After ordering a domain on our one.com website or transferring a domain to one.com, it can still take some time until your domain is active and a website is shown online.
In this article, we explain why this process takes time and how long it can take till your domain and its servers will be active.
- What happens after I've ordered my domain with one.com?
- When are the services at one.com active and ready to use?
- Why can it take longer before I can use the web space?
- New domain or transferring a domain to one.com?
- It's been more than 48 hours, I can still not use the web space
What happens after I've ordered my domain with one.com?
After ordering your domain and web hosting subscription, and depending on the domain extension, you need to activate your order first, before you can start using our products and features in your hosting plan.
When the web space on the subscription is active, this is usually when you have access to the one.com Control Panel for the domain, from then on the DNS servers will start to propagate.
When are the services at one.com active and ready to use?
After order activation, usually, our services are available within minutes. In some cases, this can take up to 24 hours. The exact time for this is hard to determine. However, most of the time, some or even all services work within 24 hours.
From the moment you have access to the Control Panel of the domain, you can get started. Although the servers are, at this point, not fully propagated, you can already make some preparations. For example, start building your website with our one.com Website Builder or create email accounts for your domain.
Why can it take longer before I can use the web space?
This is mainly because it takes some time until all servers and internet service providers (ISPs) worldwide know that your domain exists and where to find it, or that it can be found in another location from now on.
When a new domain is registered or a website is moved to a new server (with a different IP address), this causes a change of IP address. Every DNS server worldwide needs to update its record of what IP is associated with the domain. This is called propagation. Another important factor here is TTL caching.
DNS propagation applies to the entire server. This includes everything like website accessibility, mail and SSH/(S)FTP. Unfortunately, This cannot be avoided, and you have to wait for this automated process to complete.
Below we explain some concepts further:
DNS
DNS (Domain Name System) is a fundamental but complex part of the Internet infrastructure. It is a database where domain names are linked to IP addresses. Often compared to a telephone book, but instead of linking phone numbers to people, the DNS links domain names to IP addresses or websites.
Propagation
Propagation is the process of caching (storing) DNS records. Record information is stored in the cache for a certain amount of time before it's deleted or refreshed. DNS propagation is the time it takes for changes in DNS to be fully updated and in effect across all servers worldwide.
Until cache is reset, it will not display your website. But ultimately, propagation speeds up web browsing.
There is no way to tell when propagation is completed because each ISP uses an automated process, which can take up to 72 hours, although it often takes a few hours.
TTL
TTL (Time-To-Live) indicates the time information is stored in a cache before it's deleted or refreshed by a DNS server, e.g. your ISP. Because we don't know what TTL values are used on different servers, we can't make a time indication or state a specific time.
TTL is set in seconds:
Minimum TTL value: 600 seconds (10 minutes)
Maximum TTL value: 86400 seconds (24 hours)
Default TTL value: 3600 seconds (1 hour) - used if you leave the field empty
New domain or transferring a domain to one.com?
New domain
A limiting factor for newly ordered domains is how quickly the registry will add the domain to its servers. We must add the domain to our servers, and also the registry needs to add it on their end, which often takes a little longer.
Transferring a domain
When your web space with us has been activated, and you have confirmed the transfer, the actual domain transfer process starts. There is a longer DNS TTL to wait out for a transferred domain. And it's not only the DNS to wait out; also, depending on the domain extension and your current provider (registrar), it may take a few hours to several days until the domain is transferred to one.com.
Most country-code domain transfers usually take less than 24 hours, whereas other top-level domains may take longer.
However, the domain transfer process itself does not cause unavailable servers. When this occurs, it is after the transfer is completed and if the domain is using the default nameservers of your current registrar that are changed to ours. A domain can only be active in one place, on one server.
Tip: As long as your web hosting with the current registrar remains active, you can ask them to change the domain's name servers already to ours. You can then start working on your website right away.
Our name servers are: ns01.one.com and ns02.one.com.
It's been more than 48 hours, I can still not use the web space
If you have more questions or it's been more than 48 hours, and you cannot use your web space, there may be a different cause. You are welcome to contact our chat support to talk directly with one of our supporters. We are ready to help you further.
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