Here's an odd one

[BobT]

My daughter has been taking an online college course through her high school. She has been working from home and from the school PC's throughout this past school year. On Saturday she tried to open the HSOforum from home to do some work and got a response that the site was not available. Since we were able to browse other sites without any problem I told her that their HSOforum must be down or something and she’d have to try again later.

Yesterday, she worked on the site during school hours using the school system’s PC. No problems. Yesterday evening she tried to open the site from home and again got the message that the site was unavailable. We were able to browse to other sites on the web without any trouble. We also have two mini laptops that gave us the same problem.

I thought that was a bit strange so I began to see what I could do. I had no idea what the problem might be but just decided to try different things assuming the site was actually okay and the problem was related to our system. Since all three of our PC’s exhibited the same results I ruled out our PC’s for the time being and began to consider the web browsers we use. All three are set up with Google Chrome as the default browser and all three have Windows IE9 installed as well so I thought I’d start there.

IE9 gave us the same results. In fact, IE9 didn’t even respond with a problem. It just didn’t respond at all when I entered the site’s address in the search bar. In case I was typing the address wrong I tried searching the internet for the site using keywords and then clicking on the link from the results page but that didn’t make any difference either. I was using Google as my search engine and one thing I noticed is that the preview pane did in fact show the HSOforum but clicking on the link to the site wouldn’t open it.

Just for kicks I decided to try using a different search engine. I tried Dogpile but that didn’t work. Then I tried Bing and surprise! It opened the site. I also tried Yahoo and was able to open the site from that results page too.

If we use Bing or Yahoo she can open the HSOforum but not with Google or Dogpile. Anyone ever run into this problem?

Thanks,

[upnorth]

Could be a DNS issue. DNS is the service that translates a URL to an IP address. Not horribly uncommon when places are changing the location of web servers. It can take a while for all DNS records to come to convergence. Meaning that one sites DNS server may be out of date and give your PC a bogus address to go to. Or their site or Internet service could be going up and down.

[MN Mike]

What kind of Antivirus are you using? I've had similar problems you are experiencing with AVG and it's ' Safe Search ' module. I disabled it and everything worked smoothly again.

Just for kicks I would disable you're antivirus / internet security program and see what happens.

Upnorth makes a valid point about the DNS settings, I've used other ISP's DNS Settings and have gotten around that issue before. You can also empty your local computer of any DNS settings too, that might or might not help. To do so, open a DOS window, type: ipconfig /flushdns and hit enter.

In Internet Explorer there is a way to force it to look for a updated webpage every time you open IE and go to a webpage, I've found that setting to work also but I do not know if Chrome has that option.

Mike

[BobT]

What kind of Antivirus are you using? I've had similar problems you are experiencing with AVG and it's ' Safe Search ' module. I disabled it and everything worked smoothly again.

Just for kicks I would disable you're antivirus / internet security program and see what happens.

Upnorth makes a valid point about the DNS settings, I've used other ISP's DNS Settings and have gotten around that issue before. You can also empty your local computer of any DNS settings too, that might or might not help. To do so, open a DOS window, type: ipconfig /flushdns and hit enter.

In Internet Explorer there is a way to force it to look for a updated webpage every time you open IE and go to a webpage, I've found that setting to work also but I do not know if Chrome has that option.

Mike

My home PC’s are using AVG. At work we use Microsoft Security Essentials. I tried the same tests from my work PC and got the same results. Use Google or Dogpile and I can’t open the HSOforum. Use Yahoo or Bing and the HSOforum opens fine.

It’s as if there is a compatibility issue between the HSOforum and Google or Dogpile. Try it yourself if you want to experience it. Search the web for Online College In The High School – Distance Minnesota or use the address onlinecollegeinthehighschool dot org.

[Nick Kuhn]

I'd start with your DNS as mentioned above. It could also be a firewall or router blocking certain ports, but that seems less likely. The school may also have upgraded a system requiring something like a VPN login. If this is the case just contact the IT department at the school, they should point you in the proper direction.

[upnorth]

I have had Avast Anti Virus block sites and if they block it, you know who is blocking it.

[spearchucker]

If it is a DNS issue, you should be able to get the exact IP address of the HSOforum when connected from school and then input the IP address into your web browser instead of the URL and see if that connects.

[BobT]

I'd start with your DNS as mentioned above. It could also be a firewall or router blocking certain ports, but that seems less likely. The school may also have upgraded a system requiring something like a VPN login. If this is the case just contact the IT department at the school, they should point you in the proper direction.

Hoping for an education here, not questioning you per-se.

If what you say is correct, why does using a different internet search engine allow me to open the site? Wouldn't I just not be able to open it at all reqardless of the search engine I use to find the site?

