During website deployment, server migration, business switching, or multi-platform domain hosting, many people encounter a thorny problem: DNS domain name resolution conflicts. The manifestations may vary slightly depending on the platform. Some platforms display IP resolution errors, others indicate the domain is being hosted by another DNS, some web pages resolve to the wrong server, and some users see different pages when accessing different regions. While it may seem that the "domain name resolves normally," the expected results are consistently unattainable. DNS resolution conflicts are often not a single point of failure, but rather the result of multiple resolution records, multiple DNS providers, and multiple network nodes working together.
From a technical perspective, a "resolution conflict" means that the same domain name has multiple different DNS record sources, or different nodes cache different resolution results, leading to inconsistent IP addresses accessed by users or even incorrect redirects. It's not like the common "resolution not working," but a higher-level network conflict: DNS should return a unique answer, but when multiple sources compete for the same record, chaos ensues, ultimately causing business anomalies, access errors, or even being incorrectly redirected to a third-party server.
To completely avoid DNS resolution conflicts, you must first understand the root cause of the conflict and then develop a remediation strategy based on your actual business structure, rather than blindly clearing records or frequently modifying your DNS panel. Many people believe that "modifying the DNS records and waiting for them to take effect" will solve the problem, but if the source of the conflict is not eliminated, this method can only temporarily mask the problem. DNS is a distributed system, not a single server, so any adjustments must consider global node caching, ISP resolution logic, TTL caching propagation mechanisms, and the priority relationships between authoritative DNS providers.
The most common type of conflict arises from "multiple DNS providers hosting the same domain name simultaneously." For example, a user may have configured the DNS in their registrar's default DNS settings, but later connected the domain to a hosting system on another platform. This will result in "the DNS actually used by the domain name being inconsistent with the management record." Although you may think the DNS has been modified, visitors worldwide may still receive IP addresses from the old DNS. This type of conflict is especially common during site migrations and CDN switching.
Another type of conflict stems from "duplicate records added across multiple platforms," such as multiple A records, duplicate CNAME records, multiple CDN origin pull configurations, or subdomains hosted on different platforms. Different authoritative DNS nodes will return different responses based on TTL caching, causing access to be normal in some regions while redirecting to the wrong IP in others. This phenomenon is particularly prone to occur with global acceleration, multi-active deployments, or the same domain name bound to different business systems.
Even more difficult-to-detect conflicts arise from private DNS, local Hosts records, ISP-hijacked caching, and internal DNS overwriting within the enterprise. Many people find that "others can access the website, but they get errors," not because of DNS resolution errors, but because the resolution has been overwritten. For example, an enterprise's internal DNS might prioritize resolving internal services, preventing access to public websites; some broadband providers might prioritize DNS caches, causing some users to see old resolution results; or even if the local computer's Hosts file has been modified, causing the browser to always redirect to the wrong IP, these problems are unrelated to the domain name itself but still fall under the category of DNS resolution conflicts.
Therefore, the first step in resolving DNS conflicts is not to modify records, but to identify at which layer the conflict occurs. A complete troubleshooting process includes: authoritative DNS detection, local DNS lookup, comparison of global node returns, TTL cache status, DNSSEC signature conflict, CDN origin pull status, and multi-record weight verification. Only by locating the source of the error can the problem be truly resolved.
If two different DNS services return different IPs, it indicates that the authoritative DNS is out of sync or in conflict. Further checking the domain's actual DNS custodian via WHOIS will determine if the modified records have actually taken effect on the platform.
When users report "different access results in different regions," a global DNS monitoring tool can be used. If inconsistent global returns are found, it indicates a resolution conflict or a TTL timeout that hasn't been refreshed. This can be resolved by reducing the TTL, clearing old records, or forcing a DNS replacement.
If it's a "multi-platform hosting conflict," such as the same domain being hosted on different platforms simultaneously, one of them must be disabled. DNS standards stipulate that a domain can only point to one authoritative NS server at a time; otherwise, multi-source resolution will inevitably cause confusion.
For multiple record conflicts, such as binding multiple A records to different IPs, it's crucial to determine if "round-robin DNS resolution" is truly necessary. If it's an unintentional configuration, multiple records will only cause random IP jumps, ultimately leading to business anomalies. If it's for CDN or load balancing purposes, priorities, health checks, and weights must be set appropriately, ensuring that backend services can correctly respond to requests.
There's also a more subtle type of conflict called "CDN origin pull and DNS resolution conflict." Many people modify CNAME records when using CDN but fail to delete A records, ultimately causing some regions to directly resolve to the origin server instead of the CDN node. This type of conflict often results in the website being accessible but losing its acceleration effect, or user IP confusion, abnormal SSL certificates, and origin pull link errors.
A truly thorough and effective solution should follow these strategies:
Identify the domain's currently unique and valid authoritative DNS, clear all invalid DNS records and expired records, and avoid duplicate pointing. Configure the correct TTL, choosing either a short or long TTL as needed. Check for cross-platform hosting, CDN overwriting, and wildcard DNS conflicts. Use tools like `dig`, `nslookup`, and global DNS to verify DNS resolution consistency. If caching issues exist, proactively refresh the DNS cache or wait for automatic TTL updates. If the business requires multiple IPs and nodes, intelligent DNS resolution or load balancing should be used instead of simply adding multiple records.
By clearly defining a single authoritative source for DNS and ensuring that records are unique, standardized, and reasonable, DNS conflicts can be fundamentally avoided.
