Sciencemadness Discussion Board

DNS trouble with website

Polverone - 25-1-2009 at 11:37

I don't know if others have experienced it, but this morning on attempting to visit here I was sent to some not-set-up-yet web host page running on 205.234.232.134. The real sciencemadness IP address is 69.65.48.76. I had to edit my /etc/hosts file before browsing here worked normally again. I haven't received any notices that my domain name registrations were expiring, and the server itself seems to work fine if you get to the correct destination. I don't know if this is related to the DDoS attack against the Network Solutions name servers.

Please post in this thread to let me know if you are seeing the site normally. If you can currently view this thread you may want to write down the IP addresses in case your DNS queries start giving bad results too.

hissingnoise - 25-1-2009 at 13:38

Polverone, anyone encountering problems will chime in, I'm sure.
Things are normal from this, a European perspective.
A random glitch, possibly. . .

Polverone - 25-1-2009 at 14:15

Well, unless the person with problems already knew the site's IP address, they would not be able to report their problems here until the problems were resolved. That's why I wanted people who were not having problems to report, so I would know if the problem is universal. Thanks for responding!

FrankRizzo - 26-1-2009 at 11:25

Was down all morning for me. Just now checked @ 1:25pm cst and am now able to connect.

497 - 26-1-2009 at 11:28

For me it was down yesterday evening. It's all good now though. I was a little worried..

Nerro - 26-1-2009 at 11:29

Since yesterday, ~24 hrs?

Polverone - 26-1-2009 at 11:53

I talked to a tech this morning and got the DNS problem fixed. It will take a while for the updated records to propagate to everyone.

harrydrez - 26-1-2009 at 12:18

It was down for me, from yesterday afternoon until about 3:00 pm today.

argyrium - 26-1-2009 at 12:32

Got actually a bit panicky - unable to get into my favorite recreational web site yesterday and this morning!

Glad its back up. Thanks for all you do, Polverone.

Pomzazed - 26-1-2009 at 12:37

I've also been trying to enter the forum with some hour periods and cannot enter!
Thanks for the fast solving!

solo - 26-1-2009 at 12:38

I'm in Mexico and wasn't able to make the connection since yesterday.....solo

woelen - 26-1-2009 at 12:44

I had the same problem, I was redirected to some not-set-up website for the entire morning and afternoon (GMT+1).

pantone159 - 26-1-2009 at 13:02

Quote:
Originally posted by woelen
I had the same problem, I was redirected to some not-set-up website for the entire morning and afternoon (GMT+1).


Same for me, starting yesterday I went to the not-setup page, and it was down until just now.

Mr. Wizard - 26-1-2009 at 13:05

I've noticed it was down too. So you have the Static IP 69.65.48.76 ?

[Edited on by Mr. Wizard]

jokull - 26-1-2009 at 13:10

Quote:
Originally posted by solo
I'm in Mexico and wasn't able to make the connection since yesterday.....solo


The same situation for me. Indeed, the page I reached recommended to send an e-mail to the domain's webmaster.

HydroCarbon - 26-1-2009 at 13:13

It's still down for me if I go to the url www.sciencemadness.org (69.65.48.76) then click on either forum link. I got here by doing a google search to see if I could find any news about the site, and clicking on the forum link in the search results.

Glad I found it though, I thought the site was down.

IrC - 26-1-2009 at 13:20

I have been getting an apache placeholder for an unconfigured website for two days. Wondering if the site had been removed from existence a few minutes ago I was searching google for anyone talking about what happened to the site. Clicking on a link in google brought me here where I backspaced to the main index page and bookmarked it. Works again, not being a hacker I am not sure why I have been getting the apache crap for two days from my original bookmark which I have been using for several years. The URL looks the same and now the original bookmark works again. No idea what was going on.

hissingnoise - 26-1-2009 at 13:29

Back to normality, at last; it happened me ten minutes after posting. . .
Thanks for sorting it out.

franklyn - 26-1-2009 at 13:54

It must be DNS cache poisoning, normally one can access through Google
using their cached pages but that was diverted also. I initially typed from
Command prompt : Ipconfig /flushdns to clear my cache and that didn't work
( note one needs to have The DNS client service started to be able to do this )
Sent an e-mail notice to the other site and it came back undeliverable.


