Lively Case Discussion #668 7/28 - 7/30/2007

[nonesuche]

Mrs AOL is very proprietary, most hardcore IT people don't like that either. I can't even have AOL open at the same time I am on SM now, even if I'm using firefox or IE?

wackiest thing I've ever seen but I sent screenshots of it to Klaas and she forwarded it to Dugga......my suspicion is that it's a bit more complicated than just a simple refresh. 

[mrs. red]

Mrs AOL is very proprietary, most hardcore IT people don't like that either. I can't even have AOL open at the same time I am on SM now, even if I'm using firefox or IE?

wackiest thing I've ever seen but I sent screenshots of it to Klaas and she forwarded it to Dugga......my suspicion is that it's a bit more complicated than just a simple refresh. 

they have to refresh where they are pointing to the page.. you're right it's more involved than that but that is a part that I get and know about them... that they haven't updated where they are pointing to get to the site...

I could be wrong, but i would be willing to bet that is a huge part of the problem

[BTgirl]

Well, I'm back at my laptop, but only because hubby put in an old wireless card we had lying around the house. Apparently the internal wireless card has now bitten the dust. 

Now I have to figure out how to get fixed, as I got it straight from Lenovo and it has a 3 year warranty. Sigh.

We love computers, don't we? 

[mrs. red]

I have been here 10 hours now... I need to go and pretend I have a life...

[klaasend]

I'm getting some emails from NON AOL users this morning that also can't get in.  Forwarding them to Dugga.

[BTgirl]

I have been here 10 hours now... I need to go and pretend I have a life...

We're not internet addicts - are we? 

[nonesuche]

BT - what model did you get? That super duper Qoosmio Toshiba's ranked in the top 4 lappy's yet the Lenovo T61 I have, has a much better wireless card? You should be able to get that replaced at any service center, or Lenovo should be able to overnight you one?

Lappy's are kinky 

I traveled with a Dell (they suck) laptop for several years and used the wireless, never had a card go bad - go figure?

[nonesuche]

I guess BT floated off in that inner tube 

later monkeys !

[BTgirl]

BT - what model did you get? That super duper Qoosmio Toshiba's ranked in the top 4 lappy's yet the Lenovo T61 I have, has a much better wireless card? You should be able to get that replaced at any service center, or Lenovo should be able to overnight you one?

Lappy's are kinky 

I traveled with a Dell (they suck) laptop for several years and used the wireless, never had a card go bad - go figure?

I have a T60. If the wireless card is built in - what would they send me?

[SunnyinTX]

DamnI I could get into Fort Know before I could get here!!  Whew~  new forum looks great...it seems like many of us had trouble finding the new forum...I had to sign out of AOL and come in via IE

[Dugga]

I'm sure Dugga and Red have thought of this, but is it possible that an IP has been blocked (from AOL) and since AOL shares IPs, it could be blocking some of our members??  Or does the new software only permit so many hits (one?) from a particular IP address...and AOL is sending more than one...so the others are getting blocked??

What's happening is that AOL is, as usual, playing by their own rules. If you're interested, I'll try to put this in laymans terms. If not, skip over my technical mumbo jumbo.

When you enter in a domain name theres something called a DNS Server that translates the human readable domain name (scaredmonkeys.net) into a series of numbers (an "IP address"). It's those numbers, the IP address, that the internet uses to pass traffic around.

So what we do when moving servers is we first tell the world not to remember our numbers for very long. Usually systems save DNS once they've looked them up for 2 to 4 days. Because these numbers rarely change, it's usually OK to hang on to a number for a little while, since this cuts down on these "directory assistance" requests ("DNS queries" we call them). We told the world to only save them for 60 seconds, because we knew we were getting ready to move and we didn't want it to take the usual 2 to 4 days for the changes to float around the world. We did this over a week ago. This is called TTL (time to live).

Here is the problem. AOL is playing by their own rules. Instead of listening to us when we said "throw your numbers away after 60 seconds", they're just saving them for as long as they like with no regard to the fact that we've told the world not to keep things for very long because of the pending change.

The old address has the "check back soon" message. AOL is still sending people to the old address. And unfortunately, no amount of cache-clearning or cookie-deleting or rebooting will solve this problem. It is strictly an issue with AOL's internal DNS system and their internal memory of DNS entries that they maintain. Until AOL decides "Hey, this looks like an old set of numbers. Maybe we'll throw these out and look up some new ones." I'm afraid AOL users are stuck.

[nonesuche]

BT - what model did you get? That super duper Qoosmio Toshiba's ranked in the top 4 lappy's yet the Lenovo T61 I have, has a much better wireless card? You should be able to get that replaced at any service center, or Lenovo should be able to overnight you one?

Lappy's are kinky 

I traveled with a Dell (they suck) laptop for several years and used the wireless, never had a card go bad - go figure?

I have a T60. If the wireless card is built in - what would they send me?

well I guess I just went off what's on the product site? As a corporate issue I didn't get all of the manuals with mine but they do list wireless cards on Lenovo's site for the T60? Sorry, I do think you can reach support online even on Sunday, have you tried? I know if you have to pack it up and send it or find a service center, that it's frustrating.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-62764

[Dugga]

When little none and I post at the same time and are both logged in, I do get a message that I can't post for another 15 seconds.....so I do know there are some inhibitors in place for a singular IP address.......how many and if AOL is inclusive, only Dugga can know.

