Can't access site, ftp but others can

[walrus1]

Hi all. I access my site almost daily but got a page cannot be displayed error 4 days ago. I checked with 2 other people with alternate ISP's and they also got the error. I contacted my host and they say it's fine and to check with my ISP. They also said it was fine. Does anyone know where I should start looking to solve the problem. I have cleared my cache...no difference. I can't ftp through Dreamweaver anymore. My HTML email templates can't find graphics stored in my site. I can't access the stats page for my site although I can log in to my account. Luckily I am still getting emails delivered though. [edit] I cannot understand what could have happened as it has been fine for about 3 years. Any help much appreciated.

<Sorry, no personal URLs. See TOS [webmasterworld.com]>

[edited by: tedster at 4:40 am (utc) on Sep. 13, 2004]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

This has happened to me on two occasions. I got the same response from both my ISP and my hosting companies. Fortunately it resolved itself within a couple of days on both occasions. I cannot remember what the exact problem was but it was something to do with domain name resolution. It will probably fix itself.

[Span]

>> something to do with domain name resolution

If that's the case, it should be possible to get to your site by IP instead of domain name.

[kaled]

If you have Opera, try that and also press F5.

F5 in Opera seems to force all servers in the chain to ignore their caches. I have to use it from time to time - I think there's a dodgy server near me.

Not sure how Firefox behaves in this regard but F5 in IE is useless for this problem.

Kaled.

[py9jmas]

To force a reload in Mozilla and Firefox you want Ctrl-R. In IE, I think you really need shift-F5, or Ctrl-F5, or Alt-F5. I never remember which.

[walrus1]

Thanks for all your help guys. I can't view it in Netscape, Mozilla, IE or Opera and my IP address doesn't access the site either.
I just got some more help from my host "Go to traceroute.org and run a trace from your computer to your domain name or IP address, this will give you some idea of where there may be a router not functioning somewhere out there. At least it may help narrow down the scope for you. If any of the hops time out, that means the route that it is taking has a problem somewhere.
If that turns out to be the case, send a copy of the trace to your ISP and they should be able to help you from there." So I'll give that a try now.

[RonPK]

You may also run a traceroute from your PC to your server - that way you can see whether your ISP has a problem. If you're on Windows, open a DOS box and type

tracert server_ip_here

or

tracert -d server_ip_here

and hit enter. The -d switch will prevent tracert from resolving IP numbers into hostnames.

[walrus1]

Ok, the trace all went fine, no problems detected there. Day 5 and still can't view or ftp my site. It seems like it is only me and people working in the same building that can't access it....I thought I was onto something but some have dialup, some cable and some adsl connections so I can't see how they could be related. This has got me beat! Any more ideas anyone?

[kaled]

Try setting a value for a proxy server. This must be done for each browser and in some cases for each protocol. If you contact your ISP, they should be able to supply the IP address of a local server. Alternatively, you may be able to find a proxy service using Google (but use a distant proxy server only for testing as it will slow things down and may block some sites).

I have had to set proxy values in the past. At one time, my local server was so screwed, Google was just about the only site I could access.

In view of the fact that the problem affects several connection methods, a distant proxy may be a better test.

If you can't solve the problem, you'll have to move to another host - with luck, that will fix it.

Kaled.

[walrus1]

It seems like I am the only one affected. I checked the other peoples computers and couldn't see a problem...the might have mispelt my domain but a little too coincidental? My ISP gave me these instructions:

On your computer, click Start>Run>type "cmd" Enter
At the DOS prompt, type "tracert yourdomainname
Copy the results and paste them into a reply to us.
There may be an issue with "telco" blocking access to our servers. This information will help us to determine where the issue is occurring.

When I tried this it went through several connection phases before getting a time out. I have given the results to them and will wait for further instruction on how to rectify the problem.