www.familysearch.org - unable to access

[Sylvander]

In the past I have made extensive use of www.familysearch.org but for the last few weeks have been unable to access the site.

I used the "ping" command on this address and it reported 100% loss.

Is anyone able to access this site?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

No prob... Can you see this?

[Steve]

I get there without a problem...

[Sylvander]

Hello Ted.
Your post said "can you see this?" and I could see nothing.
Then next time I looked there was a small square box with a red "X" inside it [replacing a visual object?].
So I right clicked on the box and selected "Show Picture" and the box disappeared but nothing was shown in its place.

[Budfred]

Sylvander,

Sounds like it may be time for one of your famous backups to be restored. I have no trouble seeing the picture there, so it suggests that something is wrong with your browser. I am at work, so I am on IE6 right now. Another option would be to uninstall and reinstall the browser to see if you get access back.

[Sylvander]

I suspect it may be caused by something like "SpywareBlaster" or "Spywareguard" or a popup stopper named "AdShield".

I had trouble with the installation of "SpywareBlaster" and "AdShield" was blocking access to maps at www.old-maps.co.uk so I uninstalled it.

I have a backup of 4th Feb 2003 and GREEEAAAT long log of AAAaaall the software installed/updated since then.
It would be nice to avoid that.

The 4th April backup was taken 6 days before I installed AdShield.

Another site I visited today said I could not view something because Cookies had been disabled.
I checked and Internet Explorer is configured to prompt for permission to accept cookies, but no permission was asked for.

[Paul Komski]

Domain pings OK
Pinging www.familysearch.org [32.96.111.5] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=361ms TTL=239
Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=385ms TTL=239
Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=266ms TTL=239
Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=249ms TTL=239

Ping statistics for 32.96.111.5:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 249ms, Maximum = 385ms, Average = 315ms

IP address pings OK
Pinging 32.96.111.5 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=257ms TTL=239
Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=364ms TTL=239
Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=265ms TTL=239
Reply from 32.96.111.5: bytes=32 time=269ms TTL=239

Ping statistics for 32.96.111.5:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 257ms, Maximum = 364ms, Average = 288ms

If the domain doesn't work and the ipaddress does then it sounds like your DNS Server has a problem.

You could then add the addy to your hosts file; some networker will give you better advice than me on how to do that.

BTW
The red x phenomenom can be cause by incorrect url file associations; are these appearing on other sites in place of pics. No harm to try resetting web settings.

You could also check with the OB1 browser (only 500KB download) and which might then indicate an IE problem per se.

[mjc]

Nope, not Spywareblaster or Spywareguard...

It sounds an awful lot like DNS problems with your ISP, which there is not really anything you can do on your end...other than maybe use an alternate DNS server.

[Fruss Tray Ted]

1:
Seems your D/Ls are timing out. Dial up? even if not,

Right click the previous (non opening) pic and look at properties. Is there an addy?

If so, open it in a new page (I use a blank homepage for this purpose). If that times out and gives you a X it may be in/or from your server/ISP?

What I posted was only a hosted pic from the site to eliminate some other thing trying to load up that may have been why. Either I hit the nail on the head or you have something going on on your end, I guess the latter.

Sorry, not much I can do further,,

[Sylvander]

OK, here goes:

I re-formatted the C: drive and restored the 4th April backup without success, then re-formatted again and restored the 4th February backup, still no success.

So I phoned the Blueyonder Technical Support line, gave the story and mentioned that it had been suggested this may have something to do with a DNS Problem.
He immediately agreed.

Here’s what he said:
I have been automatically allocated an IP Address beginning with 82.
This is a new IP address number only recently acquired by Blueyonder.
He thinks it likely that the LDS site have not recently updated their Routers.
They need to update their “BOGON” filters he says.
I should send an email to the webmaster@www.familysearch.org [he’s guessing at that address].
The other possible approach is to disconnect from the local network for more than 24 hours.
This will free up the IP address which has been allocated to me [and is held for 24 hours].
When I re-connect I may be allocated a different address by chance beginning 80 or 60.

[pentachris]

Sounds like friendly - dare I say even helpful? - tech support! Congratulations, Sylvander, & consider yourself lucky!