[upnorth]

If it is a DNS issue, you should be able to get the exact IP address of the HSOforum when connected from school and then input the IP address into your web browser instead of the URL and see if that connects.

That doesn't always work as you think. You can host multiple web servers from one physical server with one IP address.

Below is a perfect example. If you put 72.3.247.23 even with the www in there it won't go to the proper page. DNS is a wily beast and not always simple(tho in principle it is)

U:\>nslookup www.range.fairview.org

Server: dc0.XXXX.org

Address: 10.0.40.245

Non-authoritative answer:

Name: www.range.fairview.org

Address: 72.3.247.23

[Nick Kuhn]

Hoping for an education here, not questioning you per-se.

If what you say is correct, why does using a different internet search engine allow me to open the site? Wouldn't I just not be able to open it at all reqardless of the search engine I use to find the site?

A lot of sites grant special permissions to Google and other search engines so that they get more hits. This is common with the "register to view this forum topic" type sites. You can spoof yourself as Google and view those sites without ever having to register in many cases. I'm not entirely certain that what you are seeing is in any way related though.

[MN Mike]

Bob,

Since you are using AVG, in your internet options ( On Internet Explorer ) there should be a Programs Tab, at the bottom of that screen is Manage Add Ons. In there you can enable or disable anything that is attached to IE. I suggest disabling AVG Safe Search and see what happens.

Make sure you restart your browser after you disable it.

I'm not familiar with Chrome.

Mike

[upnorth]

You could try opening up command window and clearing the DNS cache. Normally not the problem, but it could be.

Go to start, then to run, key in cmd and hit enter. That should open a DOS/command window.

Key in without the quotes "ipconfig /flushdns" and hit enter that will clear out any cached DNS entries on your PC and force them to refresh.

There are also some sites that will allow connections from one IP address and not another. We have one vender here where I work that does that.

[BobT]

Thanks for the tips.

[Macgyver55]

My daughter had similar problems with her college HSOforum. After trying several things, rebooting the router and modem fixed our issue. Don't know why but it worked!

[MN Mike]

I have seen that happen before too. Good tip to bring up.

Mike

[BobT]

I turned off our DSL modem, WiFi router, and PC overnight last night (usually leave them on 24/7). I also disabled our router's security so it is now an open network. Our nearest neighbor is 1/2 mile away and we are over 200 yards off the nearest road so I really don't think we need to use a secure network.

I just tried to open the site using Google as the search engine and it failed. Browsed to Bing dot com, searched for the site using Bing, and it opened just fine.

I'm guessing there's a compatibility issue between the HSOforum and some web search engines, either from the search engines or the HSOforum, that needs to be worked out but I'm not an expert in these matters by a long shot.

[BobT]

You could try opening up command window and clearing the DNS cache. Normally not the problem, but it could be.

Go to start, then to run, key in cmd and hit enter. That should open a DOS/command window.

Key in without the quotes "ipconfig /flushdns" and hit enter that will clear out any cached DNS entries on your PC and force them to refresh.

There are also some sites that will allow connections from one IP address and not another. We have one vender here where I work that does that.

I followed your suggestion but no change. It was worth a shot.

[BobT]

Bob,

Since you are using AVG, in your internet options ( On Internet Explorer ) there should be a Programs Tab, at the bottom of that screen is Manage Add Ons. In there you can enable or disable anything that is attached to IE. I suggest disabling AVG Safe Search and see what happens.

Make sure you restart your browser after you disable it.

I'm not familiar with Chrome.

Mike

I opened the AVG menu page and disabled the all functions of the Link Scanner and then tried the site using Chrome and Google. No luck. Worth a try though. Thanks.

I don't really care too much for IE (too slow and cumbersome) so I didn't try your suggestion in that regard.

[Moose]

Kinda had the same issue with hotmail recently I had to type an HTTPS in front of the URL to get it to show up properly? I'm not sure if your daughter has an account she uses to sign in for her classes or not but it she does and the privacy setting can be upgraded to add this in front of the url it might fix the problem.

[BobT]

Kinda had the same issue with hotmail recently I had to type an HTTPS in front of the URL to get it to show up properly? I'm not sure if your daughter has an account she uses to sign in for her classes or not but it she does and the privacy setting can be upgraded to add this in front of the url it might fix the problem.

Give that man a cigar!!

Using Google I tried typing https:// in front of the HSOforum address but that didn't work so I typed http:// in front of the address and it worked.

Since she had been doing it the same way all year, I suspect something was changed either at the HSOforum or from Google that caused this issue.

Thanks, Moose.

[Moose]

No problem Bob, Some thing did change not sure if it was a Microsoft upgrade or what but hotmail wouldn't work on either Chrome or IE. Just a bunch of mixed up words. I found it on a hotmail help forum. Good to know hotmail wasn't the only program effected.