DC Server Accessibility Problem - April 24th 2008

[mouser]

Some people are experiencing problems reaching the DonationCoder.com website today (April 24th 2008).  Pages are only partially loading for certain people or just hanging and timing out while loading.

It's not actually a problem with our server, but seems to be some kind of internet routing problem effecting only certain people (including me!), and affecting only certain routes of information transfer on the web.

We will update you as soon as we learn more.

[Josh]

Perhaps people should try OpenDNS. I use it and DC works fine for me!

[tomos]

Perhaps people should try OpenDNS. I use it and DC works fine for me!

ironically that's one of the sites that's barely working (for me) but it does seem to load fully
earlier some dc pages kept trying to load - now they stop loading but there's still stuff missing...

[tomos]

perhaps taking things a bit off topic...

Perhaps people should try OpenDNS. I use it and DC works fine for me!

it's a case of everything gets routed through "OpenDNS" ?

what are the advantages of that (apart from being able to block sites)
they only have one server in europe - not trying to be negative   just curious ... and commenting

OpenDNS makes money the same way Google and Yahoo do — by showing relevant ads when we show you search results

seems fair enough - do they have their own search page or do they add them to other search pages?

[mouser]

site is loading normal speed for me now.  anyone still having trouble?

[tomos]

seems to be okay here too now

? did you remove the image from your first post in
Gorgeous Homebuilt PC Mod with instructions: Victorian Steampunk All-in One
http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=13152.msg110877#msg110877

it got stuck on that image earlier and there's no image showing now

[CWuestefeld]

it's a case of everything gets routed through "OpenDNS" ?

That's not quite how it works.

• Your system knows the IP address of a DNS (perhaps OpenDNS's)
• You enter a host name (e.g., "www.donationcoder.com") into your browser
• Your PC doesn't know the IP address of that server, so it asks the DNS (you can do the same thing manually via the nslookup command)
• The DNS looks it up in its database (maybe asking an upstream provider for help), and returns the IP address (in this case, 208.101.58.90)
• Your browser then sends an HTTP request to the IP address that it just got

So you can see that the DNS is only returning an address, not acting as a go-between for you and the server.

(And there are multiple layers below this, including TCP and UDP, and routing with IP addresses and MAC addresses, but that just clouds this question)

So when Mouser says that OpenDNS is having the problem, he (presumably) means that the route that the network chooses to get from his PC to the DC server has the same problem as the route from his PC to the OpenDNS server. Presumably they both pass through the same router at some point, and that router is illin'.

[Deozaan]

I'm not sure if this is related, since DonationCoder has been working fine for me, but YouTube is loading awfully slow for me today.

Tracert shows 3 timeouts before finally getting to YouTube.com

[tomos]

Presumably they both pass through the same router at some point, and that router is illin'.

would be interesting to hear what did happen .. or why - they thought it was AT&T this morning then saying it was some "backbone" (Dallas)

[Josh]

This just in!

Server maintenance personnel at the hosting company for DC noticed an unusual odor coming from the rear of the server. Upon further investigation it appears that Cody may have pooped on the network cable causing unwanted Ethernet packet collisions thus slowing down access to the site or denying for some.

We will keep you posted as more develops

[nosh]

lol!

I'm using OpenDNS and a couple of pages loaded halfway & froze earlier today. Been working OK for the rest of the day though.

[Josh]

Upon further investigation, it appears that someone may have poisoned cody's food thus causing him an upset stomach from food poisoning. There are no suspects at this time however the chicken police are on the matter.

[Gothi[c]]

It turned out to have been caused by fiber cable cuts in Texas.