HostUltra WebHosting and .ie domains

Tod__2004

Hey guys,

I see that the web hosting forum is now closed, missed all that lark,
but could do with some help.

I decided to change hosting companies and decided to go with hostultra
(www.hostultra.com) all seemed good and 24/7 support did sound handy.

Everything worked out ok, paid and account was active straight away
(which is always nice)

The problem is that for some strange reason my .ie domain name will not
change to their name servers.

There name servers are ns1.hostultra.com and ns2.hostultra.com

Hostultra 24/7 suppport keeps pawning me off to my registrar.

My registrar keeps pawning me off to hostultra.

I keep getting this message from the iedr see below ...

* * This is very important * * Please read it carefully * *

The IE Domain Registry accepted your request to register or modify a
domain on 2004-06-25

The verification of nameservers was not successful for your request.
Unsuccessful verifications are listed as 'Stalled List' at
http://www.iedr.ie/

This means the nameservers in your request are not ready to host your
domain. The administrators of the nameservers must correct the problems
before your request can be effected. In your capacity as Admin Contact
named in the request, you should contact the Technical Contact
who has responsibility for this. The IE Domain Registry CANNOT rectify
the problem as it lies with your nominated hosting provider.

The registry will recheck the nameserver setup every weekday evening
for a maximum of twenty working days and will complete the process once
the
nameserver configuration has been found to be correct. Requests without
verifiably correct nameservice after twenty days will be deemed to have
lapsed.

The nameserver errors are shown below. Please ensure the responsible
person is notified. The nameservers being tested are listed below

NS1.HOSTULTRA.COM
NS2.HOSTULTRA.COM

==== Verification Results ===========================================

OK: 14:35:30 UTC on Mon 28 Jun 2004
OK: Verifying zone gallery.ie.
OK: Starting verification from server NS1.HOSTULTRA.COM
OK: Requesting NS list for zone gallery.ie. from NS1.HOSTULTRA.COM
OK: Requesting SOA for zone gallery.ie. from server ns2.hostultra.com
OK: Querying server ns2.hostultra.com as ns2.hostultra.com
OK: Requesting SOA for zone gallery.ie. from server ns1.hostultra.com
OK: Querying server ns1.hostultra.com as 146.100.64.235
OK: Authoritative answer for gallery.ie./SOA (2004062502) from server
ns2.hostultra.com
FATAL: Authoritative answers obtained from only one nameserver
FATAL: At least two authoritative name servers are required
FATAL: Verification failed for zone gallery.ie.
FATAL: 14:36:46 GMT on Mon 28 Jun 2004



Now it looks like to me that there is a problem with their name server
ns2.hostultra.com

The guys at register 365 kindly advised me that .com, .net, .org etc
only require one nameserver to work, but .ie is different. It is
mandatory that both name servers are working ok before the .ie domain
will point to the new name servers

I have said this to hostultra and they are addament that everything is
ok at there end.

What I need to know is this,
1) has anyone ever dealt with this crowd?
2) does the hosting company need to setup anything different at their
end (that may be causing this not to change over smoothly.

Thanks everyone in advance
(sorry for posting on this board)
tod

Sposs

Hi Tod,

This is probably not the best place to be discussing this,put im afraid there is nothing (register365) and can do on our end , the stalled request is due to hostultra not having the second nameserver set up for that domain.

If you would like you can change the nameservers to ourselves and we will put in place a cloaked redirection to your site, PM me or drop me a mail to domains@hosting365.ie and let me know what you would like us to do.

FreeHost

Yes, this is not unusual especially with foreign hosts, as Sposs said the IEDR rules state the domain name must answer on at least two nameservers before they will effect a change.

The keyword here is “answer” the record must be on their second nameserver.

Host Ultra probably has an automated system for adding domain names to their servers, they will have to manually add it to their second nameserver (if their software doesn’t do it automatically) for it to resolve.

Tod__2004

The funny thing is I was telling them for 8 days that there was something wrong with ns2.hostultra.com and they wouldnt listen "problem with your registrar ...blabla"

On the 9th day he admitted there was something wrong at their side ...quote hostultra

Support : The name server ns2.hostultra.com seems to have some
problems.
Support : We are working on it..
Support : Once the problem is solved we will update you thrugh the
ticket'
tod : do you know wat the issue is?
Support : The name server is pointed to some other machine..
tod : agh fair enough ,can you give me a rough estimate on etr?
1, 2 days?
Support : Sure..
Support : I will try to solve the problem today itself..


....then 2 hours later ...


..."Hello,

I have added both the nameservers (ns1.hostultra.com and ns2.hostultra.com) to
the SOA in the DNS zone for your domain on our nameservers. You should have no
problems registering it now.



.....And now another 6 days later they are back to blaming it on the iedr.

Fair enough the methodology is different, some extra work is required for .ie domains on their (hu) behalf, but they simply dont care, couldnt be bothered and bascially dont give a crap after they've taken your money its byebye. eg They have PHP live, when you initiate a live chat session they close ur session. Even when they decide to open the chat session they say hello, hang up again and then go offline until they see ur not logged in. Increddible for a company who boasts about their 24/7 support. People stay away from this one!

dahamsta

They're both answering fine now, just ask the IEDR to rerun verification.

