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How do I know when my site has moved to a new server?

Feb 23, 2020 by Doug DePrenger

Changing servers is part of being in the internet world. A server may have old software, the hardware may not work well, or at all, with new server software, the server's disk may be too small, etc.

When a site has been moved to another server, the domain must be changed to point to the new server.

Once the DNS has been changed, the normal response is that it takes up to 24 hours for the new DNS information to propogate worldwide. We have found it normally takes 2 to 6 hours in the United States.

Here are several ways to check.

1) Use this tool to check the IP address of your domain:

https://pingtool.org/

Enter in your domain in the Target IP / Hostname : box, (erase what is in the box first) hit enter, and a 4-tuple of tests will show. If the IP address of the new server shows up, you are good to go.

OR

You can use a similar tool on your computer if you are using Windows.

  1. Ensure that you're using Windows desktop.
  2. Right click on the start menu (the 4 square icon on your taskbar which is usually on the bottom-left of the screen) and choose Command Prompt from the menu.
  3. Type in the command
    ping mydomain.com
  4. If successful, the message "Reply from 123.123.123.123" will appear four times.

For step 3, use your site's domain instead of mydomain.com

For step 4, the new IP address will appear instead of 123.123.123.123.

2) This will tell you throughout the US, how your new domain's DNS is propogating. Enter in your domain, click 'search' and the IP address of the server will appear in several cities throughout the US. Not all of them may be filled in. If some do not have the new server's IP address then wait longer. Also note, these are major cities; if you live on the outskirts or in a rural area, it may take longer. See step 1).

https://www.gdnspc.com/dns-propagation-checker/us.html

3) Something else that may speed things up is clearing your computer's DNS cache:

Windows 10

Flushing the DNS cache on Windows 10 is a very easy process. Due to system security permissions, you must ensure that you run the command prompt as an administrator user.

  1. Ensure that you're using Windows 10 desktop.
  2. Right click on the start menu (the 4 square icon on your taskbar which is usually on the bottom-left of the screen) and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
  3. Type in the command
    ipconfig /flushdns
  4. If successful, the message "Successfully flushed the DNS resolver cache" will appear.

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