The comments for my last post were split between people who were talking about the actual game that was the subject of the post, and other people talking about the ongoing dansdata.com connectivity problems.
To recap: Most visitors can see Dan's Data just fine, but a seemingly random smattering of users from all over the world can't see it at all. For them, it looks as if the Dan's Data server was just turned off some time ago. Months ago, in some cases.
(If you can't see any of the pictures in that game post, by the way, it's probably because you can't see dansdata.com. Most of the images on this blog are actually stored on the Dan's Data server. Not all of them, though; the pics in this post, for instance, are from my Flickr account. If you can see pics in that post but not in the game post, the dansdata.com connectivity problem is almost certainly the reason.)
So here's another post about this connectivity problem, which I dare to hope may now actually be fixed.
Yesterday a reader clued me in to a problem with one of the two nameservers for the domain. That bug - which would have prevented anybody whose DNS request ended up at that secondary nameserver from getting to the site - is now fixed, along with a couple of others that may or may not have been related to the problem. Now all of the online traceroute tools that used to make it all the way to fe-0-0-3-kf-br1.securewebs.com, one hop away from dansdata.com, and then die, can make it all the way:
http://looking-glass.optus.net.au/cgi-bin/nph-looking-glass.pl
http://traceroute.optusnet.com.au/?args=dansdata.com
http://www.telstra.net.au/cgi-bin/trace
http://looking-glass.uecomm.net.au/
http://www.getnet.com/cgi-bin/trace?dansdata.com
http://www.csc.fi/cgi-bin/nph-traceroute?dansdata.com
http://lg.evolink.net/
(In some cases, the last hop of the traceroute shows "beechler.com", not dansdata.com. Beechler.com is a site that used to, and possibly still does, share the same physical server as dansdata.com. I don't think this is a problem symptom, but what do I know.)
A traceroute, or ping, can fail when there's nothing actually wrong with a site. All you need is some router along the way that firewalls traceroute or ping data, but lets normal Web traffic through. I think the traceroute problem has been a constant for everybody who hasn't been able to see Dan's Data, though, so now that it seems to be fixed, surely nothing further can go wrong, how hard can it be, could be worse, could be raining, gee it's quiet tonight, Macbeth Macbeth Macbeth, Hastur Hastur Hastur.
Please comment below, with traceroutes and/or pings as per last time. What we're especially looking for are people who could see Dan's Data until recently but now can't, or couldn't see it until recently and now can.
24 November 2009 at 10:52 am
Why should we comment? You didn't reply to the huge amounts of comments to your earlier post about network problems with your new PC.
[That's because I got sick of absolutely nothing bloody working and just stuck a PCI 100BaseT card in the damn thing :-). I'll go through the suggestions in detail when I once again feel the need for lots of rebooting. -Dan]
Comment yourself, lazy git-who-invites-comments-to-keep-the-ad-revenue-rolling-to-fund-their-extravagant-new-age-slash-deliverance-slash-lolcatz-mountain-lifestyle-then-ignores-the-poor-schmoes-who-actually-do-comment.
Not that I'm bitter or anything.
24 November 2009 at 1:32 pm
Amazing trace! how short the path, your data's reaching me
My packets dropped, but now they're found, with connectivity!
==================================
traceroute to dansdata.com (64.85.21.19), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 10.44.64.1 (10.44.64.1) 9.795 ms 13.001 ms 6.989 ms
2 meb4-pos4-0-1.gw.optusnet.com.au (198.142.192.105) 8.712 ms 11.505 ms 7.713 ms
3 mas3-ge11-0-0-821.gw.optusnet.com.au (211.29.156.11) 22.702 ms 26.782 ms 24.970 ms
4 203.208.148.97 (203.208.148.97) 192.434 ms 196.436 ms 193.603 ms
5 xe-10-0-0.edge5.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.59.48.57) 207.861 ms 208.902 ms 193.096 ms
6 ae-62-60.ebr2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.69.144.51) 198.851 ms ae-82-80.ebr2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.69.144.179) 199.527 ms ae-62-60.ebr2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.69.144.51) 210.294 ms
7 ae-2.ebr2.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.132.13) 206.008 ms 213.058 ms 198.892 ms
8 ae-7.ebr1.Seattle1.Level3.net (4.69.132.50) 226.311 ms 220.887 ms 217.580 ms
9 ae-13-51.car3.Seattle1.Level3.net (4.68.105.4) 214.426 ms 243.772 ms 213.378 ms
10 ge-0-4-sea-cr1.cet.com (4.71.152.174) 216.545 ms 223.837 ms 215.088 ms
11 ge-0-0-spk-cr2.cet.com (198.202.26.4) 220.820 ms 230.546 ms 220.319 ms
12 securewebs-gw.cet.com (198.202.27.27) 222.840 ms 226.435 ms 221.573 ms
13 fe-0-0-3-kf-br1.securewebs.com (64.85.23.2) 222.826 ms 227.354 ms 222.336 ms
14 beechler.com (64.85.21.19) 224.815 ms 227.634 ms 223.907 ms
PING dansdata.com (64.85.21.19): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 64.85.21.19: icmp_seq=0 ttl=114 time=224.157 ms
64 bytes from 64.85.21.19: icmp_seq=1 ttl=114 time=222.985 ms
64 bytes from 64.85.21.19: icmp_seq=2 ttl=114 time=223.048 ms
64 bytes from 64.85.21.19: icmp_seq=3 ttl=114 time=222.889 ms
64 bytes from 64.85.21.19: icmp_seq=4 ttl=114 time=224.474 ms
...
