I think there's a problem with my website (my web guy says it's to do with the DNS being out of whack).

Could you just hop on to my front page and let me know if it doesn't work. It's a two second job!

I'd be so grateful. I've had a few emails but nothing substantial and it's worrying me that it's month end and it's really quiet! I was having trouble the other day but my ISP is fine today.

Thanks in advance :)

looks ok to me

nope not workin for me

deffo working for me


http://www.thegeekestlink.com/store/

keeps comeing up internet explorer connot display lol so no idea

Thanks guys. What ISP are you with, Steve?

im with talktalk

Working fine with me on IE8.

Gah. So it's a handful of ISPs. Which is a lot better than yesterday!

Thanks Bloom, Steve, and Kelly for taking the time to let me know...

Hopefully, it'll clear up. It's something to do with my host changing its DNS details!

it works for me on virgin media.

virgin media usin firefox

maybe your web host put it on a different server & had to update the dns or something like that. these problems usually fix themselves within 24 hours, it can just take a while for all the dns servers to update sometimes.

If you ever wonder "is it just me?" try this http://newsreports.org/

it works for me :)

Heya. It's working fine now. Thanks :)

I guess the new info has filtered down through the web to all the ISPs. Still, when you have an online business and people can't access your site, it gets very frustrating!

Heya. It's working fine now. Thanks :)

I guess the new info has filtered down through the web to all the ISPs. Still, when you have an online business and people can't access your site, it gets very frustrating!

That's why changes like this should be properly planned & a copy of the site should be left online at the old IP address until the change is complete.

It took me 3 attempts to load the website.

I've had a lot of problems. A LOT

A LOT of downtime and error messages that make me look exceptionally unproffessional.

I'm at the point now where I don't know what to do about it. I've lost a huge amount of money in lost orders, and who knows what people are thinking when they can't load up the page or they try to check on the status of their order to find the site down, again!

My other site has not been down for more than a few hours in the last 10 years, but this is down on a regular basis.

What should I do?

Who's hosting it for you? If the site is constantly going down it is more likely to be a server related problem (assuming you have not changed the code you used to develop the site).

PS it was working this morning.

It's a company called Xilo. But all of that is handled by my web developer.

Have you given any thought of hosting the site on another server (under a different domain name) to test if it is the hosting company?

What might be useful to know are the types of error messages you are getting, this will help others to diagnose the likely source of the problem (hardware or software...hardware is a server problem, software is your developers problem...either way, you need to change one of them if this is affecting your income!)

Sounds like a hosting problem, but you cold check if you register for the free monitoring service with the link I provided above.If your hosting is going down, you will get email alerts for when it goes off, and when it comes back on. See how many you get.You can also opt for a dail email summary i.e. 100%, 98.8% or whatever it was for that day.

But other things you mention don't sound like hosting issues, unless it's a combination of both - particularly if the company who created your website also provides the hostin e.g. they are no better at providing a good hosting service as they are a web design/development service.

What cart are you using?

I need to know how to get hosting with a new company.

I have no faith in this one, but I don't know how I'd go about moving everything.

oh i've just realised/remembered who your web develoepr is which means at a guess your site uses Cubecart?

I passed him 2 of my Cubecart clients a couple of months ago who were with us just for hosting but had problems with their Cubecart sites (not ones we had done), and they've not had any problems with their hosting (i'm sure they'd have rang me if they had! And I have been in touch with them since then for other things and one lives down my street) and I know he has fixed their cart problems.

Without knowing everything, it's hard to say what the problem could be. Cubecart isn't our expertise or chosen cart for eommerce sites we create but I guess each to their own.

If you are planning on moving, you will be responsible for transferring your website to another host, or pay someone to do it unless they offer to do it for free for you. You could shop around.

It is simple to do.

I have a reseller package with Webfusion where I host lots of websites that I create and it has been very reliable. To be honest, I cannot help because these are not e-cmmerce sites but simple HTML sites.

What you will need to do is:

1. Get a copy of your site from your current developer (you should have a copy for back up purposes anyway)
2. Make sure you know how to access the domain name as you will need to point the domain to the name of the new server hosting your site (normally referred to as 'Change Namerservers')
3. You will need to copy your website over to the new hosted server supplier (the hosting companies normally include control panels to allow you to do this)
4. Do this during your quiet time as the change can take up to 24 hours before your site wil be up again (it is to do with the fact that all the web servers in the world need to be updated with the new IP address for the new server where your site is now hosted)

But, before you do this, make sure is it the hosting company that is the problem rather than your developer.

My main site (www.frippdesign.co.uk) is hosted by a Bradford based company called swishpixel who are excellent, however there are a number of regular contributors on this forum who might be able to help too.

Be prepared to pay a little more than you are paying now but make sure that you get some sort of Service Level Agreement (SLA) to ensure your site is up 24x7...assuming that any increased hosting cost is less than the amount you are losing in orders!

