Topic: Weird DNS problem of some sort... HELP PLEASE...

[chaloner]

I will try my best to outline the problem as I see it. I have 2 distinct networks in the house. My cable modem splits using a small hub to my SME 7.2 server and to a Netgear router as well. Both systems have their own Cisco accesspoints and each has their own distinct IP range (192.168.101.x and 192.168.102.x). This allows my laptop to connect to either my internal SME system, or, externally via my Netgear router. I do this to be able to test of few things, and to provide neighbours with wireless access that would not interfere with my own internal network.

I am trying to access www.evga.com. For a long time it worked perfectly, just like any other site. But for the last few weeks when accessing it via my SME 7.2, all I would get was "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage". If I connected to my 2nd network that does not go through SME, it would work just fine.

I tried to figure this out on the forums and got nowhere. I looked at squid, dns, tempory files, etc.... Nothing seemed to resolve this. So OK, let's do a fresh install of SME 7.3 and see what we have. Lo and behold, it worked. I get up the next day and try it again and now all I get is "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage". Yet if I connect again through the Netgear, all is fine... What the heck is this?

I can live without direct access to this site. I can always get the drivers using my secondary network. But if this is happening to www.evga.com it must be true of some other sites as well, even if I have not found it to happen yet.

Boys and girls, ANY IDEAS?

Chaloner
email@chaloner.ca

[CharlieBrady]

I will try my best to outline the problem as I see it.

For a start, you should be careful how you describe the problem. You say "DNS problem of some sort", but present no evidence that DNS has anything to do with the problem. All we know is that IE is telling you that it cannot display the page. The first thing I would do is use a better browser - one that at least will treat you with enough respect to tell you what it is actually having trouble with, rather than treat you as an ignorant fool who couldn't possibly understand how the Internet works.

[chaloner]

Well the fact is I have no idea what the problem is. I am guessing it has something to do with DNS. I was asking for some help or ideas and feel what I have received is some fair amount of negative criticism. I am using IE7, and I can connect with my laptop if not connecting via SME7. For your information, this ignorant fool has tried it with the latest Firefox and I get basically the same result. The page does not display at all, and Firefox says nothing at all.

Any further thoughts?

Chaloner Hale

[chaloner]

Wow...

I have been using SME since the very beginning Charlie. I have contributed somewhat with all the HylaFAX stuff, and other things like the Alpha port with Robert. Nobody has ever called me an ignorant fool before. I re-read your reply here a number of times to be sure I was not misreading it, and even if I want to not take it presonally, I found it very pointed and actually quite offensive.

Chaloner Hale

[CharlieBrady]

Well the fact is I have no idea what the problem is.

So describe it as it is - can't display web page

I am guessing it has something to do with DNS.

I see no reason at all to conclude that.

I was asking for some help or ideas and feel what I have received is some fair amount of negative criticism.

My main complaint was against IE, for its useless error message. My only criticism of you is that you should be more careful in how you describe the problem, so that you do not mislead yourself or those who you are asking to help you.

The page does not display at all, and Firefox says nothing at all.

OK, so Firefox doesn't display anything either.

What happens if you do View->Page Source?

Any further thoughts?

Check log files - squid and dnscache, for instance.

[CharlieBrady]

Nobody has ever called me an ignorant fool before.

And I haven't done so now. I said (or meant to say) that IE treats you like an ignorant fool by showing a useless error page - "Something went wrong, but I'm not going to tell you any details".

[CharlieBrady]

I found it very pointed and actually quite offensive.

Sorry, absolutely no offense intended.

[chaloner]

When I type in www.evga.com it ends up displaying "http://www.evga.com/splashpage.asp" in the browser. View page source is completely BLANK. The funny thing is that upon a fresh install of SME it worked for an evening, and now does not...

A google search did find a few others referencing trouble accessing the same site...

Also, related or not, when I do a whois at www.domainsatcost.ca I get;

NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Domain Name: evga.com

The results below are provided by NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC. (whois.networksolutions.com)

Welcome to the Network Solutions Registrar WHOIS Server.
The IP address from which you have visited the Network Solutions Registrar WHOIS
database is contained within a list of IP addresses that may have failed
to abide by Network Solutions' WHOIS policy. Failure to abide by this policy can
adversely impact our systems and servers, preventing the processing of
other WHOIS requests.
To see the Network Solutions WHOIS Policy, click on or copy and paste the following
URL into your browser:
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml
If you feel that you have received this message in error, please contact us at:
whoisquery@networksolutions.com and include the following information:
Whois Query: evga.com
YOUR IP address is 66.6.49.229
Date and Time of Query: Fri Jan 11 14:13:21 EST 2008

Somehow this has something to do with dnscache, squid, reverse DNS, something, God knows... why would it work straight away with a fresh install and then fail. I am using a dynamic IP....

What logs do I check?

