From apnsGuide

Usage

There are no usage notes for DNS. DNS hosting service is provided with all hosting accounts on Apis Networks.

If you are using DNS hosting service through Apis Networks for your domain names, then DNS may be individually managed for each domain under DNS Manager in apnscp esprit.

Questions

What are the nameservers for my domain?

The nameservers are ns1.apisnetworks.com with the IP address 64.22.68.59 and ns2.apisnetworks.com with the IP address 64.22.68.60.

Setting Up Hosted Gmail

Google provides the DNS records in reverse order to how they should be entered into DNS Manager in the control panel. The priority is listed to the right of the host, which needs to be entered priority followed by host. For example, the following MX record listed by Google as ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. 1 should be entered into the DNS Manager as 1 ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM..

Important: the period at the end of the host is critical. Otherwise the host will append your domain name at the end. Be sure to remove all other MX records on the domain before adding Google's custom MX records.

How long does DNS propagation take?

If you are changing nameservers over to Apis Networks' servers, then the process on average takes up to 24 hours for DNS resolvers to expunge their cached entries and query ns1/2.apisnetworks.com for the IP address of your Web site. Even though you may be able to immediately access the correct IP address, that behavior is only guaranteed through your ISP's DNS resolver. To be safe we recommend a 24 hour window of overlap where some users may access your old site and some may access the new site. This also applies to e-mail delivery.

Reducing the 24 hour propagation window

The 24 hour propagation window may be effectively minimized to 60 seconds or less following proper procedure. You need a fair understanding of DNS records and roughly 5 days to complete the process with minimal downtime.

1. Setup the account with Apis Networks, but keep your account opened with your old hosting provider.
2. If you have access to modify DNS TTL (time-to-live) information on your old host, set the values for all records to 60 seconds and skip to step 4.
3. If you do not have access to modify DNS TTL values, then you will need to replicate the DNS on your old host. This is comprised of the A records to your Web site and mail server, and MX records for handling e-mail delivery. You may lookup the information using the common program dig or through a Web-based interface like Network-Tools' "DNS Records" utility. First lookup the A record for your domain name, i.e. apisnetworks.com. Next, lookup the value for the www subdomain, i.e. www.apisnetworks.com. Copy down the IP addresses for these two records and replace the DNS records in apnscp esprit's DNS Manager with the old values. Change the TTL field from the default value of 86400 (1 day) to 60 (60 seconds).
   1. Optionally, if you have any subdomains, e.g. mail.apisnetworks.com or forums.apisnetworks.com, then look up the A records associated with these hosts and add them to the DNS Manager. For the sake of brevity, you may use the wildcard A record named *. This maps every subdomain not explicitly named to the IP address defined in DNS Manager.
   2. Change the nameservers to ns1.apisnetworks.com and ns2.apisnetworks.com through the registrar of your domain, then wait 48 hours for nameserver changes to propagate and the new TTL values to appear.
4. Login to apnscp esprit and copy down the IP address listed under IP Address. This is the IP address of your account on Apis Networks. The mail server and Web server addresses both point to this address.
5. Visit DNS Manager 2-3 days later and change the TTL values back to their default value of 86400 seconds and replace all occurrences of the old IP address with the value listed in apnscp esprit. Once the changes have been made to DNS Manager you will be accessing your account with Apis Networks as will everyone else. The 24 hour window has been reduced to 60 seconds, which in turn mitigates the inevitable downtime of switching hosting providers. Make sure you have anything setup properly on the server before switching over, because your site will be live at that time.

Accessing your domain before changing DNS

Often times when switching hosting companies we would like to see what our domain name looks like before changing DNS to point to Apis. Overriding DNS is done through the hosts file on Windows, Linux, and Mac. Location depends on the operating system. On Windows it's under %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, Linux /etc/host.conf, and /private/etc/hosts on a Mac.

Your domain's IP address with Apis is listed next to the IP Address field in the dashboard under Account Overview. Copy this IP address down. Once you switch nameservers to ns1.apisnetworks.com and ns2.apisnetworks.com, your domain will resolve to this address.

Open up the hosts file with any text editor. We'll use notepad on Windows for this example.

Start-> Run-> notepad %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Scroll to the bottom of the file and the IP address previously copied down followed by www.domain where domain is your domain name. An example entry is provided below. Note that the www. is significant. Only www.domain will resolve to the IP address listed in the hosts file. If you would like http://domain/ to work as well, then add a corresponding entry inside the file. Save, reload your browser, and access http://www.domain/. You are now viewing your domain on Apis.

Warning: If you are running Vista and receive an "access denied" error message, then see the following knowledge base article on Microsoft's site.

Troubleshooting

My domain has recently stopped working

Check first that your domain has not expired. Many domain registrars immediately cut off the domain name once it has lapsed past the renewal date. You may find the domain expiration date in apnscp esprit under "Account Overview". If your domain has been properly paid for through the registrar, then feel free to open up a ticket in the control panel.