Website Not Accessible
A few days ago, I bought a website from somebody, and the first thing I did was accept the domain name transfer into my own registrar account.
Next, I logged into my cPanel to make sure I could access that, as the site was hosted with a company I’d never used before.
I also got hold of the FTP details so that I could download a copy of the entire site to my hard drive.
My next step was to log into the server using my FTP client, and begin the download.
And that’s when things started to go screwy!
Firstly, the download just stopped for no apparent reason, then I found that I couldn’t access the site I’d bought (I’d obviously already checked out the website before buying it, so I knew it existed), then I couldn’t access the cPanel any longer, and then, to cap it all, I couldn’t even access the hosting company’s own website.
All very strange!
I checked the obvious stuff, like making sure my firewall and antivirus / antispyware programs weren’t blocking access, but no problems there.
I tried access the site using other PCs in the house, which are all connected to the Internet via the same network, and was somewhat surprised to find I couldn’t see the website from those PCs either.
I therefore began to suspect it was either our modem (a SpeedStream 6520) or our ISP that was blocking access for some bizarre reason.
I started a live chat session with our ISP’s technical support, and the guy took over my PC for a while to check a few settings, and he couldn’t see anything wrong either.
He suggested I reboot my PC (as it was very sluggish after having finished a lengthy data back-up job) as well as the modem and router, and try again.
If that didn’t work (which it didn’t), he suggested I call them so that they could reset the modem to “flush the DNS”, whatever that meant.
I did everything he recommended, called tech support by phone, and spoke to a lady who asked me to try a couple more things – recycle the router and modem, but power the modem back up first and wait until I got steady lights for DSL and Internet, and only then power the router back up, and also to try connecting one of our PCs directly to the modem instead of via the router, as she thought the router may be the issue.
She also said that resetting the modem wouldn’t do any good as the modems they supply don’t block websites or IP Addresses.
Once again, I tried doing what she suggested, and still no joy.
Getting desperate, I did a bit of research via good old Google, and happened upon a technical support forum (Tech Support Guy Forums) where somebody had reported a similar problem.
I posted my problem, and got a helpful reply from one of their moderators, John (who has made over 93,000 posts!), and his first suspicion was that the hosting company themselves had blocked our IP Address for some reason.
However, he also requested that I run a TRACERT on my PC and post the results, and his response to that was that it did indeed look like our modem was blocking access to that site.
Since then, somebody else has posted to my thread saying that they too had had problems with the same hosting company (Earthquake Hosting), so I’m pretty certain that if and when I can access the server again, I’ll be downloading the entire site (as originally planned) and installing it on one of my other hosting accounts immediately.
So, what have I learned from all of this?
Well, firstly, as I suspected when I attended my very first training course after starting work for Barclays Bank in 1986 – a Data Communications Appreciation course -, I didn’t want to work in networking then, and I still don’t.
More germane to my current problems, don’t use cheapo hosting companies – stick to reliable and experienced ones such as Host Gator (who still aren’t expensive anyway).
And finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help – trying stuff out yourself without adequate knowledge can be dangerous, and research is often time-consuming, so if you can find a reliable source of good technical help, such as Tech Support Guy Forums, then use them.
Tags: live chat, domain name, hosting company, apparent reason, technical supportBELIEVE IT OR NOT:
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