Hi, I am new to administering a VPS server so perhaps I am overlooking something basic, but here goes:

I am migrating three websites from shared hosting to my newly configured Xen VPS running Ubuntu 10.04. I have successfully configured Apache2/MySQL/PHP, etc, and tested functionality on a test domain. Everything appears to be working fine with this setup.

I have set up a domain in the linode manager for one of the websites I will be migrating. I understand that until I change the nameservers to Linode.com that the change will not go live across the internet.

I have set up a virtual host in Apache for the domain, and copied the website files into the correct folder on the server.

Finally, to test that everything is functioning correctly on the new server, and prior to propagating the new nameserver info, I have edited the /etc/hosts file on my local Ubuntu 10.04 desktop machine.

From reading various documents available on Google, I understand this should redirect the local machine to the new server. But the problem is that it doesn't seem to work.

I have installed DNS flushing plugins in Firefox and they are displaying the IP address of my Linode. But I know that when I type in the website name I am seeing the one on the old host. (I have verified this using various means such as renaming the folder / changing files on the new server so that things should display differently).

Pinging from my local machine has confirmed that the /etc/hosts file is being read as it resolves to the Linode server. I can also SSH into the Linode server using the domain name.

Does anybody have any ideas about what might be causing the problem?

[EDIT] - I have verified that if I type in the IP address of the machine, I can view the website on the new server. This still leaves my question unanswered though, as I want to test things using the FQDN.


[SOLVED] - Transparent proxy caching installed by my ISP. I'm not the only one on my ISP having these issues.

Sorry, I don't have help for your /etc/hosts problem, but I do have a suggestion on this part.

Changing the nameservers can take a day or so to propagate around the internet, so if you do it this way, you will have some lag time where some users are hitting old and some new.

To avoid this, put your old server's IP into the linode DNS manager, turn the TTL down low (an hour or even lower if you want). Change your registrar to point to linode's nameservers. Wait a day or two. At this point, the world is still going to your old site, but via linode's DNS. Then, when you're ready, you just change the linode DNS Manager to point to your linode and the world should be at the new site within an hour or so instead of a day or so.