What should I do if I think my site is down?

Web sites and/or the servers on which they reside do occasionally go down. Acme Internet runs monitoring software that alerts us at the first sign that one of our web servers is not responding, and a network engineer is immediately dispatched to investigate the problem.

However, if you notice that you cannot access your site, here are some simple steps you should perform before contacting support to report an outage:

1. Define the nature of the problem.
   Can you view your site with a browser? Is the problem limited to uploading or publishing your web site, accessing email or only a certain service of your web site?  What error messages are you getting?  This info will help Acme support more effectively assist you with the problem.
    

2. Check Acme's Network Notices page
   Any known outages or system maintenance notices will be posted there.
    

3. Take a quick inventory of what has changed.
   Jot down a quick list of anything that might have changed on your PC or your local network since you were last able to successfully access your site. 
    

4. Check your domain status via WHOIS
   Look up your domain at Network Solutions or via our domain lookup utility.  Are Acme Internet's DNS Servers listed on your domain record?  You should see NS.ACMEINFO.COM and NS2.ACMEINFO.COM listed as your DNS Servers.  If not, and you are a new customer, your domain transfer is still in process.
    

5. Check the last date your domain record was updated
   Oops.  Are you close to your annual domain registration renewal date?  If your domain record was recently updated (look for the "last updated" line of the record and check the date), it is possible that your domain is on hold for an outstanding annual renewal payment.  You will need to contact your domain registrar to determine if there is an outstanding annual renewal fee due for your domain name. (Approx. $35/year depending upon the registrar).
    

6. Ping your web site address
   "Pinging" sends a request to a remote web server (such as the one where your web site resides) and listens for a reply.  See below for instructions on how to "ping" your site.  Send your "ping" results to support@acmeinternet.com
    

7. Traceroute to your web site
   Like using the ping command, a "traceroute" sends a request to your web site and listens for a reply.  A traceroute will track every step necessary to connect from your computer to your web site. It will give you a list of all the ISP routers and IP addresses that your request travels through to access your web site.  It can help determine if your web site is down, or the problem is a router or connection somewhere on the Internet between you and your web site.  See below for instructions on how to "traceroute" to your site.  Send your "traceroute" results to support@acmeinternet.com
    

8. Are your behind a Proxy Server or Firewall?
   Check with your company's network administrator to see if you are connecting to the Internet through a proxy server or firewall.  If so, Acme support will need this information to assist you and more quickly identify the problem you are experiencing.
    

9. Have you recently transferred your domain name to Acme?
   Make sure that your old ISP has completely disabled your old web hosting account and removed your domain from their DNS records.  If your old ISP has not removed your account, you may not be able to access your new account.  Also try dumping your web browser's cache and rebooting your computer.
    

10. Send us your error messages and traceroute results
    You can submit a trouble ticket and receive an incident tracking number via our Online Help Desk

WHAT ERROR MESSAGE ARE YOU GETTING?

Error Message: "The server does not have a DNS entry" (Netscape) or "A connection with the server could not be established" (Internet Explorer)

Explanation: The domain name is not being resolved.

Possible reasons:

• Your domain name registration has not been completed by the InterNIC.

• Your domain name has been registered, but the name has not propagated through the main root servers on the Internet. Wait 24-72 hours and your domain should then be working.

• Your computer has lost the connection to your Internet Service Provider. Make sure your are connected to your ISP.

• You are connected to your ISP, but there is a problem with their DNS servers. If you cannot reach many sites this is probably the problem.
  You are connected to your ISP but there is a routing problem somewhere between you and us. Tips on how to diagnose this are below.

Error Message: "There was no response. The server could be down or not responding" (Netscape) or "A connection with the server could not be established" (Internet Explorer)

Explanation: No connection could be made to the server.

Possible reasons:

• You are not connected to your Internet Service Provider. Check your connection to your ISP.

• You are connected to your Internet Service Provider but there is a routing problem somewhere between you and us. Tips on how to diagnose this are below.

• The web server could be down. Check our network notices page.