/var/log/squid/access.log shows;
1200021146.569 129147 192.168.101.188 TCP_MISS/200 613 GET http://evga.com/splashpage.asp - DIRECT/65.113.29.38 text/html

/var/log/dnscache/current shows

@400000004787a6490d067edc query 14225 c0a8650b:0402:97da 1 www.evga.com.
@400000004787a6490d06c52c tx 0 1 www.evga.com. . 7f000002
@400000004787a6490d0ccc24 rr 7f000002 35183 1 evga.com. 41711d26
@400000004787a6490d0d02d4 rr 7f000002 35183 cname www.evga.com. evga.com.
@400000004787a6490d0d359c cached 1 evga.com.
@400000004787a6490d0d6864 sent 14225 60

I have no idea...

Chal

[chaloner]

Funny that domainsatcost.ca shows my IP as 66.6.49.230 when in fact it is 68.146.8.220.

[pherder]

I want to add my observations of a similar problem. 

Using a SME 7.2 server as a gateway @ home, I cannot attach to www.britishcarforums.com.  I get the a generic page from the hosting company with "www.britishcarforums.com" listed at the top.  I first thought that the domain name was lost by the owner but then found I could get to the site properly when I was outside of my network (i.e. @ work).  This was the only URL that had the problem that I was aware of.  The weird thing was sometimes it would work, most times it wouldn't.  I tried changing from internal DNS to external DNS (my ISP's) without any luck.

Since I am not using the server for anything more that a rounter to the Internet, I changed to a server only and put back in a Linksys router and the problem went away.

I have since upgraded the server to 7.3 but since the Linksys router is working I have not changed back to gateway mode.

[chaloner]

Thanks. It feels a lot better to know I am not dreaming this up.... and that I am/was not alone in this...

I don't particularly need access to this evga.com site. It just plain eats on me trying to figure out what the heck this is...

Chaloner Hale

[CharlieBrady]

FWIW, I have no trouble accessing http://www.britishcarforums.com/, and get the following when trying to access http://www.evga.com/

http://www.evga.com/customerrors/my500.asp?500;http://www.evga.com/Default.asp

HTTP/1.1 Server Too Busy

[pherder]

FWIW, I have no trouble accessing http://www.britishcarforums.com/, and get the following when trying to access http://www.evga.com/

http://www.evga.com/customerrors/my500.asp?500;http://www.evga.com/Default.asp

HTTP/1.1 Server Too Busy

When I click on the link for britishcarforum on this forum I get a page with a picture (palm tree on one example and sky with clouds in another) in it and related searches on the left.  That is the incorrect page... i.e. the DNS is sending you do a page that the hosting company has put up.  When I type the URL in my browser, I get a page with a british and checker flags on it which is the portal page to the forums.

CharlieBrady, which page do you get to?

[CharlieBrady]

CharlieBrady, which page do you get to?

It depends on whether I look at http://www.britishcarforum.com/ or http://www.britishcarforums.com/

[pherder]

It depends on whether I look at http://www.britishcarforum.com/ or http://www.britishcarforums.com/

Opps!     The spelling was my mistake in the messages above!

I was using the same shortcut link on my desktop (www.britishcarforum.com) and was getting to the link that is pointed to www.britishcarforums.com (with the "S" in forums) when using my server as a gateway.  Sometimes I would get the correct URL, most times I would get what you see if you click on www.britishcarforums.com.

Clear as mud?   

[psoren]

OK, i have NO CLUE about this and why, but i can describe it.

If i go to: http://www.evga.com Then it does not work for me either, BUT
If i disable HTTP proxy status in the server manager, THEN it works!!

I had the same problem on another page and found out that they had blocked access from LAN IP adresses (192.168.x.x and so). The thing is that when checking my IP on a page: http://whatismyipaddress.com/ it reports my LAN IP (It can see there is a proxy).  But if i try here : http://myip.dk then it looks normal.
So i tried to disable the HTTP proxy and then it is OK on both.

A bug or is it normal/expected??

Hope this helps Chal...

Per

[chaloner]

Yes Per, it works for me as well.... THANKS BOYS....

Thanks Charlie.... Thanks Per....

What I don't understand is the why and whatfor of it all....

What do I gain or lose by turning the HTTP proxy off?

Why would this problem manifest itself on only a few websites?

MIL GRACIAS...

Chaloner Hale
27+ months with my recovered abducted son....

[chaloner]

Furthermore, what I don't understand is what has changed. I never had this problem before and I have used this site quite often... So is it something they have changed, or perhaps something that has changed in one of the updates to SME?

Not that it matters anymore... you guys figured it out...

Chal

[psoren]

What do I gain or lose by turning the HTTP proxy off?

I think having a proxy is enhanced security, that's good until things stop working

Chaloner Hale
27+ months with my recovered abducted son....

Good to hear you are still doing well with your son...

Per