Problems accessing NPN

For some reason I am no longer able to access this site from home. I get "Server not Found" everytime. This started a few days ago; before that I never had any problems. I've tried both Firefox and IE. I've cleared my cookies, cashe, and history. I've even tried disabling my firewall and antivirus as well as restrating the computer a couple times. Nothing works. The odd thing is that I have no problems with any other website except for this one. Right now I'm at work and I have no problems here.

Any ideas?

Tom,

I'm clueless with computers, but i had the same problem a few days ago, and after numerous attempts i got the same thing as you. I was also able to view other sites, except this one.

I tend to enter this site via my toolbar history each time, and had never had any problems before.

I ended up clearing the history, and re-typing 'naturephotographers.net' etc, and all appears to be well now. I am now able to enter this site in my usual way.

Originally i put the problem down to me changing from windows ME to XP {which just happened to coincide with my problem}, but computers are a mystery to me, and that probably has nothing to do with it.

All is well for me now, so hopefully someone else {who understands these things} will have a clue for you.

Alan

Tom, can you access these sites from home?

http://www.travelphotographers.net

http://www.photoportfolios.net

Jim,

I can't connect to those sites either. I just tried it - I can get on my my home computer from work using a program called remote administrator.

Tom, your Internet connection from home isn't reaching our server - there is a "blockage" some where. I would call your ISP and tell them about this as they can determine where the problem is.

I've had the same problem off and on for about a month now. For no reason, I can't connect. It will last for about 12 hours or so and then I can connect.The times I can't connect to NPN, I can connect to every other site I try. The problem has not occured for about the last 7 days. Hopefully whatever the problem was it's gone now.

Same thing happened to me (and Jim Deasy as well) a few days ago. Couldn't get to the site for about 6 hours. It's been fine ever since though.

We get the same thing now and then, but it's not restricted to NPN or TPN. It can even happen when changing pages within a site. Usually pressing the "Try Again" button on Firefox results in a connection. I talked to our ISP, who said it had something to do with speed issues between our slow dialups, fast computers on our desks, and fast access from their servers out onto the web. They also promised that when our new high speed system was installed this winter, all would be resolved.

Those of you with problems wouldn't happen to be on dialups, would you?

If you envision the Internet as a big road map, with all of the roads that must be traveled to get from Point A to Point B, it's easier to visualize - as more and more people use the Internet, the "roads" have to be improved to handle the extra traffic. The "heavy traffic" can occure anywhere between those two ponts to create a delay (the dreaded "server not found" screen). If you know how to conduct a "trace route" you can usually find the bottleneck, though there will be nothing you can do about it.

Also, our server was down twice last week, once for about 6 hours, so that may be part of it too. Still haven't figured out what caused that...

I find that there are times when I cannot seem to connect to a web page. This is not specific to any particular web site. Sometimes I get the dreaded "Server not found" message, sometimes the browser just keeps trying with no results, the flag keep waving or teh circle keeps spinning. What I do is the click on the refresh icon at the top of the browser. This usually clears up the problem. Sometimes I have to do this a couple of times to get the problem cleared. What I figure is happening is similar to what Jim refers to, one of the "roads" used in teh routing of the connection is overloaded. Clicking on the refresh seems to re-issue the link command. When this happens, I think that a new route is chosen and the data can once again flow. Since the Internet is a web of connections, this explaination makes as much sense to me as some of the smoke a mirrors that the IT types like to use.

Fred, a very plausible explanation. I too find that hitting the refresh button will often clear the problem.

Well, I'm back at work now. I have high speed internet at home so it's not dail-up related. I went over to a friends house on the weekend and tried it from there and it didn't work either. We both have the same ISP. I'm going to talk to my ISP and we'll see.

I'm going to talk to my ISP and we'll see.

This is definitely the next step! Be persistent and don't let them hand out excuses or pass the buck. Let us know what you find out.

Try a trace route to NPN. I have had problems access NPN while trveling, and it hangs on Jim's end. Under Windows XP it's:
Run
tracert naturephotographers.net

Hanging may indicate a range of IPs that are blocked by the NPN host company.

I've just received this e-mail from my ISp's tech support:

Hello Tom,

Thank you for your email.

We have confirmed that 2 of our DNS servers are missing entries for this site, which may be due to their changing their information recently and the record not having propagated throughout the system. We have escalated this issue to our server operations team so they can ensure a record will be ready the next time a propagation occurs. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.