Why doesn't Salon.com load?

May 27, 2007 9:09 PM

Why can't I get Salon.com to load?

I've been trying for days to read Salon.com--which usually works just fine on my MacBook--but I can't seem to get the page to load. I've tried Safari, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. Is it just my computer or are others having a similar problem?

posted by oldlies to computers & internet (13 comments total)

I seem to be able to access it just fine.

Try using this link. It contains the IP address. If this lets you access salon, you might have a DNS problem.

If it is a DNS problem, entering "lookupd -flushcache" at a terminal will clear up any old erroneous DNS entries.
posted by zabuni at 9:14 PM on May 27, 2007

I was just on the site and it works fine. The last time I had a problem loading Salon, it was my pop-up blocker that prevented it from loading.
posted by TorontoSandy at 9:16 PM on May 27, 2007

Zabuni, I tried your link and it doesn't work.

How do I enter the lookupd-flushcache in the terminal? What is the terminal. I'm a computer boob.
posted by oldlies at 9:26 PM on May 27, 2007

Do you have any adblocking enabled?

This doesn't fit since you've tried IE as well, but greasemonkey extensions are constantly being broken for that site -- they must change their URL structure or something.

I've noticed it is slow and weird the last few days myself, especially the letters pages. But I have been able to access it.
posted by Rumple at 9:36 PM on May 27, 2007

I don't use Greasemonkey (i.e. I'm not smart enough!).
posted by oldlies at 9:37 PM on May 27, 2007

Yup, try nslookup at a command prompt to see if you can resolve it.
posted by IronWolve at 10:05 PM on May 27, 2007

If the link I gave you didn't work, then DNS issues aren't your problem.

What error does it give when you try to access salon?

As for the terminal, the application is in the Application folder, in the Utilities subfolder. It should come up with a window where you can type in text.

Typing the command I gave you probably won't help you, given that connecting via the IP address didn't work. For a diagnostic, try typing "ping salon.com" and copying and pasting some of the output here. It might help us determine what's wrong.
posted by zabuni at 10:14 PM on May 27, 2007

OK. Here's what happens when I go to Salon. The Firefox tab says "Loading...." After a couple of minutes, a message pops up from Firefox saying, "The connection has timed out. The server at www.salon.com is taking too long to respond."

When I try it in Safari, here's what happens.I type in the URL and the blue "loading" bar in the URL field moves about an inch to the right but it stops. Then an error message appears stating, "Safari can't open the page. Safari could not open the page “http://www.salon.com/” because the server stopped responding."

This is totally annoying. I need my Salon fix. Any other ideas anybody?
posted by oldlies at 11:56 PM on May 27, 2007

When I type in "ping salon.com" this is what Terminal says:

Last login: Sun May 27 20:28:42 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
daniel-gardners-computer:~ danielgardner$ ping salon.com
PING salon.com (206.80.4.40): 56 data bytes
posted by oldlies at 11:58 PM on May 27, 2007

I get salon to load minus the css, resulting in a circa 1995 looking page. with or without the greasemonkey script enabled.

hope it helps.
posted by Baud at 1:56 AM on May 28, 2007

How do you have your acceptance of cookies set? Is it, perhaps, set to "never accept" in all your browsers?

I ask this because...I just went to Salon and noticed something odd. The main page started to load (a brief glimpse of a partial Salon logo). Then, the page went completely blank and, in the title area of Safari's window frame, the title of the page changed from "Salon.com" to "cookie..." with some other text. It was the briefest of flashes, but, there it was. After that, the page went on to load. I've never seen an actual sign of cookies loading.

Just a shot in the dark, of course. Not sure if a website would refuse to load if you didn't accept their (or their sponsors') cookies.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:28 AM on May 28, 2007

Hmm, if you were able to contact salon's webserver using ping, you should have seen something like:

64 bytes from www.salon.com (206.80.4.40): icmp_seq=1 ttl=244 time=37.1 ms

repeated over and over. If it hung at where you indicated, then there might be some problem between you and salon's server.

You might want to contact your isp and see if they can provide help. IMHO is sounds like a routing issue on their part, given that A)DNS works B)Other sites that aren't salon work and C)Salon doesn't work.
posted by zabuni at 9:17 AM on May 28, 2007

Salon.com is back to normal (html and css) here.
Is it better with the original poster (oldlies) too ?
posted by Baud at 1:56 PM on May 28, 2007