This is prolly obvious to all, but I would try webmaster@familysearch.org instead.

[Sylvander]

Please forgive my foolishness with the address

I've never done this sort of thing before

The Blueyonder Technical support was REALLY impressive at the start.
1. They used a freephone number.
2. They would spend as long as it took to fix the problem. There was a calm, unhurried air to the proceedings and they obviously knew their subject.
3. They always came up with a fix for the problem.

Things are not QUITE so impressive now.
1. They now charge local rates for the phone calls [using an 0845 number].
I mention this because I'm paying £15 per month to them for UNMETERED PHONE CALLS to any GEOGRAPHIC number within the UK [FAAAAANTAASTIC]
[I'm building a family tree and I phoned every person in Newcastle (England) with my family name (My father's father was born there in 1863 and his brothers must have descendants around)]
[I was e-mailed today by someone in New Zealand who has the same family name and whose ancestors lived around Newcastle about the same time. So far no link proved.]
[I found other first cousins I didn't know I had and one 76 year old had a photo of my mother with all her children around her and me as a baby on her lap. I have no copy of that photo but she says she'll give it to me!]
2. They keep you waiting and listening to music for about 10 minutes.

[Sylvander]

I reported this problem on a Family Origins forum and received an email which said the following:
“If Blueyonder installed new routers (or domain name servers - the "lookup" phone book of the internet) which are failing to connect you with the long-established LDS IP number - it is ENTIRELY blueyonder's problem, and you should be demanding that they FIX IT, and credit your account for the time period you are without the full service for which you are paying.”
“If Blueyonder's new set of IP numbers is on a list of proscribed IP addresses [as can be the case if those numbers had been assigned in the past to a notorious spam-factory or hacker domain] it can take months [or even as long as a year] for the numbers to be cleared out of the "banned" directory.”
“Your only option in such a case is to demand that Blueyonder ensure you are assigned IP numbers which have not appeared on a "banned" list in recent memory.”

Blueyonder Technical Support got me to use the command
“tracert www.familysearch.org”
The sixth step was London. [21 ms]
The seventh step was Washington. 116 ms]
The attempt was blocked at the twelfth step. [123 ms][8th to 11th steps took about 110 to 124 ms each]
The 13th to 30th steps were “Request Timed Out”.

Here are the 7th to 12th steps:
7. dcr2-loopback.washington.cw.net [192.205.32.45]
8. cw-gw.wswdc.ip.att.net [192.205.32.45]
9. tbr1-p014001.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.123.9.82]
10. tbr1-cl4.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.10.30]
11. gbr1-p10.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.11.98]
12. gar1-p360.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.123.24.209]

He then got me to use:
“ipconfig /release”
“ipconfig /renew”
“ipconfig /all”

He was surprised to find that my IP address had neither been released or renewed.

[Sylvander]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

The Blueyonder technical support got me to use a Proxy Server in my
LAN [Local Area Network] settings and "Bingo!" I could suddenly
access the LDS site.
[I can also now see that rather nice photo Ted]

He says that the LDS site is failing to cope with the latest
addresses and this by-passes the problem by sending my PC [with it's
new address] via a proxy server with an older address.

He says that when they update this will no longer be necessary.

[NevilleADaniels]

On Thursday last, two servers at www.familysearch.org crashed.
These had already been scheduled for replacement by July the 1st in preparation for the digitalisation of the entire image database held in the Granite Mountain Vaults.

These servers have now been replaced replaced with the new and more powerfull servers. Currently these servers are being reloaded with many terrabytes of information and the latest software. The rest of the mega network is still being built.

It is expected the that partial availability that we now see, will progressivly improve and should be fully available by 5pm Mountain Standard Time on Friday.

Since these are new servers it will take a while for DNS propergation to complete, some time in the next 48hrs it is hoped.

Please do not expect full service before Saturday.

I should point out that I was still using www.familysearch.org at 2am UK Standard Time this morning.

Neville A Daniels
Independant Family History Researcher.
Canvey Island
Essex.
England

[Budfred]

And did you notice that no one had posted to this thread for almost exactly 4 years?? We encourage people to start a new thread rather than posting to one that has been abandoned for so long...

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