Internet Technical Help Request

8/6/02 | Donald Stone

[Donald Stone]

I am trying to connect to certain websites (www.citypaper.com) using Netscape 4.7 or Opera browser and I keep getting an error message saying:

"Could not connect to remote server" or

"There is no response. The server could be down or is not responding. If you are unable to connect again later, contact theserver's administrator."

I know this site www.citypaper.com is up and running as I went to the library and opened this site immediately,

I also had the people that I have my internet service with try this site and they had no problems (but, they have high speed access).

The Question:

1. Why can't I get on this site (www.citypaper.com)from my computer ????

2. Does it have anything to do with the fact that my browsers won't accept frames ?

[Darkshadow]

Works fine from mine, Mac OS X, IE 5.2
Don't seem to be any frames
Try skipping ahead to http://www.citypaper.com/current/index.html

[Kaslin]

Is this it?

[mikesmad]

Either your ISP is having DNS problems or routing problems. Another possibility is that you have host file entries that point to outdated IP addresses. If you have downloaded one of those "increase your internet speed" programs they often create host file entries to speed up name resolution. The problem is when the IP addresses change you are out of luck.

Search your hard drive for a file named hosts (or lmhosts) depending on your OS, there will not be an extension (hosts.sam or lmhosts.sam are ok as they are sample files). Delete these files and reboot or from a command prompt type in nbtstat -R then retry again.

[CJ Wolf]

See if you can hit this link... http://www.citypaper.com/2002-05-15/feature2.html

If you can't see if you can hit this one. http://www.citypaper.com/2002-05-15/feature2-1.jpg

There seems to be alot of Java menu items and potentialy flash overhead. It may be timing out. If you can get to the second link you have connectivity to the server. If you can get to the first one you just need to bypass the main page for some reason.

[BullDog108]

Works fine for me in Mozilla 1.1, Netscape 6.2, Opera 6.0 and Internet Explorer 6.0. (Windows XP Pro)

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Communicator 4.x Help  - technical support page from Netscape

[Xenalyte]

Are you using an old-school dial-up modem? Or do you have a nice DSL line (like I wish I had)?

[toupsie]

Works great on my Mac OS X machine -- no surprise. Might be a Domain Name Server problem with your Internet Service Provider. Or another possibility is that 'citypaper.com' has banned you from their web server for some reason. It is a simple task to prevent IP ranges from contacting a server.

[KarlInOhio]

One thing that I do when I'm having problems is go to Anonymizer and enter in a web site. That way, you try a second route to the destination.

[Norman Conquest]

It might not be you -- your home internet service provider could be having DNS or routing problems.

All of the (whoever.com, whatever.net) domain names on the internet are matched up with the real physical addresses (100.2.34.116) of web servers by a set of master tables, the Domain Name Service. These periodically update one another. Sometimes the address lsists are corrupted in transit and internet service A can no longer find a valid route to service B until their next successful update.

It might also be some malicious denial-of-service prankster making citypaper hard to reach, or some actual physical interruption of your upstream path...

If it persists, ask your ISP's tech support to test the suspect address from their side.

[mikesmad]

You can try this command also after making sure you do not have host file entries.

ping www.citypaper.com

If this returns an IP address then DNS lookups are working although your ISP may have an invalid entry. You can also try to connect using the IP address directly.

http://192.245.12.221

If this works then routing is working by not DNS

[Lorenb420]

You didn't say what kind of system you are running, I'm going to assume it's Windows.

The first thing I would do is open an MS-DOS prompt (Start->Programs->MS-DOS Prompt or Start->Run->cmd.exe) and type in the following:

ping 192.245.12.221

If don't you see a response like this:

PING 192.245.12.221 (192.245.12.221): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.245.12.221: icmp_seq=0 ttl=47 time=342.3 ms
64 bytes from 192.245.12.221: icmp_seq=1 ttl=47 time=170.3 ms
64 bytes from 192.245.12.221: icmp_seq=2 ttl=47 time=370.3 ms
64 bytes from 192.245.12.221: icmp_seq=3 ttl=47 time=169.1 ms

--- 192.245.12.221 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 169.1/263.0/370.3 ms

Then I would verify you're connected to your ISP. Did you dial-up with a modem? Or do you have DSL or Cable?

If you get a similar reponse to what I did, then I would run the following command:

nslookup www.citypaper.com

You should see something like this in response:

Server: 10.0.0.3
Address: 10.0.0.3:53

Non-authoritative answer:
www.citypaper.com cannoncial name = citypaper.com.
Address: 192.245.12.221

If you don't get anything like this back, then you need to re-check your TCP/IP settings, specifically your DNS Server, as it would appear your machine can't do name lookups.

If you don't know how to check that, I'd call your ISP and have them walk you through it.

[Donald Stone]

Thanks for your info.
Tried your link and got error message !!
Could not connect to remote server.

[Donald Stone]

Thanks !!!!
Anonymizer works great !!!!!
It did the trick !!!!!
I'm speculating that they may not have wanted me to access their site.
This is the article I wanted.

I had sued the Gilbert Sapperstein (and his son) mentioned in this article for alleged racketeering back in 1998,(www.marylandcorruption.com)

And found the reference to Gilbert Sapperstein somewhat humorous.

