Problems accessing DU

[cojoel]

I cannot access DU from my computer in the normal way. Connections attempts appear to work but there are long delays and timeouts, and it usually does not complete. This seems to have started yesterday, perhaps late morning or early afternoon in the mountains.

It does not seem to matter what computer I use nor what browser I use. It does not work from my phone on the LAN but works OK from cellular data. Sounds like an ISP issue? Perhaps. Here is the strange thing. It works fine if I go through an anonymous browsing site; I am currently connected through hidemyass.com.

It appears that traffic is down considerably today. Perhaps I am not the only one with troubles?

[cbayer]

1. There is also a complaint about this in the ask the administrators forum.

I'm not having any problems at all, so I suspect it is regional.

You could try a different server access.

Instead of www, try:

election.democraticunderground.com

or

upload.democraticunderground.com

I agree, traffic does seem down today.

[cojoel]

3. none of those other names seem to help

It may just be that hidemyass.com is in an unaffected region. Will just have to be patient I guess. Thanks!

[cbayer]

2. AHA!! You may find this interesting.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024936374

[joshcryer]

4. What's weird is the problem seems to be Firefox.

I mean, browsing with Chrome doesn't do anything, but after about 30 minutes with Firefox, pow, stuff stops working.

[steve2470]

5. ok try this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10957245

Follow the instructions there and tell us what you got. If you can copy and paste from your CMD window that would be grand.

[cojoel]

6. the traceroutes were OK

I had tried that yesterday. On rare occasion a single packet would get dropped.

Today I fiddled a little with ping, and determined that very small packets usually get through OK. Bigger packets were dropped more frequently. By a packet data size of 1000, almost none were getting through.

[mountain grammy]

7. I've been having problems since Friday..

right now, everything seems normal.

[joshcryer]

9. Do you use Firefox?

I haven't had this problem with Chrome.

[mountain grammy]

11. No, I use Chrome also. Still having occasional problems today.

[joshcryer]

12. Thanks, very weird.

[passiveporcupine]

8. I've been having trouble for at least four days now.

Sometimes I can get text to show, but no graphics, and youtube vids won't play. Some days things seem to be working half way. I have an appointment with a tech from my ISP tomorrow night (because my dsl speed is fluctuating too) but I don't know that it's an ISP problem, since it's mostly DU I'm having trouble with. I've had some trouble with youtube and imgur too.

So...does anyone have an idea of what the hell might be going on?

OH, and I'm using Chrome. And right now things are better or I wouldn't even be able to post this. But it goes up and down and I don't know why.

[joshcryer]

10. Weird, everything is peachy with Chrome.

But for me Firefox dies hard. As of this moment I can't access with Firefox.

[steve2470]

14. Troubleshoot and diagnose Firefox problems

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-and-diagnose-firefox-problems

Hope that helps.

[steve2470]

13. maybe there's some bad routers/nodes on some pathways to DU ?

Also strange FF is so affected for some. I've used FF and Chrome to access DU from my ISP and I've been ok.

[deancr]

15. Me too

My access has been gone, using firefox, since Friday. I am able to get in through election.democraticunderground.com. Though I'd make a note in that those burdened with tech work for the site might be interested.

[deancr]

21. Yes, centurylink here too.

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. It's happening to me too.

So far it's happening entirely at home, both from my phone and computer.

My ISP is centurylink.

I haven't seen it happen at work (ISP is Comcast).

Tracert results

C:\Users\jeff>tracert 216.158.28.196

Tracing route to democraticunderground.com [216.158.28.196]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms [192.168.0.1]
2 23 ms 24 ms 24 ms xxx-xxx-xxx-x.dyn.centurytel.net [xxx.xxx.xxx.x]
3 24 ms 30 ms 24 ms 208-110-248-149.centurylink.net [208.110.248.149]
4 24 ms 24 ms 23 ms bb-sttlwawb-jx4-02-ae0.core.centurytel.net [206.51.69.142]
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms sea-brdr-02.inet.qwest.net [67.14.41.18]
7 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms 206.111.7.153.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.7.153]
8 136 ms 104 ms 103 ms vb2000d1.rar3.seattle-wa.us.xo.net [207.88.13.142]
9 102 ms 107 ms 108 ms te-4-0-0.rar3.denver-co.us.xo.net [207.88.12.82]
10 113 ms 108 ms 109 ms te-4-1-0.rar3.chicago-il.us.xo.net [207.88.12.21]
11 110 ms 106 ms 107 ms vb24.rar3.washington-dc.us.xo.net [207.88.12.34]
12 102 ms 102 ms 102 ms ae0d0.mcr1.philadelphia-pa.us.xo.net [216.156.0.42]
13 101 ms 101 ms 102 ms ae1d0.mcr2.philadelphia-pa.us.xo.net [216.156.1.22]
14 101 ms 101 ms 101 ms ae1d0.mcr1.philadelphia-pa.us.xo.net [216.156.1.21]
15 102 ms 108 ms 101 ms 66.236.204.166.ptr.us.xo.net [66.236.204.166]
16 102 ms 105 ms 102 ms core-4-gig-vlan-500.hq.dca.net [216.158.2.2]
17 * 102 ms 104 ms core-2-gig-vlan-500.hq.dca.net [216.158.2.5]
18 103 ms 102 ms 102 ms democraticunderground.com [216.158.28.196]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\jeff>

