Accessing your Website when DNS servers are down

Recently Dreamhost had DNS problems and my site was not available for almost 12 hours. But I managed to update my site even when the DNS server was down! The trick is to tell your browser that you know the IP address and there is no need to do a DNS lookup. Following example assumes that you use Windows system.

First search for a file named “hosts” inside your windows installation. It is typically located under “c:/SYSROOT/system32/drivers/etc”. Open this file. It looks something like below. Note the entry for “jaysonjc.com”. Substitute your IP and domain name here.

You local DNS cache

There are two ways to find your IP address. One way is to use services such as Host2IP. You can also find your IP address from the Dreamhost panel. Look for IP in panel->manage domain->DNS

My DNS entries in DH

Please note that domain to IP adress translation is not static. This means your IP address can change! So use this technique only when you know that DNS server is down. Once it is back online, delete the entry from hosts file.
 

This entry was posted on Friday, May 25th, 2007 at 11:17 am and is filed under Howtos, Tech. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Accessing your Website when DNS servers are down”

  • 1
    MadV
    May 25th, 2007 18:08

    Nice blog you’ve got :-). Managed very well. I liked your presentation style very much.

    Keep writing so that people like me keep on visiting in search of good info :-P.

  • 2
    Binny V A
    May 25th, 2007 22:53

    Now if only all the people in the world would add the ip address of my site to there hosts file. ;-)

Leave a Reply