Am I alone in being unable to browse LQ late last night and all day today?
My browser seems to resolve the site/IP address, but then when it normally would say '..transferring data from LQ..' it instead says '..waiting for LQ.' which it continues to do, loading and loading and loading until I stop it.

I didn't post this in Feedback & Suggestions because I have seen this happen once before, many months ago with another website I had been visiting regularly, and it turned out to be a DNS server issue unrelated to the site itself.
Also, I wouldn't put it past my cheap, slow, rural dial-up ISP to be screwing around with our service, because we're connected to the net all the time, and maybe they're blocking access to LQ from here to try to make me disconnect for a while .

Curiously, I am browsing LQ at this moment through a free proxy service, and it is all working just fine so I'm a tad baffled .

SVA

I've been in and out of here all day, GrapefruiTgirl... no slowdowns for me.

Well, using this proxy, it's fast as ever and working fine. But if I try to open LQ in an adjacent tab, without the proxy, it just hangs there, loading eternally.. loading.. loading.. never gets loaded.
Damn..
I'll be contacting the ISP if this keeps up through tomorrow

I had trouble submitting a reply yesterday morning (I gave up after two failed attempts) but it seems to be working now.


sleepy

Obviously LQ isn't the source of the issue as I am 'here' right now (via a proxy, mind you) and it isn't a firewall issue. I can browse anything else I like, no problem.
Messenger programs work fine too.

Anyhow, I just emailed the ISP (their live chat service only supports I.Eeek.) and their 'Login to your account' page doesn't work lol. Hope I can report something conclusive later today..

Well.. Here's the deal:
My ISP isn't the issue, and neither is LQ. The problem seems to have to do with a DNS server or network switch or something, located in New York. Where are LQ's servers anyways? I didn't think they were in/around N.Y. but..

Anyway, the ISP requested I do traceroute & ping to LQ, which I did. After 18 successful hops from me to Montreal, Ontario, Chicago, and New York, the trail goes dead -- in New York, as follows:.. and ping also fails from here.
Any ideas anyone? Is this an issue beyond my/our/your control?
Anyone in/around N.Y having troubles? Hmmmm...

MODS - If this would now be more appropriate in another forum, feel free...
Thanks.

Buffalo, New York I believe, there have been times when I have had some slow downs/no connection to LQ but not often.
Better than I usually get from my useless ISP I even had to change nameservers in my router because they have the most god awful ones I have ever used.

I'm trying to locate some more nameservers to add to my list, besides the two of my ISP. Can I do this?
And ultimately, will it help? Seems I need to use one somewhere off the normal beaten path from me to LQ.

I use the www.opendns.org nameservers they are definitely much faster on my connection, though the nameservers will not help much with a broken/mis-configured router between you and LQ that is not what they do they just give you the IP not the route to it.

I got sick and tired waiting for my ISP's nameserver to respond, too. I'm using a tiny program dnscache now, running in my router it sends out queries in its own and also caches them. Works like a dream.

Thanks Happy-Tux ( Hello N.S. ) & Emerson -- I'll check into what both of you said.
I don't actually have a hardware router set up right now anyways, so nothing's misconfigured here at my end. It's somewhere in N.Y. where I cannot seem to get through. I just want to maybe add something as another backup to my nameservers file, so maybe my machine will take a route like a --> C --> B instead of the usual a --> b .
Update later --P.S. I did another traceroute, and got 3 hops further, to Buffalo, but still didn't quite make it to LQ!

Weird. I have had no problems whether going directly to my ISP and then to LQ or going (via VPN) through Germany to LQ. I have moved this to LQ S&F as Jeremy may need to do some checks.

Periodically I have the same issue here in Aus. Never bothered with a traceroute.
Cancel and refresh usually fixes things - sometimes takes a couple of goes.

Adding name servers will not correct your issue, since the site is resolving fine for you. It looks like a (probably transient) issue in the cloud somewhere between your ISP and our uplink. If it persists, let me know.

--jeremy

Thank you for that input Jeremy, though I wouldn't 'exactly' say it's resolving 'fine' -- the I.P. resolves, but I'm still using a proxy right now to actually reach the site with a browser, and traceroute is still failing. I do agree with your 'cloud' theory though, and will let you guys know one way or the other, if the problem persists or resolves itself (no pun intended) on its own.

Thanks again for this, and for a continuing job well done re: LQ

Sasha V.

EDIT:: I just tried again -- and for the first time in 2.5 days, I have actually got here without the proxy. The cloud/ether-fog has apparently lifted.
Woohoo!!