For the past few months I noticed something really fked up about Hostgator. I noticed that adding an addon domain would result in a redirection to searchportal.information.com whenever I accessed that domain's name. This would eventually fade away (minutes, hours) but it was a different (new) behaviour from what I was used to with them. Before domains worked instantly when added as addons, not they don't!

This cash parking started when they updated cPanel. And today, really pissed off, I sent support an email. I t0ld them the issue, I told them this was not a DNS problem as the new domains resolved to the right IP address. I also pointed out to them this did not happen before and that I would like my accounts removed from these cashparking schemes.

The reply arrived promptly and this will be usefull to those with temporary 'DNS hijacked domains' on Hostgator.

The actual problem (glitch) and fix

The new cPanel (11) has a small glitch. It adds the domains but these changes take place only when the server is restarted. Eventually the server is restarted but during the moment you add/park them and the time they actually start working might pass a few minutes (I noticed 30 minutes most).

They also told me I could talk to live support / send an email and ask for a server restart after I add domains to cut down the waiting time. I don't mind the initial waiting as long as I know this is normal behaviour and it will work in a short while. I paniced few times and added / removed domains from addons couple of times trying to get this to work. As after a few tries it would start working  and I concluded it would be really fked up to add/remove several times just to get one addon to work.

So relax, it is how it is ... and, even if I'm not cool with the cashparking redirection for that initial time before the restart, I do understand this. Once the server restarts there are no more problems, cash parking's gone from my new domain ... all cool!

HOSTGATOR still rules the shared hosting realm and support knows their shit!