ISP denying bugmenot?
May 20, 2008 10:54 AM Subscribe
How can I figure out if my ISP is blocking bugmenot? I haven't been able to access it for about 3 weeks and downforeveryoneorjustme.com has been reporting that it is up. Tracert is "Unable to resolve target system name www.bugmenot.com."
Best answer: From where I am (on a SBC direct T1) bugmenot is up. The domain www.bugmenot resolves for me to three IP addresses (64.38.220.92, 64.38.220.124, 64.38.220.60), all of which can be pinged. Maybe see if you can ping these addresses while connected to your ISP? If not, chances are they are blocking it, or there is some other misconfigurtion occuring at your end (you haven't fooled around with your hosts file or anything like that?)
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:06 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by inflatablekiwi at 11:06 AM on May 20, 2008
Best answer: Try this url: http://bugmenot.nfshost.com
nfshost.com is their hosting company. Might be a DNS issue.
posted by Nerro at 11:07 AM on May 20, 2008
nfshost.com is their hosting company. Might be a DNS issue.
posted by Nerro at 11:07 AM on May 20, 2008
can you reach bugmenot when you use a proxy?
I was just able to reach it without any kind of problems at all, so they're definitely not down as of my writing this.
posted by krautland at 11:13 AM on May 20, 2008
I was just able to reach it without any kind of problems at all, so they're definitely not down as of my writing this.
posted by krautland at 11:13 AM on May 20, 2008
"Unable to resolve target system name" is absolutely indicative of a DNS problem, not some sort of blocking on the part of your ISP. Try using an alternate DNS server.
posted by majick at 11:20 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by majick at 11:20 AM on May 20, 2008
Have you called your ISP? There are certain sites that I can't, for whatever reason, access every now and then when everyone else can. I call my ISP, they run through some tests with me, ping some stuff, and voila. I can access things again.
posted by katillathehun at 11:22 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by katillathehun at 11:22 AM on May 20, 2008
for what its worth, my employer has blocked bugmenot.com since day 1. To get around this, I just use Google's cache like this search for nytimes.com. Just google for site:bugmenot.com othersitegoeshere.com and browse Google's cache. Works for me every time.
posted by neilkod at 11:23 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by neilkod at 11:23 AM on May 20, 2008
Response by poster: I can ping the IPs from inflatablekiwi. The http://bugmenot.nfshost.com worked and now I can tracert to www.bugmenot.com.
So this was some sort of problem locally? I don't touch my hosts file.
posted by srboisvert at 11:31 AM on May 20, 2008
So this was some sort of problem locally? I don't touch my hosts file.
posted by srboisvert at 11:31 AM on May 20, 2008
Response by poster: BTW this affected at least 2 laptops on my home network.
posted by srboisvert at 11:32 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by srboisvert at 11:32 AM on May 20, 2008
If you haven't changed anything and it is now working, I would suspect that your DNS provider was messed up for a period of time.
posted by mmascolino at 11:42 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by mmascolino at 11:42 AM on May 20, 2008
Response by poster: And it is gone again. Can still ping. Can longer get to bugmenot.nfshost.com or bugmenot.com.
posted by srboisvert at 11:44 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by srboisvert at 11:44 AM on May 20, 2008
Best answer: Definite a problem with the DNS server your ISP assigned you via DHCP. They probably didn't have a correct IP for the domain.
You can change your DNS server, there are free public ones.
How to change your DNS Server
How Domain Name Servers (DNS) work
posted by Nerro at 11:46 AM on May 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
You can change your DNS server, there are free public ones.
How to change your DNS Server
How Domain Name Servers (DNS) work
posted by Nerro at 11:46 AM on May 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Have you tried the DNS servers 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1 ? These are easy-to-remember DNS servers that have been around 10+ years (I forget which company owns these addresses), and are great for testing problems such as yours.
Good luck!
posted by djpyk at 11:47 AM on May 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
Good luck!
posted by djpyk at 11:47 AM on May 20, 2008 [1 favorite]
Best answer: If it happens again, this and this might help you track it down, and using OpenDNS might help avoid it.
posted by flabdablet at 11:48 AM on May 20, 2008
posted by flabdablet at 11:48 AM on May 20, 2008
Response by poster: Interestingly, this all came about because I wanted to continue using the excellent firefox bugmenot plugin. Now that I can finally, at least sporadically, access bugmenot the plugin wasn't working.
On there website they have this info:
Note to firefox extension users:
If you're using a version prior to 1.8 you may need to manually re-install the add-on from the official Mozilla site for it to continue functioning:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6349
For some reason they don't use the addon update feature that everyone else does.
I'll keep the openDNS suggestions in mind for the future.
posted by srboisvert at 12:17 PM on May 20, 2008
On there website they have this info:
Note to firefox extension users:
If you're using a version prior to 1.8 you may need to manually re-install the add-on from the official Mozilla site for it to continue functioning:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6349
For some reason they don't use the addon update feature that everyone else does.
I'll keep the openDNS suggestions in mind for the future.
posted by srboisvert at 12:17 PM on May 20, 2008
I would highly recommend OpenDNS if you need a new DNS server
posted by majikstreet at 1:53 PM on May 20, 2008
posted by majikstreet at 1:53 PM on May 20, 2008
Response by poster: It gets weirder. I still have sporadic issues. I can never get to bugmenot until after i do a tracert on one of the IP address. After that it seems to work for a while but not long.
posted by srboisvert at 10:09 AM on May 23, 2008
posted by srboisvert at 10:09 AM on May 23, 2008
Sounds like the kind of bizarre crap so often caused by Norton Internet Security. Do you, perchance, have that POS installed?
posted by flabdablet at 9:22 PM on May 23, 2008
posted by flabdablet at 9:22 PM on May 23, 2008
Response by poster: Nope.
Extra Info : I'm on BT.
I'm thinking I will just edit my host file to include the IP's for bugmenot.
posted by srboisvert at 5:30 AM on May 24, 2008
Extra Info : I'm on BT.
I'm thinking I will just edit my host file to include the IP's for bugmenot.
posted by srboisvert at 5:30 AM on May 24, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Pants! at 11:01 AM on May 20, 2008