WWW Site Down?

[HTMLAlan]

We've had the same ISP for several years, but recently our site has been down. Unfortunately, the Support people have not responded to several emails.

Is there some way I might determine where the problem lies?

I tried PINGPLOTTER, and got the ATTACHED file (t.jpg). Not sure what it's telling me that's relevant as I do not see any link that's questionable, except for the "blanks" at the bottom..

I'd sure appreciate any guidance on this, thanks!!

Alan

[iamback]

Give us a URL - without that nobody can say much about what the problem might be.

[HTMLAlan]

Sorry, it's www.baseballreplays.com

It's back up now, but I am curious as to how to interpret the PINGPLOTTER stuff (I included it in the Attachment to my original post). I'm interested so that in the future I might be more able to diagnose where the downtime problem was triggered.

Thanks,

Alan

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by HTMLAlan

It's back up now, but I am curious as to how to interpret the PINGPLOTTER stuff (I included it in the Attachment to my original post). I'm interested so that in the future I might be more able to diagnose where the downtime problem was triggered.

Do you have access to a status report at your web host’s site? That would be the first place I would look, to see if the entire server is down.

If so, odds are it was nothing you (or your site) did.

If the server is up, then I would use an FTP client to see if you can access your domain that way (which would suggest the problem is with the site rather than your server).

Maybe someone else here will know how to interpret your Pingplotter report. Good luck with it.

::

[iamback]

Originally Posted by HTMLAlan

It's back up now, but I am curious as to how to interpret the PINGPLOTTER stuff (I included it in the Attachment to my original post). I'm interested so that in the future I might be more able to diagnose where the downtime problem was triggered.

Your "pingplotter" looks like a graphical traceroute.

A traceroute (the command-line program that comeas with most OSs is usually called 'tracert') will basically try to "follow" the path from your machine to the target server by sending a ping to each in turn. If the problem is not with the target serfver but with a node somewhere between you and the target, you'll see that the path stops somewhere - and not at the last hop to your actual target. A router along the way may be misconfigured, and not pass on any request, or there may be a loop. If you know what the usual path to your server is, problems like these are quite obvious from the traceroute.

If you suspect a problem in teh network ratehr than the server, you can ask others at other locations (like here on the forum) to try a traceroute to the target: if their location is sufficiently different, they may not hit a problem router that you can't get around. That way you may find the server is actually up - but you cannot reach it.

The closer to the target the problem is, the larger the group of people who will not be able to reach it - even if it's actually up.

So, to read a traceroute, the first you need to know is a normal traceroute, and the IP address not only of your server, but also of the network it is sitting on (your hosting provider, or the datacenter where the server is located).

If you can locate what the problem machine is, and it isn't solved quickly, you may look up its administrator, and send them an email.

A few references that may help:
http://www.more.net/technical/pingtrace.html
http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-...06/089787.html

[HTMLAlan]

>>and the IP address not only of your server, but also of the network it is sitting on (your hosting provider, or the datacenter where the server is located).<<

Thanks.

This is probably a dumb question, but how/where might I find that?

Alan

[HTMLAlan]

>>Do you have access to a status report at your web host’s site? That would be the first place I would look, to see if the entire server is down.<<

Thanks.

I wish I had access to that! The ISP is HostingInsiders and it's fairly large, I believe, but I don't have a clue as to where I might find such info.

(The ISP has been quite good over the years for me, and it's extremely inexpensive, but the downside is that it's very tough or impossible to reach a human for help.)

Alan

[iamback]

Originally Posted by HTMLAlan

>>and the IP address not only of your server, but also of the network it is sitting on (your hosting provider, or the datacenter where the server is located).<<

Thanks.

This is probably a dumb question, but how/where might I find that?

Alan

The IP address of your own site is most easily found by simply pinging it. See the references I gave you.

A (normal) traceroute will usually show one or two hops before reaching your own server that give a clue as to the host and/ or datacenter. Use WHOIS on this IP addresses, to see what's what. (There are various public whois services on the web, or you can find client sto install on your desktop, or may have a command-line version already, depending on what OS you're running.)

An alternative is to look up what IP block the IP address of your web site belongs to (WHOIS on that IP address will often tell you).

So basically: poke around using ping, tracert and whois. Good practice to become familiar with such tools as well.

[HTMLAlan]

Thanks again, Marjolein! I hae read both of the referenced links you suggested.

Thanks to www.internetfrog.com, I just found the following for my site (which is hosted by www.hostinginsiders.com):

HopRttRttRtt IP AddressDomain Name1000 65.182.208.22000 199.231.146.183000 199.231.146.134666 146.82.33.141so-0-3-3.ar3.chi1.gblx.net5766 67.17.67.94so1-0-0-2488m.ar1.chi2.gblx.net6666 208.50.13.234above-1.ar1.chi2.gblx.net7666 64.125.30.142so-1-0-0.cr2.ord2.us.above.net8323131 64.125.29.5so-5-1-0.cr2.dfw2.us.above.net9363690 64.125.31.41so-3-0-0.mpr2.iah1.us.above.net10373736 216.200.251.26289.ge-3-2-1.mpr1.iah1.us.above.net11383838 207.218.245.28ivhou-207-218-245-28.ev1.net12383738 207.218.223.108ivhou-207-218-223-108.ev1.net13373838 69.57.152.27server6.hostinginsiders.com

Since I can't find any Availability (or other) reports for Hostinginsiders, I'm not sure how to use this information, unless the problem occurs before it reaches Hostinginsiders.

Have I missed something here?

Thanks again,

Alan

[gary]

Originally Posted by HTMLAlan

I wish I had access to that! The ISP is HostingInsiders and it's fairly large, I believe, but I don't have a clue as to where I might find such info.

You can look this stuff up at http://geektools.com

> host www.baseballreplays.com
www.baseballreplays.com is an alias for baseballreplays.com.
baseballreplays.com has address 69.57.152.27
www.baseballreplays.com is an alias for baseballreplays.com.
www.baseballreplays.com is an alias for baseballreplays.com.
baseballreplays.com mail is handled by 0 baseballreplays.com.

> whois 69.57.152.27

OrgName: Everyones Internet
OrgID: EVRY
Address: 390 Benmar
Address: Suite 200
City: Houston
StateProv: TX
PostalCode: 77060
Country: US

NetRange: 69.57.128.0 - 69.57.159.255
CIDR: 69.57.128.0/19
NetName: EVRY-BLK-13
NetHandle: NET-69-57-128-0-1
Parent: NET-69-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.EV1.NET
NameServer: NS2.EV1.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 2003-06-20
Updated: 2003-07-02