Service Unavailable Error

[klmall]

Now suddenly it seems to be working on Chrome again.

 

[DonMacGregor]

Now suddenly it seems to be working on Chrome again.

Trust me, it's completely random...and a bit irritating. I had it pop up after putting together a pretty long response for someone in a DVC thread. I finished all the typing and copying and pasting, hit "Post Reply", and got the error.

 

[Calantha]

no problems with Firefox.

I'm having it in Firefox - had it multiple times this morning (Eastern Time).

 

[Meriweather]

Just had it on Firefox. for about 1/2 hour.
Third time I've had it happen when I've been on

 

[DLgal]

Just came back up for me after a 3 hour downtime using Chrome on both my phone and tablet. This is a really annoying issue.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

Everything on the internet operates by numbers. There is a system called DNS that translates what we see, disboards.com to the correct number 108.171.164.208 since it would be pretty inconvenient to remember that number all the time, When we moved boards I told our DNS provider to switch from our old address to the new one. DNS records also have something called a time to live, meaning that is how long a DNS server is supposed to wait before getting a new record from it's source. Unfortunately some DNS servers appear to be stuck and giving an old bad address. Since the DNS servers are run by your provider we have no control over this and neither does our host xenforo. I have changed the time to live settings on our DNS as this will force an update and maybe wake up some of the stuck servers. If your stuck on windows you can go to a command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns it might help in some cases. Here is a link that describes how to do it on a Mac https://phoenixnap.com/kb/how-to-flush-dns-cache

 

[DLgal]

Everything on the internet operates by numbers. There is a system called DNS that translates what we see, disboards.com to the correct number 108.171.164.208 since it would be pretty inconvenient to remember that number all the time, When we moved boards I told our DNS provider to switch from our old address to the new one. DNS records also have something called a time to live, meaning that is how long a DNS server is supposed to wait before getting a new record from it's source. Unfortunately some DNS servers appear to be stuck and giving an old bad address. Since the DNS servers are run by your provider we have no control over this and neither does our host xenforo. I have changed the time to live settings on our DNS as this will force an update and maybe wake up some of the stuck servers. If your stuck on windows you can go to a command prompt and type ipconfig /flushdns it might help in some cases. Here is a link that describes how to do it on a Mac https://phoenixnap.com/kb/how-to-flush-dns-cache

You are not honestly asking users to fix this problem on their end, are you?

 

[DonMacGregor]

You are not honestly asking users to fix this problem on their end, are you?

Not to mention my DNS provider in Spectrum/Charter, the second largest service provider in the US with something like 30 million customers. That's an awful lot of people on a "stuck" server.

 

[Marionnette]

You are not honestly asking users to fix this problem on their end, are you?

And it doesn't explain why, using the same device, same internet connection (Comcast) but different browsers, I could access the disboards using Samsung Internet but couldn't when using Duck Duck Go.

 

[SteveMouse]

Another occurrence. On an iPhone/Safari. Disconnecting and reconnecting Wi-Fi resolved it, but it shouldn’t be occurring in the first place.

 

[DonMacGregor]

And it doesn't explain why, using the same device, same internet connection (Comcast) but different browsers, I could access the disboards using Samsung Internet but couldn't when using Duck Duck Go.

Or two devices, concurrently using the same internet connection and the same browser (Chrome), and one connects while the other pulls up the error.

 

[dieumeye]

Just had this error again for about 30 minutes on iPhone Safari and DuckDuckGo. And on MacBook Pro Safari. I have spectrum.

What I don’t understand is this: if the problem is some servers are “stuck” on the old address, why does it work sometimes and not others. Why does the problem come and go when I am connecting from the same device and the same Internet connection all the time?

Saying that the host can’t do anything about it is pretty lame. If I moved my site to a new server and suddenly a bunch of users couldn’t access it, I’d be asking for a refund!

 

[DLgal]

Just had this error again for about 30 minutes on iPhone Safari and DuckDuckGo. And on MacBook Pro Safari. I have spectrum.

What I don’t understand is this: if the problem is some servers are “stuck” on the old address, why does it work sometimes and not others. Why does the problem come and go when I am connecting from the same device and the same Internet connection all the time?

Saying that the host can’t do anything about it is pretty lame. If I moved my site to a new server and suddenly a bunch of users couldn’t access it, I’d be asking for a refund!

Exactly. I use only my phone and tablet, both connected to wifi for the most part, but the phone is sometimes on the AT&T network. I've had the error intermittently for the last week on both devices, regardless of how I am connecting. It will work until suddenly it doesn't and there's no rhyme or reason to it.

Sounds like the new server company is passing the buck. Maybe moving to this particular provider wasn't a good idea.

 

[SirDuff]

I have the error on WiFi and data (from different providers) and in different countries (so, yet another, different provider). None of them US based (so clearly, not the same as most people also reporting the problem). So, I'm not understanding the explanation - unless a ton of servers are randomly malfunctioning.

 

[Starwave]

While far from an ideal solution, I've resorted to flushing the DNS cache in Chrome whenever this issue occurs, which typically resolves it.

You can do so by typing chrome://net-internals/#dns in the address bar and then clicking "Clear host cache."

 

[DonMacGregor]

While far from an ideal solution, I've resorted to flushing the DNS cache in Chrome whenever this issue occurs, which typically resolves it.

You can do so by typing chrome://net-internals/#dns in the address bar and then clicking "Clear host cache."

I've done that...about 50 times now. It does work, but it doesn't offer a permanent solution. Good to post for others, though...

Have you seen it recur after clearing the host cache?

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

chrome://net-internals/#dns

I've done that...about 50 times now. It does work, but it doesn't offer a permanent solution. Good to post for others, though...

Have you seen it recur after clearing the host cache?

How is this different than going into settings and clearing cache?

At work we have to use Edge. We use a space management system, and too many times to count I get an http error due to a think with the Edge browser. Our systems admin told me to go to settings and clear my cache and Internet Explorer Cache (all in MS Edge). It's got to the point that as soon as I'm done with whatever on that site I just clear my cache, etc., because I get the error message almost every time I try to use that tool.

I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to do the same thing here on the DISboards each time I log off.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to do the same thing here on the DISboards each time I log off.

Ugh - did that and it was a pain to log on all my other stuff, so, not going to clear my cache/cookies again. Thanks for the hint @Starwave

 

[DonMacGregor]

Ugh - did that and it was a pain to log on all my other stuff, so, not going to clear my cache/cookies again. Thanks for the hint @Starwave

Yeah, there's a HUGE caveat emptor with that strategy.

 

[DLgal]

Ugh - did that and it was a pain to log on all my other stuff, so, not going to clear my cache/cookies again. Thanks for the hint @Starwave

Ugh, thanks for the warning. Not gonna do that, then.