update 11/25): Think this was strange? It gets stranger still the next day.
>> Top
2 comments:
I have the same problem with the bogus CNAME on the register server for my site www.politicalinaction.com. Is this leading to my DNS error and to blogger saying that a blog is already hosted at this address?
How do we fix it?
Brian,
My money says it's a Register snafu. I don't have any connection with Register though - so you and the others have to complain to them.
Escalate the matter, if the first CSR can't (won't) help. Request attention from a supervisor, and tell them that there are others with the same problem.
If it's not a Register mistake, then Register management have to contact Google directly. But it has to be handled at the Register management level.
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