How is this random domain using my droplet?

Posted on April 3, 2018

So I found a domain that I do not own that is using my droplet. What could be causing this? Our Records are only A and CNAMEs with no indication of another domain name.

Using this website https://ipinfo.info/html/ip_checker.php It shows his domain is indeed using our droplet. (So any updates we push on our web server will be pushed to both sites)

A whois on the mysterious domain shows his info. And a quick google search on his name leads to this article. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidhalperin/still-more-scam-for-profi_b_6155068.html

I have fixed it temporarily by using htaccess to redirect his domain to ours.

Any ideas what is wrong or how to go about fixing it?

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Ryan Quinn

April 4, 2018

This question was answered by @jasonjpeters:

Most likely the case is the owner of the domain had a droplet running that leased the IP address (public or floating) you are now currently using. When they destroyed their droplet and released the IP address, they never updated their DNS. So when you created your droplet, their domain remains pointed at the IP.

Depending on your configurations their domain may display your website or your web server default page.

I have had this happen my disposable domains that I use for development and/or testing.

You proxy/web server can be configured to deal with this gracefully with a rewrite.

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