34
Spent 4 hours chasing a DNS issue that turned out to be one missing period
I was debugging why my home server kept failing to reach an external API last Tuesday, and I checked everything from firewall rules to certificate expiration. Turns out I forgot a trailing period in a CNAME record, which made the whole thing silently break. Anyone else waste ridiculous time on tiny typos like this?
4 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In4 Comments
caleb_bell55h ago
Blame the DNS resolver caching the bad record for days too. I had a similar typo once and even after fixing the record my router still held onto the broken copy for like 4 hours. Next time run a flush command before you spiral into firewall edits.
8
dianawilson4h ago
Friend of mine did the same thing with his business site. He fixed the DNS record but his ISP's DNS cache was stuck on the wrong IP for almost 2 full days. Lost a bunch of orders because people couldn't reach the checkout page. I told him to try flushing his local DNS first, but then we found out the router itself was also caching the old record. Ended up having to restart the whole network gear to clear it out. Pain in the ass really.
6
kevinallen3h ago
Got a buddy who spent an entire Saturday rebuilding his entire home lab setup because a single underscore in a TXT record broke his email. He didn't catch it until his wife asked why all the server racks were pulled out on the living room floor.
6