To obviate such anoyances in future I recommend to everyone the following,

open notepad and paste this _

[InternetShortcut]
url=69.65.48.76

_ close notepad and rename , changing the extension .txt , to .url

you now have a handy shortcut link to www.sciencemadness.org

.

oldtimer - 26-1-2009 at 14:09

I could not access the site yesterday and this morning. I already feared that it was down for good, which would have been a great loss.

Btw., location here is Argentina.

Connection, OK !

MadHatter - 26-1-2009 at 14:14

I just logged on without problems but noticed that there are
only 2 threads under
"Todays Posts". Sounds like a software glitch.

Polverone - 26-1-2009 at 14:49

It was misconfigured DNS. I don't know how the misconfiguration happened exactly but it is ok now. The board software was not affected. There are only a few threads today because people have been unable to reach the site.

Sedit - 26-1-2009 at 14:50

Its working for me now it was down for almost 24 hours that i know of but it seems to be going good now

starman - 26-1-2009 at 15:59

Same deal in Australia,down 24hrs +.Going thru google also gave the apache page.
Thought maybe some government agency put us off the air:(

UnintentionalChaos - 26-1-2009 at 17:22

I'm in the eastern US and www.sciencemadness.org is still bringing up the apache cPanel page. The only reason I was able to get here was by navigating directly to 69.65.48.76.

BromicAcid - 26-1-2009 at 17:26

Here in wisconsin the site was down all day yesterday, looks to be working fine now.

garage chemist - 26-1-2009 at 17:34

The site was down for me as well, I got the "send an email to the webmaster" page.

sparkgap - 26-1-2009 at 19:04

The site was dead for me the whole of yesterday. Glad to see we're back up! :)

sparky (~_~)

Sauron - 26-1-2009 at 19:51

Site was down altogether for at least 36 hours maybe 48. This included the library, so not only the forum was affected but the entire sciencemadness.org domain.

All that was up was a cPanel screen on www.sciencemadness.org and all elsewhere an Apache error message.

Very irritating, probably more so to Polverone.

kclo4 - 26-1-2009 at 21:02

I am glad it is back up! I was a bit worried.
I noticed this site was down yesterday, and when checked it today it was back up. :)

Ozone - 28-1-2009 at 11:13

Interesting. I can get in just fine at work (on a T1), but I get the Apache BSOD when I try from home (on COX cable). This has been consistent now for two days. I'll check again when I get home. If it has not changed, I'll have to check back in from work tomorrow.

Cheers,

O3

benzylchloride1 - 29-1-2009 at 22:35

I got the Apache website when I visited Sciencemadness on Sunday and could not access the site until today. I live in The Western United States.

Ozone - 30-1-2009 at 19:23

Hmm. Still screwy. If I go to sciencemadness.org, I get the Apache screen (still, 013009 9:21pm USCT). However, if I go to, say http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=11743&... (or another address with an extension), it works fine.

For the meanwhile, I've set up (favoritized) this page for access and can hit on today's posts, etc.

Yea!

O3

pantone159 - 30-1-2009 at 21:12

Will clearing your browser history help to clean out the old-bad IP address?

problem repeated today

Polverone - 9-3-2009 at 12:44

The exact same problem repeated today. I was able to contact a technician before the bad DNS record propagated everywhere, but I imagine that a number of members got to see the Apache welcome page on somebody else's webserver again.

The technician was unable to explain why this problem repeated.

hissingnoise - 9-3-2009 at 12:54

It was a (weirdly familiar deja vu moment) for me, Polverone. . .
Good to see it nipped in the bud!

[Edited on 9-3-2009 by hissingnoise]