Service Unavailable Error

[Dan Murphy]

Its more about the DNS server that your computer is using to find the IP address of the boards. Apparently some DNS servers aren't updating to the current location of the boards. A few things to try:
On your computer switch your DNS to one of the public ones like 8.8.8.8
Also on your computer, try flushing the DNS cache.

Does not sound like a viable/practical fix (if it is a fix) for many/most users here, OKW.

 

[OKW Lover]

Does not sound like a viable/practical fix (if it is a fix) for many/most users here, OKW.

It might not sound like it, but in reality the problem is not with the boards themselves. The problem is with the DNS server that the users ISP uses. Those ISP's aren't updating their DNS servers frequently enough from the master server.

Using the actual numeric ip address (@WebmasterAlex can provide) would circumvent this issue until the users ISP updates their system.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It might not sound like it, but in reality the problem is not with the boards themselves. The problem is with the DNS server that the users ISP uses. Those ISP's aren't updating their DNS servers frequently enough from the master server.

Using the actual numeric ip address (@WebmasterAlex can provide) would circumvent this issue until the users ISP updates their system.

I think we have figured out it's not the DIS themselves but it is something on their end not something the user on our end can work to fix. In other words it's not us that are causing the issue.

As Alex has talked about in subsequent updates it's something they are investigating with their DNS provider.

 

[SirDuff]

This doesn't sound like a cookie issue. Its also not about the boards specifically. Its more about the DNS server that your computer is using to find the IP address of the boards. Apparently some DNS servers aren't updating to the current location of the boards. A few things to try:
On your computer switch your DNS to one of the public ones like 8.8.8.8
Also on your computer, try flushing the DNS cache.

Also, perhaps Alex can post the public IP address for the board. Entering that into the URL field of any browser would take you directly to the DIS without the need for a DNS lookup.

Given the number of DNS servers that must be affected, it seems more likely (as Alex suggested) that the issue isn't with the DNS servers that our computers are using, but rather the DNS servers that the board is using.

 

[Dan Murphy]

It might not sound like it, but in reality the problem is not with the boards themselves. The problem is with the DNS server that the users ISP uses. Those ISP's aren't updating their DNS servers frequently enough from the master server.

Using the actual numeric ip address (@WebmasterAlex can provide) would circumvent this issue until the users ISP updates their system.

I was mostly referring to that most users here are not going to do anything beyond clicking on a link as has been done in the past. If a link does not work, most will go elsewhere and not attempt to do a work around.

 

[DonMacGregor]

It might not sound like it, but in reality the problem is not with the boards themselves. The problem is with the DNS server that the users ISP uses. Those ISP's aren't updating their DNS servers frequently enough from the master server.

Using the actual numeric ip address (@WebmasterAlex can provide) would circumvent this issue until the users ISP updates their system.

See Alex's post above:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/service-unavailable-error.3888714/post-64150809

So I think we may have an answer here. We do our DNS through a very respected old time company, they have been doing it since the beginning of the internet. Obviously I had contacted them when all this started and they assured me they checked and everything was fine. It must be other people's servers not updating. I contacted them today and was informed that "some people appear to be having similar issues" and that their engineering team will investigate. I will let you know when I get more details.

And:

I will follow up with them tomorrow and eventually move DNS to somewhere else. Trying to do it now would just make things worse I suspect

 

[sam_gordon]

This doesn't sound like a cookie issue. Its also not about the boards specifically. Its more about the DNS server that your computer is using to find the IP address of the boards. Apparently some DNS servers aren't updating to the current location of the boards. A few things to try:
On your computer switch your DNS to one of the public ones like 8.8.8.8
Also on your computer, try flushing the DNS cache.

Also, perhaps Alex can post the public IP address for the board. Entering that into the URL field of any browser would take you directly to the DIS without the need for a DNS lookup.

Not everyone has access to their DNS settings. FWIW, when the board was "down", I ran a ping for disboards of 108.75.xx.xxx (I don't remember the last two octets. With the board "up", I ran a ping and got 108.61.75.210 (both IPs gave me responses). When I put the latter into a web browser, I still get an error message ("the page didn't send any data").

I do think this has been going on long enough and I demand my money back!

 

[Chuck S]

I've been a little worried about that, too. R/T attracts a lot of newbies.

Error is still happening to me. Was out from about 3 pm central last night (7/13) until at least 10 pm when I gave up and went to bed. Hoping this did not affect @Chuck S . R/T has been fairly busy lately. Hope solution can be found soon.

Yes, I've been getting the error, too.

 

[leebee]

Yup, doesn't matter what computer or browser I use. It's frustrating, only because I like reading stuff here. We've had server issues before that have been rectified, and I'm sure the good DISfolk will work this out.

 

[klmall]

I had no trouble on Chrome for hours yesterday and again for earlier today until right in the middle of trying to send a message. But I copied my unsent message and pasted it into Firefox and it worked perfectly.

Being patient is getting tiresome.............

