I Cannot Access my Website
Web sites and/or the servers on which they reside do occasionally go down. Toolkit Websites runs monitoring software that alerts us at the first sign that one of our web servers is not responding, and a network engineer is immediately dispatched to investigate the problem.

However, if you notice that you cannot access your site, here are some simple steps you should perform before contacting support to report an outage:

1. Define the nature of the problem.
Can you view your site with a browser? Is the problem limited to uploading or publishing your web site, accessing email or only a certain service of your web site? What error messages are you getting? This info will help Toolkit Websites support more effectively assist you with the problem.

2. Take a quick inventory of what has changed.
Jot down a quick list of anything that might have changed on your PC or your local network since you were last able to successfully access your site.

3. Check your domain status via WHOIS
Look up your domain at Network Solutions or via our domain lookup utility. Are Toolkit Websites DNS Servers listed on your domain record? You should see NS.RACKSPACE.COM and NS2.RACKSPACE.COM listed as your DNS Servers. If not, and you are a new customer, your domain transfer is still in process.

4. Check the last date your domain record was updated
Oops. Are you close to your annual domain registration renewal date? If your domain record was recently updated (look for the "last updated" line of the record and check the date), it is possible that your domain is on hold for an outstanding annual renewal payment. You will need to contact your domain registrar to determine if there is an outstanding annual renewal fee due for your domain name. (Approx. $35/year depending upon the registrar).

5. Ping your web site address
"Pinging" sends a request to a remote web server (such as the one where your web site resides) and listens for a reply. See below for instructions on how to "ping" your site. Send your "ping" results to support@thetoolkit.co.uk

6. Traceroute to your web site
Like using the ping command, a "traceroute" sends a request to your web site and listens for a reply. A traceroute will track every step necessary to connect from your computer to your web site. It will give you a list of all the ISP routers and IP addresses that your request travels through to access your web site. It can help determine if your web site is down, or the problem is a router or connection somewhere on the Internet between you and your web site. See below for instructions on how to "traceroute" to your site. Send your "traceroute" results to support@thetoolkit.co.uk

7. Are your behind a Proxy Server or Firewall?
Check with your company's network administrator to see if you are connecting to the Internet through a proxy server or firewall. If so, Toolkit Websites support will need this information to assist you and more quickly identify the problem you are experiencing.

8. Have you recently transferred your domain name to Toolkit Websites?
Make sure that your old ISP has completely disabled your old web hosting account and removed your domain from their DNS records. If your old ISP has not removed your account, you may not be able to access your new account. Also try dumping your web browser's cache and rebooting your computer.

9. Send us your error messages and traceroute results
You can submit a support ticket and receive an support tracking number via our Online Toolkit



WHAT ERROR MESSAGE ARE YOU GETTING?

Error Message: "The server does not have a DNS entry" (Netscape) or "A connection with the server could not be established" (Internet Explorer)

Explanation: The domain name is not being resolved.

Possible reasons:

* Your domain name registration has not been completed by the InterNIC.

* Your domain name has been registered, but the name has not propagated through the main root servers on the Internet. Wait 24-72 hours and your domain should then be working.

* Your computer has lost the connection to your Internet Service Provider. Make sure your are connected to your ISP.

* You are connected to your ISP, but there is a problem with their DNS servers. If you cannot reach many sites this is probably the problem.
You are connected to your ISP but there is a routing problem somewhere between you and us. Tips on how to diagnose this are below.


Error Message: "There was no response. The server could be down or not responding" (Netscape) or "A connection with the server could not be established" (Internet Explorer)

Explanation: No connection could be made to the server.

Possible reasons:

* You are not connected to your Internet Service Provider. Check your connection to your ISP.

* You are connected to your Internet Service Provider but there is a routing problem somewhere between you and us. Tips on how to diagnose this are below.

* The web server could be down. Contact support@thetoolkit.co.uk

* Your individual web site could be down.


HOW TO USE PING TO DETERMINE THE IP ADDRESS OF YOUR WEB SITE

Use the "ping" command that is available in Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT. This allows you to ping your web site and receive a reply that includes the IP address of your site.

