Where is everyone??

[WhiteWings]

Maybe Karen can write a very basic set of intructions. Then Gary could add it to his devotionals newsletter.
That way at least some people are helped.
:dontknow:

[TechHelp]

Hi WhiteWin
Good idea about maybe sending info to a newsletter list. However, after seeing jabcat's messages that he had trouble getting to the site early this morning, I don't know what to think now.

Hi jabcat,

I think you posted before that you had trouble accessing the site very early in the morning. I'm wondering if that may have something to do with the backup that runs very early in the morning.

The intermittent access problems are very perplexing, especially since I have a site monitoring program that sends a text message to my cell phone when it finds the site is not accessible. Through all these troubles you folks have been experiencing, I have only received one "site down" notice, and when I went a few minutes later to check on the site, it was up and running.

jabcat, have you tried changing your dns settings in your computer to the google public dns, or ultradns, or opendns? Are you located in Missouri somewhere near Gary? I wonder if the domain name servers in the area are not updating properly.

Karen

[eaglesway]

I think there is something else going on. I had no access for 4 days straight, checking very regularly. Through all that time I have not had an access problem with any other site. I use google chrome on a Vista laptop, so I checked through IE- every site worked but Tentmaker.I downloaded Firefox and tried that, no access. I went to my desktop several times...every site worked but Tentmaker. I went evening before last through my sons laptop, no access. I also tried to go through every other link I could Google. I have had this laptop a year and a half and I spend about two hours a day writing and on the net and I have never had one other incidence like this. I'm no tech expert....but this seemed like something different to me, especially if the site was up all that time.

[Molly]

..but this seemed like something different to me, especially if the site was up all that time.

Yes, it was up.  I had no problem accessing it.  Strange.

[WhiteWings]

Eaglesway. If you can't access TM just enter 64.191.52.138 in the adresbar of your browser.
That should bypass every DNS problem.
The site was up every time. You can check that by for example looking at the posting dates and times in this thread.
It worked 100% of the time for me. Well sorta...
I can access and fully use the main site.
I can enter the forum.
But I can't login because then it switches to the url instead of the IP adress. I don't know how to overrule that behavior. Karen?

[sheila]

   Sometimes I can get on,sometimes I can't. If I can't...

   I expierence no problem getting on at other places.

   I have dial up..don't know if that matter's or not.

[WhiteWings]

Karen, nothing to do with TM but another weird (DNS) problem.
Surf to: http://www.christianbiblesociety.org/
Should be a Bible site but it ends on a Russian dog club.
Trace and write down the ip adress.
Now surf to the IP adress and you end on a Apache server instead of that site....
http://79.174.69.175/
As said very likely unrelated to the TM problem unless the sites are/where in the same area.

[eaglesway]

Thx WW

[WhiteWings]

Main site and forum was unrearchble 20 minutes ago. Tested with URL and IP so DNS is not the (only) problem.
During that time eaglesway was online.
So again it looks like a routing problem or overloaded servers.

The problems are always in the last 3 hops for me.
a] 63.218.31.42 -> Previous hop Amsterdam. Wouldn't expect any problems on a backbone peering point. :dontknow:
b] Peering point
c] 96.9.191.2
d] Peering point
e] 64.191.52.138

[TechHelp]

I had been starting to write a reply when the site and the server became unreachable.

I put in a request at the server company for a reboot.

Ok, now to try to remember what I had meant to post.

I heard from a tech support person at my domain registrar this morning that Verisign (the company that has responsibility for the .com and .net domain names) had made some changes having to do with the DNS. I searched online and found they changed how .com and .net DNS is handled, AS OF March 1, 2010. That's about when everything went to hell in a handbasket with the tentmaker.org domain, I think.

Then, what about .org? Was it affected because the nameservers for tentmaker.org are .com domains?

So I then searched for anything I could find specifically about .org domains. Only thing I could come up with was that .org domains need at least 2 unique nameservers. Well, 2 nameservers are running on one server, and I added another nameserver as a secondary yesterday, which runs on a separate server in a separate city.

