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Connection Issues
If you can't get to your site, or others can't get to your site, or only part of your site is loading, the first thing you should do is "refresh" or "reload" the page. Most of the time, it's just a temporary glitch. If that doesn't work, then there are only three possible reasons for this:
The first thing you need to determine is where the problem is, so that you will know who to report the problem to. To do this, you have to "trace the route." Interestingly enough there is a program on every Windows 95 or newer computer called "tracert." To use it, you open a dos window and type "tracert yoursite.com" and it will do the trace for you. It will ONLY give you the route from YOUR computer to YOUR site (our server). It looks something like this:
 The trace tells you how long each step required. The time is not important, but if you see *'s in the time slot, that means "no answer" and that's the place to be looking for trouble. The FIRST line is your connection to the Internet. This is your ISP. If you see *'s in there, call your ISP. The VERY LAST line is your server. If you see *'s in there, email us. If it responds and has no *'s, then your server is working correctly and the problem is elsewhere. If you want to become an internet detective, we recommend a program called "Visual Route." It's really useful and actually fun to use. Click on the banner below to learn more.
One of the cool things about Visual Route is that you can click on each link in the path, and it will get the contact info for that server, so it makes reporting problems very easy. You can also see a map of the world, and exactly where your path is taking you. You'll be in for a surprise! :-) Okay, now you have the route from you to your site surveyed. Now you need to check the path back. (Every internet request is a "round trip." You send the request from your computer to your server, and then your server needs to send the data back.) Your IP number is:172.71.254.135. That's your current connection to the net via your ISP.
This will be the return trip back. Again, if you see any *'s in there, that's where the problem is. Only the first line is our servers, the rest is "the internet." The last line is again your connection to your ISP. If that's the one that has the *'s you know it's your ISP's problem. If the first line has *'s in there, that's us. :-)
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