• Your individual web site could be down. This can happen on a Microsoft® FrontPage® enabled web sites if your connection to the web server did not terminate properly after publishing to your web site. This can also happen if an error occurs while publishing with Visual Interdev.

HOW TO USE PING TO DETERMINE THE IP ADDRESS OF YOUR WEB SITE

Use the "ping" command that is available in Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT. This allows you to ping your web site and receive a reply that includes the IP address of your site.

1. In Windows, click on the START button

2. Click PROGRAMS

3. Locate and Click on MS-DOS prompt (or COMMAND PROMPT depending upon your version of Windows)

4. Type the following command at the prompt:
   
   ping www.yourwebsite.com
   

5. Send the results of your ping to Acme Support

Here's an example of a successful ping to www.acmeinternet.com:

C:\>ping www.acmeinternet.com

Pinging www.acmeinternet.com [38.152.102.2] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 38.152.102.2: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=126
Reply from 38.152.102.2: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=126
Reply from 38.152.102.2: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=126
Reply from 38.152.102.2: bytes=32 time=10ms TTL=126

Ping statistics for 38.152.102.2:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 10ms, Average = 7ms

HOW TO DIAGNOSE A ROUTING PROBLEM USING TRACERT

Use the "tracert" command that is available in Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT. This allows you to trace the route over the internet from you to Acme.

1. In Windows, click on the START button

2. Click PROGRAMS

3. Locate and Click on MS-DOS prompt (or COMMAND PROMPT depending upon your version of Windows)

4. Type the following command at the prompt:
   
   tracert www.yourwebsite.com
   

Here's an example of a successful tracert to www.acmeinternet.com:

C:\>tracert www.acmeinternet.com

Translating "www.acmeinternet.com"...domain server (38.152.102.2) [OK]
Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to kirk.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.2)
1 iad1-core2-fa5-0-0.atlas.digex.net (165.117.129.2) 4 msec 4 msec 0 msec
2 dca5-core2-s5-0-0.atlas.digex.net (165.117.53.41) 4 msec 4 msec 0 msec
3 207.238.38.118 4 msec 24 msec 12 msec
4 38.1.2.47 [AS 174] 104 msec 80 msec 89 msec
5 38.1.26.35 [AS 174] 152 msec 48 msec 48 msec
6 minneapolis-mn.nc.us.psi.net (38.1.46.170) [AS 174] 68 msec 72 msec 72 msec
7 router.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.1) [AS 174] 72 msec 68 msec 72 msec
8 kirk.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.2) [AS 174] 76 msec 72 msec 76 msec

If there is a routing problem on the Internet that is beyond the control of you or us, you might see results like this:

traceroute to www.acmeinternet.com (38.152.102.2)
1 kirk.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.2) 3 ms 3 ms 2 ms
2 router.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.1) 4 ms 9 ms 9 ms
3 minneapolis-mn.nc.us.psi.net (38.1.46.170) 104 ms 100 ms 89 ms
4 209.8.159.41 (209.8.159.41) 102 ms 105 ms 91 ms
5 hssi6-0.chi.sprintlink.net (209.8.159.25) 91 ms * 88 ms
6 * * *
7 * * *
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * * (etc... repeated many times)

Results such as above could indicate excessive Internet traffic at an exchange point, a routing problem, a fiber cut, or some other severed link between you and us.  You'll notice that the tracert stops before it reaches Acme's network.  In this case, the connection failed just beyond Sprintlink in Chicago (hssi6-0.chi.sprintlink.net).

• If the problem appears to be somewhere between us and you, unfortunately there's probably not much either of us can do about it other than to wait for it to clear up.

• If the problem appears to be with your ISP's network, you may want to notify them of the condition so that they can take corrective measures.

• If the problem is within our network and involves connectivity to all of our web servers, we most likely already know about it because of our network and connectivity monitoring systems.

• If the problem appears to be just your web site (and Acme's site, other sites hosted by Acme and/or other sites on the Internet are reachable), you may need to contact us to restart your individual virtual web.