Call for Help!
May 29th, 2007For many folks, Manager Tools is completely inaccessible. Luckily, not ALL … but MANY.
It appears as if there is a network issue affecting our site. Somewhere between above.net and GoDaddy’s network (secureserver.net), packets are being lost. Unfortunately, GoDaddy (our server host) has been either unable or unwilling to help us work through this. Too bad really … up until this point, I’ve been very happy with their support.
If anyone has any network expertise they’d be willing to lend to the effort to figure this out, I’d appreciate it greatly. Unfortunately, I’m at the proverbial end of my technical expertise rope. 
For those affected (although you probably can’t even read this ), we’re working on it. Please be patient with us!
–Mike
Stumble it!Trackback URL for this post: http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/05/call-for-help/trackback/
May 29th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Mike- I was unable to view the site yesterday but appear to be able today. Not sure if that means things have been resolved but perhaps it is a good sign. Keep up the good work. Roger
May 29th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I have not experienced any issues with the site prior to or since registering, yes I did sample for awhile before joining glad I did.
I should take this moment to express my gratitude for your efforts in establishing & maintaining a site which has obviously been of great value too many, especially new managers like me.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I too was not able to access the site yesterday (Monday, May 28) but I seem to have no problems today.
May 29th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Mike - Looks fine up here in Boston. From your email I was unclear what your relationship to about.net is (if any).
Mike
May 29th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Mike,
I’ve been in IT ops for a number of years, but I don’t think my background has anything to do with the advise I’m about to give you:
Dump GoDaddy!
Seriously, how can you continue a business relationship with a service provider who simply won’t help you out with a problem that’s clearly theirs? Any colo that expects you do figure out downstream network problems do not deserve your money.
Luckily for you there are a wide range of colos providing competitive prices and service.
Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
May 29th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Based on the ‘whois’ information for the domain name ‘manager-tools.com’, I see that it is registered via godaddy.com:
Horstman & Company
110 W. Live Oak
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
But that the canonical name servers for that domain are:
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.MANAGERHACKS.COM
NS2.MANAGERHACKS.COM
Tracing the network path from home to www.manager-tools.com I do get all the way through:
> tracepath www.manager-tools.com
1: bunny (192.168.0.100) 0.173ms pmtu 1500
1: homeportal.gateway.2wire.net (192.168.0.1) 2.099ms
2: homeportal.gateway.2wire.net (192.168.0.1) asymm 1 2.049ms pmtu 1492
3: dist1-vlan50.snfc21.pbi.net (206.171.134.130) 29.468ms
4: bb1-10g2-0.snfcca.sbcglobal.net (216.102.176.224) 28.904ms
5: ex2-p2-0.eqsjca.sbcglobal.net (151.164.191.202) asymm 8 32.643ms
6: asn6461-abovenet.eqsjca.sbcglobal.net (151.164.251.42) asymm 9 33.159ms
7: so-1-0-0.mpr1.sjc2.us.above.net (64.125.30.174) asymm 9 50.826ms
8: so-1-0-0.mpr1.lax9.us.above.net (64.125.26.25) asymm 11 45.059ms
9: so-4-0-0.mpr1.phx2.us.above.net (64.125.27.198) asymm 11 48.975ms
10: 64.124.36.77.available.above.net (64.124.36.77) asymm 11 52.640ms
11: no reply
12: no reply
13: no reply
