Problem accessing one of my sites!

[introdor]

Hi

I have a very strange problem with one of my sites and I really hope someone is able to shed some light on this for me!

Quite often the site "goes down". I can't access it. Now up until yesterday I always thought that this was a global problem, i.e. that no one was able to access the site. However yesterday my wife and a friend both confirmed they were able to access the site without any problem from their work machines. At the same time, I couldn't.

Since then, a few more people have also said the site was fine. So it looks that the problem is actually just me, and has always been just me!

Anyway, the last few times the site has come back "online" for me, has been approximately 5pm local time, which is 1pm GMT. I have no idea if the timing is significant but thought I'd better mention it.

Since yesterday I have spoken to the guy who hosts the site for me and whilst I couldn't access my site I was able to access other sites that he stated are on the same server. So it looks like the server isn't blocking me.

He asked me do do a "tracert" command on the server's IP address and all seemed fine, although it took 21 hops to return.

Like I said above, the site came back "online" for me yesterday at 5pm again. And I was able to work on it until I went to bed. Now I get up this morning and it's "down", but again it looks like it's just for me. Other people are getting into it as normal.

Does anyone have any ideas? Perhaps it's a local setting on my machine I don't know about? But if it were, why doesn't it effect other sites and not just this one?

The site is a WordPress blog. Another theory, does anyone think there could be a setting or a plugin that could be causing this? Then again, if it were, wouldn't this mean no one could get in the site? Just thinking aloud here!

Becasue I always thought it was a global problem I thought it was a hosting issue and was going to transfer the site, but that doesn't appear to be the problem now and I am at a complete loss as to what is causing this site to "go down" for me all the time. I'm desperately trying to work on this site too at the moment so it's really frustrating not being able to access it.

Oh, something else I've just thought of... Sometimes when the site is down for me I am unable to send or receive emails from the domain, which I suppose would make sense. However, other times like now, the site is down for me but I can send and receive emails! What's that all about?

When it is down, it is down on different broswers too. I have IE, FireFox, Opera and Safari windows. I thought it might have been a browser setting but it doesn't work on any. Unless of course there is a setting on all of them that's the problem, but why would it only effect this one site?!!

I'm running Vista (unfortunately ) but again if something in this was causing the problem, why / how just on this one site?

As you can see this is a very strange and perplexing problem and I would so appreciate it if anyone knows what the problem could be and how to fix it.

Many thanks for your help
Rik

PS some of you reading this may have read a post I made yesterday regarding a problem I have with categories in Wordpress, it is the same site that has both these problems! Don't think they are connected, but thought best to mention it.

[introdor]

Update:

When the site is "down" for me (as it is at the moment) and I try to access the site using FTP (FileZilla) I get the following:

Status: Resolving IP-Address for thesoccer-blog.com
Error: Invalid hostname or host not found
Error: Critical error
Error: Could not connect to server

Also, at the moment, I am able to send and receive email on this domain. Do not understand that! If it is apparently an "Invalid host or host not found" how is it sending and receiving emails on it?

Plus, the hostname is correct, I know that for a fact!

Many thanks!

[lin robinson]

That's just the ftp program's way of saying the site is down. If the server isn't up and working, nothing will work. If you try to access your mail, you'll get different returns from Outlook or whatever, but they mean the same thing: "Doesn't seem to be anybody there."

[introdor]

Hi Lin

Actually the server is apparently still "up" whilst I'm trying to access this site. I have spoken to the hosting whilst I have been unable to access my site but the server is ok and I have been able to access other sites that are on the same server. So it doesn't appear to be the server. I always thought it was, but looks like I was wrong. That's one of the really strange things about all this!

Plus quite often when the site is "down" for me other people can access it and I can send and received email on my accounts on that same domain! It's all very strange!

Cheers
Rik

[TWD-Tony]

It sounds like a DNS problem to me

[bumfluff]

Possibly ISP issues? 5pm is when people start getting home from work and bandwidth useage increases.. maybe your ISP isn't coping too well with the increased load?

[introdor]

Hi bumfluff

I think ISP is the most likely the problem, don't know what exactly what but not sure that the 5pm thing is the issue as it's 5pm here in Mauritius which is 1pm GMT and 8am EST.

Cheers
Rik

[bumfluff]

Maybe it's worth giving them (the ISP) a call and see what they have to say about it?

[Brian Turner]

It does sound like a DNS issue - double check your nameservers and DNS info if you have access to it.

[introdor]

Hi

As far as the ISP is concerned and as far as I can tell from the named servers etc, everything seems to be fine, that's why it's such a mystery!

Still don't know what causing the problem with this one site.

Cheers
Rik