Buffalo problem - any router experts here?

[KasinoKing]

I have the most bizarre problem imaginable and need help!

I'm working on a new website (details to be released soon... ) which already has several pages uploaded to the server - but I can't view it myself at home!

Every time I type in the URL I just get a standard "page not found' message - like the site does not exist.

But it does exist because I can view it with no problems at work & at 3 friends houses when I tried.
Last night I took my wireless laptop to a friends house, connected to the net via his wireless network (he's using Pipex broadband - same as me) and found the site, no problem. I left the laptop on with the browser on the homepage, came home, connected to my wireless server, clicked 'refresh' and bam - can't find the site!!

This morning I connected to the net using good old BT dial up 32K/Sec! You guessed it - found the site, no problem.

So by my reckoning the only thing which can be causing this problem is my Buffalo Air Station G54 which connects both my PC & Laptop to the web, or some even more bizarre setting on both computers which blocks the site only if I try to connect via that particular router...

Anyone have any idea what's going on?
More importantly - how do I fix it???

Thanks in advance for any help!
KK

[3Dice]

Hi KK,

That sounds very much like a dns lookup problem. It can take a couple of days for DNS servers to sync, have you tried surfing to your site using the ip-address ?

To make sure it's the DNS that is failing you can do the following :

click start -> run -> type 'cmd' followed by enter.

That gives you a command prompt. In that one type

nslookup mywebsitename.com

It will print the IP address registered for your website at the DNS
server of your ISP (which it will also print). Now you can compare
those to what you see when you use dialup or at friends ..

Greets,

Enzo

Originally Posted by KasinoKing

I have the most bizarre problem imaginable and need help!

I'm working on a new website (details to be released soon... ) which already has several pages uploaded to the server - but I can't view it myself at home!

Every time I type in the URL I just get a standard "page not found' message - like the site does not exist.

But it does exist because I can view it with no problems at work & at 3 friends houses when I tried.
Last night I took my wireless laptop to a friends house, connected to the net via his wireless network (he's using Pipex broadband - same as me) and found the site, no problem. I left the laptop on with the browser on the homepage, came home, connected to my wireless server, clicked 'refresh' and bam - can't find the site!!

This morning I connected to the net using good old BT dial up 32K/Sec! You guessed it - found the site, no problem.

So by my reckoning the only thing which can be causing this problem is my Buffalo Air Station G54 which connects both my PC & Laptop to the web, or some even more bizarre setting on both computers which blocks the site only if I try to connect via that particular router...

Anyone have any idea what's going on?
More importantly - how do I fix it???

Thanks in advance for any help!
KK

[KasinoKing]

Originally Posted by 3Dice

Hi KK,

That sounds very much like a dns lookup problem. It can take a couple of days for DNS servers to sync, have you tried surfing to your site using the ip-address ?

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly do you mean by 'surfing to your site'...?
I've tried typing the full URL into the address bar, and also clicking on a link on another site - no luck.
Also tried clicking on a link from Google (site ranked at number 5 of 566,000 already if you use the right words & it's not even public yet! ) - but I can't view it!

Originally Posted by 3Dice

To make sure it's the DNS that is failing you can do the following :
click start -> run -> type 'cmd' followed by enter.
That gives you a command prompt. In that one type

nslookup mywebsitename.com

It will print the IP address registered for your website at the DNS
server of your ISP (which it will also print). Now you can compare
those to what you see when you use dialup or at friends ..

It said "Can't find server name for address 192.xxx.x.x: Non-existent domain."
But when I tried KasinoKing.co.uk on it's own, with www. and with http:/www. I got the same thing every time - so what does that mean?

Thanks for any help from Enzo or anyone else!

KK

[lots0]

Clear your browser cache.

Check your firewall and virus software to see if it is blocking the site.

Some DNS propagation can be weird the first 72 hours or so, give it a few days.

If you are still having the same problems after the site has been live for 5 or 6 days and you have made sure your system firewall/anti-virus will allow access, then you have a real problem. If this happens PM me with the details and I'll take a look if you want.

[3Dice]

Hi KK,

Allow me to elaborate a little bit .. I feel a bit of insight in how DNS works may be the key to locating the exact problem here.

When you type e.g. 'www.google.com' in the address bar of your favorite browser and press enter, you start a lengthy process that hopefully ends you up gazing at another beautiful Google logo.

One of the first steps of this process is the translation of the name 'www.google.com' to the ip address of the Google server. Very much like the telephone system, the internet does not work with names, but with numbers.

