Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Problems with the Archive Site

Not sure where to put this thread, but hopefully this is the right place.

Just wondered if anyone else is having problems getting on to the archive site? I haven't been able to get it to load for a couple of days. Are there problems with the server or something?

Cheers

Hi Elizabeth,

I assume you mean http://www.lcfanfic.com/? I've been there several times over the past couple of days and have had no problems with it. I went there again just now to confirm that I have access to it.

Have you made any tweaks to your computer since you were last able to access the site successfully? Have you installed a new web browser or firewall, or updated either one, for example? Have you tried going to the site using a different browser?

I'm sure that if you give us more information, someone here might be able to help you. (I'm not sure whether this should be posted here or in the How-To folder. If it's in the wrong place, I'm sure a moderator will move it.)

Good luck,
Lynn

Hi Lynn

Yes, that's the site. I haven't changed anything on my computer at all, the site just won't come up on my browser (Internet Explorer 8). I'll try another browser and another computer just in case. It has actually loaded a couple of times for a short interval - very short, under a minute! - but each of those time it looked messed up - pictures missing, text wrong colour, etc. Then if I try to follow a link it's gone again. Strange.

Thanks
Elizabeth

Have you had any problems with your internet? Mine does that when I'm having 'net problems. Like tonight. I've had a number of sits loading funny. Had to reboot the laptop, modem and router and am now all good...

Hi again.... no, I haven't had any other problems with the internet in general or any other sites I frequent. I have now tried accessing the archive via my laptop and also via Google Chrome, still no luck. What a nuisance, I had two fics lined up that I wanted to read.

Cheers
Elizabeth

As an after-thought to my last post, I wonder if it is a problem that is just affecting overseas users to the archive, as I see both of you are based in the US... whereas I am in NZ.

Also, I was on the "2010 Kerth Awards" page, and I noticed that in the "Best Elseworld/Alternate Universe Category", there is a link to Carol M's story "Backwards" but there's a only a url to "Backwards II" and not the highlighted blue title that's the link.

I can only think that this is a typo?

They were nominated as a combo but it does look funky...

uh, it loads alright from here. i'm from jp.

Mmm, strange. Still won't load for me. Just got my husband to try it on his laptop as well and he can't get the page to load either. Hopefully the people who run the archive will see this message and check things at their end to see if there are any issues. Otherwise, if it is a NZ thing hopefully whoever is the techy in-the-know for our ISP will fix things.

Thanks for all your help guys.

Oh, and I also tried to access the site via my mobile phone... no luck there either.

We've had no reports of anyone else having any issues with the website, elisabeth, so it does appear likely that the problem is at your end. Though what it would be, I have no clue.

But I'll email Lauren anyway and see if she has any insights.

LabRat
Editor-in-Chief
The Lois and Clark Fanfic Archive

Do either of you have Internet access outside of your home? If so, could you try accessing the site elsewhere? If you still have problems outside your home, then you know that it likely has nothing to do with your computers or your computer network.

- Lynn

Thanks LabRat, that'd be great to have Lauren check it just in case. I am still not having any luck getting onto the site. My husband tried pinging the site to see if he could find it, but no luck. He then tried pinging my own website and he found that no problem. If I still can't get on to it in a few days I'll check with my ISP to see if they know of any issues. But the fact that I tried to get on to it without any success via my cell phone which uses a totally different ISP means that it may not be my ISP at fault either. It is certainly a mystery for now.

I was wanting to read Coming of Age but I guess I'll have to wait now, unless someone can copy and paste it into an email (if that's allowed?).

Thanks
Elizabeth

Hi Lynn

I'll try that too (tomorrow - it's after 11pm here now).

Cheers
Elizabeth

Ah, it uses a different ISP? That is interesting. It also greatly lessens the likelihood that it is anything on your end. After all, your cell phone wouldn't use your home firewall, for example.

I have another thought: Could you try pinging the web site based on its IP address? An nslookup of the site indicates that its address is 209.237.150.20. I am able to ping it successfully, so the site administrators have not blocked echo requests. (Which, quite frankly, they should do -- such requests could be a security hazard; but that is beside the point.) If you can ping it successfully, the problem may be with a faulty entry in a DNS server.

Edit: You could also try a tracert based on both the site's domain name and its IP address to see whether the two follow the same route. if the two are wildly divergent and their final destinations differ, then that would confirm the faulty-DNS-entry hypothesis.

- Lynn

I can get to the site fine. However the file http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2000/profess.txt seems to have vanished. The rest of the author's stories are still there. Noticed because I was in the middle of a reread of the series and when I opened my browser it was gone.

The link for the story Professional Loyalties worked fine for me just now.

Does the archive have a mirror site?

AmyN

I'm having no trouble with that story link either.

LabRat

It's working for me now. It didn't work several times earlier today. I did a shift click to force it to ignore the cache so it might have been working for a while.

Hi Guys

Well, I'm still not having any luck getting on to www.lcfanfic.com. Lynn, I tried your suggestions of pinging both the IP address and the domain name, and also doing tracert of them. The pings both timed out and the tracert's each came up with identical traces to the point at which they also timed out. Any ideas? I would attach a screen dump of the results, but I don't know how. Can someone help me on that? Can I copy the image from my HDD or does it need to be online somewhere?

Interestingly, I still can't access the site via my cellphone which has a different ISP to my PC, however I have since discovered that on my parents computer - which uses dialup (I'm on Broadband) and a different ISP again - I can access the site. I will have to go round there at some stage and try tracert to see how it compares.

Thanks!
Elizabeth

Reminds me to mention that the censorware my employees (a school) uses has the archive blocked as an occult drug-related site (I think - I'll check the precise wording tomorrow). Which is odd because it isn't blocking numerous other fanfic sites, some of which have much more explicit content, and isn't blocking the boards except as an occasional time out message.

Lauren has checked over the site and can find no issues at our end.

LabRat

Yay! I can now access the archive again! Don't know exactly what the problem was, but it appeared to be somewhere between my ISP and the site (although it was obviously not the site itself). I was about to ring my ISP and get them to sort it but maybe someone somewhere else connected via the same ISP was having similar problems and they got it sorted first.

Many thanks to everyone for your prompt responses to my messages and for your help and suggestions. Much appreciated!

Elizabeth

Sorry - for various reasons I forgot to check - think it's netsweeper.