Calling all Web/IT Geeks!!!
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:18
Hi all,
I have a nerd project I cannot solve on my own. Give me a bum computer and I'll make it good as new, but give me a portion of a website that works everywhere except for my work building, and I'm stumped.
Here's the info:
Our agency has a public website we use: www.youthprogress.org. I can see that just fine. We are currently revising it and adding a message boards section. That address is www.youthprogress.org/bboard/index.php. Odds are quite good you can see this link, but I can't. At least not when I use my computer in my work building. I can see it at my home computer, Aidin could see it from hers in Texas, and our off-site staff could see it too. But every time someone in my work building goes to the message board link, we get the 404 Not Found error.
To my knowledge, we do not have any internal restrictions or use a DNS filter. I'm actually trying to implement one to keep the kiddies away from myspace and porn, but anyway, I digress...
This web page is in the process of being moved from being housed on-site to being housed by Yahoo. I'd have to talk to the guy designing our site again (he's in meetings all afternoon), but if I remember correctly he said that currently the way our hosting is set up is that yahoo has stored our "old" website as the "alt" (meaning that if the primary is not available, it goes to the alt). Our new website, which is still being built, is stored as the primary. It is not live yet, but once it goes live it will be seen instead of the alt/old site.
When I did a ping for www.youthprogress.org, I got the 192 internal address. When I did a ping for www.youthprogress.org/bboard/index.php I got a "not found" msg. When Aidin and Lepp pinged both they get a different IP address altogether for both sites (216.39.62.91/118).
So my question boils down to: can anyone figure out why people in our building cannot see the message board but can see the main page, and everyone else CAN see our message board? How do I fix this, and is it a hosting problem with our transition to Yahoo? Help!
That is all a possibility
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 17:06That is all a possibility actually. At first I didn't think so but then I remembered that we had an intranet set we no longer use, www.youthprogress.org/secure. If I remember correctly, you cannot access this site unless you are at work. I think I tried to get to it from home at some point and it wouldn't let me in, although it's been almost a year so I can't be completely sure.
Is it possible to clear a cache at the router level? Maybe that would work...
As a quick check before you
Dufe — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:35As a quick check before you bother with more complex stuff, look to see if you have this file:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
If so, open it up in notepad and see if there are any entries regarding www.youthpress.org or anything similar. This type of setup isn't really used much anymore, but it is definitely worth a look.
No dice on the hosts file,
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:52No dice on the hosts file, although it is there and when i opened it up it said it was a "sample."
It is possible that there is
Dufe — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:29It is possible that there is something actually coded into your router that essentially says "Take all traffic trying to go to the external address for www.youthprogress.org and send it to internal address instead." If this is the case, you will need to have someone re-code that. Hopefully the other options listed will work before it comes to that, since I'm guessing nobody there knows how to program a cisco router.
I have asked my coworker to
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:13I have asked my coworker to give our ISP a call, and tonight after most everyone clears out we will reset our router and see if that fixes it.
Garreth makes sense. I was
Ardea — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:11Garreth makes sense. I was trying to figure out how External users can see it but internal cannot.
cache in IE and Firefox
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:02cache in IE and Firefox cleared out, problem still not fixed.
nope, dufe's address didn't
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:00nope, dufe's address didn't work. we have a cisco router. more to come.
Addendum: Okay so the
Karli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:54Addendum: Okay so the problem actually seems to be that because our website used to be housed on our internal server, everyone in our building is still getting forwarded to it.
Will deleting the website files, changing the location/file name at our server cause the website to go the right address? I'm still pretty confused as to how to resolve this.
Web domain NAME hosting and
garreth — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 16:04Web domain NAME hosting and web site FILE hosting are two separate things.
People normally register their website NAME at places like godaddy.com or networksolutions.com, but often your site host will take care of it.
Now, since you used to host your site on the house server there, you must have your domain name registered somewhere else. THAT name host POINTS to that web box.
If other people outside your office are seeing the website just fine, then you need to make sure your internet service provider updates their DNS records. Essentially traffic is leaving your building, hitting a server at your isp and going "Oh shit, I remember this address, it's actually back on that server" and bouncing right back. They need to update.
Also, unplug and replug in all routers you can in your office in a responsible manner. DO NOT HOLD THE BUTTON DOWN ON THE BACK OF A ROUTER, TERRIBLE THINGS HAPPEN. I REPEAT, DO NOT HOLD THE BUTTON DOWN ON THE BACK OF A ROUTER, JUST UNPLUG AND RE PLUG IT IN.
Give it some time, given
garreth — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:52Give it some time, given that you may have just switched domain name hosting, it can take up to three days for all the address routing to propogate across the internet.
When we moved downfallguild.org from Dreamhost (The Great Satan) to MediaTemple (Slightly Less Satan) the name was unreachable for almost four days. Different people in different physical locations around the world can actually see it pop up at different times given how their routing to the internet works. In other words, if they are physically closer to a domain name server that has the updated routing info, they'll be able to see it sooner than someone near a server that has not been updated.
Ask your ISP to update their DNS records :) Some do it every hour, some every week.
Oh yah.. forgot about proxy.
Agoney — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:42Oh yah.. forgot about proxy. Check that. Might have to add it as an allow. http://*.youthprogress.org/*.* should work.
Could be a proxy server
Dufe — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:40Could be a proxy server setting, could be a cached IP on your computers, could be a cached or manually stored IP on your DNS server. Could potentially be a router setting, but I hope not, that would probably be the hardest to work out. If you clear all of your browser cache and reboot, do you still have the same problem?
Its probably something
Agoney — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:38Its probably something router side to be honest. Try the link that dufe gave. If you have access, switch to a static DNS. (I can give you about 100 address if you need a static). If your running windows go to start->run-cmd. Type Route Print. What static routes are there.
If your using Cisco products and can show me a config I could probably help more.
Hmm . . it seems that Yahoo
Dufe — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:38Hmm . . it seems that Yahoo bounces the request to a different server depending on where the request is from or some other factor(s). SO hardcoding the IP into the address bar won't work. However, If the hosting at Yahoo is all setup, you do need to re-route the computers at work to the yahoo address somehow, instead of the internal one.
Does your work use a proxy
Desteran — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:35Does your work use a proxy server? I have experienced similar situations and it usually comes down to a simply client side proxy setting.
Well, routing isn't my area
Dufe — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:29Well, routing isn't my area of expertise, but I can offer some minor insight. With IP networking, every website name that you type in has to be converted to it's IP address. Every computer on the net should have the IP address for a "DNS" server that converts the names you type in your browser into the matching IP address to allow for traffic to work properly. Now Aidin and Lepp have the DNS server set for their ISP, which has the IP address 216.39.62.91 stored for www.youthprogress.org. Your computers route their dns queries to a different DNS server, probably in your building, to ask for the IP address. Since your internal network has a slightly different Address scheme internally than it does externally, this DNS server is giving you the internal scheme IP of 192.xxx.xxx.xxx. Somewhere in the mix, your internal DNS server that you're using is unable to resolve the address for the new system properly, if you type
http://216.39.62.48/bboard/index.php
into your own browser at work, you may find that it works. Unfortunately, I can't tell you for sure how to fix it, but hopefully this has given you a better idea where to go.
Good question. I have no
Shihli — Mon, 04/28/2008 - 15:25Good question.
I have no worthwhile information to add, but I'm bumping this to get a bit more visibility from Garreth/Dufe/Kati/people that are smarter than me.