Switching ISPs 1

[mugs82]

Greetings All.

My company currently uses a fractional T. We host our own website and email. We are going to switch from our current ISP to a new ISP and a full T. Our DNS is hosted by the old ISP

The switch is going to take place on a Friday morning around 11am. I sent out an email notifying everyone that the internet would be down for about about 3 hours while we activated the new circuit and reconfigured our router with the new ISP's settings and that there would also be a time frame (2-48 hours) in which our DNS records would be changing that would cause problems for some with incoming email and the ability to connect to our website.

Well, a few in Senior Management went postal. How could we be doing this in the middle of the day (ISP is huge...this was the only time they had unless we wanted to wait for a few weeks). Of course, their concerns are valid: Customers may be trying to order from our website and some customers email in orders. However, we aren't set up to provide uninteruptable web hosting and such.

I do not have a spare router to activate the new circuit with before doing the DNS switch. I am going to get pounded for this...anyway...I was wondering what you guys thought and how you would handle senior managements concerns.

 

[ChrisAC]

If planned right then there shouldn't be a 2-48 hour period where your web site or mail server is unreachable due to DNS propagation. You should have lowered your TTL's on the domain at least a week before the changeover so that when you bring the new circuit up and change the DNS settings, that information should be able to propagate around the world in less than fifteen minutes.

Changing over the router should only be a half hour job if planned right with the proper support from the new ISP and so the whole shebang could be up and running, new circuit and correct DNS in forty five minutes. Much better that 2-48 hours!!

Chris.


**********************
Chris Andrew, CCNA, CCSA
chris@iproute.co.uk
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[mugs82]

Sounds good to me. Where do I lower the TTLs? Do I have to call the old ISP and tell them to do this? What will the immediate effects be?

Thank you very much for your response.

 

[mugs82]

Hey - I think I answered my own questions. Thanks again for your assistance.