Why Your Domain Still Shows a Parking Page After Nameserver Update
Published: 23 Oct, 2025

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You've just pointed your domain to your hosting provider’s nameservers. Everything looks correct in the registrar dashboard, dig confirms the NS records have changed, yet... when you type the domain in your browser, it still loads the old parking page—or worse, shows inconsistent behavior across devices.

This frustrating situation is surprisingly common, especially just after a nameserver update. Let’s break down why it happens, and how to fix it.

It's Not Just DNS Propagation

While DNS propagation is the usual suspect, most modern resolvers propagate NS changes within minutes. If it's been 1–6 hours and you're still seeing a registrar’s parking page, consider:

  1. Stale DNS caches at:

    • Your browser

    • Your operating system

    • Your ISP’s recursive resolver

    • Proxy servers (like corporate or school networks)

  2. Registrar-side caching or proxying: Some registrars (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) aggressively cache parking pages at the CDN level. They may serve you stale content even if the DNS is updated.

  3. No DNS zone at new host yet: Your domain now points to the new NS, but those nameservers don’t serve any zone for your domain—so the fallback is still visible to some clients.

How to Confirm the Source

  • Use dig +trace yourdomain.com to verify current NS delegation.

  • Try our DNS Lookup Tool and check:

    • Current NS records

    • A/AAAA/CNAME entries

  • Load the site using:

    • A different device + mobile network

    • curl -I yourdomain.com

    • Incognito browser mode + cleared cache

How to Fix It

  1. Ensure your hosting provider has added the domain zone in their panel (e.g. cPanel, Cloudflare, etc.).

  2. Flush your DNS cache:

    • ipconfig /flushdns (Windows)

    • sudo dscacheutil -flushcache (macOS)

  3. Use alternative DNS resolvers like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 temporarily.

  4. Purge browser cache and local CDN (if used).

Pro Tip

If your domain uses Cloudflare, switching NS but not activating the zone leads to similar symptoms. Cloudflare will accept the NS change but won’t serve your site until it’s verified and active.