 

[DLgal]

What what it's worth, I think this may be a "cookie" issue.
I refreshed my browser this morning after leaving it last night and received the "unavailable" error.
So, then I launched a new "incognito" browser and navigated to Disboards. The site came up perfectly fine. I went back to my main browser and refreshed to an "unavailable" page.
I then cleared my cookies and cache on the main browser. The site was available again.

I have a feeling like there may be a date/time stamp may be being written to a cookie and it's not being updated again after some time causing the error.
If it was just me, I would say that it's my browser/computer causing this cookie corruption.
Since it's more wide spread, it may be the site code. Were there any updates recently?

It's not that.

 

[Dave006]

I'm wondering if it's a problem with 1 or 2 services having a stuck DNS server. Unfortunately we have no control over that.

I am seeing the issue with multiple DNS servers.

Cloudflare - 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
Google - 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Both result in resolving to Address: 108.61.75.210 correctly but often multiple times per day the HTTP server is not happy. Error message is Http/1.1 Service Unavailable.

Your other web site https://www.wdwinfo.com works fine.

It does not look like a poisoned DNS update the is failing every few hours since the IP is correct? What DNS server are you using on your end?

ETA: fix .21 to .210

Dave

 

[Wells Larsen]

It's not that.

Yea, I dunno man. clearing cookies/cache has worked for me 3 times today.

 

[Dave006]

It might not sound like it, but in reality the problem is not with the boards themselves. The problem is with the DNS server that the users ISP uses. Those ISP's aren't updating their DNS servers frequently enough from the master server.

Actually there are major DNS Anycast servers that resolve to the correct IP address but still receive the error message. It is not a Cloudfair or Google DNS issue with an expired DNS record being stuck.

Http/1.1 Service Unavailable

The source of the error is from the DNS server hosting the records for disboards.com forcing a DNS cache expiration issue multiple times per day.

Dave

 

[DLgal]

Yea, I dunno man. clearing cookies/cache has worked for me 3 times today.

It had never worked for me. What is happening for you is simply a new attempt to ping the server, and it's connecting to the correct one this time.

 

[Wells Larsen]

It had never worked for me. What is happening for you is simply a new attempt to ping the server, and it's connecting to the correct one this time.

Possibly, but neither a refresh nor a ctrl refresh has ever fixed it. It only gets fixed via an incognito browser or by emptying my cache/cookies.
I guess I can simply try a dnsflush next time it happens.
I do hardcode Google DNS at my edge router.

 

[Genie+]

Just had the problem again. Tried private browser, didn’t help.

Changed from the 5G wifi setting to regular, tried again and got in.

Have no idea if it was just timing or what.

 

[DLgal]

Just had the problem again. Tried private browser, didn’t help.

Changed from the 5G wifi setting to regular, tried again and got in.

Have no idea if it was just timing or what.

Yeah, this trick consistently works for me now, and I can't even pretend to know why. I even leave the same browser tab open with the error message showing and simply refresh after switching the connection and it works every time.

 

[sam_gordon]

I don't think it's totally DNS issue. I had the problem tonight, ran a ping to Disboards, and it returned 108.61.75.210.

I reboot, I can get to Dis, run a ping again and it returns the same IP address. If it was getting a bad DNS, shouldn't the IP address it's trying to go to change?

 

[Wells Larsen]

I don't think it's totally DNS issue. I had the problem tonight, ran a ping to Disboards, and it returned 108.61.75.210.

I reboot, I can get to Dis, run a ping again and it returns the same IP address. If it was getting a bad DNS, shouldn't the IP address it's trying to go to change?

No, the IP Address of the site would not change. It would not change even in the case the site was load balanced. There would be a single Virtual IP (VIP) that would be 108.61.75.210 (and then two private IP's behind it, one for each of the servers)

What "could" be occurring is one of the DNS Servers is intermittently responding, responding incorrectly, or maybe has a corrupt cache. Something like that.

There are two authoritative DNS Servers answering for disboards.com
They are ns87.worldnic.com (162.159.26.131) and ns88.worldnic.com (162.159.27.117).
It is unclear to me how they are load balanced (perhaps round robin, perhaps via some other rotating scheme).
If one of those DNS Servers is (likely) having issues (assuming what others have said on this thread is true), ideally the other DNS Server would respond. That doesn't always happen like it is supposed to though.

My instance where I can get it to work by clearing my cache and cookies, is probably not related to my cache and cookies. What is probably happening in my case is that I'm (inadvertently) forcing a new/fresh DNS request.

So, long story short, if it is actually the case where a DNS Server is not acting correctly the thing to do on the user side (until it's fixed correctly) is to force a fresh new DNS lookup locally.
That means clearing your local DNS Caches and/or switching your network to some other network (5G, etc).
The Time to Live (TTL) for the CloudFlare DNS cache is 7200 seconds (2 hours). So, I guess the alternative is that you could just wait until the 2 hours is up.

I do see that the primary DNS servers is ns87.worldnic.com (162.159.26.131)