Problems accessing a certain website w/ winXP

[mjpuczko 0]

My friend is unable to access my website from his winXP laptop. He can get to every other page but mine. i ran a traceroute on my site from his laptop & recieved the following results:

 

Tracing route to www.thanksalotalgore.net [66.41.73.165]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

 

1 * * * Request timed out.

2 * * * Request timed out.

3 * * * Request timed out.

4 * * * Request timed out.

5 * * * Request timed out.

6 * * * Request timed out.

7 * * * Request timed out.

8 * * * Request timed out.

9 * * * Request timed out.

10 * * * Request timed out.

11 * * * Request timed out.

12 * * * Request timed out.

13 * * * Request timed out.

14 * * * Request timed out.

15 *

 

so, it's not going through once. After running hte traceroute, i'm not too sure what else to do. No one else has problems accessing my site at all, just him. help!

[ScinteX 0]

Is it a new site? If so;

it might be ok today since it can take some time to replicate across the net.

 

Im assuming your friend has xp.....(apols for the wordy explanation!)

 

The DNS Windows XP cache stores both negative and positive entries. The positive entries are those that the DNS lookup was successful and you could connect to the website.

 

Negative entries are those where the DNS lookup failed and you could not connect to the website.

 

A problem can arise here because if the DNS cache hold a negative entry and the website you want to view is now OK to view, Windows XP will still give you a DNS error which maybe the case here.

 

Most ISP's and Domain name registrar's now update their DNS information (TTL) every 4 hours instead of the twice daily updates that were common few years ago.

 

This means that your DNS Windows XP cache may be out of date for certain entries: maybe your site.

 

run from the command prompt:

 

ipconfig /flushdns

 

and try again it might just work.

 

The traceroute might be a red herring since it might be the case that ICMP packets are dropped somewhere along the line (could be a firewall or router he has or even his ISP blocks them).

 

See how u get on flushing the dns cache.

Also try deleting his temp internet files too.

 

If/when u post back we can maybe investigate the routing problem a bit more if he is stll having problems.

 

 

btw thats a nice lookin site u have there

[ScinteX 0]

Looks like u might be right too Alec!

 

this looks like a propagation issue at the moment.

Reason is:

 

Alec- IP works

Me - everything fine

You - fine too

Your mate - nothing

 

This means that where we get our DNS info from is somewhat in a state of limbo at ths current time.

 

To be more techy:

 

Alec: Has "A" (A, or address, records describe the IP that a given DNS node has) but no "NS" (NS, or name server, records are used to tell other DNS servers which DNS servers to contact in order to find out information for a given DNS node)

 

Me and you have both

 

Your mate has nothing as yet.

 

This does get a little more detailed however i wont bore you!

 

Hopefully problem solved!

 

 

[mjpuczko 0]

thanks for your help guys. i'll trying clearing the cache. that could be the issue since he may have tried to access my site while it wasn't up yet.

[thatsteveguy 0]

I am able to get to the page with www.thanksalotalgore.net

 

S

[mjpuczko 0]

ok, i tried everything mentioned above & i even tried adding in my ip address & website name into his host file. nothing worked! i'm at such a loss right now.

[adamvjackson 0]

If he is using his ISP's DNS server then perhaps he can temporarily try the DNS server that is used by your ISP?

[mjpuczko 0]

we both use comcast for our internet connection x)

which shouldn't be the problem at all, because my other friend has comcast & it works fine for him.

[adamvjackson 0]

Do either/any of you use the HOSTS file?