AOL has tens of thousands of IP addresses, so it's not an issue of everyone sharing one thru AOL. You get a different one every time you dial in.

That feature is called "flood control". It's to prevent bots from taking over a forum too easily and hopefully discourages double-posting also.

[Buckeye]

I'm sure Dugga and Red have thought of this, but is it possible that an IP has been blocked (from AOL) and since AOL shares IPs, it could be blocking some of our members??  Or does the new software only permit so many hits (one?) from a particular IP address...and AOL is sending more than one...so the others are getting blocked??

What's happening is that AOL is, as usual, playing by their own rules. If you're interested, I'll try to put this in laymans terms. If not, skip over my technical mumbo jumbo.

When you enter in a domain name theres something called a DNS Server that translates the human readable domain name (scaredmonkeys.net) into a series of numbers (an "IP address"). It's those numbers, the IP address, that the internet uses to pass traffic around.

So what we do when moving servers is we first tell the world not to remember our numbers for very long. Usually systems save DNS once they've looked them up for 2 to 4 days. Because these numbers rarely change, it's usually OK to hang on to a number for a little while, since this cuts down on these "directory assistance" requests ("DNS queries" we call them). We told the world to only save them for 60 seconds, because we knew we were getting ready to move and we didn't want it to take the usual 2 to 4 days for the changes to float around the world. We did this over a week ago. This is called TTL (time to live).

Here is the problem. AOL is playing by their own rules. Instead of listening to us when we said "throw your numbers away after 60 seconds", they're just saving them for as long as they like with no regard to the fact that we've told the world not to keep things for very long because of the pending change.

The old address has the "check back soon" message. AOL is still sending people to the old address. And unfortunately, no amount of cache-clearning or cookie-deleting or rebooting will solve this problem. It is strictly an issue with AOL's internal DNS system and their internal memory of DNS entries that they maintain. Until AOL decides "Hey, this looks like an old set of numbers. Maybe we'll throw these out and look up some new ones." I'm afraid AOL users are stuck.

I think I actually understood this.  You must have been a "level III" tech on a helpline....in a previous life.   

[nonesuche]

BT - support by phone is open 7 days/week in the US, this is the link to phone support for the T60 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4HWSE3

you can fuss at them in sockmonkey talk 


Dugga-

I can tell you LOVE Aol too 

Hi Sunny !!

I have to run for now.......!

[nonesuche]

When little none and I post at the same time and are both logged in, I do get a message that I can't post for another 15 seconds.....so I do know there are some inhibitors in place for a singular IP address.......how many and if AOL is inclusive, only Dugga can know.

AOL has tens of thousands of IP addresses, so it's not an issue of everyone sharing one thru AOL. You get a different one every time you dial in.

That feature is called "flood control". It's to prevent bots from taking over a forum too easily and hopefully discourages double-posting also.

or robo-posting? 

[BTgirl]

BT - what model did you get? That super duper Qoosmio Toshiba's ranked in the top 4 lappy's yet the Lenovo T61 I have, has a much better wireless card? You should be able to get that replaced at any service center, or Lenovo should be able to overnight you one?

Lappy's are kinky 

I traveled with a Dell (they suck) laptop for several years and used the wireless, never had a card go bad - go figure?

I have a T60. If the wireless card is built in - what would they send me?

well I guess I just went off what's on the product site? As a corporate issue I didn't get all of the manuals with mine but they do list wireless cards on Lenovo's site for the T60? Sorry, I do think you can reach support online even on Sunday, have you tried? I know if you have to pack it up and send it or find a service center, that it's frustrating.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-62764

Thanks, None. I'll have hubby check it out. He fiddled with the stupid thing this morning until he got a splitting headache from it. That's when he stuck in the old card we had from before and gave up.

[SunnyinTX]

BT - support by phone is open 7 days/week in the US, this is the link to phone support for the T60 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4HWSE3

you can fuss at them in sockmonkey talk 


Dugga-

I can tell you LOVE Aol too 

Hi Sunny !!

I have to run for now.......!

Hi NONE...don't run too fast...it's HOT outside!  Dugga thanks for explaining what's happening with AOL users....I hope this situation can be rectified.....(fingers crossed)  and THANK YOU BIG TIME for spell check!  LOL

[nonesuche]

When little none and I post at the same time and are both logged in, I do get a message that I can't post for another 15 seconds.....so I do know there are some inhibitors in place for a singular IP address.......how many and if AOL is inclusive, only Dugga can know.

AOL has tens of thousands of IP addresses, so it's not an issue of everyone sharing one thru AOL. You get a different one every time you dial in.

That feature is called "flood control". It's to prevent bots from taking over a forum too easily and hopefully discourages double-posting also.

Just for clarification 

I am on high-speed, my point was I use IE or Firefox to access SM, not AOL browser. If I even open standard AOL on my laptop, within minutes SM in either IE or Firefox goes white with blue writing, and I am unable to post, log-out, or log-in?

I just wanted to be sure you understood what was happening, I forwarded Klaas the screenshot. I still think it's wacky this would happen?

[nonesuche]

oh Dugga one more thing  but I know the devil is in the details - I can have multiple tabs with multiple sites open, but it's only SM that goes white and freezes? all the rest work fine?


Sunny- so true, it's been so humid and I've been trying to do some touch-up to painting out side and it's been raining too, not my best weekend