1. In Windows, click on the START button
2. Click PROGRAMS
3. Locate and Click on MS-DOS prompt (or COMMAND PROMPT depending upon your version of Windows)
4. Type the following command at the prompt:
ping www.yourwebsite.com
5. Send the results of your ping to Toolkit Websites Support

Here's an example of a successful ping to www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk:

C:\>ping www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk

Pinging www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk [83.138.128.72] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=120
Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=120
Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=120
Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=120

Ping statistics for 83.138.128.72:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 30ms, Average = 29ms



HOW TO DIAGNOSE A ROUTING PROBLEM USING TRACERT

Use the "tracert" command that is available in Windows 95, 98 and Windows NT. This allows you to trace the route over the internet from you to Toolkit Websites.

1. In Windows, click on the START button
2. Click PROGRAMS
3. Locate and Click on MS-DOS prompt (or COMMAND PROMPT depending upon your version of Windows)
4. Type the following command at the prompt:

tracert www.yourwebsite.com

Here's an example of a successful tracert to www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk

C:\>tracert www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk

C:\Documents and Settings\Tristen>ping www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk

Pinging www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk [83.138.128.72] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=120
Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=120
Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=120
Reply from 83.138.128.72: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=120

Ping statistics for 83.138.128.72:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 30ms, Average = 29ms

C:\>tracert www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk

Tracing route to www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk [83.138.128.72]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms newnet1-hg2.ilford.broadband.bt.net [217.47.119.
73]
3 17 ms 16 ms 17 ms 217.47.119.1
4 17 ms 18 ms 18 ms 217.47.119.106
5 19 ms 19 ms 18 ms adsl.th.newnet.co.uk [212.87.77.138]
6 19 ms 17 ms 17 ms th7.th.newnet.co.uk [81.3.81.7]
7 30 ms 41 ms 30 ms ge4-2.mpr2.ams1.nl.above.net [195.69.144.122]
8 32 ms 32 ms 31 ms so-0-0-0.mpr1.ams5.nl.above.net [64.125.27.182]

9 32 ms 46 ms 32 ms so-5-0-0.cr2.lhr3.uk.above.net [64.125.27.177]
10 30 ms 31 ms 30 ms pos1-0.er1a.lhr3.uk.above.net [208.184.231.162]

11 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 213-152-232-123.available.lhr.above.net [213.152
.232.123]
12 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms vl901.core1.lon.rackspace.net [83.138.138.35]
13 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms g1-2.aggr1a.lon.rackspace.net [83.138.138.67]
14 32 ms 31 ms 32 ms www.thetoolkit.co.uk [83.138.128.72]

Trace complete.


If there is a routing problem on the Internet that is beyond the control of you or us, you might see results like this:

traceroute to www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk (38.152.102.2)
1 kirk.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.2) 3 ms 3 ms 2 ms
2 router.acmeinfo.com (38.152.102.1) 4 ms 9 ms 9 ms
3 minneapolis-mn.nc.us.psi.net (38.1.46.170) 104 ms 100 ms 89 ms
4 209.8.159.41 (209.8.159.41) 102 ms 105 ms 91 ms
5 hssi6-0.chi.sprintlink.net (209.8.159.25) 91 ms * 88 ms
6 * * *
7 * * *
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * * (etc... repeated many times)

Results such as above could indicate excessive Internet traffic at an exchange point, a routing problem, a fiber cut, or some other severed link between you and us. You'll notice that the tracert stops before it reaches Toolkit Websites network. In this case, the connection failed just beyond Sprintlink in Chicago (hssi6-0.chi.sprintlink.net).

* If the problem appears to be somewhere between us and you, unfortunately there's probably not much either of us can do about it other than to wait for it to clear up.

* If the problem appears to be with your ISP's network, you may want to notify them of the condition so that they can take corrective measures.

* If the problem is within our network and involves connectivity to all of our web servers, we most likely already know about it because of our network and connectivity monitoring systems.

* If the problem appears to be just your web site (and Toolkit Websites's site, other sites hosted by Toolkit Websites and/or other sites on the Internet are reachable), you may need to contact us to restart your individual virtual web.

HOW TO REFRESH YOUR DNS

Run the IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS command
To run the ipconfig /flushdns command, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type cmd, and the click OK.
3. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
ipconfig /flushdns
4. Close the command window.


HOW TO DO A RECURSIVE LOOKUP OF YOUR DOMAIN

C:\>nslookup
Default Server: dns0.th.newnet.co.uk
Address: 212.87.64.10

> www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk
Server: dns0.th.newnet.co.uk
Address: 212.87.64.10

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.toolkitwebsites.co.uk
Address: 83.138.128.72
Site Map | Toolkit Websites Blog Website design by Toolkit Websites