Update on our Server Move and What the Gremlins are Doing!

Just a quick update to let everyone know what’s been happening on ITS Tactical in the last 72 hours. (If you’re reading this via RSS and can’t access new articles on ITS Tactical, please read this update on Tumblr) We’ve been forced to not only change servers, but hosting companies entirely.

Our traffic went through the roof on Sunday, when an article was shared on Reddit. The dedicated server we’d just moved to was unable to keep up with the traffic demands and continuously crashed throughout the day.

Server Move and DNS Propagation

We quickly contacted another hosting company Sunday to start the process of moving our server after being severely dissatisfied with the downtime and inconsistent customer support. Most of Sunday was spent putting out fires and getting our new server configured.

Monday morning we started the process of uploading our site and database to the new server and changing the DNS (nameservers). If I’ve lost you already, don’t worry, I’ll explain. When you type in a URL or Website address into your browser, it looks up the IP address of that certain Website by querying the DNS set for that domain name.

Every Internet Service Provider, like AT&T or Charter, cache their DNS records. Meaning they make their own local copy instead of looking them up everytime a customer of theirs wants to view a Website. The upside to this means faster surfing, the downside means that it can take up to 72 hours for some ISPs to update their cached DNS copy. This updating process by ISPs is called DNS Propagation.

What’s unfortunately happening is that some that are visiting ITS Tactical through RSS or Social Media updates about our new articles and getting sent to the membership signup page. This is occuring because their ISP hasn’t cached a new copy of the DNS and that article is appearing to not exist to our membership software and it’s not playing nice. Most DNS Propagation is immediate, but can take up to 72 hours for some ISPs to update. There’s no standard set for ISPs to update DNS records, which is unfortunate.

We apologize for the Gremlins affecting our Website, but just know that this was a necessary step to take to ensure that as we continue to grow, we can grow with a hosting company that can handle our traffic and demands from all our supporters needing immediate access to all the awesomeness!!