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[Pro] Can't access website, not in browser, not thru FTP
I am at my wit’s end as to what to do about this. All of a sudden, I can no longer upload files through FW to the server. Nor, can I access the server through an FTP app. In fact, I can’t even open in the site in a browser. But everyone else can! What is happening?
I have been back and forth with the IT person for the company, because they are getting ready to move to Google Apps, but he said he hasn’t done anything yet, and he can access everything.
I Googled (and Googled and Googled) it and decided it must be a problem with DNS caching. I cleared all my caches and typed in dscacheutil -flushcache in my Terminal to flush the DNS cache. No change.
I tried using the IP address instead of the ftp.domainname.com for FTP, but I still couldn’t get in. I want to throw myself on the floor and kick and scream.
Can anyone PLEASE help me?
Robin Stark
Have you contacted the hosting company about this? Your server might have crashed. What response do you get when you type in the address to the server? Is a “host not found” or does the site try to load and just spin and spin? What happens if you open Applications/Utilities/ Terminal.app and type in the following commands? (each one followed by a return)
host www.yoursite.com
ping youripaddress
traceroute youripaddress
Naturally, fill in the demo stuff above with your real details.
Walter
On Aug 23, 2010, at 5:03 PM, Robin Stark wrote:
I am at my wit’s end as to what to do about this. All of a sudden, I can no longer upload files through FW to the server. Nor, can I access the server through an FTP app. In fact, I can’t even open in the site in a browser. But everyone else can! What is happening?
Freeway user since 1997
This means that your computer is able to reach the server without any trouble. These times are a little long, but nothing too worrisome. Here’s another stupid terminal trick to see if you can reach the Web site from your computer:
telnet yourserverip 80
The server may respond with a couple of lines of gibberish, ending in Escape character is ‘^]’.
Then type:
GET /
(press return after each of these commands)
You should see a Terminal screen full of HTML code after the second command above, and if you don’t, the error message might be instructive.
By the way, sorry about the ping command running on and on like that. I forgot to give you the -c parameter, which restricts it to a certain number of tries. Here’s what you would do in that case: ping -c 5 www.apple.com
Walter
On Aug 23, 2010, at 7:34 PM, Robin Stark wrote:
64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=130 ttl=47 time=93.211 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=131 ttl=47 time=95.666 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=132 ttl=47 time=92.672 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=133 ttl=47 time=94.357 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=134 ttl=47 time=94.029 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=135 ttl=47 time=92.065 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=136 ttl=47 time=96.000 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=137 ttl=47 time=91.935 ms 64 bytes from 205.234.78.159: icmp_seq=138 ttl=47 time=91.864 ms
Freeway user since 1997
On Aug 23, 2010, at 8:36 PM, Robin Stark wrote:
He then said, “Well, maybe the server is blocking your IP address for repeated login attempts.” He then said he was going to “try something” and came back and told me to try to login again, and voila, it worked.
I had a similar problem when trying to access a client’s site and cPanel and was given the same response. I never got a clear explanation as to what exactly happened. It was curious.
Todd
Twitter: http://twitter.com/XiiroMedia LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/xiiro Skype: toddbrilliant
Unix servers generally run for years at a time without restarting, and months between patches. It may be very true that he didn’t change anything, but if you get used to everything just working that well, for that long, you may be too lazy or lulled to check something obvious, like maybe Apache is balled up in the corner whimpering to itself, or similar. He may have put you off because he figured the problem was on your end, not his “perfect” server. And his dashboard may have said everything was green, too. But Apache can be running just fine, and refuse all connections because it’s used up all of its memory and can’t spawn a new worker. I actually did that to the OLL server last month, twice in a row. Luckily, that server has a “robot overlord” script that can reboot the entire server in an emergency, the equivalent of pulling the plug out of the wall. I’m betting that the ftpd process was stuck somehow. You could see the server, the network ran just fine, but you couldn’t get it to answer on port 22.
Walter
On Aug 23, 2010, at 9:57 PM, Todd wrote:
On Aug 23, 2010, at 8:36 PM, Robin Stark wrote:
He then said, “Well, maybe the server is blocking your IP address for repeated login attempts.” He then said he was going to “try something” and came back and told me to try to login again, and voila, it worked.
I had a similar problem when trying to access a client’s site and cPanel and was given the same response. I never got a clear explanation as to what exactly happened. It was curious.
Todd
Twitter: http://twitter.com/XiiroMedia LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/xiiro Skype: toddbrilliant
Freeway user since 1997
Right. It’s buzzword bingo!
Walter
On Aug 24, 2010, at 1:39 PM, Robin Stark wrote:
Interesting. Well, if this happens to me again, I’m going to say:
“Are you sure nothing has changed? Because, even though your dashboard might say everything is green, an Apache server can be running just fine and still refuse all connections because it’s used up all of its memory and can’t spawn a new worker. Unless you have a “robot overlord” script that can reboot the entire server in an emergency, you might not know that your Apache is balled up in the corner whimpering to itself. I think your ftpd process is stuck somehow. Could you please double check?”
Of course, I won’t know what I’m talking about, but they might THINK I do. :-D
Robin Stark
On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 9:17 PM, Walter Lee Davis <email@hidden>wrote:
Unix servers generally run for years at a time without restarting, and months between patches. It may be very true that he didn’t change anything, but if you get used to everything just working that well, for that long, you may be too lazy or lulled to check something obvious, like maybe Apache is balled up in the corner whimpering to itself, or similar. He may have put you off because he figured the problem was on your end, not his “perfect” server. And his dashboard may have said everything was green, too. But Apache can be running just fine, and refuse all connections because it’s used up all of its memory and can’t spawn a new worker. I actually did that to the OLL server last month, twice in a row. Luckily, that server has a “robot overlord” script that can reboot the entire server in an emergency, the equivalent of pulling the plug out of the wall. I’m betting that the ftpd process was stuck somehow. You could see the server, the network ran just fine, but you couldn’t get it to answer on port 22.
Walter
On Aug 23, 2010, at 9:57 PM, Todd wrote:
On Aug 23, 2010, at 8:36 PM, Robin Stark wrote: >
He then said, “Well, maybe the server is blocking your IP address for
repeated login attempts.” He then said he was going to “try something” and came back and told me to try to login again, and voila, it worked.
I had a similar problem when trying to access a client’s site and cPanel and was given the same response. I never got a clear explanation as to what exactly happened. It was curious.
Todd
Twitter: http://twitter.com/XiiroMedia LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/xiiro Skype: toddbrilliant
Freeway user since 1997
