web site I deleted still viewable

[andy_k]

I'm in the middle of making some changes to a site I run.

I've temporarily deleted all the content from the server and replaced them with a placeholder index page.

But............

The site which is no longer on the server is still visible - even on computers that have never connected to that site in the past. All the links work, all the photos (which have also been deleted) also show when you click on thumbnails.

The file delete was about 4 hours ago -

where is this site being cached?

Any ideas?

 

[Sp!ke]

It's possible you are being proxied

 

[andy_k]

I thought that but what makes it even weirder is that if I edit another site on the same server, that one updates immediately - I'm seriously confused

 

[Jmal]

in your own browser cache? have you deleted your browser cache and tried again?

 

[andy_k]

in your own browser cache? have you deleted your browser cache and tried again?

yep and as I said in my first post, I've tried it on computers that have never connected to the site before

 

[markmifsud]

some ISP utilise cacheing servers to reduce the direct load on their pipe. so once its cached by someone on that isp, then theres a good chance it will show the same for all new visits even after the data is deleted until the cache has cleared

 

[Nibbo]

Do a Whois check on the domain name and see if it is pointing to the correct named servers.

 

[andy_k]

Do a Whois check on the domain name and see if it is pointing to the correct named servers.

yep - done that

I can access the server where it's hosted and have deleted all the files on there apart from 3 - one being a new temporary index file

I'll leave it a few more hours to allow any caches to clear - I've never seen this before though

Thanks for the input folks

 

[Jmal]

some ISP utilise cacheing servers to reduce the direct load on their pipe. so once its cached by someone on that isp, then theres a good chance it will show the same for all new visits even after the data is deleted until the cache has cleared

This is pretty much the only option left...

It's scary what Google finds, when you put your URL in and use the cached option...

not to mention wayback engine and other history sites, which have snapshots of website from 15 years ago...

 

[Alfie]

Pretty much the entire internet is archived and available to see as was days and years ago. It makes me laugh sometimes when i've talked to people who think that once they have deleted a website/web page, thats it no-one can see it again.

Have a look here; Internet Archive: Wayback Machine

 

[Nibbo]

some ISP utilise cacheing servers to reduce the direct load on their pipe. so once its cached by someone on that isp, then theres a good chance it will show the same for all new visits even after the data is deleted until the cache has cleared

I have been puzzling over this all morning and cannot see how this could possibly work.

I appreciate sites like wayback etc show snapshots of pages but what about web pages with dynamic content?
For example: a customer views an online shop then whet away, the site owner then added some new products / special offers; if that customer came back how would he see the new content?

I am sure they could cache images etc... but not whole pages; or as in this instance a whole site!

 

[andy_k]

it left me completely baffled but it cleared itself about 9pm last night - all of a sudden we could see the new index page

Anyway, whatever was broken is now fixed - thanks for all of your thoughts

 

[corned]

Our site usually updates almost immediately, but the ISP always says to allow up to 24 hrs for the changes to take effect...

Glad you're sorted BTW.