[abeecher@johnhoop abeecher]$ dig @ns1.hostultra.com gallery.ie ANY

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @ns1.hostultra.com gallery.ie ANY
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 22844
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gallery.ie.                    IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      MX      0 gallery.ie.
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      SOA     ns1.hostultra.com. ns2.hostultra.com. 2004062502 14400 7200 3600000 86400
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      NS      ns1.hostultra.com.
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      NS      ns2.hostultra.com.
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      A       67.15.42.12

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      A       67.15.42.12
ns1.hostultra.com.      14400   IN      A       146.100.64.235

;; Query time: 3 msec
;; SERVER: 67.15.42.12#53(ns1.hostultra.com)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 29 18:39:03 2004
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 177

[abeecher@johnhoop abeecher]$ dig @ns2.hostultra.com gallery.ie ANY

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @ns2.hostultra.com gallery.ie ANY
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37550
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gallery.ie.                    IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      MX      0 gallery.ie.
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      SOA     ns1.hostultra.com. ns2.hostultra.com. 2004062502 14400 7200 3600000 86400
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      NS      ns1.hostultra.com.
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      NS      ns2.hostultra.com.
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      A       67.15.42.12

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
gallery.ie.             14400   IN      A       67.15.42.12
ns1.hostultra.com.      14400   IN      A       146.100.64.235

;; Query time: 3 msec
;; SERVER: 67.15.42.108#53(ns2.hostultra.com)
;; WHEN: Tue Jun 29 18:39:05 2004
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 177

Tod__2004

Thanks Dahamsta ,

Hostultra just sent me the exact segment you sent (dig command) their support are actually interested now, maybe this post as something to do with them getting their asses into action ...lol

...will let everyone know my end result in here either way.

Tod

dahamsta

Actually now I come to think of it you don't need to tell the IEDR anything, verification runs automatically every night. If you get another error notice in the morning, you should ask the IEDR to look at their routing to HostUltra.

adam

mneylon

We see a lot of this with non-Irish hosting companies as well.

The frightening thing is that a lot of them don't understand why their DNS is fundamentally wrong.

Tod__2004

Hey everyone,

still having trouble with hostultra and their second name server ns2.hostultra.com ... I got an email from Host Ultra Support stating that everything should be ok. But it aint .... does anyone have suggestions on the following ... (email from HU)

=============================================

By default only one name server will be added to the SOA record if we are
creating the Zone DB file through the c-panel. It should ok fine in most of the
cases. But on some rare occasions both the name servers should be added to the
SOA record to complete the Registration process successfully. So we have made
the required changes on our zone database files, as given below. In the
configuration file below generally only one name server is enough. We have
addeed the second name server also because from your registrar's error message
it seems that the second name server also should be added in the SOA record.

Please forward this reply to your registrar and let us know whether there is any
custom changes to be made on the Zone DB file.

==============================================



Is there any changes to be made on the zone DB file ?

Thanks in advance

mneylon

It "sounds" like they may have got it right.
Basically they need to have records in both their nameservers. Their default setup is to add records to only one nameserver, which is actually incorrect.
Both name servers should be announcing the zone.

Test the domain using:
http://www.zonecheck.fr/demo/

The IEDR's DNS check runs twice a day on all domains in the "stalled" list, once at around 10.30 am and once at around 3.30PM, so you will know for sure tomorrow morning if it is working.

If you are still having issues you may want to explore getting your DNS hosted by somebody else.

jmcc

Originally posted by dahamsta

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
gallery.ie. 14400 IN A 67.15.42.12
ns1.hostultra.com. 14400 IN A 146.100.64.235
[/code]

When I do a host -ta ns1.hostultra.com I get an IP of 67.15.42.12 and for ns2 I get an IP of 67.15.42.108.

Now when I run a dig for ns1.hostultra.com @ns2.hostultra.com I get an IP for ns1.hostultra.com as 146.100.64.235

When I try that IP for a dig query, I get a timeout. At a rough guess, this could be a problem. ns2.hostultra.com seems to be visible but the primary DNS for hostultra.com is fscked. Then they could be blocking queries on port 53. Either way if the first DNS is not answering, this is a bad thing.

I can run a check on hostultra.com later tonight to check what kind of a hoster that hostultra.com is in terms of domains hosted etc. However purely on instinct, it is a reseller. The WHOIS information shows the domain hostultra.com registered to a PO Box in Singapore. However the IP assigned to gallery.ie is owned by Everyones Internet Inc (ev1.net). Looks like a vanilla McHosting reseller operation. And I think it is the only hostultra.com entry in the entire .ie zone (when it finally works). Purely on a commercial basis, if you are running a .ie, then hosting with a local hosting services provider is a good thing. It can save a lot of time and hassle.

As for adding ns2.hostultra.com to the SOA, it does not make that much sense. The typical procedure is that the main namerver followed by the contact for that server are in the SOA. Eg: boards.ie SOA auth01.ns.esat.net. hostmaster.esat.net. 2004040201 etc. The @ symbol is replaced by a . in the contact address.

Regards...jmcc

Tod__2004

Hey everyone,

just an update on this whole saga !!! Just to re iterate HOST ULTRA are crap, their support is crap, everything about hostultra is CRAP .....stay away from this crowd, all they are good for is taking your money and providing crap non existent (24/7 ya right)support. I am now going back to my original hoster

And an added note, for those of you who are even thinking about getting hosting plans outside of Ireland with .ie domains think long and hard about it. Double check with the hosting company if they are willing to configure their nameservers at their end to host .ie domains ....ask if they are hosting any .ie domain names and finally check if there is a money back guarantee (for that extra peace of mind)