Chykalophia Docs

A troubleshooting guide for the most frequent DNS problems — including website not loading, email not working, and SSL errors after DNS changes.

DNS problems can make your website unreachable or your email stop working. Most issues fall into a small set of common patterns, and many can be diagnosed and fixed quickly. This guide walks through the most frequent DNS problems and what to do about each one.

Quick summary

The most common DNS problems are: incorrect record values, missing records, changes not propagating yet, duplicate conflicting records, and forgetting to set up email records after changing nameservers. Check your DNS records carefully and give changes time to propagate before concluding something is broken. Registrars commonly ask you to allow 24 to 48 hours for a nameserver change; if it's still wrong after that, something is probably misconfigured.

Problem 1: Website not loading after a DNS change

Symptoms: Site shows an error, is unreachable, or still shows the old site.

Likely causes and fixes:

Cause	Fix
DNS propagation still in progress	Give it time; check progress at whatsmydns.net
Incorrect IP address in A record	Double-check the IP address against what your host provided
A record pointing to wrong server	Verify the IP address matches your current host's server
www CNAME not set up	Add a CNAME for `www` pointing to your root domain
Old nameservers still in place	Verify nameserver changes at your registrar; allow time to propagate

Try viewing your site in an incognito/private browser window. If it loads there but not normally, your browser may have cached the old DNS. See Browser cache and hard refresh.

Problem 2: Email not working after changing nameservers

Symptoms: Incoming email not arriving; outgoing email bouncing; email marked as undeliverable.

This is one of the most common problems after migrating to a new host or DNS provider. When you change nameservers, all DNS records need to be recreated at the new provider — including MX records.

Fix:

Log in to your new nameserver provider (e.g., Cloudflare, new registrar).

Check if MX records exist for your domain. If they're missing, that's the problem.

Add the correct MX records from your email provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.). These are usually listed in your email provider's help documentation.

Allow propagation time. Email should start flowing once the MX records are correct and any cached copies of the old records have expired.

Also check that SPF and DKIM TXT records were transferred. See Email DNS records.

Problem 3: SSL/HTTPS errors after DNS changes

Symptoms: Browser shows "Your connection is not private" or "Not secure" warning.

Likely causes:

SSL certificate hasn't been issued yet for the new configuration
Your hosting account needs to provision SSL for the new domain
Mixed content — some elements loading over HTTP on an HTTPS page

Fix: Contact your host or us. SSL is usually issued automatically once DNS points at the correct server, though it isn't always instant. If the error persists, we'll need to check the SSL provisioning status.

Problem 4: Domain not found (NXDOMAIN)

Symptoms: "Server not found" or "DNS address could not be found" errors.

Likely causes:

Domain has expired. See What happens when a domain expires.
Nameservers are misconfigured or pointing to servers that no longer exist.
A record has been deleted accidentally.

Fix: Check your domain's status and nameserver settings at your registrar. Look the domain up with ICANN Lookup to confirm it's still active and the nameservers are correct.

Problem 5: Duplicate or conflicting records

Symptoms: Inconsistent behavior; site loads sometimes and not others; email delivers to some people but not others.

Likely cause: Multiple DNS records of the same type for the same name, with different values. For example, two A records for @ with different IP addresses, or two SPF TXT records.

Fix: Review your DNS records carefully. Remove duplicates. For SPF, consolidate into a single record — the SPF standard (RFC 7208) says a domain must not publish more than one SPF record, and a checker that finds two returns a permanent error rather than picking one. For A records, keep only the one with the correct IP address.

Problem 6: Changes not taking effect

Symptoms: You've saved a DNS change but nothing has changed.

Possible causes:

The change didn't save correctly. Log in to your DNS panel and verify the record is actually there with the new value.
The old record is still cached. Check the TTL on the record; you may need to wait for it to expire.
You edited the wrong record. Make sure you edited the record for the right hostname.

Tools for diagnosing DNS problems

Tool	What it does
whatsmydns.net	Shows how your DNS records look from locations worldwide. Cloudflare's own documentation points people here to confirm a nameserver change
mxtoolbox.com	Looks up MX records, checks DMARC and other mail-related records, and checks blocklists
ICANN Lookup	Looks up a domain's registrar, status and nameservers

Common questions

I changed my DNS 48 hours ago and it's still not working. What next?

Registrars quote different windows — Cloudflare says to allow up to 24 hours, while Namecheap says 24 to 48 and explains why it can stretch further — so treat 48 hours as a guide rather than a deadline. Past that, the problem is much more likely to be a misconfiguration than a propagation delay. Check the record values carefully and contact us — we can run a diagnostic.

My site loads at yourbusiness.com but not at www.yourbusiness.com (or vice versa).

You likely have an A record for one but not both. Add a CNAME for www pointing to your root domain, or add a separate A record for www with the same IP address. Also verify a redirect is in place so both versions point to the same canonical URL. See www vs non-www.

My site is on Cloudflare but still shows an old cached version.

Cloudflare caches content in addition to DNS. You can purge it from the Cloudflare dashboard: open the cache Configuration page for the domain, then use Purge Cache. Cloudflare recommends purging a single file by URL where you can, because purging everything clears the cache in all its data centers at once and sends every subsequent request back to your server. This is separate from your browser cache.

How do I know if the problem is DNS or something else?

Most hosts give every site a temporary URL of their own, separate from your domain. If the site loads at that temporary URL but not at your domain, it's almost certainly a DNS issue. If neither loads, the problem may be with the server itself. Ask us or your host for the temporary URL if you don't have it.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

Common DNS problems & fixes