DNS Annoyance

If you’re ever considering a registrar change, then listen up

i.e., GoDaddy to Hover

I recently transferred my domain, scottwyden.com, from GoDaddy to Hover.com and it turns out that Hover made an error.

I’ve worked with a lot of domains, and never experienced this issue before. Fortunately, I always protect myself when making important changes to my website.

Turned out that Hover did not transfer my DNS information over like so many registrars do. So that meant that:

– My website was down
– My invoice software was down
– My CDN was down
– My email was down

and so on…

Now, because I use WP Engine (https://scottwyden.com/wordpress-hosting-for-photographers/) , my site was still live for many people due to caching and whatnot. Cool, right? But for me and many others, it was down.

So how did I protect myself? Here is my tip… Whenever doing something important always have a backup.

For example, if you’re making changes to your website, use a backup tool. (https://www.photocrati.com/help-prevent-wordpress-site-breaking-hacked/) Running WordPress? Use BackupBuddy or WP2DB. On WP Engine? They have backups built-in which rocks!

As a backup for my DNS, I grabbed a screenshot of all the GoDaddy DNS settings on one screen. Then when on Hover, I manually re-added them all until it matched word for word and digit for digit. A few minutes later and I was back online.

Moral of the story… have a backup plan.

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