Folding Forum inaccessible

[derrickmcc]

I continue to have problems accessing the Folding Forum,
see http://folding.typepad.com/news/2012/02 ... -site.html:

February 23, 2012
Folding Community Forum site
The FCF site has had some DNS changes and you may not be able to reach it from its normal url (http://foldingforum.org/). If not, please try this one temporarily: http://m202.sgded.com/~folding1/

I have had to use the temporary link, then when I log in I automatically get redirected to http://results.ispconnect.co.uk/main?In ... entation=0
I have to be quick and after login click on Board Index to be able to browse the forum or post.

[7im]

The DNS in your PC, internet router, or ISP's router hasn't updated yet. I had the same problem at work. I worked around this with ipconfig /flushdns, and by adding a 3rd DNS address to my IP settings. I used an address from OpenDNS, but there are several options out there.

[Jesse_V]

I continue to have the same issues since the 23rd of February. I can access the forum directly about 60% of the time (rough estimate) so I sometimes have to use that redirect. I've emailed Dr. Pande about it, and he replied back that he had forwarded the info to the people responsible.
I'm on Utah State University's network, and here is some info from them:

This is a problem with foldingforum.org's DNS provider. They aren't
allowing us to look them up:

esk@kibbles:~$ host -t ns foldingforum.org
foldingforum.org name server ns1.sgded.com.
foldingforum.org name server ns2.sgded.com.
esk@kibbles:~$ host foldingforum.org ns1.sgded.com
Using domain server:
Name: ns1.sgded.com
Address: 70.84.112.90#53
Aliases:

Host foldingforum.org.usu.edu not found: 5(REFUSED)
esk@kibbles:~$ host foldingforum.org ns2.sgded.com
Using domain server:
Name: ns2.sgded.com
Address: 184.154.160.107#53
Aliases:

Host foldingforum.org.usu.edu not found: 5(REFUSED)
esk@kibbles:~$

As 7im said, there are a number of workarounds. I was told to use Google Public DNS. I hope the issue is resolved wherever it is.

[Joe_H]

Yeah, it really depends on which DNS is being used. At home on Verizon DSL I have seen no issues at all accessing the forum. However at work it has alternated. Some days I have to use the alternate address, other times the normal address has worked just fine.

[codysluder]

I had trouble again last night.

There are two authoritative DNS severs associated with foldingforum.org. Does anybody know how to check if they're giving out conflicting information, thereby causing world-wide DNS severs to constantly fix and reintroduce the same problem?

[goodyca]

I had the same problem. Clearing my browser cache resolved it.

[DrSpalding]

I just had to put

Code: Select all

99.198.108.202 foldingforum.org

into my hosts file because both my default DNS from my ISP and OpenDNS did not resolve it. Initially, OpenDNS (208.67.222.222) did have it and I thought, oh goody, my ISP's servers are crap. After a few minutes of digging around though, I tried using the sgded name server to look up foldingforum.org too in nslookup. This is the result:

Code: Select all

> server ns1.sgded.com
Default Server:  ns1.sgded.com
Address:  70.84.112.90

> foldingforum.org
Server:  ns1.sgded.com
Address:  70.84.112.90

*** ns1.sgded.com can't find foldingforum.org: Query refused
> server ns2.sgded.com
Default Server:  ns2.sgded.com
Address:  184.154.160.107

> foldingforum.org
Server:  ns2.sgded.com
Address:  184.154.160.107

*** ns2.sgded.com can't find foldingforum.org: Query refused

At that point, the OpenDNS server also was evidently updated with data that did not include foldingforum.org again. Hence, I put the name mapping into my own hosts file until such time that the DNS on SGDED.COM is worked out properly. It does appear to me that the SGDED name server is not always sending out the foldingforum.org information properly. Or perhaps it doesn't let non-SGDED addresses access it as a name server, I don't know. I do know that both sets of DNS servers I would use told me that they didn't know anything about foldingforum.org, one of them just a few moments after it *did* know about it. That sounds to me like bogus or conflicting data, or simply that SGDED.COM is properly updating DNS data that sometimes doesn't contain foldingforum.org.

[k1wi]

I haven't had a problem with accessibility, but I had noticed a drop in posts, over the past little while.

[uncle_fungus]

Ok, there clearly is a problem going on here which I'll raise again with our hosting provider.

