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Problems accessing my website

some people can't see my website

         

Craig Carlyle Clarke

5:19 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Howdy. I'm getting more and more reports of people not being able to access my website.
In fact, I myself cannot get to my site with my dektop PC, and have to use my laptop, but using the same ISP as my desktop PC (cable modem) it works with one, not the other.

The problem is there regardless of which browser I use.
I have checked and ruled out the following possible causes:
1. hosts file - there is no hosts file blocking it
2. ISP's DNS server - the site resolves properly when using a "lucky" pc.
3. Webhost - they insist that they are fine, that it must be the ISPs DNS server (which it isn't) - BUT it looks like the problem first arose when they changed my sites IP address.
4. ISP had me delete my local DNS cache, that didn't help.

Any ideas?

If anyone wants to look at my site in case that helps, its <snip>

Thanks.
- Craig

[edited by: trillianjedi at 8:55 am (utc) on Mar. 30, 2005]
[edit reason] Please read the TOS. Thanks. [/edit]

Craig Carlyle Clarke

5:20 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Oh and one other thing I've ruled out - its not due to something like Adblock in mozilla, etc.

kwirl

5:48 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



maybe check your domain pointers?

specter

5:52 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It would be helpful to know exactly what is displayed to the visitors instead of the home page.
However I visited regularly your url...

encyclo

6:10 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com], Craig_Carlyle_Clarke. You might want to check out the terms of service [webmasterworld.com] for the forum which forbid the posting of personal URLs.

You should run a traceroute on your domain to see where the problem lies. To do that in Windows, click Start, Run and type

cmd
which will give you a DOS prompt. At that prompt, you type:

tracert example.com

(replacing example.com with your domain name).

Doing this on your domain from my machine shows that the connection fails at a router before reaching your site: which indicates that there is a network/routing problem which is blocking access. The traceroute information will be useful for your hosting company or your ISP in order to diagnose the source of the problem.

Craig Carlyle Clarke

6:40 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



sorry, encyclo for breakingt the rules... that rule makes sense I guess, prevent spam, etc.

specter, nothing is displayed to those who cannot connect. it just times out.

also, a traceroute either works for me on the machine that works, and simply times out completely on the one that doesnt.

encyclo

7:03 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



and simply times out completely on the one that doesnt

Yes, but where does it time out? :) Because it is at that point that the problem lies. You can compare the two results. Your ISP may be able to help you with this: tell them where the blockage is.

Usually the traceroute will give you an IP address or name of the router: for me it blocks at "viatel.demarc.cogentco.com" - that is a router, and it might have a corrupt routing table which is causing the problems.

Liane

7:18 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I see it fine in the British Virgin Islands!

henry0

7:52 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



CCC
I am quite close
and use Rochester.rr (RoadRunner)
No problem to see it
and I was able to complete the trace without problems

Craig Carlyle Clarke

7:53 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



encyclo,, I see what you mean. For me, I don't get that info. It just never gets ANYWHERE. Asterisks and time outs for every step, with no other info.
As far as the other people who tell me they can't reach me, I guess I';d have to ask them to run the trace...

This really stinks, and it makes no sense to me that one of my PCs would be able to access it and the other not, pver the same cable line... with no adblock or hosts file blocking the IP.

All of this stuff is jjust WAY over my head, and my webhost is completely unhelpful - when they respond at all. They are L40.net, BTW, in case anyone else knows of problems with them.

Craig Carlyle Clarke

7:55 pm on Mar 29, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks to those who tried to get to my site.

Maybe someone can explain something to me - on this PC Im using now, it connects fine... but when I do the trace, it uses 30 hops and after the first 4 or so, the rest all time out. Does that mean anything?

specter

5:36 am on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



You should run a traceroute on your domain to see where the problem lies. To do that in Windows, click Start, Run and type cmd which will give you a DOS prompt. At that prompt, you type:

tracert example.com

(replacing example.com with your domain name).