Just like a phonebook is a way to translate a name to a telephone nr, the DNS service is a way to translate a domain name to an ip number. There's more than one 'phonebook' on the internet, to avoid lengthy waits when using it, every ISP runs its own DNS servers (copy of the phonebook.).

When a new domain name gets in use, it has to be added to the phonebook, exactly like when you would get a new telephonenr. However, with all the copies of this 'book' all over the world, it can take a couple of days before all ISP's update their copy. This process is called DNS propagation, and it can typically take up to 72 hours to resolve.

When confronted with a situation like yours, the first thing one would want to try is make sure that you can access your site if you are not using the name services. In essence .. if you know the phone# by heart, you don't need the phone book at all .. So instead of typing www.google.com in the address bar of your browser, you could also type 66.249.93.99 .. which is one of the google addresses and if you do that, DNS is not used at all ..

(To find the correct ip for your site, use a different ISP or use a web-based DNS lookup like this one)

If you can surf to your site using the IP address, but not using the name, we have further established that it is indeed the name services that are causing the problem. (which is already strongly indicated by the fact that if you connect through a different ISP (different phonebook) .. things work fine ..)

Once you've established this, the next task will be to find out what phone-book you are using, and what address it gives you if any ..
This is done with the nslookup command (Name Service lookup). Starting a command prompt and typing "nslookup www.google.com" will display two things. First two lines you see are the name of your name server and its ip address. The second block will contain the name, aliases and addresses for the item you've looked up (in this case www.google.com).

If the problem persists beyond the expected propagation time, you can now call your ISP and verify that :

- you are setup to use the correct nameserver (you have the name and the ip of your nameserver from the nslookup command.). ISP's tend to have more than one DNS server running, perhaps you are setup to use one that is no longer being updated ..

- if you are setup with the correct DNS server, you can let them know that something must've gone wrong with the propagation since you have 'www.google.com' resolving to w.x.y.z instead of a.b.c.d. ... They should be able to take the issue from there ..

Hope this clarifies what's going on, good luck hunting it down !

Enzo

[KasinoKing]

Thanks Lots0 & Enzo for your interesting advice!
Even a computer dweeb like me can begin to understand that!

Are you missing the point made in my first post though:-

Originally Posted by KasinoKing

This morning I connected to the net using good old BT dial up 32K/Sec! You guessed it - found the site, no problem.

So by my reckoning the only thing which can be causing this problem is my Buffalo Air Station G54 which connects both my PC & Laptop to the web, or some even more bizarre setting on both computers which blocks the site only if I try to connect via that particular router...

In summary:-
1. I can see the site on anyone else's computer.
2. I can see the site using the exact same ISP (Pipex) on a friend's PC.
3. I can see the site on my laptop if I connect using BT dial-up.
4. I only can't see the site on my PC or Laptop if connected to Pipex via my Buffalo router.

Therefore my conclusion is that the router is the problem.

I can't see how the above answers relate to this problem.

Anyway - please don't waste any more of your valuable time on me - it's not that big an issue as I can check the site at work or on dial-up. It's just very mysterious to me.

Cheers guys!

[3Dice]

Originally Posted by KasinoKing

Are you missing the point made in my first post though:-

In summary:-
1. I can see the site on anyone else's computer.
2. I can see the site using the exact same ISP (Pipex) on a friend's PC.
3. I can see the site on my laptop if I connect using BT dial-up.
4. I only can't see the site on my PC or Laptop if connected to Pipex via my Buffalo router.

Therefore my conclusion is that the router is the problem.

Hi KK,

I know its tempting to blame the router - but I'll eat my hat if that is the cause of the problem. The previous explanation tried to clarify that there's only two steps in the process that can go wrong..

1. The translation of domain name to ip address fails. (my money is on this one)
2. The ip address of your site is physically unreachable. (unlikely).

If you pm me the url of the site, I'll send you a little file that will run the required tests automatically, and I can even get you a fix in case it is the first problem .. (the one with my money on it ).

Cheers,

Enzo

[KasinoKing]

Originally Posted by 3Dice

If you pm me the url of the site, I'll send you a little file that will run the required tests automatically, and I can even get you a fix in case it is the first problem .. (the one with my money on it ).

Cheers,

Enzo

Sorry - I only just spotted this post!
(I don't spend much time down here in the 'basement'!)

PM sent!

Thanks once again!
KK

[KasinoKing]

Just to close off this thread; about 2 weeks ago everything suddenly started working normally and now I can see my own sites on my own computer!

Thanks again for those who took time to try to help!