Unable to access one of my virtual domains

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this problem. If it comes to that I don't even know whether this is a broadband problem at all, but I think it is:

This is driving me nuts. From home (BT Openworld) I am unable to access one of my virtual domains (Pyar.org) from my desktop using Windows XP and IE or Firefox. Nor can I access it using a Windows laptop and IE, nor from my Mac laptop. Whenever I try to access the site I get a message like: "Server not found. Firefox can't find the server at Pyar.org.

This problem started about a week ago. Before that everything was fine.

Using the same Mac laptop I CAN access the site from a friends house (the ISP there is Timico), so that should rule out a firewall problem, or anything similar. Another friend (using a third ISP), however, is also unable to access the site, so it's not just from my own house, or my own ISP.

nslookup returned a normal result, as did ping.

I can access the site using ftp or telnet.

I get the same problem if I try to use the site's IP address directly in the browser.

Any ideas?

Drummond

I can access the site OK. Perhaps clear caches?

As you can access via ftp from the same computer it isn't a routing problem.

If I was being uncharitable I might wonder if this was a clever spam post to get visits to the website.

The only suggestion I could offer is that it could be MTU issues as it seems DNS and non-HTTP connections are working fine.

I did wonder myself, enough to check the whois anyhow. Domain has been around for a long time and not many spammers sign with their real name, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

In reply to a post by john2007:

I did wonder myself, enough to check the whois anyhow. Domain has been around for a long time and not many spammers sign with their real name, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

Yes, that is why I gave a suggestion as well...

The site is a bit specialised to be of much interest to random people on a site such as this! Nor is it a commercial site. It's not spam, and thanks for the responses.

I take back what I said earlier about ping and nslookup.

When I was trying ping and nslookup before I must have been already connected to the server (Doh!). Now the responses are:

ping: "cannot resolve www.pyar.org: Unknown host"
nslookup: "server can't find www.pyar.org: SERVFAIL"

traceroute returns "unknown host"

Have tried traceroute through various online servers without a problem so far.

Shouldn't be a cache problem as the same laptop can access the site through one ISP at one location, but not a different ISP at a different location - unless I'm missing the point.

I'm not sure the symptoms are consistent with an MTU issue either.

Thanks for your help.

Drummond

Can you try surfing to http://216.74.22.92 ?

That is the IP that gets returned from a DNS lookup. It won't take you to your site but should take you to "The All India Site" which I assume is the default site for the host server.

If this works then you have a DNS problem. You could try opendns to see if that solves the problem. If it doesn't work then it would seem to be a routing problem (but would be surprised as if it was routing then the DNS should still resolve anyway).

Yes, I can browse to http://216.74.22.92 and you are correct that it is the default site for the host server. http://209.164.46.39 is the IP address for pyar.org, but that I can't get to.

I don't know about opendns but I'll look into it.

Thanks,

Drummond

I can't get to that 2nd ip either. Why do you think that is the site for pyar.org - that isn't the IP the DNS entry is pointing to?

The open dns server addresses are in this post

Probably easiest to temporarily set them on your XP machines network setup rather than changing the router (you can do that later if it works).

You can check your machine has successfully been setup for opendns by visiting the link http://welcome.opendns.com/ which will tell you if you are using their DNS servers.

The problems appear to be with the nameservers that the domain is currently using.

casper:~ mattm$ dig @NS1.VIRTUALISYS.COM PYAR.ORG

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> @NS1.VIRTUALISYS.COM PYAR.ORG
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached


casper:~ mattm$ dig @NS2.VIRTUALISYS.COM PYAR.ORG

; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> @NS2.VIRTUALISYS.COM PYAR.ORG
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

You need to speak with your hoster, who I assume is VIRTUALISYS.COM?

Matt