14: ip-64-202-161-50.secureserver.net (64.202.161.50) asymm 18 51.460ms
15: ip-208-109-112-137.ip.secureserver.net (208.109.112.137) asymm 17 51.608ms
16: ip-208-109-112-161.ip.secureserver.net (208.109.112.161) asymm 14 52.868ms
17: ip-216-69-188-18.ip.secureserver.net (216.69.188.18) asymm 15 53.382ms
18: ip-68-178-198-66.ip.secureserver.net (68.178.198.66) asymm 16 53.065ms reached
Similarly, when tracing from a remotely hosted server (in Dallas, TX) I also connect successfully:
> tracepath www.manager-tools.com
1: lenny.buberel.org (69.57.148.76) 0.953ms pmtu 1500
1: ev1s-69-57-148-1.ev1servers.net (69.57.148.1) 1.305ms
2: ivhou-207-218-245-7.ev1servers.net (207.218.245.7) asymm 3 1.003ms
3: ivhou-207-218-223-9.ev1servers.net (207.218.223.9) 1.067ms
4: 289.ge-3-2-1.mpr2.iah1.us.above.net (216.200.251.25) asymm 5 1.612ms
5: so-1-3-0.mpr2.phx2.us.above.net (64.125.28.218) asymm 6 23.948ms
6: 64.124.36.77.available.above.net (64.124.36.77) asymm 7 25.950ms
7: no reply
8: no reply
9: unknown.phx1.plx (209.200.144.130) asymm 7 25.120ms
10: ip-64-202-161-50.secureserver.net (64.202.161.50) asymm 13 47.130ms
11: ip-208-109-112-137.ip.secureserver.net (208.109.112.137) 30.812ms
12: ip-208-109-112-161.ip.secureserver.net (208.109.112.161) asymm 11 25.837ms
13: ip-216-69-188-18.ip.secureserver.net (216.69.188.18) asymm 10 25.002ms
14: ip-68-178-198-66.ip.secureserver.net (68.178.198.66) asymm 10 26.235ms reached
I also see that ‘ns1.managerhacks.com’ also points to the same physical IP address as ‘www.manager-tools.com’, as the tracepaths are identical:
> tracepath ns1.managerhacks.com
1: bunny (192.168.0.100) 0.158ms pmtu 1492
1: homeportal.gateway.2wire.net (192.168.0.1) 1.928ms
2: ppp-71-139-15-254.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net (71.139.15.254) 29.693ms
3: dist1-vlan50.snfc21.pbi.net (206.171.134.130) 30.855ms
4: bb1-10g2-0.snfcca.sbcglobal.net (216.102.176.224) 31.088ms
5: ex2-p2-0.eqsjca.sbcglobal.net (151.164.191.202) asymm 8 33.069ms
6: asn6461-abovenet.eqsjca.sbcglobal.net (151.164.251.42) asymm 9 30.977ms
7: so-1-0-0.mpr1.sjc2.us.above.net (64.125.30.174) asymm 9 36.979ms
8: so-1-0-0.mpr1.lax9.us.above.net (64.125.26.25) asymm 11 46.679ms
9: so-4-0-0.mpr1.phx2.us.above.net (64.125.27.198) asymm 11 50.694ms
10: 64.124.36.77.available.above.net (64.124.36.77) asymm 11 52.571ms
11: no reply
12: no reply
13: no reply
14: ip-64-202-161-50.secureserver.net (64.202.161.50) asymm 18 50.505ms
15: ip-208-109-112-137.ip.secureserver.net (208.109.112.137) asymm 17 50.973ms
16: ip-208-109-112-161.ip.secureserver.net (208.109.112.161) asymm 14 53.361ms
17: ip-216-69-188-18.ip.secureserver.net (216.69.188.18) asymm 15 63.306ms
18: ip-68-178-198-66.ip.secureserver.net (68.178.198.66) asymm 16 54.496ms reached
May 29th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
[…continued…]
Based on that information, my suggestion would be to split your web hosting (www.manager-tools.com) from the DNS hosting.
Migrate your domain name registrations and DNS services to someone like www.easydns.com. That is what I do for my personal (www.buberel.org) and commercial (www.altosresearch.com) domain names. They have a nearly unbroken uptime record stretching back years. They have a very simple to use form for transferring both (domain name registration and actual DNS hosting) that will copy the information from your existing domains (manager-tools.com and managerhacks.com).
Let me know if you have any questions or need further advice.
-jason
jason@buberel.org
May 29th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
All,
Quick update … looks like there is definitely something wrong with the DNS set-up (thanks everyone!). Why things changed recently? No idea!
In any case, for the first time in the last 2 days, I have hope!