64 bytes from 64.85.21.19: icmp_seq=23 ttl=114 time=223.388 ms
^C
--- dansdata.com ping statistics ---
25 packets transmitted, 24 packets received, 4% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 222.889/224.496/226.718/1.106 ms
24 November 2009 at 1:37 pm
I have no problem seeing either site (dans data or blog) via TPG.
the page loads fine, but the NEW content doesn't...
I just keep seeing the same old articles about photon torch sales and re-hashed atomic letters..
It appears as though all the in depth hardware reviews and hilarious writing style is being blocked by something....something sinister!!
(RL,work,wife,baby???)
Stop wasting time on ppl who chose the wrong ISP, and start investigating this much more serious problem.
I'd like to say "keep up the good work"
but how about "GET BACK TO THE GOOD WORK!!!" instead?? :D
24 November 2009 at 2:10 pm
@hubris - Ouch. That was alarmingly on target.
@creekin - I'm pretty sure that bird-fancying is to blame. I imagine him sitting at the back door staring at the yard for hours - with a copy of "What bird is that?" in hand.
24 November 2009 at 3:54 pm
Works at home now. I do not remember if it did not work before or if I was reading the spaceship article at work (hahaha).
I'll check it again at work tomorrow.
traceroute to dansdata.com:
(snip)
6 rc3wt-ge15-0-0.wa.shawcable.net (66.163.77.142) 29.370 ms 84.911 ms 32.561 ms
7 ge-1-0-sea-six-cr1.cet.com (206.81.80.87) 33.249 ms 29.423 ms 30.708 ms
8 ge-0-0-spk-cr1.cet.com (198.202.26.1) 37.474 ms 37.314 ms 40.106 ms
9 securewebs-gw.cet.com (198.202.27.27) 41.374 ms 47.454 ms 42.297 ms
10 fe-0-0-3-kf-br1.securewebs.com (64.85.23.2) 44.934 ms 44.200 ms 39.571 ms
11 beechler.com (64.85.21.19) 41.513 ms 61.858 ms 54.412 ms
24 November 2009 at 4:35 pm
I came here (to this page) and got all excited that it was back up again! But then realised that I was still at work. That's a double-downer! Will let you know how I go once I get home.
24 November 2009 at 5:00 pm
It looks fixed now Dan. Wasn't working a few days ago and is now working again.
24 November 2009 at 10:31 pm
Aaaaand it's all up and running again! Tracert ends at beechler.com
25 November 2009 at 2:09 am
I read with Google Mobile Viewer, but recently (last month or so?) it's been telling me:
"We're sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for on this server. An invalid request was received from your browser. This may be caused by a malfunctioning proxy server or browser privacy software."
There's a link at the bottom allowing me to connect directly, instead of having Google transform the page into a PDA-friendly format, and that always works. So maybe Google's using the bad DNS server? (which is still not working today)
25 November 2009 at 8:50 am
Interesting that you mentioned the problem with the images. I visit both this site, and Dans Data every day, and have had (or thought I had) no connection problems.
BUT... the pictures in your post about GSB had been missing. Yesterday, the pictures were suddenly there. But I hadn't had any issues visiting Dans Data.
I'm visiting via Internode's network, from Adelaide.
25 November 2009 at 3:10 pm
Haven't had any problems with your site, but a friend of mine has had rolling issues for the past few weeks as his site's IP has ended up on in the crosshairs of SORBS.
25 November 2009 at 4:20 pm
I could see dansdata for ages, then couldn't for a week or two, and now can again. My failed traceroute is stored as a comment in the last post. Several local hosts all worked together, then failed together, and now work again. My failure is stored in a comment in the previous post.
The final relevant bits:
10 pos-0-1-0-0-pe01.seattle.wa.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.85.38) 62.853 ms 63.895 ms 66.754 ms
11 cr1-sea-a-g5-2.bb.spectrumnet.us (75.149.228.6) 64.696 ms 62.729 ms 63.532 ms
12 cr1-spk-g3-0.bb.spectrumnet.us (208.76.184.26) 70.279 ms 71.214 ms 76.023 ms
13 ge-3-0-spk-cr3.cet.com (216.243.28.98) 73.666 ms 70.057 ms 69.863 ms
14 ge-0-0-spk-cr1.cet.com (198.202.26.1) 72.373 ms 71.097 ms 70.206 ms
15 securewebs-gw.cet.com (198.202.27.27) 73.491 ms 71.736 ms 71.547 ms
16 fe-0-0-3-kf-br1.securewebs.com (64.85.23.2) 73.706 ms 73.692 ms 74.017 ms
17 beechler.com (64.85.21.19) 75.785 ms 75.077 ms 78.953 ms
(yay we win).
25 November 2009 at 4:27 pm
Also I'm redundant from time to time. Oh well.
26 November 2009 at 4:01 pm
Wouldn't you know it? Dansdata.com is back in business.