Link Sleuth can't check my own site

Xenu can connect with other sites but not mine

[klimshelf]

Been using Xenu Link Sleuth on my site for many years to check links and generate site maps. Two weeks ago it refused to connect to my site. It will connect to other sites (as a test) but not to mine. I've uninstalled Xenu, reinstalled, removed my anti-virus program, disabled firewalls, restored system to a point before this event - nothing works. I installed Xenu on another computer that's on the same network as my computer and it can connect from there, so I assume it's not a router issue.

What on my computer could be preventing the Link Sleuth program from connecting to my server?

[lucy24]

What, exactly, does “can’t connect” mean? Does the request not appear in your logs at all, or does it meet a 500-class error?

[klimshelf]

In the dialogue box after clicking OK for Xenu to begin crawling, under STATUS it says "busy" for one second and then "no connection".

[keyplyr]

Hi klimshelf and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

Check your network settings on your computer (not the router.) May be how the proxy is set.

[klimshelf]

Thanks for you replies. There are two computers on my network, neither uses a proxy server connection. Xenu can't connect from my computer, but can from the other.

As a side note, we are on the latest Hughes satellite and it has worked well for us.

[keyplyr]

All computers use a proxy connection. That's how they connect to your ISP.

Xenu can't connect from my computer, but can from the other.

That's why you need to look in your network connection settings on your computer.

[klimshelf]

I looked at "Broadband Connection settings" and under "Proxy server" is a check box next to "Use a proxy server for this connection", and that box is not checked.

The box next to "Automatically detect settings" is checked.

[tangor]

Have there been any other changes recently? When was the last time you used Link Sleuth?

Is this a dev machine or a live host?

[not2easy]

I have HughesNet service but I seldom use it. I have noticed that Hughes tries to cache things and I have disabled cache on my browser. It tends to be much slower for me than for another computer on the Hughes router without cache disabled. I'm sure they see it as a benefit but I want each file to load fresh when I'm editing css or html or whatever. There's also real-time bandwidth metering going on. I can't say that would affect specific usage, but they are not just an inert connection. It would not surprise me that some preference setting might affect how well it handles different tasks on different computers. If you can use Xenu on a different computer, maybe arrange to use that one for the task.

[klimshelf]

tangor - I last used Link Sleuth successfully around two weeks ago. No changes around that time. I restored my system to a time previous to that, to no avail. As for dev machine or live host, I guess it's a live host as it's the only one I use.

not2easy - The other computer that's on the same network is not available to run Xenu as often as I'd like so figuring out why Xenu can't connect from my computer is my goal. My service provider disses Hughes all the time, but like I say it's worked well for us and here in the mountains it's that or a different satellite (we had a dial-up connection when I started our site in 1997).

[tangor]

no connection means something is not allowing it. Check everything!

Has there been a firmware update to your router? Has .htaccess been changed for any reason? Are any ports denied (that should be open)? Has your firewall been modified?

[klimshelf]

No firmware update to the router (second computer through same router has Xenu connecting).
htaccess has not been changed.
Disabling firewalls has no effect.
Ports appear to be OK.

[martinibuster]

Try checking in settings how many parallel threads you're trying to connect with. Might be too many spiders are set and possibly getting closed down by whatever. Try lowering it to four or two crawlers.

If your computer hasn't changed, then maybe it's a Xenu setting that's bumping into a registry or firewall setting.

[klimshelf]

Lowered it to 1 crawler, "busy" then "no connection".
Firewalls are disabled.
Registry, hmmm. Is there a good troubleshooter and fix for that?

[martinibuster]

Sometimes it's the URL used to access the site. Dumb question, but did you use the same URL to access the site?

For example, is it https://www.example.com or https://example.com? This can make a difference sometimes. Not sure why this matters, maybe because xenu chokes on the redirect.

If lowering the crawlers to one didn't help, then tweaking the registry won't fix it.

[klimshelf]

martinbuster - thanks for the idea, and yes, I'm using the correct address, and I've tried variations thereof.

[keyplyr]

If you haven't already, I'd update the machine's DNS cache.

Run the following command: ipconfig /flushdns

[klimshelf]

Thanks for the tip.
Cache flushed successfully. Ran Xenu: "busy" "no connection".

[tangor]

All of these come back to Xenu itself failing to find a connection. You have uninstalled it and reloaded, but did you actually uninstall and REBOOT YOUR COMPUTER before reinstalling? Need to clear out the computers memory between each install.

Don't play with the registry unless you know what you are doing ... but it sure sounds like a key has been modified somehow (speculation) and that is preventing Xenu from connecting.

[klimshelf]

That's sure what it looks like to me. Browsers, ftp, email all work fine.
I once again uninstalled Xenu (used Revo uninstaller to clean it from registry), rebooted, installed Xenu:
"busy' "no connection".

[keyplyr]

That's a lot of hassle trying to get Xenu to work Have you emailed their support?

In the meantime, there's always: [validator.w3.org...]

[klimshelf]

Tell me about it. Yes, I've been in contact with the developer and agree with him that it is not Xenu problem. Especially, since the same program works on another computer like mine on the same network.
I think it is some simple setting or glitch in my computer that is preventing Xenu from connecting. Now, if I can only live long enough to figure it out.

[klimshelf]

Developer gave me manual uninstall instructions, which I followed. Rebooted. Installed Xenu and set it to crawl my site and got error: "busy" "no connection". Any other ideas?

[keyplyr]

Any other ideas?

Stop trying

[lucy24]

Stop trying

I hope you meant that seriously, because at this point I’m thinking the same thing: If you’ve spent orders of magnitude more time trying to fix a problem than it would have taken to do the task some entirely different way, it may be time to toss the problem over to the “When I feel like it for ###s and giggles” bin.

[tangor]

SOMEWHERE something changed (I'm thinking firewall, access ports) but has been overlooked simply because it "looks" okay...

Something changed and if this machine faces the web you best find out what it is, or take it off line, backup data (not os), format, install new and restore data and try again.

BUT before you do that, turn off the computer. Open the case. Remove the CMOS battery from the motherboard and wait 10 minutes. Put a brand new battery back in, and start up. This could be a hardware thingie and this is one way to test that real quick.