For all you computer experts out there
Last night my computer suddenly refused to go to a huge number of sites, including this blog, memeorandum, RealClearPolitics, and StatCounter. But none of those sites were down, because I could get them easily on my cell phone. What’s more, my computer had no problem going to a bunch of other sites, and Google worked perfectly.
I did what I do whenever my computer’s acting temperamental: I rebooted. The problem persisted. I re-rebooted. No improvement. Then I went to bed, and this morning things were fine. But I don’t trust the situation, and am concerned that it will happen again. I also don’t understand what happened. Usually I either have a problem getting to a site or sites because the site or sites are down, or I have trouble with connectivity in general and can’t surf around at all. This was very very different.
And no, I had not recently loaded anything onto my computer, nor had I clicked on a suspicious site. Nothing unusual had happened that I’m aware of except the problem, which began very suddenly.
Anyone got any theories on it? Thanks.
“It’s a computer Sal…a computer.”
It’s likely a problem with the domain name server – the server that converts the names of websites to IP addresses. It probably got resolved and the DNS cache cleared and so it came good.
It could have happened from some type of DNS issue somewhere, either on your computer or elsewhere. Could be a million things and is definitely frustrating. Sometimes booting helps and sometimes not. When it does not help, I usually will try releasing my IP address and will get a new one buy running the following in a command prompt:
ipconfig /release
then
ipconfig /renew
You might have to reboot to get the new IP to stick.
Full Disclosure: I am a database admin and not a systems admin so I could have gaps in my DNS knowledge.
Your phone and your computer access the sites on different paths. The phone could have accessed a path that wasn’t down while your PC was trying to take a path that was down. Could have been a messed up DNS cache mentioned above to something as simple as “the wire leaving this building went dead” somewhere down the chain of links. Usually, the internet is excellent at mapping itself around problem links…but not always.
Or…sometimes the Host is down. Are all of those sites hosted by the same ISP?
Whatever the cause, it is happening to me right now. It’s really odd, is all I can say.
Some kind of DNS issue.
You can route through a different DNS, although using it is complicated.
I read that there was an issue with Amazon Cloud that caused internet disruptions on the East Coast.
When you use the phone for internet access, are you using your home WiFi, or are you accessing through your phone’s connection through the cell network?
Amazon. All Amazon. Email sent.
Is Your Internet Busted? Blame Amazon | The Daily Dot
Is It Down Right Now is down right now – The Verge
I have multiple servers running at Amazon’s east coast location. They were severely disrupted this afternoon. I think they’ve just fixed the issue.
WaPo has more on the Amazon problem:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/02/28/why-a-whole-slew-of-websites-are-suddenly-down-or-working-slowly/?utm_term=.41de166e5a66&wpisrc=nl_tech&wpmm=1
Quite obviously it’s Vladimir Putin and his nefarious team of Russian hackers that is behind it all. How can there possibly be any other explanation?
If you have W10, it could be some update problem. Try to go to a previous build and see it that helps.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/09/mysterious_windows_10_networking_bug/
Just why I will never own a self driving car.
It’s official: Amazon was tripped up by a typo.
Now if they started using a Quantum Cloud, then they might be able to give birth to a non human intelligence with these hiccups.