Regarding the popular web site www.AskEarth.com.  The site has been
inaccessible in areas including NY and OH, but accessible from FL, NM,
NJ and CA since June 1, 5:00 or so EDT.  Previous Google Answers
people have traced the problem to a non-functioning router belonging
to one "Epoch."  On June 1, I spoke to an Epoch rep and they assured
me they have no problems.  Previous Googlers have assured me the site
would come back soon, but it has not.  My question, in two parts:  Can
you find a virtually guaranteed way for me to phone an AskEarth
representative so I can listen first hand to their explanation, and
can you provide me with the area code and phone number?   Please note
they have a poor reputation for answering their email.  A phone number
for Epoch would be a bonus.

---

Request for Question Clarification by hammer-ga on 05 Jun 2003 09:54 PDT

I contacted Netifice (owners of Epoch) tech support and emailed them
the traceroute, so they can see what's going on. I'll let you know
when/if they get back to me.
 
- Hammer

---

Request for Question Clarification by tisme-ga on 05 Jun 2003 11:38 PDT

I understand that you are unable to access this website? It seems that
Hammer is looking into why the problem is there... I thought that I
would try to help you access the website through a proxy server (until
the problem is fixed).

1.Try going to http://www.anonymizer.com
2.Where it says, "Try Private Surfing for Free" put in the URL and
click on Go. The website should show up for you.

Let me know if you have any problems with this. Hopefully this will be
fixed soon for you!

tisme-ga

---

Request for Question Clarification by hammer-ga on 07 Jun 2003 06:05 PDT

I still haven't heard back from Netifice. If you want to call them,
their support number is 1-877-638-4342.

- Hammer

---

Request for Question Clarification by tisme-ga on 07 Jun 2003 21:04 PDT

Just a note to let you know I left a comment for you at the bottom.
Please let me know if this helps you any?

tisme-ga

---

Request for Question Clarification by hammer-ga on 11 Jun 2003 11:25 PDT

Hi braniacamok!

I can get to AskEarth now. Can you?

- Hammer

---

Request for Question Clarification by hammer-ga on 11 Jun 2003 11:45 PDT

Assuming that you can now get through, if you feel that any of the
Researcher assistance that you received was worth the $3.50 fee, you
can name one of us to post the official "answer". The Researchers who
worked on this question are (in order of appearance):

hammer-ga
tisme-ga
sgtcory-ga


- Hammer

This is the answer that worked for the customer. Glad I could help! 

This URL shows that the website is indeed online (although it only
checks Detroit in the USA):
http://www.alertra.com/check?site_id=334531
 
Please follow these instructions:  
 
IMPORTANT: This may disable/slow down your internet connection. You
should turn off these settings after you finish or if you lose your
internet connection. Basically this will reroute the traffic from the
website to the proxy server, then to you. If the connection between
the proxy server and yourself is working, this should make the
askearth.com website work for you.
 
1. Open up Internet Explorer. 
2. Click on Tools and then click Internet Options. 
3. Click on the Connections Tab at the top. 
4. Click on LAN Settings... 
5. You should see an empty checkbox next to "proxy server" at the
bottom. Click on this checkmark.
6. The Address: and Port: entries are now useable. I am listing some
proxies below that did work at the time of this posting (note that
they are not always reliable however):
 
 
Proxy: 195.39.134.81 
Port: 80 
 
Proxy: 148.233.111.232 
Port: 80 
 
7. Click OK. 
8. Click OK again. 
9. Open up a website. Note that it might take about 30 seconds before
you are able to connect to a website as the proxy connection is set
up.
10. Try connecting to the AskEarth.com website now. Hopefully it will
show up for you!
 
 
Proxy List came from this website:
http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/proxy-list/
 
*** Proxies are NOT secure. There is a chance that someone is watching
your internet traffic if you use a proxy. Do not do anything
confidential like logging into your bank account while using a proxy.
The proxy should only change your internet explorer browser, any other
browsers, email applications or internet applications will still
connect using your isp directly. Don't forget to turn off the proxy
again as this will put your isp connection back to normal.
 
Hope this helps. If this is an adequate answer for you please let me
know and I will submit it as such. Note that this will not actually
fix the problem, it is just one way of working around it.
 
tisme-ga

A tough, almost intractable problem.  It took a couple of attacks, but
tisme solved it.  I would like to buy tisme a large milkshake, or
something similarly fantastic.

Why not move it to another server?

shiva777-ga,

It's not his site.

- Hammer

tisme's answer sounded like what I was looking for, and suspected
existed all along.  However, it doesn't work;  the site is unable to
connect to the desired URL.  BTW, I always thought the internet used
the most convenient open line to move fragments of an electronic
"shipment, and that those fragments were reassembled on the other end.
 Is the net really sectorized into broad geographical regions such
that this can be thwarted by a jammed sector gateway?  I find this
hard to believe.  The more I consider it, the more I think we are
dealing with human failings very close to the site source, e.g.
inability to recognize failed equipment or inability to fix it for
whatever reason.  Everyone's continued assistance is not going
unnoticed.