The DNS record has the nameservers listed as

Code: Select all

host -t ns foldingforum.org
foldingforum.org name server ns2.sgded.com.
foldingforum.org name server ns1.sgded.com.

However the nameservers are actually ns1.m202.sgded.com and ns2.m202.sgded.com

Code: Select all

dig a foldingforum.org @ns1.m202.sgded.com

; <<>> DiG 9.7.1-P2 <<>> a foldingforum.org @ns1.m202.sgded.com which are giving out the correct addresses.
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1714
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;foldingforum.org.		IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
foldingforum.org.	14400	IN	A	99.198.108.202

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
foldingforum.org.	86400	IN	NS	ns2.sgded.com.
foldingforum.org.	86400	IN	NS	ns1.sgded.com.

;; Query time: 200 msec
;; SERVER: 99.198.108.202#53(99.198.108.202)
;; WHEN: Mon Mar  5 09:53:52 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 95

Code: Select all

dig a foldingforum.org @ns2.m202.sgded.com

; <<>> DiG 9.7.1-P2 <<>> a foldingforum.org @ns2.m202.sgded.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10138
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;foldingforum.org.		IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
foldingforum.org.	14400	IN	A	99.198.108.202

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
foldingforum.org.	86400	IN	NS	ns2.sgded.com.
foldingforum.org.	86400	IN	NS	ns1.sgded.com.

;; Query time: 200 msec
;; SERVER: 99.198.108.203#53(99.198.108.203)
;; WHEN: Mon Mar  5 09:54:29 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 95

When the DNS resolution is failing, what address does the domain resolve to?

Edit 2012-03-05 1006UTC: We've updated the DNS entry again to correct the nameserver issue, so lets see if that fixes the problem (again, global DNS propagation needs to happen).

[bruce]

The last several times it failed for me, the domain name was unknown and didn't resolve to any address.
. . . probably the same as DrSpalding's
*** ns1.sgded.com can't find foldingforum.org: Query refused

[DrSpalding]

This morning, it looks a little better to me, as I can get to the SOA records via my DNS:

Code: Select all

Server:  UnKnown
Address:  192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
foldingforum.org
	primary name server = ns1.sgded.com
	responsible mail addr = dnsadmin.hotspare1.sgded.com
	serial  = 2012022307
	refresh = 86400 (1 day)
	retry   = 7200 (2 hours)
	expire  = 3600000 (41 days 16 hours)
	default TTL = 86400 (1 day)

foldingforum.org	nameserver = ns2.m202.sgded.com
foldingforum.org	nameserver = ns1.m202.sgded.com
ns1.m202.sgded.com	internet address = 99.198.108.202
ns2.m202.sgded.com	internet address = 99.198.108.203

My DNS server is actually 24.143.124.6, as my router acts as a DNS proxy. If I ask the newly corrected authoritative nameserver ns2.m202.sgded.com about foldingforum.org, it responds mostly correctly with the authoritative info and it all looks way better now. I'll comment out my hosts file entry for foldingforum.org and see how it goes.

The info still shows ns1.sgded.com as a primary name server and I think that is still causing issues however. OpenDNS's servers can't reliably get SOA/CNAME/PTR records while my DNS can currently do so.

[uncle_fungus]

The info still shows ns1.sgded.com as a primary name server and I think that is still causing issues however. OpenDNS's servers can't reliably get SOA/CNAME/PTR records while my DNS can currently do so.

I've fixed the SOA record now too, so I think everything in the DNS record is now correct (or least correct enough that the problem is no longer on the server end).

[Joe_H]

Seems to be working here, I can now access the forum from work at "foldingforum.org". Before Monday it sometimes worked, and other times I had to use the alternate address.

[GreyWhiskers]

Strange. I have two computers sitting right next to each other - both connected to the same router, then to the same Comcast cable modem. This morning my Win XP system using Chrome seems to always be able to contact the forum, while my Win 7 box running IE9 gets the "Default Website Page". "If you feel you have reached this page in error, please contact the web site owner".

As a workaround, I successfully used the temporary URL below on the Win7 box.

February 23, 2012
Folding Community Forum site
The FCF site has had some DNS changes and you may not be able to reach it from its normal url (http://foldingforum.org/). If not, please try this one temporarily: http://m202.sgded.com/~folding1/

[uncle_fungus]

Clear your cache and run ipconfig /flushdns and that should resolve the problem.