DNS Zone Admin Changes

[wizhuff]

How long does it typically take for DNS Zone Admin Changes to take effect? 

For example, I made a CNAME change to have mail.domain.com go to ghs.google.com but as of 6 hours later it's still not.  I realize that the Webcontrol center said to give it up to 12 hours, but I've never seen it take that long, thinking something is wrong...

[Ben Amada]

If it's taking that long, there's probably a problem.

A couple of times in the past, when it was taking a long time, I contacted CT support and they were able to manually reload the zone (I think that's the expression).

Another possibility that happened to me once was when I was changing an MX record.  You're supposed to put the @ sign in one of the three fields.  I put in "MX" instead.  The control center took it and the DNS servers probably got updated with that value, but it's an invalid value.  After a few hours of waiting for the changes to take effect, I contacted CT support and found out about the invalid value.  Once I changed it to the correct @, the DNS changes took effect almost immediately.  It would be much better if the control center would warn you or not allow you to enter in a value that doesn't work.

You probably entered the CNAME record correctly, but if you didn't, that could be a reason for it not taking effect.

[Kevin[CT]]

Post your domain and I can take a look. Its hard to say how long DNS "typically" takes.

If the requester is inside the US, it can take as little as 20 minutes. If the requester is outside the US, it can take as little as 20 minutes aswell, however its more likely to take longer.

the best way to check DNS changes is to go to www.network-tools.com. As soon as a DNS change is made, this tool picks it up. I am not 100% certain, but I speculate this is because network-tools.com does not cache DNS queries like a normal DNS server does, so you, as a user, do not have to wait for the cached query on the DNS server to expire before it goes out to check the DNS again.

[wizhuff]

It did take that long, got up this morning and it's working.

However --

What's up with the whole there can not be more then 2 CNAME records?

So if you want calendar.domain.com, docs.domain.com, chat.domain.com, and mail.domain.com all pointing to Google your pretty much out of luck?

Ya i realize I could use ZoneEdit but after 5 domains I have to start paying for that....

[Kevin[CT]]

from what I gather, there really is no hard logic why we only allow 2 cnames. Its a combination of we are not a DNS host, and that cnames are out dated.

That doesnt mean your completely out of luck though. To a reasonable extent, last time I checked, if you need more than 2 cnames, you could just submit a ticket to support and we will add the records manually.

[wizhuff]

OK, i've made changes again to another domain on Saturday around 7 PM - it's been 24 hours and they still are not showing..... something is odd as too how long these DNS changes in the control panel are taking.

[wizhuff]

... and that cnames are out dated....

I'm not a networking person, but cnames is how Google Apps recommends (if not requires) you point your domain to Google Apps -- so I can't imagine it's that out dated.

[MorningZ]

the CNAME check by Google Apps is so you can keep the actual DNS pointing to wherever it currently is *and* allow them to confirm it's your domain, since you're in control, by using CNAME... that way during the process you aren't "breaking" your original, and working, DNS

[wizhuff]

the CNAME check by Google Apps is so you can keep the actual DNS pointing to wherever it currently is *and* allow them to confirm it's your domain, since you're in control, by using CNAME... that way during the process you aren't "breaking" your original, and working, DNS

I'm not talking about a CNAME check, I'm talking about pointing mail.domainname.whatever to ghs.google.com.  To do the confirm I just uploaded a html file to the server and the looked for it, although as you mention the CNAME was an option too, althought that would have taken forever.