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        General >> News >> Problem with site going offline (solution)
        
(Message started by: tlundkvi on Jul 7^th, 2009, 6:17pm)

Title: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by tlundkvi on Jul 7^th, 2009, 6:17pm

This "hack" is pointless at the moment after the server upgrade and should not be attempted anymore.

Hi all,

As some of you (I at least *very* often) experience is that fordscorpio.co.uk appears to go offline. The most likely cause for this is a problem with DNS propagation.

The workaround for this problem is to manually say that the site maps to a specific IP address. This you do by modifying a file called hosts (hosts.txt on winXP and older) by adding these simple lines:

69.46.25.240 www.fordscorpio.co.uk
69.46.25.240 fordscorpio.co.uk

To edit hosts file on Vista do the following:
1) Browse to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories
2) Right click "Notepad" and select "Run as administrator"
3) Click "Continue" on the UAC prompt
4) Click File -> Open
5) Browse to "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc"
6) Change the file filter drop down box from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files (*.*)"
7) Select "hosts" and click "Open"
8) Make the needed changes and close Notepad. Save when prompted.

For other systems, do a search for hosts.txt (should be in c:\windows\system32 and add the two lines to the file.

This has solved the problem for me.

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by Tompion on Jul 7^th, 2009, 7:33pm

Thanks, I'll try it,
It appears to be hosts (not hosts txt)
I also had to change the attribute from "read only"
but this may have been added by spybot as it had placed a lot of blocked sites in there.

Some info here:
http://accs-net.com/hosts/what_is_hosts.html

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by wojtekor on Jul 7^th, 2009, 7:43pm

REMEMBER: you can play with hosts file but always and i mean always change the attribute back to read-only! for your own safety.

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by tlundkvi on Jul 7^th, 2009, 7:47pm

Ok. I've been using vista for the last two years, hosts.txt was old memory from the xp days. Anyway the file is called universally the hosts file.

This problem started sometime in the spring and seems to affect some ISP's in the UK. But I've used several in Finland, even university high end networks, same problem, so part of the problem must be in the webhotel hosting the site. Anyway, it's a quick & dirty fix, takes a minute to do and will work as long as the IP from the webhotel doesn't change.

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by tlundkvi on Jul 7^th, 2009, 7:52pm

on 07/07/09 at 19:43:10, wojtekor wrote:

REMEMBER: you can play with hosts file but always and i mean always change the attribute back to read-only! for your own safety.

Yes, definitely. MS made it dfficult to edit for a reason. In unix you must be root user to do this. A spybot could remap e.g. your internet bank to a phishing site collecting your passwords and codes. So ALWAYS keep it read only/priviliged editing, and ALWAYS question odd entries in the file.

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by pinto on Jul 11^th, 2009, 10:29pm

on 07/07/09 at 18:17:33, tlundkvi wrote:

Hi all,

As some of you (I at least *very* often) experience is that fordscorpio.co.uk appears to go offline. The most likely cause for this is a problem with DNS propagation.

The workaround for this problem is to manually say that the site maps to a specific IP address. This you do by modifying a file called hosts (hosts.txt on winXP and older) by adding these simple lines:

69.46.25.240 www.fordscorpio.co.uk
69.46.25.240 fordscorpio.co.uk

To edit hosts file on Vista do the following:
1) Browse to Start -> All Programs -> Accessories
2) Right click "Notepad" and select "Run as administrator"
3) Click "Continue" on the UAC prompt
4) Click File -> Open
5) Browse to "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc"
6) Change the file filter drop down box from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files (*.*)"
7) Select "hosts" and click "Open"
8) Make the needed changes and close Notepad. Save when prompted.

For other systems, do a search for hosts.txt (should be in c:\windows\system32 and add the two lines to the file.

This has solved the problem for me.

personally, I go away and come back later ...works fine for me too ;D lol

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by Tompion on Aug 8^th, 2009, 8:57pm

on 07/07/09 at 19:47:54, tlundkvi wrote:

Ok. Anyway, it's a quick & dirty fix, takes a minute to do and will work as long as the IP from the webhotel doesn't change.

The Scorpio site had only worked for me briefly since the crash.
I’ve been patiently waiting for it to come back.
Yesterday I received an Email notification of a PM from someone, which seemed strange as I still couldn’t access the site.
Anyway, finally decided the IP might have changed causing a problem with the trick posted here – trouble being I couldn’t access the post or remember the file name.
Finally tracked the relevant details down on the net and deleted the lines and all is OK again.

I notice tlundkvi has still been posting so it doesn’t seem to have affected him ;)

Dave

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by gost on Aug 8^th, 2009, 9:16pm

I agree Pinto ;D

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by Tompion on Aug 8^th, 2009, 9:18pm

on 08/08/09 at 21:16:31, gost wrote:

I agree Pinto ;D

So do I ;D

Title: Re: Problem with site going offline (solution)
Post by tlundkvi on Aug 9^th, 2009, 6:27pm

Oh, I reverted the lines when the new server changed. Hopefully with the new server these kinds of tricks won't be needed.