Site down on local network

[Patiodude]

Whenever I try to connect to my website over my network (from any device), my browser gives me an error saying that it could not connect to the host. I've tried a proxy, as well as downorjustme, and it works fine. I've recently performed some database work, nothing too important, but between the last time I could access my site and now, I haven't altered anything, except dropping all my tables and erasing my databases after finding out that my site was experiencing downtime, although, as I mentioned before, only on my network. My site's still experiencing that same problem, how do I fix it? (My host is 1and1, and the message never gets more specific than "could not connect to host")

[JorgeM]

Since you are able to acess the site from outside your network, this issues is not application/database related. Otherwise, you would see the issue no matter where you try to access this site from.

from within your network, first determine if this is a name resolution issue. From a computer experiencing this issue, open a command prompt and type NSLOOKUP, hit enter. Then type in the host name of main page of your site, for example, www.domain.com. You should see a response from your DNS server either providing you with the IP address of the host, or a response that indicates it was unable to resolve the name. If you are unable to resolve the name, the next step is to determine what the name resolution issue is and how to resolve it.

If you are able to reslove the name to an IP, is the IP you see on the screen the same IP you get when you do this from outside your network? If so, from the same computer inside your network, from the command prompt, type tracert -d ipaddress, hit enter. replace ipaddress with the IP address of your web server. Look at the results... Did the trace indicate that you reached the webserver? If not, next step is to figure out where the packets stopped. If you did reach it, this is not a network issue and further troubleshooting is required between the network and application layer.

Try some of this and report back.

[Patiodude]

Alright, I tried NSLOOKUP in Terminal. The IPs displayed are 127.0.0.1 and 192.168.1.111, both on my local network. What now?

[JorgeM]

So both of the IPs you provided are private IP addresses. So when you typed, www.yourdomain.com, you received this response? If this is the case, you will not be able access the external hosted site. You are resolving the host name to an internal IP address.

Is there a DNS server within your network then? If so, you would have to update the record to point to your external host.

Can you post a screenshot of NSLOOKUP results so I can validate what you posted?

[Patiodude]

Alright, I'm having more trouble. I'm not sure how to attach images here directly, so I tried to upload it to my site via Dreamweaver, and link to it here. Dreamweaver tells me that there's an FTP error, with no error code, and gives a list of "possible reasons." Anyway, here's a transcript of the NSLOOKUP in Terminal:

Last login: Sun May 27 11:23:33 on ttys000
jules-mazurs-imac:~ julesmazur$ NSLOOKUP www.theapplenewsreel.com
Server:     127.0.0.1
Address:    127.0.0.1#53

Name:   www.theapplenewsreel.com
Address: 192.168.1.111

[JorgeM]

Ok, so your results show that there is a DNS server running on that same machine (127.0.0.1) and within the DNS server there is a zone running called theapplenewsreel.com. Within that zone there is a record called www pointing to 192.168.1.111.

From a network perspective either you have update that record to point to the public IP address or point your system to a public DNS server. That's why it worked when connecting through proxy since te proxy is not using your internal DNS system.

[Patiodude]

I'm not sure how to do that on a Mac.

[JorgeM]

I'm not an expert on Macs but it's clear to me that you are having a name result ion issue here based on what you have posted. Your computer thinks that the record you are trying to access is at 192.168.1.111. Anyone that you know can give you a hand? Local apple store? Maybe someone else reading this thread?

[Patiodude]

I fixed the problem using probably the first thing I should've tried: a hard reset of my router, by holding down the reset button on the back for 6 seconds, did the trick.