What happened?

[Lamb]

We live in different countries so it's safe to say we are not using the same ISP.

Every morning I try to access the site I am prevented from doing so for 10 minutes or more. Always "server not found". Then I can get access. No other problems on any other sites. It's definitely not *my* ISP.

This post - for the last 5 minutes prior to this post I was getting "server not found" errors. I check this site multiple times a day and this error comes up frequently. It is not a problem for hours like before, but I do get the error every day.

During those times are you able to ping the site?

 

[Stravinsk]

During those times are you able to ping the site?

Yes, but no response. I'll try multiple times then I just leave the window with the error open and use another window to go elsewhere. After a few minutes, I'll ping the site by using the refresh on my browser or the "try again" button on the error page. Usually after some time, I'm able to bring the site up again doing this.

 

[Lamb]

Next time it happens could you use a site like this and see what the response time is please? https://www.websitepulse.com/tools/ping-test Thanks!

 

[Stravinsk]

Some results from today using the website suggested (if staff would rather I post privately just say):

Results
Host tested: http://christianityhaven.com/
Test performed from: New York, NY
Test performed at: 2017-09-06 07:08:55 (GMT +00:00)
PING christianityhaven.com (158.69.254.51) 56(84) bytes of data.
--- christianityhaven.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 7000ms

-----
Results
Host tested: http://christianityhaven.com/
Test performed from: New York, NY
Test performed at: 2017-09-06 07:10:29 (GMT +00:00)
PING christianityhaven.com (158.69.254.51) 56(84) bytes of data.
--- christianityhaven.com ping statistics ---
8 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 7000ms

-----
Results
Host tested: http://christianityhaven.com/
Test performed from: New York, NY
Test performed at: 2017-09-06 07:20:57 (GMT +00:00)
PING christianityhaven.com (158.69.254.51) 56(84) bytes of data.
--- christianityhaven.com ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 7000ms

 

[Lamb]

Thanks for posting.

DHoffman was online prior to that and ImaginaryDay2 was online after that time. I'm not sure if either were on during since there are not any posts marked with that time. [MENTION=1]Romanos[/MENTION] what do you think is happening?

 

[Romanos]

Thanks for posting.

DHoffman was online prior to that and ImaginaryDay2 was online after that time. I'm not sure if either were on during since there are not any posts marked with that time. [MENTION=1]Romanos[/MENTION] what do you think is happening?

It's probably just server hiccups.

 

[Stravinsk]

It's probably just server hiccups.

It's not.

Every single time I am away from this site for a while, I get a DNS error for the first 10 minutes or so when trying to view it again. After, there is no problem.

I have run ping tests on this website and others. While others show packets being received - even while I can view this website the ping from their server shows it is offline.

It's almost as if Admin is blocking access to certain users until they are online to watch? Or are we not really public?

Am I wrong? Why the deception?

 

[Lamb]

It's not.

Every single time I am away from this site for a while, I get a DNS error for the first 10 minutes or so when trying to view it again. After, there is no problem.

I have run ping tests on this website and others. While others show packets being received - even while I can view this website the ping from their server shows it is offline.

It's almost as if Admin is blocking access to certain users until they are online to watch? Or are we not really public?

Am I wrong? Why the deception?

Romanos doesn't own the server.

 

[Stravinsk]

Romanos doesn't own the server.

I'm not sure if that is relevant. It makes no sense that ping and traceroutes from two different services will pull up other websites fine, but all packets are lost on this website(ping) or no response/timeout (traceroute) - showing it is down according to them, while at the same time I'm viewing it. Does it make sense to you?

 

[Lamb]

I used to be able to ping the site and now I cannot. So apparently the host has disabled the requests to deny pings.

 

[Romanos]

It's not.

Every single time I am away from this site for a while, I get a DNS error for the first 10 minutes or so when trying to view it again. After, there is no problem.

I have run ping tests on this website and others. While others show packets being received - even while I can view this website the ping from their server shows it is offline.

It's almost as if Admin is blocking access to certain users until they are online to watch? Or are we not really public?

Am I wrong? Why the deception?

With all due respect, this claim is far from accurate and not necessary. Your comment makes it sound like we have a Big Brother system going on here which is not the case.

Regards,

Romanos
Executive Administrator

 

[Stravinsk]

With all due respect, this claim is far from accurate and not necessary. Your comment makes it sound like we have a Big Brother system going on here which is not the case.

Regards,

Romanos
Executive Administrator

My speculation as to the reason may indeed be inaccurate.

However my claims that the site is showing itself down via ping tests on two different services are certainly accurate. Anyone can test this. I video recorded some tests. As can be seen - I ping tested CF and google on both websites before attempting to ping Christianityhaven - and at the time that attempt was tried - I refreshed CH in my browser - showing it is online to me, but not even receiving packets on ping tests from 2 different sites - from all around the world.

*Note - video is set to unlisted - so only those who happen to view this page will see it.


