Internet Explorer DNS, Cache

Question

I was hoping someone may be able to help me out with a specific IE issue as I'm unable to replicate it with VMWare.

I recently changed an IP address of a site that I host. In the short time while I was getting the DNS records updated the client viewed the website using Internet Explorer. The server responded with its standard "Website misconfiguration issue, possibly because the IP changed." (that's the short version)

The DNS was updated, the site is again showing correctly, however the client is still seeing the error message.

What I have done:

• Asked them to hit F5
• Clear browser cache
• Ipconfig /flushdns
• I asked them to ping the domain and it responds back with the new IP address.
• Access the site via IP - can see the new site.
• Click on a menu item and they can go to any page, but when they go to the homepage the "error page appears again"

I'm at a loss at the moment.

Answer 1

Hope this info helps other people.

I cant explain why this works, but it did.

IE9 has an inPrivate Browsing option. I simply turned that on browsed to the webpage and I could see the homepage. Close the private browser down, and was able to view the site as per normal.

Answer 2

Internet explorer has another internal DNS cache which stores the DNS entries for 30 minutes.

After flushing the DNS of the computer, you may either close the browser to reset the internal cache of Internet Explorer, or wait for 30 minutes.

For details: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/263558/how-internet-explorer-uses-the-cache-for-dns-host-entries