Q: Why is DougTheSlug.ca sometimes down when the Site is actually up?

A: DNS
The way the internet works, when a page is requested, it checks the DN (Domain Name) Servers for the name it is looking for. Once it has found the site on the appropriate DN Server through it's methods of searching, it will cache the IP address where the site is to be found in a fair number of places, including Main Internet Hubs, your ISP and even your own browser.
Because of the package I have with Telus' ADSL, I do not have any Static IP addresses, meaning that my IP address will change every now and then, and because of the cached entries they will keep sending requests to the old IP address, thus not being able to find the site.
Q: Why can't I just set TTL (Time To Live) to a very short time period so the cache entries will 'die' fairly quickly?
Although in theory TTL should kill any cached entries after a certain amount of time, I have read in a couple places where the DNS TTL can be 'overruled' by 'authoritative' sources. Unfortunately, I didn't quite understand the explanation myself from these sources, so I will be unable to explain them to you. What I do know from experience is that when my IP changes, it sometimes takes up to a whole day for my browsers to actually point into the new location. It's possible that depending on where you look at the site from, it might be cached somewhere, it might not, and therefore time to get the new IP could vary.
Q: Sometimes I don't even get a response from the DNS server when I do something like a NS lookup, why is that?
Again, this deals with Telus' non-Static IP. The place where I purchased this domain is set to forward all DNS queries for my Domain to a certain hostname. When my IP changes, I have found that the hostname sometimes still 'leads' to the old IP address. This makes absolutely no sense in theory, but I have seen it with my own eyes. One time when the IP changed, I was keeping a close eye on everything. I would do a hostname search for my New IP and it would come up with my hostname. I would then take that hostname and find out what IP address is associated with it and get my old IP address. Therefore, when a query is trying to find my DNS server, it too is also going to my old IP address. This is completely beyond my control and is a pet peeve of mine with Telus.
Q: How can this be fixed?
The only certain way to fix this, is to buy a bigger ADSL package from Telus. And this is very unlikely to happen as it will double our monthly ADSL bills. A Telus ADSL Business package costs $80, as where our current standard ADSL package costs 40$. The Telus Business package would include 5 Static IP addresses, which would be able to solve all of these problems in an instant. Without having to worry about IP changes, none of this would be of any concern.
Q: Why did I just tell you about the Telus Business package when it is unlikely I will get it?
I might not get it, but a friend of mine is getting the Business Package, awaiting an open port. So, we have thought up of a method of possibly being able to 'give' me one of his 5 Static IP addresses. He plans to register the MAC address of the NIC of my server under one of his 'Static IP's' and then as long as I have an ADSL signal, every time my computer queries the DHCP server at Telus, it will see the entry for my MAC address under a static IP config and thus be able to 'give' me a static IP.
Along with being able to have a static IP, we may also share DN servers, or have each other as a backup DN server for better service for both of our Sites.

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