Server Down

[Ratty]

Server is down 11:02 today....??

Same for:
www.baseballandsoftball.co.uk
and
www.totnesnappycompany.co.uk

checkout leads to error page.

Wonder how many (or all) express sites this effects

Hope it goes back up soon - my customers are ringing to complain

[Ratty]

Back at 11:18

[Ratty]

And down again 9:45 this morning (26/2).
Hope its back soon as I'm losing customers

[wjcampbe]

You sure it's down and not just a DNS problem on your PC/ISP?

I can access all three URI at 09:54 your time.

[Ratty]

Hi
Seems its only mine down this time. I know its not a unique-to-me problem as I only found out as a customer rang to complain he couldn't get on. But since then I have spoiken to another customer who was reading from the site...so I don't know know how wide the outage is. Its not an ISP problem, but being a computer know-little I don't know what it is exactly......

[cdicken]

Hi there

From what we can tell, its a DNS issue with a few ISP's and the Express system is up and running fine. We'll keep you posted for any further developments.

[Ratty]

Hi
I hope it gets sorted soon though as:
a) Noone can place an order
and more importantly
b) I cannot process Saturday & Sundays orders and we promise next day delivery.....
!!

[Ratty]

Any idea how long this will take to fix?
Hours?
Days?

[wjcampbe]

You could try flushing the DNS on your PC.

If that does not help, find and try a traceroute programme to establish where your connection attempts are getting lost.

Here is a somewhat simplified explanation of what is going wrong, to help you understand it.

Your website has a name and a number - a bit like your postal address. The Computer only understands the number bit. So you say - I want this letter to go to mysite, and the Computer goes to Postman who knows all the postcodes and says - what's the postcode for this name. Postman looks it up and says its 123.4.56.789 - computer says thanks and goes off to find a street that leads to that number.

But the Postman changes shift every few hours - and he gets a new set of postcodes every few minutes - and sometimes the new Postman can't find the number for mysite because that card got dropped when he was handed the new numbers. Result - no connection.

Meanwhile Computer 2 asks the same question, and connects to a different Postman who does know the number - result - connection.

Your ISP (the one who provides your connection to the internet) usually controls which DNS servers (Postmen) get asked by your Computer, and how often the Postmen receive the new postcodes.

Your website provider (the computer your website sits on) sends out the same card with your name and number on it over and over, and allows any Postman to take the card.

To fix the problem, you need to find out where the card is being dropped.

[Ratty]

Thanks Bill!
I wish you were just the other side of my desk!
Luckily we are back up & running (hopefully not "until the next time"!)
cheers

[wjcampbe]

I wish you were just the other side of my desk!
I'm actually ON your desk now - unless you've moved your PC :D

[julesmail67]

Hi,

I also have no access to either my management/ or shop site today @16:46.

Just awaiting the phone calls as well!

Bit shame as i need to update my shop products.
(For "bit shame" read - "pain in the ....")

Jules

[Ratty]

Did it sort itself out yet mate?

[Ratty]

Down again 17:00 with this error message:

There was an error initialising Actinic Express. Support have been notified, please check back soon

as is
http://www.baseballandsoftball.co.uk/

[pinbrook]

17.12 I can see http://www.baseballandsoftball.co.uk/

[Darren B]

Down again 17:00 with this error message:

May i suggest you make sure it is a server issue first, many things cause problems when accessing websites, it does not always mean a server is down

have a look at monitoring software, that actually ckecks sites, not just url's but IP's, names servers e.t.c it will help you pinpoint where the fault might be.

Darren

[Ratty]

I was back again 17:13

[Ratty]

I take your point Darren, and thank you - but it was Actinic's own error message that threw me...

[Ratty]

at 2:30 GMT...:mad:

[Darren B]

It seems fine to me

Mind i notice that it is almost 18 months since previous problems, i personally would not be unhappy with this sort of uptime

[Ratty]

I only notice it when one of my customers rings up cos they cant get through on the site......wonder how many dont bother and shop elsewhere.....and consequently how often its down without me knowing

[Darren B]

That is always a problem, i agree its a PITA when it does happen. But are seriously telling me you answered the phone at 2,30 this morning.

Please noooo its not worth it :D