Moonlgum,
It seems to me as if your problem is probably not a problem but something intrinsic to how the internet works.
DNS, the system that points host names to IP addresses, has to let data propagate around the world to reach all servers. For registered domains, this process can take up to 12 hours.
For sub domains under a domain with a low TTL (time-to-live), the propagation time can be decreased, but usually not to the actual TTL. Dynamic DNS sites normally set up TTL on subdomains below their domain to 60 seconds. This means, theoretically, that no DNS server should trust data from that domain which is older than 60 seconds. When DNS servers respect this, it means that if a DNS server has not had contact with that domain's DNS servers for more than a minute, it will re-check the DNS data, instead of just serving it from its cache.
The problem is that most DNS servers will not respect such a low minimum TTL. In many cases, a DNS server will not re-check data for the same domain within the same hour. Servers that handle more traffic are usually even more strict. DNS servers that provide DNS forwarding (the service your Windows PC uses to have a server resolve an address for it) for large network will usually have a forced minimum TTL of 12 hours or more.
The DNS servers that serve Telkom's ADSL network are in this category. This is so for a good reason though, if the servers were set up to honour any domain TTL, many DynDNS domains would have to be re-checked once each minute. Servers that are above Telkom's servers in the heirarchy would also not respect the lower TTL, meaning the Telkom server would have to contact the domain's server directly to re-check data.
This would leave the possibility for the DNS server to be congesting the network with traffic all the time, as different domains would not be re-checked at the same time, meaning there will be continuous traffic from the DNS server to DynDNS services around the world.
To test if this is what's causing your problem is fairly simple. On your Windows XP machine, go to Start, then Run.
Type cmd.exe and press enter.
You will now see a command prompt window.
Type ping youralbumname.myphotoserver.com and press enter
See if you get any replies. If you do, the name is forwarding through to your machine and the problem is on your machine itself, check for firewalls built into virus scanners, those are normally overlooked when looking for things to disable while trouble shooting.
If you do not get replies, check the IP address that Windows is trying to send the ping to. Make a note of the address.
Once the ping command has timed out four times, you will see another prompt.
Type ipconfig /all and press enter
Scroll around the output until you find your ADSL (PPPoE) IP address. If the address is the same as the one Windows just pinged, the problem is also on your machine. Again, check for firewalls built into virus scanners.
If the IP addresses do not match, it is because the new IP address associated with the host name of your album has not yet propagated far enough through the DNS to be visible to your machine (or the rest of the world, in all likelyhood.)
The only solution to this problem is to be patient. If it does not propagate immediately, you should check again in 15 minutes and one hour. If after one hour you can not see the host name, don't expect it to be visible for atleast another 11 hours.
If this is what is causing the problem, I would recommend you get a PPPoE client that supports confirming its old IP address lease after a disconnect, the standard Windows XP PPPoE client will loose your IP address at each disconnect, meaning you will probably have to wait for propagation at least once a day. With a proper PPPoE client, you should be able to hold on to an address for 10 days. I don't know which client I can recommend for Windows, very few of them support that part of the DHCP standard.
If you can't find a PPPoE client to do this, this software is most likely not for you, as Telkom do not seem to be planning on a static IP leasing service for ADSL customers any time soon. If you get knocked out by the daily disconnect that most people report, your album will probably not be visible on the open internet for more than a few hours a day.
If that is the case, I would recommend getting some hosting space to post your photos instead.
Willie Viljoen
Web Developer
Adaptive Web Development
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