My suspicion may be inaccurate but is not completely unwarranted. CH had a "testingboard" at one time that is largely inaccessible today (not completely, as some pages still come up). I was a contributor at this time, and while the site may have been public at the time, the very idea that it was a "testing board" makes me think it might not have been, and that members at the time were participating in an experiment of sorts that appeared to be public but was not. Public or no - the "testing board" pages have largely disappeared, if not completely.

 

[Stravinsk]

^^ Interesting. A total of 1 view via analytics, from the USA - and already reported. Not sure when recording simple ping tests ever violated any of Youtube's rules.

To the dipstick who reported my video - are you naive enough to think I'm not going to find out who you are? Are you not aware that there are multiple video sites out there besides Youtube?

 

[Lamb]

My speculation as to the reason may indeed be inaccurate.

However my claims that the site is showing itself down via ping tests on two different services are certainly accurate. Anyone can test this. I video recorded some tests. As can be seen - I ping tested CF and google on both websites before attempting to ping Christianityhaven - and at the time that attempt was tried - I refreshed CH in my browser - showing it is online to me, but not even receiving packets on ping tests from 2 different sites - from all around the world.

*Note - video is set to unlisted - so only those who happen to view this page will see it.


My suspicion may be inaccurate but is not completely unwarranted. CH had a "testingboard" at one time that is largely inaccessible today (not completely, as some pages still come up). I was a contributor at this time, and while the site may have been public at the time, the very idea that it was a "testing board" makes me think it might not have been, and that members at the time were participating in an experiment of sorts that appeared to be public but was not. Public or no - the "testing board" pages have largely disappeared, if not completely.

We can no longer ping this site as I posted here that the host must have disabled that capability.

As for the test board, that was private for staff use when new features were tested prior to being put on the real site to avoid trouble down the line. I'm sure you would approve of doing that? It wasn't meant for members to look through and so I was the one who eventually limited permissions so that only staff could look through it because that was the original intent anyway. It's for "tests" so we don't wreck this place.

 

[Stravinsk]

We can no longer ping this site as I posted here that the host must have disabled that capability.

Disabling pings would be a strange thing for a server to do. I cannot see a reason for it. In a way it's like advertising "we are not online!". Traceroute according to a few different sites I used also timed out when doing a trace.

As for the test board, that was private for staff use when new features were tested prior to being put on the real site to avoid trouble down the line. I'm sure you would approve of doing that? It wasn't meant for members to look through and so I was the one who eventually limited permissions so that only staff could look through it because that was the original intent anyway. It's for "tests" so we don't wreck this place.

Well, it comes up on search engine queries. So it's not private. Maybe put yourself in a non-staff position. You come across a "testingboard" that has some of your posts on it in a google search, but most of the links lead to whitespace pages. The DNS was just down for around 24 hours. Now the website's up, but traceroute and pings from various servers testing it from all over the earth are showing time-outs and 100% packet loss.

I brought up the site on a Tor node just to check it outside of my browser and my normal surfing IP. It came up. But honestly - with everything something doesn't seem right.

And I still get a DNS failure each and every time I come to the site after being away for more than a few hours - for around 10 minutes - then the site loads.

 

[Lamb]

Are you logging in using a proxy? I have absolutely no problems logging in.

And again, Romanos doesn't own the server, the host does and we have no control over how they want to run their business.

 

[tango]

Strav, just to make sure I'm understanding your posts correctly, it sounds like you can see the web site but not ping the server? And sometimes if you've been offline for a few minutes you get DNS errors when you first try to connect?

 

[Lamb]

FYI, I just tried logging in using a proxy site I found online for free and I got an error until I resent the information and then the site loaded. Strav, have you cleared cache and cookies since you've gotten these errors? Browsers have a tendency to remember the errors and bring them up when there is no problem.

 

[Stravinsk]

Strav, just to make sure I'm understanding your posts correctly, it sounds like you can see the web site but not ping the server? And sometimes if you've been offline for a few minutes you get DNS errors when you first try to connect?

To the second part of your post - no - it is not just a few minutes - it is several hours of not bringing up the website - and it has nothing to do with being logged in - obviously if it doesn't even come up I cannot log in either. This generally lasts for around 10 minutes or so - I leave the window open and go elsewhere in another window. In the open window with the error - I hit the "try again" multiple times. After a relatively short period of time (usually around 10 minutes or so) - then I can see the website.

Clearing history, cookies, cache etc does not affect this.

To the first part of your question - not only can I not ping the server - but services on the web that attempt to ping it from all over the world cannot either.

For instance - try any of these:

https://centralops.net/co/
http://network-tools.com/
http://www.locaping.com/

type in "christianityhaven.com" and either ping or traceroute (on locaping choose the locations the server is to be pinged from) and go.

Packet loss 100%. Traceroute time outs. On all, and I've checked some other services as well.

And of these - when I can see the site! I checked all of these while I was typing this message!!

 

[Lamb]

Have you read what I wrote a couple times now about the possibility of the host blocking the capability to ping? It seems you haven't understood that.