I registered a new domain name. While in the process of registration I checked on the new domain name that showed a default page. I should have not done it in the first place checking on a site with incomplete domain name registration. Once the registration was completed I pointed the new domain name to my web server. And I created a new "Hello World" page. However, the new page didn't show up on a browser on my laptop.
However, it showed up on my smartphone. And it showed up on my son's smartphone. It just didn't show up on my laptop. It showed the original default page instead. After a few trials the default page became very suspicious to me. Searches on the Internet pointed to a potential browser malware. And I spent a few hours hunting for the malware that eventually never existed.
I looked up using a different browser and I made a query using curl. All responded with the same suspicious default page. Thus, it had nothing to do with the browsers or their potential malware. Maybe it was a malware in the operating system. I just could not get my mind out of malware.
The Internet suggested that I flush my dns cache, and I did. It should solve my problem but I still got the same thing. The nslookup command showed a wrong IP address. The ping command also showed the wrong IP address. It didn't show my web server IP address. It showed the IP address of the server that host the default page. Somehow there must be a dns cache along the trail from the browser on my laptop to my new page, which misbehaved.
After a long pondering, the nslookup command pointed me to a dns server on my smartphone. I didn't expected that there is a dns server on my smartphone. I was tethering my smartphone to my laptop. The problem had nothing to do with my laptop after all. It has nothing to do with a browser malware or an operating system malware. Hours already wasted.
I just flushed the dns cache on my smartphone, and the problem went away. How did I do that? I was using an Android with the Chrome browser which controlled the dns cache. The command to clear or flush the dns cache was buried deep beneath the Chrome browser. I entered the following into the address bar:
chrome://net-internals/#dns
A some sort of dns page appeared with an item Host resolver cache followed with a button Clear host cache. I pressed the button, and my problem solved.
I had to tell this story because the attempt to solve the problem was larger than the simple solution. The problem was created because I checked on a new domain name before it was completely registered and before it was pointed to my web server. I had no idea why a new domain name being registered was parked on a temporary web server and caused a dns cache havoc to me.
However, it showed up on my smartphone. And it showed up on my son's smartphone. It just didn't show up on my laptop. It showed the original default page instead. After a few trials the default page became very suspicious to me. Searches on the Internet pointed to a potential browser malware. And I spent a few hours hunting for the malware that eventually never existed.
I looked up using a different browser and I made a query using curl. All responded with the same suspicious default page. Thus, it had nothing to do with the browsers or their potential malware. Maybe it was a malware in the operating system. I just could not get my mind out of malware.
The Internet suggested that I flush my dns cache, and I did. It should solve my problem but I still got the same thing. The nslookup command showed a wrong IP address. The ping command also showed the wrong IP address. It didn't show my web server IP address. It showed the IP address of the server that host the default page. Somehow there must be a dns cache along the trail from the browser on my laptop to my new page, which misbehaved.
After a long pondering, the nslookup command pointed me to a dns server on my smartphone. I didn't expected that there is a dns server on my smartphone. I was tethering my smartphone to my laptop. The problem had nothing to do with my laptop after all. It has nothing to do with a browser malware or an operating system malware. Hours already wasted.
I just flushed the dns cache on my smartphone, and the problem went away. How did I do that? I was using an Android with the Chrome browser which controlled the dns cache. The command to clear or flush the dns cache was buried deep beneath the Chrome browser. I entered the following into the address bar:
chrome://net-internals/#dns
A some sort of dns page appeared with an item Host resolver cache followed with a button Clear host cache. I pressed the button, and my problem solved.
I had to tell this story because the attempt to solve the problem was larger than the simple solution. The problem was created because I checked on a new domain name before it was completely registered and before it was pointed to my web server. I had no idea why a new domain name being registered was parked on a temporary web server and caused a dns cache havoc to me.
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