Problems accessing EN World and my (hosted) site

[Kris]

Hello all

I have just received an e-mail from someone in Germany who is having problems accessing EN world (and my own site also). They have asked if I (or anyone else) can explain why this is. So seeing as how I am have no idea about such problems - I thought I'd post here (I hope this is the right place) to see if anyone can help.

Anyway - here's what the e-mail said (just in case it offers any insight to where the problem may lie):


"Hi, I have a strange problem when trying to reach your site via my German provider ARCOR. The whole enworld domain is unreachable.
Using another provider, I have no problems at all. I have talked with ARCOR and they have no idea what the reason might be. They are not blocking any target on the enworld-domain. The problem can be reproduced on several machines using the same provider.

As I'm really interested in the stuff you offer on your website and want to reach it with my DSL-connection, I want to ask you, if there is any reason given from you or enworld, why the domain is completely unreachable from my provider.

I get a dynamic IP and give you the current IP-settings of my router"


....He/she then goes on to list an IP address, a Subnet Mask number, a Default Gateway number, and a DNS number (which I have not posted here as I have little idea of what most of these are - and don't want to be handing over any private information of anyone, if indeed any of the above actually is someone's private information - I have no idea ).

So does anyone have any idea where the problem may lie so I can get back to this person with possible answer or two?

Thanks in advance

 

[Morrus]

Sounds to me like a router is down in between the ISP and the EN World server. That could be anywhere in the world. I think you can do something called a "traceroute" to see how far the signal gets - if someone in that ISP tries that, it may provide more information as it should show where the break in the chain is.

 

[Welverin]

Here are two places you can do a traceroute, one, and two.

You can also do it through your OS, but I don't remember how to do that.

 

[fba827]

Here are two places you can do a traceroute, one, and two.

You can also do it through your OS, but I don't remember how to do that.

A traceroute from the person's computer would be best ...

If he/she is using a computer with Windows on it (version 95 or later) it should have a traceroute program already installed. They would just need to click on Start -> (Accessories) -> Dos Prompt (also called MS Dos Prompt or Command Prompt).

Once the little black box opens, type:

tracert www.enworld.org

it will show a little break down of the path across the Internet it is trying to take from the person's computer to ENWorld. At which point they can see which part of the path is either not responding or really really delayed (there is a little time response that also shows at each stop in the path).

If the person is using Unix/Linux/etc. it would be simply:
traceroute www.enworld.org

(or /usr/sbin/traceroute or something depending on how it's setup on the directories).

For Mac, I don't know off the top of my head.

Also know you can get some freeware traceroute programs from download.com if you don't seem to have traceroute already installed in your OS bundle by default.


(I'm not really saying anything new that has not already been said by others here )

 

[Psionicist]

Probably a so called DNS-error. Happens now and then when the ISP doesn't update its DNS-servers. A DNS-server translates the name enworld.com into an IP address 65.127.163.19.

Try http://65.127.163.19/

 

[Kris]

Thanks for all the help guys

I'll pass on everything suggested above, and hope that they are able to get the problem sorted.

Cheers!