Help! Broke my forum trying to change domain names

[CJP]

Long story short I'm rebranding my forum but bringing over all existing content. So I purchased a new domain and went to my host (Known Host) and updated the primary domain there and changed the host name from e.g. from abc.com to xyz.com and from host.abc.com to host.xyz.com

I also went in at my domain registrar and changed the name servers to match from ns1.abc.com to ns1.xyz.com as that's how they were set up with my old domain.

Now when I go to my site I can't get in and do anything with either URL. If I load the old URL, the site loads but with no formatting and if I try to enter a sub-forum I get an error. I also get the same error trying to enter the admin panel.

I know all the data and everything is still there so I'm not totally panicking but I would like to get my site back up as soon as possible.

 

[AndyB]

I also went in at my domain registrar and changed the name servers

This could take a little while to propagate.

 

[WSWD]

Knownhost should be able to help you with this, and verify whether it is a propagation issue or something else. They are a fully managed provider. Take advantage of that!

 

[CJP]

Thanks guys. The site is all up and running again but DNS is being slow. I forwarded my old domain to my server's IP and that is working for some users but funny enough, not working for me. Nothing is showing up under the new domain at all yet.

 

[BoostN]

Thanks guys. The site is all up and running again but DNS is being slow. I forwarded my old domain to my server's IP and that is working for some users but funny enough, not working for me. Nothing is showing up under the new domain at all yet.

Do a NSLOOKUP from the command line and see what it's returning. If it's the OLD IP, then that's your problem. Changing your PC's DNS to Googles (or Cloudfares) would probably help speed up this process as well.

Here is an example for xenforo.com

 

[webbouk]

Try doing a temporary change to your hosts file until your ISP clears it's cache ...

https://www.siteground.com/kb/how_to_use_the_hosts_file/

You could also try flushing your PC's DNS cache:
https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+clear+dns+cache&gws_rd=ssl

 

[CJP]

Everything is working again now. Probably too many changes at once. The issue was the hostname changed but the IP didn't. Then I needed to point the new domain name at the existing IP etc. DNS can be finicky as far as how quickly it updates.