Upon further experimentation, the anonymizer site software only demos
selected sites, such as Yahoo and some other well-known locations.  To
access the site I seek, I have to buy the software for $30.  It
doesn't declare a version for Macs, so I have to assume there isn't
one.
  To clarify, I am using the free "try it" window," but nothing
happens.  This evening I will try it on other computers.

I'm coming from New York and can not access the site either. Maybe
they have some type of regional IP load balancing because this is what
I get for the start of authority records from dnsreport.com :


"ERROR: Your SOA (Start of Authority) record states that your master
(primary) name server is: localhost"

This should reply with a valid name server. (ex ns1.eni.com or
ns2.eni.net)

Looks like the problem may be with the name server configuration at
their level.

braniakamok,

Think of it this way. If you and several friends, who live in NY, NJ,
OH, FL and CA all decide to drive to Philadelphia, PA, you will not
all drive on the same roads to get there, even though you are going to
the same place. Those people coming from the south may encounter
detours entering Philadelphia that do not affect those coming from the
West, etc. We are certainly dealing with failings, but it is sometimes
extremely difficult to get a human at these places to get up and fix
it. Look how difficult it is to even find a support number for any of
these people!

- Hammer

Read up more on Anonymizer, so no one has to explain it to me, I see
where I was not quite clear on it.  However, I did use their site to
find a phone number of someone who gave me danny@askearth as an email
address, and sent an email, and will send also the diagnostic ideas
from sgtcory.  They also gave me a phone number for this fellow --
disconnected.  They remain elusive.

The email I posted is useless w/o the site, of course, even if the email is valid.

Hello brainiacamok,

Sorry that anonymizer did not originally work for you. It is not that
they have pre-selected websites that work with the free service, the
websites that do work are random. I had checked and it had loaded up
the website using the free service, so I thought that it would do the
same for you.

tisme-ga

For TISME

  Thanks for the additional.  I still can't get it to open the page
for AskEarth. It does attempt to open www.askearth.com/go/home, but
fails.
  Which makes me wonder if you are in a state where AskEarth is
accessible right now or one where it is not (such as NY or OH).  This
might affect whether the anonymizer will work?

Hello brainiacamok-ga,

Actually I am in Canada. I am going to find a proxy server for you
that will let you access this website. Give me a few minutes and I
should have something for you.

tisme-ga

This URL shows that the website is indeed online (although it only
checks Detroit in the USA):
http://www.alertra.com/check?site_id=334531

Please follow these instructions: 

IMPORTANT: This may disable/slow down your internet connection. You
should turn off these settings after you finish or if you lose your
internet connection. Basically this will reroute the traffic from the
website to the proxy server, then to you. If the connection between
the proxy server and yourself is working, this should make the
askearth.com website work for you.

1. Open up Internet Explorer.
2. Click on Tools and then click Internet Options.
3. Click on the Connections Tab at the top.
4. Click on LAN Settings...
5. You should see an empty checkbox next to "proxy server" at the
bottom. Click on this checkmark.
6. The Address: and Port: entries are now useable. I am listing some
proxies below that did work at the time of this posting (note that
they are not always reliable however):


Proxy: 195.39.134.81
Port: 80

Proxy: 148.233.111.232
Port: 80

7. Click OK.
8. Click OK again.
9. Open up a website. Note that it might take about 30 seconds before
you are able to connect to a website as the proxy connection is set
up.
10. Try connecting to the AskEarth.com website now. Hopefully it will
show up for you!


Proxy List came from this website:
http://www.atomintersoft.com/products/alive-proxy/proxy-list/

*** Proxies are NOT secure. There is a chance that someone is watching
your internet traffic if you use a proxy. Do not do anything
confidential like logging into your bank account while using a proxy.
The proxy should only change your internet explorer browser, any other
browsers, email applications or internet applications will still
connect using your isp directly. Don't forget to turn off the proxy
again as this will put your isp connection back to normal.

Hope this helps. If this is an adequate answer for you please let me
know and I will submit it as such. Note that this will not actually
fix the problem, it is just one way of working around it.

tisme-ga

I can reach them now too. It seems it was the name server configuration after all :

askearth.com. SOA primary ns ns1.root-dns.com 
responsible support@temp-url.com 
serial 1001 
refresh 28800 (8 hours) 
retry 14400 (4 hours) 
expire 604800 (7 days)

Good luck!

tisme's proxy server solution worked brilliantly, and I accessed
AskEarth two days prior to the repair.  I was very impressed;  I knew
there was a solution but it took a while to find.  Gaining access
allowed me to get updates on what was happening and tell other locked
out people what was happening.  I can't thank everyone enough for
their help.
  Do you folks ever go to AE and play?  The free wheeling, wild west
atmosphere is kind of fun...