GL can't get into CB! (in Off-topic)

Ok I need some of CB's brain powers,

Just had GL on the phone; he can't get into CB. Hasn't been able to since just after the server change.

He's used the following addresses

http://cb2.carnageblender.com

http://carnageblender.com

And he's googled Carnageblender and followed the link to the same problem.

What he gets is a page saying the site may be down or busy; please try again later.

He says none of his settings have changed - nothing new in adblock or his firewall. He's cleared his cache.


And there is the extent of my IT knowledge exhausted! Anybody got any ideas what he could do to get into CB? The poor Gent is missing us all!


;)

try this:

Open a command prompt (start .. run .. cmd for win2k/xp/vista) and type ping www.carnageblender.com
You should see an ip address listed like this:

Pinging carnageblender.com [69.60.124.245] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 69.60.124.245: bytes=32 time=267ms TTL=45
Reply from 69.60.124.245: bytes=32 time=272ms TTL=45
Reply from 69.60.124.245: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=45

If the set of numbers at the top (69.60.124.245) is different either his local dns cache or the ISPs has not updated.

If so try typing the following into a web browser:
http://69.60.124.245/

If you can see the front page, then his ISP hasn't respected the DNS TTL that Jon set or his own PC has a DNS cache issue. In theory it should work sometime when the cache flushes the old setting.

I'm not sure if you can play like that, it depends on whether Jon uses absolute links or relative links for the web pages.

On windows you can try the following from a command line (start .. run .. cmd for win2k/xp/vista)
ipconfig /flushdns

If you are using something else (Mac/Linux/*BSD) let me know and I'll give you the appropriate equivalent.

If that doesn't work its probably the ISP in which case you can hard code the ip address into your hosts file. You must however remember to remove this in a week or so though because if the ip changes again you'd be stuck.

- Open windows explorer and browse to C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc.
- Double click on hosts and select to view the file in notepad.
- Add the following at the bottom.
69.60.124.245 www.carnageblender.com
(with a single <tab> between.
- Restart the computer.

If it still doesn't work remember to remove the entry from the hosts file.

(here's hoping I didn't miss something in all that typing)

Cheers for that - I'll email that to GL and see what happens!

Hi guys! thanks for the help.

I've got here using the new IP address, but CB hasn't loaded properly. Seems like it's not loaded the theme I was using. :/

When I ping www.carnageblender.com I get the IP;

208.186.101.116

I take it this is the old one? ;)

Yes, that is the old one, weird!

WB GL. Missed ya.

GL. Can you open a command prompt and type 'nslookup' there. What 'server' is it using?

In that case, could it be some sort of local DNS thing (one of those things you install locally to ostensibly increase performance) that you installed GL, but for some reason it hasn't updated yet locally? That would affect everything, including trying to link from Google, etc. I wonder what nslookup looks like as far as server when it is local...just 127.0.0.1 or 'localhost'? If you see that, then you know the problem -- your name search is local and it hasn't updated for whatever reason...

Default Server: mk-cache-1.ns.uk.tiscali.com
Address: 212.74.112.66

This any help? :/

mk-cache-1.ns.uk.tiscali.com (and their siblings -2 through -4) does provide the correct answers when I inquire them about CB. So the problem is most likely local on your PC.

To make sure, can you do a 'nslookup cb2.carnageblender.com' and tell us what answer it gives?

*** mk-cache-1.ns.uk.tiscali.com can't find cb2.carnageblender.com: Non-existent domain

:/

did you perhaps update your hosts file for the old server, GL?

Sorry Jon, you've lost me with that. :(

GL, for a time, when having issues, folks would suggest adding entries to the hosts file to make various names map to IP addresses.

Hosts file on Windows machines can be in a couple spots, I think. You could just recursively search your C:\ drive for the string "carnageblender" and see if it shows up in any text files. If any one of the files os called "hosts", then you need to edit that file and either remove the entry (line) or put in the correct IP address. Removal is probably preferred, so that a dynamic server can serve up the IP addresses.

In other words, this is all a name resolution issue, and we are just trying to figure out what your system is using to resolve names into IP addresses. *smile*

Only thing I've got in my Hosts file is;

127.0.0.1 localhost

Then I guess you are simply cursed. *smile*

You could also use http://cb2.dontpanic.nl/ to access CB. I've just added it to the DNS, so there is no way for your provider to have learned the wrong IP for this. Its only benefit is that it's easier to remember than the actual IP ;)

Although I do not plan to remove this address any soon, I can't guarantee it lasting forever, so only use it for emergencies like this ;)

Thanks Bart, tried that, but it's no different than logging on via IP. :)

(Although slightly easier to remember! :P )

Technically, it's all like-logging-in-by-IP-just-easier-to-remember, GL. *wink*

after the new server went in I was unable to login from my home PC using IE. Strangely the computer I use at work was just fine and it uses IE as well.
Downloading FF solved the problem but I am curious as to why it happened.... in as few technical terms as possible.

It is hard to say, Mach.

One browser/machine could have had a more "tenacious" cache, in that it kept using old DNS entries to map to the old IP address instead of new. I wouldn't think browser would really matter, though.

Or, maybe enough time had just passed that whatever route you were traversing to get to CB finally kicked in with the new name resolution.

It's black magic at its very strongest, truly it is. *smile*

The time isn't a factor since, in order
Home PC - fail
Work PC - succeed
Home PC - fail
Home PC FF - succeed
Work PC - succeed

ah well, the important thing is that I shouldn't miss any more BA (save while asleep)

On an unrelated note my new name has the unplanned benefit of a similar short form to my old one Loch/Mach!

All working fine today! :D

And I did nothing overnight to fix it! >_<

DNS (the system that maps host and domain names into IP numbers and vice versa) uses caching to speed things up. A nameserver for a domain specifies for how long the information can be cached (TTL). For cb this is 8 hours.

If you want to move a server from 1 IP to another, it makes sense to reduce this TTL to a low value during the move, so that every client switches at almost the same moment.

Because too low a TTL increases the amount of work nameservers that cache this information have to do, some providers choose to ignore this TTL information, either altogether or only if the specified TTL is deemed too low. Instead, they use their own value for TTL. This is IMHO a foolish thing to do, as it won't save much (most of the Internet already behaves nicely) and will cause problems, as you have found out.

I do not know if this is the case, but it would make sense.

(CB's TTL was 5 minutes from about 2h before the switch to half an hour after. And it was one hour all weekend.)

Thanks for that info, bart!

Thanks for the new server, Jonathan!

Glad to see you fully back, GL! *smile*

Not only that, but my logging out problem if I don't delete cookies before each time I log in had miraculously fixed itself as well!

Hoorah!

:D

IE still doesn't work at home for me. Kind of a non issue considering FF is perfectly fine. Just a cause for curiousity...

Maybe it's because I'm special?