When I try to access Urban Ohio from school (DAAP building at University of Cincinnati), it doesn't load at all.  The site is up at the time, which I'm sure of because I'm behind a proxy and posting this from school right now.  My other browser, not behind the proxy, is getting a "Server not found" error.  Is the IP blocked for some reason?

Most likely, they're the ones either blocking it or the DNS is messed up and getting the wrong IP address for the domain name.

This is a known error of the CWRU network as well, however it is not 24/7, but rather only at certain times.  Does UC get their Internet from a big hub in Indiana like Case?  Perhaps it's a common provider.

Most times of the day I cannot access it from a Case computer.  It's very random...hence why my posts have been not as frequent.

^, ^^ Interesting that this problem isn't just one college campus. This is the only site on which I've run into this problem.  I haven't noticed if it's consistently not working at Cincinnati or just at random times, as I don't get on my computer there to surf the internet very often.

 

I did a bit of Googling after I checked the whois and saw Urban Ohio is registered with GoDaddy.  I found this somewhat recent thread that claims the problem is actually with GoDaddy's nameservers: http://community.godaddy.com/groups/web-hosting/forum/topic/server-not-found-in-certain-areas/

 

 

To determine if the problem is domain name resolution, try accessing the site by IP address instead of hostname.

To determine if the problem is domain name resolution, try accessing the site by IP address instead of hostname.

 

http://174.36.48.69/~urbanohi/

I love how 8 character limits are still around in this day and age. :)

 

Rich, we really need to get a fund together and get a dedicated server for UO.  Those GoDaddy shared servers are nothing but trouble.  UO fundraising campaign anyone?  Or MTS forgoes his Barney's trip for one month? :)

 

PS - The link to the forums woulde be http://174.36.48.69/~urbanohi/forum2/.  All links on the forums go back to urbanohio.com it seems, so this is not a usable solution, but it at least should provide some insight into what the problem might be.

To determine if the problem is domain name resolution, try accessing the site by IP address instead of hostname.

 

http://174.36.48.69/~urbanohi/

 

Thanks, I wasn't sure what the subdomain was.  As of right now, it's working in the place it usually doesn't.  So it appears it's also a temporary problem for me.  I'll keep the IP bookmarked as well, though.

 

Rich, we really need to get a fund together and get a dedicated server for UO. Those GoDaddy shared servers are nothing but trouble. UO fundraising campaign anyone? Or MTS forgoes his Barney's trip for one month? :)

 

 

We were using a dedicated server for a year or so (2007-08ish) but have been using a VDS for almost two years if I remember correctly.  The VDS is far more powerful than the level of dedicated server we would be able to lease, its also very scaleable if needed.  Also, only our domain was purchased through godaddy.  Our site and DNS is not hosted with godaddy. 

 

Rich, we really need to get a fund together and get a dedicated server for UO. Those GoDaddy shared servers are nothing but trouble. UO fundraising campaign anyone? Or MTS forgoes his Barney's trip for one month? :)

 

 

We were using a dedicated server for a year or so (2007-08ish) but have been using a VDS for almost two years if I remember correctly. The VDS is far more powerful than the level of dedicated server we would be able to lease, its also very scaleable if needed. Also, only our domain was purchased through godaddy. Our site and DNS is not hosted with godaddy.

 

That's good.  I'm still wary of VDS since the machine itself is still shared, but it is cost effective and certainly better than the cheap shared hosting plans.  And it's great to hear you're not using GoDaddy for hosting. :)

So, the site just went down here at Case (I am typing this on my phone).  Accessing the site directly from the IP address does in fact work, but of course I cannot access any pages from there.

This is so damn frustrating.  I'm at a case computer too typing on my phone ...

I checked with our host and they said that sometimes the universities restrict access to sites.  Yes its rare, but happens.  They suggested we make contact with each universities IT department.

I checked with our host and they said that sometimes the universities restrict access to sites. Yes its rare, but happens. They suggested we make contact with each universities IT department.

 

Like only randomly, though?  I mean, I'm on UO from our network right now.  It's just weird that it works sometimes, but not other times.  And I can access via the IP address directly when the urbanohio address is not working.....

Next time the site is not working, can you try running the following commands from a command prompt (Start/Run/cmd)?

 

ping urbanohio.com

 

ping 174.36.48.69

 

I am assuming the first won't work (Request timed out.) and the second will (should list times in ms).  If so, the next question would be whether you have access to the system settings on the machine (is it your own machine?) or are you using a shared machine which is likely locked down?

It's my personal computer, so I can do whatever.

Next time the site is not working, can you try running the following commands from a command prompt (Start/Run/cmd)?

 

ping urbanohio.com

 

ping 174.36.48.69

 

I am assuming the first won't work (Request timed out.) and the second will (should list times in ms). If so, the next question would be whether you have access to the system settings on the machine (is it your own machine?) or are you using a shared machine which is likely locked down?

 

ping urbanohio.com returned "Ping request could not find host urbanohio.com. Please check the name and try again."

 

ping 174.36.48.69 timed out every attempt.

 

Going directly to http://174.36.48.69/~urbanohi/ worked, but none of the links worked of course.  I could get to the forum by adding /forum2/, but the css didn't load and it was basically unnavigable. 

maybe try trace routing the ip and or domain and see where it stops.

 

 

maybe try trace routing the ip and or domain and see where it stops.

 

 

 

Could you provide an instruction manual?  :-D

the command on windows is tracert.

mac, think it is the standard traceroute

so here is me doing it (i'm using solaris so it should be the same on mac)

 

[gfi@ultra5]$ traceroute urbanohio.com

copy and past what comes up

 

from my windows workstation

I:\>tracert urbanohio.com

copy and past what comes up

 

I would recommend trying by ip addy as well to rule out a dns issue (on yours or the sites side).  So instead of urbanohio.com try it with 174.36.48.69 as well. 

 

copy/paste your results on here

 

Okay, I'll try that next time the site goes down on campus.  Thanks!

For tracert urbanohio.com, it says "unable to resolve target system name urbanohio.com".  It took 14 steps to get through via the IP address.  I'll paste that when I can get to the site from my computer again.

so if you got different results from the ip and the domain than the problem might resides in your universities domain names server (or urban ohio's).  ask your admin and see what he says.

Okay, here's what I got when the site was down, but I could access it via IP.  I just checked, and it's exactly the same steps doing tracert urbanohio.com when the site is working here.