I’ll keep you updated.
thanks,
Mike
(Why do these things always happen on holidays? — another one of those Koans that Mark likes so much
)
May 29th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I’m also willing to help if you still need it. I do web servers for a living
kf4lnq at nc.rr.com
May 29th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
I can access the page through my blackberry browser. No luck with any desktop system. Can’t access the members only podcast feed either. I had to grab this week’s podcast direct from itunes. Please hurry. I miss you guys
May 29th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
All,
We have made changes to the DNS setting that *should* resolve the issue … I’d love to hear from folks who are having the problem over the next 24 hours to see if the issues start to resolve themselves.
Fingers crossed …
Mike
May 29th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Good to see you back. First time I’ve been able to reach the site from home in a couple of days (although I had no problem connecting from the office). Thanks to everyone who helped get you restored.
May 29th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Awesome! Thanks, Jim … I’m *starting* to feel better now.
May 30th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I am finally able to log in from Toronto but when I boot up Itunes to get the lastest podcast, it is not asking for the MT authorization
May 30th, 2007 at 12:32 am
Thanks, I’ll look into the iTunes issue.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:01 am
If you have DNS/network issues in the future, here are a couple of sites that can help:
www.dnsstuff.com - provides a variety of DNS testing tools.
www.hq42.net - follow the Network Tools link. Provides some really good remote testing tools.
May 30th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Hi Mike
Itunes is now asking for the MT authorization and I succsessfully downloaded the podcast. Sounds like this was a very frustrating experience. I hope that mixed in with the frustration was some learning
*RNTT
May 30th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Thanks, *RNTT .. and yes, I learned more than I wanted; the first of which is that I’ll be paying for a better support plan!!
Stewart, and yes as well, www.dnsstuff.com has now become my best friend! I didn’t know of them until now, but found them absolutely invaluable (after a fellow listener pointed them out) in resolving the issue. Another one of those lessons learned!
Mike
May 30th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Mike, sounds like things are better, but I’d be happy to help if help is still required.
May 30th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Did not work a few hours ago, but now works OK now from my work connection (interestingly has always worked the last few days from my home connection despite both being geographically close - Perth, Western Australia - I guess they are far apart on the internet being different ISPs etc).
May 30th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Thank god, finally your back!
It was horrifying not beeng able to acess the site yesterday! I’m here every day, but yesterday (29th May), it was creepy! Thanks for getting it up and running again!
Magnus, Norway
May 30th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
I had problems accesing since sunday night. Everything ok now ftom Central America:
C:\Windows\system32>tracert manager-tools.com
Tracing route to manager-tools.com [68.178.198.66]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 10.10.1.90
2 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms 10.10.10.1
3 9 ms 9 ms 35 ms 192.168.10.37
4 12 ms 9 ms 9 ms osir.instared.net [205.161.188.1]
5 34 ms 38 ms 38 ms sl-st21-mia-8-1.sprintlink.net [144.223.245.205]
6 36 ms 38 ms 36 ms sl-bb20-mia-5-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.198]
7 35 ms 35 ms 36 ms sl-bb22-mia-3-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.2.203]
8 34 ms 34 ms 34 ms Ten1-2-10000M.ar1.MIA2.gblx.net [64.215.195.193]
9 100 ms 97 ms 134 ms 67.17.198.42
10 115 ms 119 ms 109 ms ip-208-109-112-137.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.
112.137]
11 103 ms 103 ms 123 ms ip-208-109-112-161.ip.secureserver.net [208.109.
112.161]
12 114 ms 100 ms 144 ms ip-216-69-188-18.ip.secureserver.net [216.69.188
.18]
13 95 ms 96 ms 96 ms ip-68-178-198-66.ip.secureserver.net [68.178.198
.66]
Trace complete.
May 30th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Crazy times Mike. I have learned the value of hiring “end to end” experts. You have a great community here maybe one of the already registered members needs some work. I am sure spending more money here is not a priority but maybe the years of growth necessitate a review at this time (I am in no way looking for business here, This is a guy whose permission changes on his MAC needed an archived install to fix !) Great results coming through. Keep up the good work and maybe the next level won’t have you being the IT department as well.
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:59 am
Everything is and was working fine for me - Krakow, Poland, Europe