(Gilbert Sapperstein, who's somewhat of a Mobtown real-estate mogul, owns the building-turned-brick-strewn-lot).


June 7 - June 13, 2000
Photo By John Ellsberry
When the Walls Came Tumblin' Down

It was a dark day in Sowebo. On Saturday, May 20, a big hunk of the brick exterior of Nan and Glen's Beer Garden Café at the corner of Hollins Street and Arlington Avenue disengaged itself from the rest of the building. Drawn by the inexorable tug of gravity, this looming wall of bricks collapsed unceremoniously into the street. Fearing further collapse, city crews swept in with heavy equipment to finish the job, reducing the pre-Civil War building--an erstwhile neighborhood anchor--into a pile of rubble.Where's the bright spot in all this? It could have been worse. It could have happened during the Sowebohemian Arts Festival on the 28th, when hordes of rain-escaping revelers might have filled the bar. As it was, one person was struck with a falling brick and had to get stitches. But the dust is far from settled on this sorry event. Many of the Nose's Sowebo sources believe the catastrophe didn't have to happen, blaming it on what they claim was bungled and unauthorized renovation work by the café's proprietors, Glen Taylor and Nan Bosely. (Gilbert Sapperstein, who's somewhat of a Mobtown real-estate mogul, owns the building-turned-brick-strewn-lot).

The work drew neighborhood ire even before the collapse, when residents learned that a number of exterior renovations had not been approved by--or, the Nose later learned, even submitted to--the city Committee for Historical and Architectural Preservation. (The property is located in the Union Square Historic District, which designation necessitates the commission's OK for any exterior work.) But it was the interior modifications--over which the commission has no authority--that really raised concerns. The café was carved out of two rowhouses divided by a load-bearing wall; at issue is whether an attempt was being made to unite the two buildings, perhaps at the expense of the bricks in between. Neighbors didn't know what was up, stressing that building permits were never posted. (A rude sign inviting concerned folks to MIND YOUR OWN F'ING BUSINESS was, according to some residents.)

By law, bar owners must submit drawings of any planned renovations to the city Board of Liquor License Commissioners, better known as the liquor board. On the floor plan filed with the board, the wall dividing the two rowhouses is absent and a single bar snakes between the two buildings. The implication is that the owners were indeed trying to turn the two buildings into one, a tricky proposition requiring careful engineering. (As one angry Sowebo-ite told us, "Any child playing with blocks knows you can't pull out the center of a building and have it stand up.")

The permits issued to the café (in Sapperstein's name) for the interior work by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) call for "cosmetic work only": repairing the floor, painting, and removing "nonstructural partitions." Taylor says the work done at the bar was fully in keeping with those provisions. While acknowledging that workers had "cut an opening through the wall" a month or so prior to the collapse, "no walls had been removed," he says. Taylor also seems a little peeved at all the clamor surrounding his café. "Every time I turned around there was an inspector or somebody hollering at me," he asserts. "But I had the permits."

The preliminary conclusions of an HCD investigation indicate otherwise, says department spokesperson John Wesley. "The removal of a primary, load-bearing wall was a great contributor to the collapse of the structure," Wesley says. "Our initial investigation shows that there was work done for which no permits were currently granted."

Fines can be levied for performing construction work sans proper permits, but of greater financial importance at the moment is the money the city dished out to raze and remove the terminally wounded buildings. Zack Germroth, another HCD spokesperson, says such work usually costs "tens of thousands of dollars." The city will try to recoup these costs from the building's owner, Germroth says, noting that a lien will likely be placed on the property.

Meanwhile, HCD's probe of the collapse has moved from the interior of Nan and Glen's to the interior of the department itself. Germroth says the agency is "looking at what our inspectors did" in assessing the work being done at Hollins and Arlington. "Five different inspectors went out there [between the start of the renovations last year and the collapse], and we're looking at the process."

One person who was raising red flags was JoAnne Whitely, who owned the buildings in their previous incarnations as Gypsy's Café and Tom Thumb's Tavern. Whitely lost the properties in a 1998 foreclosure, but owing to a delay in the updating of city property records, she says, she was listed as the owner until late last year. As a result, some neighbors began complaining to her about the curious renovations. On March 20, she submitted a five-page letter to Shawn Karimian, HCD's director of construction and buildings inspection, detailing what she saw as gross anomalies in the inspection process. Whitely wrote of her concern "that structural problems would develop at the site." In a response Whitely received more than a month later, Karimian essentially assured her that everything was hunky-dory: "All necessary permits have been obtained by the owner." A few weeks later, the café bit the dust.

Whitely says she is "heartsick" about the whole mess. "There is no reason for that building to have collapsed," she says. "How could inspectors have visited the site repeatedly and not seen what was going on?" The Nose is wondering the same thing.

[Donald Stone]

I'm using an "Old school dial up modem"
Thanks !!!!!!

[Donald Stone]

Thanks to all for your suggestions !!!!!!!
The anonymizer site did the trick !!!!!
That's one of the great things about FR, many different solutions available to computer problems in less than 30 minutes.

Thanks again !!!!!
Best Regards,
Donald Stone

[Kaslin]

You're welcome. I use IE and I just pasted the URL in the Address box and clicked Go

[WillaJohns]

Interesting thread you started. Thanks everyone. I learned a lot.