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In the past days I've often had problems when I tried to connect to smspower, sometimes my connection was refused, I wonder if it's a problem on my end, or if there's something wrong with your server or your DNS...

So, out of curiosity, I tried to run a whois, and there's a line that says:

Last Updated On:22-Nov-2012 16:46:19 UTC

Maybe something broke during that "update"?

Our name servers became invalid a few days ago (21st) and were corrected on 22nd. You may have issues until caches expire.

You could open an admin command prompt and type

ipconfig /flushdns

to clear the dns cache on your local pc, but you cannot influence caches on other places.

Yeah markvt, I'm aware of that command, but sadly my ISP (fastweb) is known for being a dinosaur when it comes to acknowledge DNS changes, it's not the first time that I have a problem like this. What I don't get, though, is why sometimes I can connect to smspower and why sometimes I can't, when I had this problem in the past with other websites I could never connect, consistently, but only for a day (and a half, at most), while now it's being random and for several days in a row.

Your ISP might be giving you different DNS cache servers at different times. They ought to flush pretty quickly but then there's no guarantee that they behave in a sane way.

You can add a hosts entry if you want to make it work - but then it'll be confusing if our server IP changes.

I see. Well, I hope that my ISP will stop being stupid soon...

I once actually added a line to my hosts file some years ago (for the same reason) when a Sonic website changed server, but I completely forgot to remove that line afterwards, so when they changed server again a few years later I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working :P
It's so easy to forget about things...

I'm facing the same problem last days, sometimes I can connect to smspower and sometimes I can't.

Never experienced this before...

If your isp has dns issues you could try those from google of opendns..

https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/
http://www.opendns.com

I ended up editing my hosts file, since I couldn't connect all day long today. I hope I'll remember to edit it back eventually this time.

If someone else is having the same problem (and somehow can read my post through a proxy or something), I'll post a quick guide on how to do that. It's easy, but it's not something everyone knows (I do because as I said I'm used to my ISP being retarded).

Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc and open the "hosts" file in notepad (or any other text editor). If you never edited it, there should only be one entry (all the lines that start with # are comments, so ignore them):

127.0.0.1 localhost

You should add this line below it:

72.9.150.200 www.smspower.org

Save the file. You don't even need to close and reopen your browser afterwards.

For the record, today I tried to remove that line, and it seems to work now (obviously, as I'm posting). Hopefully the DNS caches are settled by now, I'll keep you updated in the next hours / days.

Well, 24 hours later I can confirm that it's been working fine for all the day, so I think this problem is solved.

Author	Message
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Server or DNS problems? Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 4:18 pm
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	In the past days I've often had problems when I tried to connect to smspower, sometimes my connection was refused, I wonder if it's a problem on my end, or if there's something wrong with your server or your DNS... So, out of curiosity, I tried to run a whois, and there's a line that says: Last Updated On:22-Nov-2012 16:46:19 UTC Maybe something broke during that "update"?

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14754 Location: London	Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:06 pm
	Our name servers became invalid a few days ago (21st) and were corrected on 22nd. You may have issues until caches expire.

markvt Joined: 22 Jul 2012 Posts: 51 Location: The Netherlands	Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:18 pm
	You could open an admin command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns to clear the dns cache on your local pc, but you cannot influence caches on other places.

Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:10 am
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Yeah markvt, I'm aware of that command, but sadly my ISP (fastweb) is known for being a dinosaur when it comes to acknowledge DNS changes, it's not the first time that I have a problem like this. What I don't get, though, is why sometimes I can connect to smspower and why sometimes I can't, when I had this problem in the past with other websites I could never connect, consistently, but only for a day (and a half, at most), while now it's being random and for several days in a row.

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 14754 Location: London	Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:00 am
	Your ISP might be giving you different DNS cache servers at different times. They ought to flush pretty quickly but then there's no guarantee that they behave in a sane way. You can add a hosts entry if you want to make it work - but then it'll be confusing if our server IP changes.

Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:10 am
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	I see. Well, I hope that my ISP will stop being stupid soon... I once actually added a line to my hosts file some years ago (for the same reason) when a Sonic website changed server, but I completely forgot to remove that line afterwards, so when they changed server again a few years later I couldn't figure out why it wasn't working :P It's so easy to forget about things...

gallos_11 Joined: 07 Jun 2010 Posts: 195	Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 5:45 pm
gallos_11 Joined: 07 Jun 2010 Posts: 195	I'm facing the same problem last days, sometimes I can connect to smspower and sometimes I can't. Never experienced this before...

markvt Joined: 22 Jul 2012 Posts: 51 Location: The Netherlands	Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 7:06 pm
	If your isp has dns issues you could try those from google of opendns.. https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/ http://www.opendns.com

Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:59 am
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	I ended up editing my hosts file, since I couldn't connect all day long today. I hope I'll remember to edit it back eventually this time. If someone else is having the same problem (and somehow can read my post through a proxy or something), I'll post a quick guide on how to do that. It's easy, but it's not something everyone knows (I do because as I said I'm used to my ISP being retarded). Go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc and open the "hosts" file in notepad (or any other text editor). If you never edited it, there should only be one entry (all the lines that start with # are comments, so ignore them): 127.0.0.1 localhost You should add this line below it: 72.9.150.200 www.smspower.org Save the file. You don't even need to close and reopen your browser afterwards.

Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Posted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:33 pm
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	For the record, today I tried to remove that line, and it seems to work now (obviously, as I'm posting). Hopefully the DNS caches are settled by now, I'll keep you updated in the next hours / days.

Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:34 pm
Tom Joined: 16 May 2002 Posts: 1356 Location: italy	Well, 24 hours later I can confirm that it's been working fine for all the day, so I think this problem is solved.

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