Computer - Internet Questions And Answers

[kurtgruen]

Hi there,

Any of you techies out there know how the TT&T server works? Most of the time, I am very happy with TT&T, so this is not a complaint...

The following happened this morning...

first I couldn't get online at all...phoned TT%T, who said they are having server problems...

then all of a sudden, I got on to MSN messenger and some other local and international sites, but still can't access search engines, such as google.com yahoo.com.

Do you think this has to do with the way the server restarts, or does anyone have an educated idea on why this is happening?

Thanks

[Maejo Man]

Hi there,

Any of you techies out there know how the TT&T server works? Most of the time, I am very happy with TT&T, so this is not a complaint...

The following happened this morning...

first I couldn't get online at all...phoned TT%T, who said they are having server problems...

then all of a sudden, I got on to MSN messenger and some other local and international sites, but still can't access search engines, such as google.com yahoo.com.

Do you think this has to do with the way the server restarts, or does anyone have an educated idea on why this is happening?

Thanks

TT&T are having problems today, so you are not alone, I'm currently using my dial up connection as my ADSL is down.

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

Hi there,

Any of you techies out there know how the TT&T server works? Most of the time, I am very happy with TT&T, so this is not a complaint...

The following happened this morning...

first I couldn't get online at all...phoned TT%T, who said they are having server problems...

then all of a sudden, I got on to MSN messenger and some other local and international sites, but still can't access search engines, such as google.com yahoo.com.

Do you think this has to do with the way the server restarts, or does anyone have an educated idea on why this is happening?

Thanks

I know exactly why this is happening, but it's difficult to answer in a paragraph or two. Here's my best shot at the KISS version:

The actual adressing scheme used to connect to a website (or any resource on the internet) is called an IP address, which looks something like this: 208.67.219.40. As IP numbers aren't particuarly memorable, boffins came up with the idea of Domain Names (English'ish addresses) and DNS (Domain Name Servers) that maintain a indexes that maps one to the other.

When you type an internet address into your browser, e.g. www.thaivisa.com, your browser connects to your ISP's DNS, which in turn tells your browser the relevant IP address it must actually request.

Due to the fact that literally 100's of thousands of domain names are added, moved, or deleted daily, your ISP's DNS updates it's records frequently to ensure you can connect to the websites you're looking for.

The problem with TT&T (who use KSC and JiNet servers AFAIK), is that when they have a service outage, their DNS servers cannot update, and subsequently their DNS records get wiped (this is quite simply bad admin practices IMHO). So the next time you request www.somewebsite.com it has no idea what the corresponding IP address is, and thus you're left looking at a browser error page.

There are two fixes for this when it happens:

1. Wait. The DNS servers will eventually rebuild their indexes over a couple/few hours.

2. Use someone else's DNS server that works - one that seems OK is available at www.opendns.com (good/easy instructions too).

Hope this helps.

[kurtgruen]

I know exactly why this is happening, but it's difficult to answer in a paragraph or two. Here's my best shot at the KISS version:

The actual adressing scheme used to connect to a website (or any resource on the internet) is called an IP address, which looks something like this: 208.67.219.40. As IP numbers aren't particuarly memorable, boffins came up with the idea of Domain Names (English'ish addresses) and DNS (Domain Name Servers) that maintain a indexes that maps one to the other.

When you type an internet address into your browser, e.g. www.thaivisa.com, your browser connects to your ISP's DNS, which in turn tells your browser the relevant IP address it must actually request.

Due to the fact that literally 100's of thousands of domain names are added, moved, or deleted daily, your ISP's DNS updates it's records frequently to ensure you can connect to the websites you're looking for.

The problem with TT&T (who use KSC and JiNet servers AFAIK), is that when they have a service outage, their DNS servers cannot update, and subsequently their DNS records get wiped (this is quite simply bad admin practices IMHO). So the next time you request www.somewebsite.com it has no idea what the corresponding IP address is, and thus you're left looking at a browser error page.

There are two fixes for this when it happens:

1. Wait. The DNS servers will eventually rebuild their indexes over a couple/few hours.

2. Use someone else's DNS server that works - one that seems OK is available at www.opendns.com (good/easy instructions too).

Hope this helps.

Yes, great info. Thank you very much. As you said it would, the problem was resolved within a couple of hours, but thank you for the "opendns.com" site. Great to have for next time, if I am in a hurry to get somewhere ;-)

Thanks again,