Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

When a website is placed online for the first time, it takes a little while for the DNS (Domain Name Server) changes to propagate through the internet. Some Internet Service Providers (ISP's) have a very short Time To Live (TTL) setting with their DNS updating, such as Optus, iPrimus and Bigpond. However there are many which do not, such as 3Mobile. It has been our experience that the large ISP's are all aware of new websites quickly, however 3Mobile can take up to an additional 48 hours before their network can see the new website. It doesn't matter how much you contact 3Mobile tech support they simply don't do anything about it. Of course they often say they can see the website so the issue is your computer, however they neglect to mention that they are not using the mobile network, instead they would be using a cable or wired network, and there is no guarantee that they are even located in the same country as you, so the fact that they can access the website is completely irrelevant, they need to test access to that website from the same network (ip block range) as you are using.

It could also be an issue that you are behind a Proxy Server. In that case you must wait for the Proxy Server to update.

What is a Proxy Server? Well a Proxy Server is a computer or application that acts as the middle man for requests from your computer to the internet. Your computer sends requests to the internet (to view a website for example). This request is first processed by the Proxy Server. If the Proxy Server identifies that information is already stored in its "cache" then it will display that cache information, instead of submitting your request to the actual website you requested.

What does this mean? Well you are at the mercy of when the Proxy Server updates its cache, and as a result means that you are often left looking at obsolete website content, that could be only a few hours old up to a few days old. There are many benefits in using Proxies, however delays and outdated content is one large disadvantage.

If your website has recently been transferred to our server and we are now your website host, the same problems still exist. Once the DNS settings for your Domain Name have been updated, those changes need to propagate through the internet, and once again require that each ISP processes those changes promptly. It is our experience that mobile networks (such as 3Mobile) simply do not do this, so if you are trying to access your new website or your newly hosted website from a wireless network, please allow an additional two days for the changes to be in effect. Or change to a better ISP.

If your website has just been updated and you can not see the latest changes then you can try forcing a hard refresh. While viewing the website in your web browser, hold down the CTRL key and press F5 Key, then let both keys go. Doing a CTRL-F5 requests the browser to ignore all local cache content and request that website page again. Often doing this can resolve the issue if it was related to a local cache hit. The other option is to clear the cache in your web browser. For Internet Explorer version 7+ click on Tools and then Internet Options.