This morning I found an online service that analyzes many many aspects of the dns settings of a domain. I ran it for tentmaker.org and it dug out the fact that there were no A records for the main nameservers on the server. I added the A records. This afternoon I re-ran the analysis on tentmaker.org and every detail checks out fine (except one minor thing which shouldn't have anything to do with site accessibility (famous last words  :thinking:)).

Ok, that's it for now.

I hope.

Keep us apprised of any troubles you may still be having with accessing the site.

Thanks!
Karen

[TechHelp]

Hi again,

I just looked for more news about the changes that Verisign is implementing in the nameserver system, and I get a queasy feeling that as they get further into this "security enhancement" we may have troubles again.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030210-verisign-dnssec.html?hpg1=bn

Karen

[reFORMer]

I get too many queasy feelings these days.

[WhiteWings]

DNS is handled, AS OF March 1, 2010. That's about when everything went to hell in a handbasket with the tentmaker.org domain, I think.

Could be but I have to add that in the 2 years I'm on this site I had several days I couldn't connect. So did other members. Things were misconfigured for years?

[TechHelp]

Hi White Wings,

As I try to piece together what must have happened:

1. There were anomalies in the DNS settings that must have been there from years ago. But, it seems that the system in general was more tolerant. I believe that tolerance is being removed by the changes being implemented by Verisign.

2. Concerning the outage you experienced in the past, there was an incident that occurred where the server was taken off line due to an invalid spam complaint. That took me a couple of days to sort out with the server company.

3. Regarding that other bible site, the DNS records seem in order. The domain records were last updated Jan. 29, 2010. It looks like maybe the domain was taken over by someone else at that time. It's difficult to see if the domain ownership changed hands, since the registration is designated private, with no registrant name or address, just "Privacy Protect".

Karen

[WhiteWings]

2b.
There were several outages (with months inbetween)
Just like last week some could and some couldn't reach TM
I can also say for sure it even depended which ISP I used.
From office I couldn't connect. I did a remote login to my home PC and there it worked.
Not always but on several occasions. Both ISPs are located in Amsterdam.

3.
I can understand microsoft wants to buy microsoft.info, microsoft.tv etc
But a dogclub with bible domain. Maybe they breed hellhounds?  :winkgrin:

[TechHelp]

Hi White Wings,

Well, some of those dogs look like they could be hellhounds.

If the Bible site has a shared IP address, then the settings in the Virtual Hosts file at their server host may be wrong and directing traffic to another site that shares that IP address.

Karen

[TechHelp]

Hi reFORMer,

I get too many queasy feelings these days.

Unfortunately I know what you mean.

Karen

[WhiteWings]

Hi White Wings,

Well, some of those dogs look like they could be hellhounds.

If the Bible site has a shared IP address, then the settings in the Virtual Hosts file at their server host may be wrong and directing traffic to another site that shares that IP address.

Karen

So in theory the bible website might still be online but just unreachable?
And the dog club site also has another URL.
Whois shows a Russian host. Possible but unlikely the US site is/was hosted there.
Pitty because the site was the only one with info about a Bible we are currently discussing.
Is it possible to find find the IP that was linked to the URL a year ago?

[TechHelp]

To find the history of IP addresses for a domain, you can go to whois.sc
It's not free to get all the details, though. I think one can sign up for a trial account. I had a trial account at one point, so I don't think I can sign up again.

[jabcat]

Just now experienced not being completely "blocked" from the site, but initially it only partially loaded, then several times I went out and tried to get back in and it showed a blank blue page and appeared to be trying to connect/load, but wouldn't/couldn't...finally, after on the 4th or 5th try, I got back in  :dontknow:.  (This is from home, not work).

[WhiteWings]

To find the history of IP addresses for a domain, you can go to whois.sc
It's not free to get all the details, though. I think one can sign up for a trial account. I had a trial account at one point, so I don't think I can sign up again.

36 whois changes in 3 year. 16 in this year.
Viewing the actual whois history requires a paid membership

[TechHelp]

Hmmm....that many IP changes is unusual.

[TechHelp]

Okay, since there haven't been any recent messages about trouble getting to the site or onto this forum, I'm assuming things have settled down.

If you have any problems accessing the site, please notify me at webmaster (at) tentmaker.org

Thanks,
Karen