Server troubles...

[Nathon Detroit]

The bottom line is I am positive it isn't a domain name thing. There is even better evidence for that in that.... I placed a small family website on the same server using a unique domain name and it has gone done as well every time the TOL server has gone down. Therefore.... it would have to be an incredible coincedence that they both had domain name troubles at the exact same time over the span of three weeks,

 

[Big Finn]

But hey....
It's the internet... ya never know!

Well, to a certain extent that is true. However, when I can't run a traceroute to the server because the name can't be found, can't ping the server because the name can't found, can't find the site IP address using nslookup, or a few other commercial tools, then it isn't simply a matter of losing http services. That would have no affect on all these other tools as long as the server was running and theologyonline was to be found in the DNS databases. However, I didn't get ping timeouts, or dropped packets. Ping and traceroute couldn't even find a server that had the name www.theologyonline.com. Neither could traceroute, sam spade, or neotrace, all commercial tools for finding name registrations, ip addresses, net blocks, etc....

This site has never before dropped completely out of sight before in the years I've been coming here. If I couldn't connect I could still run traceroute, ping, or one or more of my other tools and still find the site. Last night I couldn't.

 

[ebenz47037]

Originally posted by Knight

That might have been when I tried to reboot the server remotely and everything failed!

When all else fails, let a person mess it up. Huh? :chuckle:

 

[Big Finn]

Neither could traceroute, sam spade, or neotrace, all commercial tools for finding name registrations, ip addresses, net blocks, etc....

Whoops. That ought to say: Neither could visual route, sam spade, or neotrace, all commercial tools for finding name registrations, ip addresses, net blocks, etc....

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by Knight

Therefore.... it would have to be an incredible coincedence that they both had domain name troubles at the exact same time over the span of three weeks,

But TOL and BWR (if that's the other website you're talking about) both use the same name server and secondary, the former sharing the same IP as the server TOL resides on.

NS1.ERIC............COM 64.119.178.44
NS2.ERIC............COM 64.119.178.45

I know when TOL is down, my browser stops at "resolving host theologyonline.com" Later, "host theologyonline.com could not be found"

I'm just agreeing with Big Finn that it might be (part of) the problem. Who knows...

 

[Big Finn]

I know when TOL is down, my browser stops at "resolving host theologyonline.com" Later, "host theologyonline.com could not be found"

The only cause for that error is a problem with dns. The process of "resolving" a host name is translating a humanly readable address such as www.theologyonline.com to a computer readable address such as an IP address (192.168.1.20 for example) and its subnet mask(255.255.255.0 for example). And that is the entire purpose of dns.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Originally posted by Lucky

But TOL and BWR (if that's the other website you're talking about) both use the same name server and secondary, the former sharing the same IP as the server TOL resides on.

NS1.ERIC............COM 64.119.178.44
NS2.ERIC............COM 64.119.178.45

I know when TOL is down, my browser stops at "resolving host theologyonline.com" Later, "host theologyonline.com could not be found"

I'm just agreeing with Big Finn that it might be (part of) the problem. Who knows...

Yea who knows....

When the (on site) tech support reboots the server everything insantantly comes back online.

 

[Big Finn]

Knight,

When I ping www.theologyonline.com I get the IP address of 64.119.178.44. This is the same IP address that Lucky posted for the name servers for your hosting company.

This means you are being hosted on a virtual server. A virtual server runs multiple sites/services. Thus, if the DNS server crashes on the IP address your server is located on your hosting company loses the ability to respond to dns queries from across the internet. That makes you disappear, makes you impossible to find, and makes it impossible to log onto the site. It also explains why when they reboot the box you come back online. The web server isn't crashing the dns server is.

One more thing. No hosting company should ever host their dns server and web sites on the same machine. Period. This is a major security no-no.

 

[Big Finn]

Knight,

I'd bet you make your ftp connections by dotted decimal IP address rather than by fully qualified domain name. That means dns is not needed to connect to the server, so it continues to respond when you connect to the server. I'll also bet the mail records are hosted on the other dns server.

This is the only logical explanation I can see for the problems you're having. I worked for a web site for a year and half, and one of my duties was figuring out why people would have problems connecting to the site. DNS, when it screws up, causes major problems. And your site being hosted on the same box as the dns server for that company, coming back online when the box is rebooted, and the IP address not being resolvable through dns all point in only one direction. The dns server on that box is the source of all the trouble you are having.

 

[Nathon Detroit]

Originally posted by Big Finn

Knight,

I'd bet you make your ftp connections by dotted decimal IP address rather than by fully qualified domain name. That means dns is not needed to connect to the server, so it continues to respond when you connect to the server. I'll also bet the mail records are hosted on the other dns server.

This is the only logical explanation I can see for the problems you're having. I worked for a web site for a year and half, and one of my duties was figuring out why people would have problems connecting to the site. DNS, when it screws up, causes major problems. And your site being hosted on the same box as the dns server for that company, coming back online when the box is rebooted, and the IP address not being resolvable through dns all point in only one direction. The dns server on that box is the source of all the trouble you are having.

This sounds interesting.

I am going to PM you from here on out.

 

[Big Finn]

That's fine with me, Knight. If there's anything I can do to help, I'll be more that willing to do it.

You could also email me and if we use the same IM programs we could chat that way too.

 

[Sozo]

Originally posted by Knight

This sounds interesting.

I am going to PM you from here on out.

If he starts telling you that the server will not work unless you have a relationship with it first... run like hell!