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. I'd also add that the problem is much worse on Chrome than IE.

even the IE tab helper app running under chrome works pretty well.

[CarrieLynne]

17. Also cant get on from home, Also Centuty Link

wonder if they blocked the site lol

I cant get on at home, with either computer for about 3-4 days now- Cell barely works and even here at work something isnt right, its slow and barely working....
has anyone checked on DU servers? I have tried IE and Firefox at home, neither works....IE here at work but its barely loading....took me a half hour to get to reply here...hope it posts!

very frustrating cause I'm several times a day DU'er - having with drawals lol

can anyone figure out whats going on?

[Mister Ed]

18. Same here, with CenturyLink DSL. Here's what I'm seeing:

* I've been mostly unable to navigate democraticunderground.com from home on any of several computers since last Friday, May 9th. On occasion, the site functions normally for me, but usually not.

* My ISP is CenturyLink DSL, OS is Windows 8.1, browser is Firefox 29.0.1

* Browser window hangs with notation "Transferring data from www.democraticunderground.com".

* Can navigate democraticunderground.com successfully from neighbor's house (ISP Comcast Cable, Apple OS, Safari browser).

* Can navigate the website successfully from home by using election.democraticunderground.com, as suggested elsewhere in this thread (although, on each page, there does seem to be some content that never transfers).

The success of that workaround makes me suspect that several of the IP addresses to which I'm resolving www.democraticunderground.com may be unreliable. Election.democraticunderground.com resolves to only one IP address (216.158.54.195). Www.democraticunderground.com resolves to that same address, but also to these:

216.158.28.195
216.158.28.197
216.158.28.198
216.158.28.199

I see that the third octet in each of these is 28, and not 54 as seen in the address to which election.democraticunderground.com resolves.

A continuous ping to 216.158.54.195 produces reliable replies, while a continuous ping to the addresses in the 216.158.28.x range produces occasional timeouts.

It seems as though whenever I ping democraticunderground.com, it always goes to 216.158.28.198, no matter how many times I flush my DNS cache.

I hope some of this will be useful in the admins' troubleshooting efforts.

[johnlucas]

20. Whew! Thought it was just me

May 10th is when I suddenly wasn't able to access Democratic Underground from any of my devices at home.

For awhile I thought I was unfairly banned. Me & LynneSin had a strong debate about tipped workers' minimum wage in one thread but though the argument was passionate I didn't think I violated policy. I thought I was still respectful. There has been MUCH worse on the board.

Reading what I'm reading here puts things in perspective.
I ALSO use Firefox & I ALSO use CenturyLink DSL.
Hopefully this info helps solve the problem.

John Lucas

[mountain grammy]

22. Still having problems at my end also, about 50% of the time

[johnlucas]

24. Still can't get on at home. Getting on at work through my 3DS

I'm using the Wi-Fi in my work facility to access the site through my 3DS's Internet Browser.

Tried to get on at home today & same result.
Or should I say NON-result.

Can't get on AT ALL at home.
May 14th will make 5 days in a row that I can't access Democratic Underground from home.

John Lucas

[liberalla]

23. Same here. Massive difficulty getting on here since Friday.

I have Century Link too.

election.democraticunderground.com is working for me now.

I thought it was my computer dying... glad I'm not the only one.

[CarrieLynne]

25. is anyone working on this?

my ISP (century link) says theres nothing they can do...they reset my router and it kinda works now...im in IE now but theres clearly an issue with firefox and DU....

really miss being able to get around on DU...I hope someone is working on it...

[Useless in FL]

26. Problems Accessing DU since Friday, May 9

I have also had problems accessing DU from our home computers. We also have Century Link DSL Windows 8.1 but we use IE. Century Link also said there was nothing we could do. I have no problem accessing from work on Comcast DSL but I really hate to be logged on from my work computer. The common thread here seems to be Century Link.

[jamzrockz]

27. Same problem

Centurylink user and I have been having problems accessing Du for a few days now

[ManiacJoe]

28. DU offline for ISP maintenance 5/15 11pm PDT.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10134089

Hopefully this will be some good news.