Brilliant backups landed web developer in big trouble

"When I'd migrated his site to a new server, Gerald had reviewed and approved it - from home, like a normal person - and I'd left the old site ticking over on the old server. He added that he always does this because it costs nothing to keep an old site alive and it makes sense to preserve data until you're absolutely sure it's not needed."

"What nobody had told me was that Gerald's IT support had hardcoded the old server's IP address into the office's internal DNS. So for two years, every one of his 40 staff opened a browser at their desk and saw the old website. Completely frozen in time."

"But Gerald had never looked at the site from his office during working hours - for two whole years! When he visited the site from home, he bypassed the DNS server and saw the updated site. Once he finally checked it in the office, he saw the old version."

Neil maintained a website for a client named Gerald with years of successful updates and approvals. After migrating the site to a new server, Gerald reviewed and approved it from home, seeing the updated version. However, Gerald's IT support had hardcoded the old server's IP address into the office's internal DNS, causing all 40 office staff to view the frozen old website for two years. Gerald never noticed because he only checked the site from home, where he bypassed the internal DNS and saw the current version. The problem surfaced when Gerald finally accessed the site from his office and discovered the outdated content, leading to an angry confrontation that was eventually resolved when Neil explained the DNS configuration issue to Gerald and his IT team.

Read at Theregister