Help with DNS error messages

[Barry Margolin]

In article <fspevr$4tj$1 at sf1.isc.org>,
 "Funwithme" <funwithme at engconcepts.net> wrote:

> I have a webhosting company IX webhosting.com and they host several of my 
> sites. They are about to relocate all the sites to a new physical location 
> and naturally they didn't plan well enough to make sure the sites stay 
> visible and so this weekend all the sites will crash.  What I want to do is 
> try to get them to setup a page on a remote server that simply hosts the 
> error pages.  Instead of the idiotic HTML404 error page I want them to post 
> a page that simply tells what is happening and that customers can try again 
> in 2 or 3 days.  Naturally their management console allows me to create 
> custom error pages but those will be unavailbale as well as the site so that 
> is not a solution.  I am wanting them to designate a location that serves as 
> the backup location for the error pages and have a server that will not be 
> moved hosting the error page.
> 
> I am certain that the DNS protocol allows companies to move web hosting 
> servers without killing thousands of customer sites if the hosting company 
> does a good job of planning.  I just need help telling them how to do it.

They need to contract with ANOTHER web hosting service, who will host 
this error page.  Then when they shut down their servers, they can point 
your domain to the address of the error page server.

The other thing they need to do is reduce your domain's TTL in advance 
of the shutdown.  Whatever the current TTL is, they need to reduce the 
TTL at least that far in advance.

On a non-technical note, I hope you'll be getting a credit for all the 
days that your site is unavailable.  This probably won't make up for the 
lost revenue from your sites, but it's presumably the most your contract 
allows.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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