Doing this on your domain from my machine shows that the connection fails at a router before reaching your site: which indicates that there is a network/routing problem which is blocking access. The traceroute information will be useful for your hosting company or your ISP in order to diagnose the source of the problem.

I think this is the best advice.Because if me and other people have been able to see your site without problems it's clear that the connection fails at a router somewhere.

Craig Carlyle Clarke

6:44 am on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



That might explain why others can't see my site, but it wouldn't explain why my one PC can't see it while the other can, using the same cable line.

That leads me to believe that its some strange oddball setting or detail that I don't know of that makes it load on my one PC and not the other, and I can't help but have the suspicion that perhaps others cant access my site because they have the same oddball setting or whatever on THIER machine.

Its all so bizarre.

specter

7:06 am on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Then,it can be helpful if you explain in an extremely clear manner what's happen on your PC when you try to connect.

JKMitchell

8:39 am on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Just a thought, have you tried validating the html of the page?

Are your two pc's using the same version of browser/operating system etc?

Craig Carlyle Clarke

1:13 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Specter, I've tried to. When trying to connect with a browser, you get nothing at all... just the status bar saying "connecting..." and then it times out and you get the error "the operation timed out." As if you tried to connect to a non-existent domain.

It does this regardless of what browser is used.

specter

1:54 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Sounds like a connection problem...
This depend from your internet access provider...
Are you able to connect with the same line on another url?
Have you tried with the same line but other PC?

Craig Carlyle Clarke

2:23 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Yes, I can connect to any other site on the PC that won't connect to my site.

I CAN connect to my site with my laptop on the same line that my PC cannot connect to my site on.

And then there's the problem of others not being able to connect, and I have no way of knowing if these two issues are connected.

encyclo

2:28 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Checking this morning, the traceroute still times out at cogentco.com. You should ask your hosting company if cogentco are one of their upstream providers (ie. one of their connections to the backbone). You might also want to ask your ISP for help. One thing though: unless you're a high-paying customer, you might get a lot of passing the buck in terms of responsability.

Your server is probably running fine: it's a routing problem. Some visitors will still see your site because they won't be connecting via the same route.

Craig Carlyle Clarke

2:36 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



thanks encyclo...
I suppose that means that if they aren't able to help me, then I'm just out of luck and some people will not be able to see my site, period. :(

Still doesn't explain why my one machine sees it and my other doesnt, on the same cable line.

What a pain.

kaled

3:34 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Still doesn't explain why my one machine sees it and my other doesnt, on the same cable line.

I've seen similar symptoms caused by caching. When both caches are cleared, both may behave identically. If you have Opera installed, try F5 to force a complete refresh. I've never been particularly confident in using F5, CTRL-F5 or SHIFT-F5 or whatever in other browsers.

Kaled.

Craig Carlyle Clarke

4:40 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have cleared the caches (many times), the local DNS caches too.

Robert Thivierge

9:03 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have cleared the caches (many times), the local DNS caches too.

Maybe it's the cache on the Name Server that is out-of-date (I'm refering to your ISP Name Server, the one closest to you).

My personal theory is different Name Servers are giving different results. One ISP (your cable provider) could have multiple Name Servers, which are dynamically assigned to different PCs. Try this (after clearing dns cache):

Start/Run nslookup
You'll see what Name Server you're using
Type the domain name and hit enter
You'll see what ip it resolves to
type exit to quit

Now try this on each computer. If you get different results, you know what the problem is.
You can then change the Name Server you use, and tell your ISP of the problem.

Finally, how long has this problem existed? If it's less then 72 hours, it might just go away.

Craig Carlyle Clarke

11:07 pm on Mar 30, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'll try that, thanks.
The problem has been going on for at least two months, possibly longer.

I don't know if this is going to be the solution though because I don't believe that the others who have said they can't connect to my site have the same ISP as me, so they shouldn't be on the same DNS server.