I'm not at ALL saying it's my developer, but there are problems here which mean at its most basic, my site has a lot of downtime.

And it's not a Cubecart issue.

Thanks to everyone for their advice. It's something to think about!

Not quite as simple as it looks mind you. You will need to change the global config settings for Cubecart. Also, it's a transfer of the database as well as the website.

What you need to do is get a full copy of your website loaded onto another server and test everything works before changing nameservers over. Leave some grace between the transfer and the cancellation of your old hosting - if that's what you end up choosing. Like Steve said though, that may not be the root of your problem. You need to identify each specific problem Iwhat is happening, when does it happen, what is the error message or what is it not doing) and get advice.

OK. It's hard to get to the root of these problems, but as people have said here, they've had to refresh a few times to get to the page - so there clearly IS a problem.

I'll go back and see what I can do :)

PS there is no SLA for 100% in 99.9% of shared hosting. 34SP do it, but at a cost. Again, they state 100% or 99.9% but if it fails, the refund you can claim is both a PITA to claim and worth peanuts. Not worth the time doing the claim.

I'd be happy with a decent service and the site being accessible for 98% of the time.

Anyway why would it be a DNS issue? What's changed?

Again, getting to the root of the problem is tricky. I'm not sure what this latest problem is:

The answer I received is that "it's something to do with the DNS servers being sync'd with the ISPs nameservers"

Which is gobbledygook to me...

so get him to explain it to you better and also what would cause that. eg have they moved servers recently? Is this only a recent one off problem or is it frequent? Like i say my 2 clients sites aren't down frequently.

I've not had any major downtime since Christmas (but there has been some).

The site has been INaccessible for the last 3 weeks to a variety of ISPs. I only discovered this on Monday.

Again, getting to the root of the problem is tricky. I'm not sure what this latest problem is:

The answer I received is that "it's something to do with the DNS servers being sync'd with the ISPs nameservers"

Which is gobbledygook to me...

...because it is; draw your own conclusions :loopy: (them not you)

what do you mean by "a variety of ISP's"?

Check out this info from whois:
IP History: 3 changes on 4 unique name servers over 1 years.

I mean: I gathered data from people who couldn't access the site at all, and it appears to be various ISPs.

It does sound like a hosting problem, but it might not be. I've never had a problem accessing you site, I don't check it daily, but I check when you post that you're having problems & it always seems fine for me.

DNS problems can happen when a site changes IP address or name server (eg if your host moves it onto another server), but that always fixes itself within 24-48 hours, it's just a caching issue. With a tiny bit of foresight & planning that problem can be avoided altogether. Maybe they messed up a little bit & were forced into an unplanned change, but it couldn't still be causing you problems. Possibly they were trying to fob you off with an excuse, or giving you the explanation they thought most likely without really investigating it properly.

Another possibility is that there are connectivity issues between your web host & certain isps. That might be out of the immediate control of your web host. Traceroutes to & from affected connections could be used to help diagnose that problem.

If it's only a few people that can't access your site, they seem to be on random isps & other people on those isps can access your site fine, then you can't rule out user error.

If you want to move host, then I'm a satisfied customer of Pipeten. They have excellent technical support & customer service.

Your developer should be able to help you to move the site. You'll need a copy of the database, as well as all the files. It could take a few days to complete the move of the site, so it's best to do it at least 7-10 days before the end of your billing period with your current host. First get the site running on the new host, then change the nameservers for the domain to the new host, then transfer the domain name. There shouldn't be any downtime as long as you keep the site running at both hosts for a couple of days.

It isn't your developer's fault, but they should be able to offer some help & advice to fix the problem.

This issue should now be fully resolved. Feedback will be apprectaied so that I may escalate the issue if needed.

The DNS zones have beenr reset and rebuilt to reflect namesevers/IPs etc etc.

Hopeully this will function correctly.

Just seen your post on ukbf

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=164425

I take it the remedy you applied last night didn't work?

I've just remembered as well, I set up a site a couple of months back, not done much with it as yet it being a hobby/sideline thing, but my sister and our local Council cannot view it. My daughter could view it on her laptop at my house but when she's at my sister's house using her wireless cnxn she can't get the site up in her browser, nor can my sister on her laptop. TBH I don't have the time to investigate further right now. It's using myBB forum software FWIW.

Just need it testing futher as it takes 24-48 hours for the dns servers to fully resolve (as we all know).

48 hours is up in a couple of hours so therefore should work fine. I have a friend on talk talk who couldn't access the site who can now load it with no problems what-so-ever, so hopefully we have solved the DNS zone issues with the help of the hosting boffins at Xilo.

OWG has removed the link - they've got stricter now about link dropping by nonpaid members which renders the post useless now.