# Is there a problem with the Internet? (yes, the WHOLE INTERNET!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 25, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854 "2002-12-25T17:01:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/1 "2002-12-25T17:01:14Z")
Since last night, I haven’t been able to connect to roughly 1/2 the websites I try to visit… I just get CANNOT FIND SERVER errors. This includes big ones, like Microsoft and others. Any ideas why I can connect to some but not others? Even my ISPs self help support page comes up as CANNOT FIND SERVER. I’ll call their tech support, but I don’t know if they are even open today (plus its not an emergency as I’ll hardly be on-line today anyhow). Ideas? ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/2 "2002-12-25T17:04:59Z")
Sounds like your ISP’s DNS servers… Definitely not an internet issue, I think you’d see a lot more news stories if it were the internet’s fault… ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/3 "2002-12-25T17:21:27Z")
I’m sitting on top of some major internet trunks right now and not seeing a significant decrease in traffic. It’s a little lower but I blame that on the holiday. Usually if a hicap carrier is having trouble in their network, I get notification within an hour or so because we all hold hands, sort of. In other words, it looks like trouble on your end 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/4 "2002-12-25T18:12:41Z")
All those people who got computers for Christmas are messing up the Internet by sending out packets incorrectly addressed and the internet is going crazy not knowing what to do with them. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/5 "2002-12-25T19:53:50Z")
If you have a firewall of some kind, that might be blocking your access. Something similar happened to me – I rebooted, to get Zone Alarm back to normal. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/6 "2002-12-25T20:24:29Z")
Can you get to sites that you’ve never been to before? (ie Are the 1/2 that you can get to just stored in your cache?) ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/7 "2002-12-25T21:01:45Z")
I’ll call the ISP and see whats up. Joey, I can indeed visit some sites that I don’t regularly do to, so they’re not cached. Thanks Maybe I should just call Al Gore, he’ll know what to do since he invented it… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/8 "2002-12-25T21:41:28Z")
Have you checked the cable? Guess who just spent an hour scratching his head, when five minutes spent lying on my back got much better results :smack: ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/9 "2002-12-25T21:56:23Z")
Well, just go off the phone with ISP tech support. Really nice helpful guy (far nicer than I would be working Christmas day!) Something to the respect that my IP address ended in 255 and I had to release/renew it a bunch of times but finally got a valid one. Works like a charm now. Who needs Al Gore? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/10 "2002-12-25T22:03:07Z")
“to the _effect_,” darling. The other way sets my spine a-twitching. ---
**Author:** ![bernse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@bernse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bernse)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/11 "2002-12-25T22:14:09Z")
Sorry! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2002, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/12 "2002-12-25T23:23:09Z")
Traceroutes are your friend sometimes for slow or no connections: How to do a traceroute in Windows… Click the START menu, go to Programs, click on MS-DOS prompt. A Dos window should open up in Windows and you should see a C:\windows\> prompt. At the prompt type: tracert [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) … you should get a list of hops and times … ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/13 "2002-12-26T04:27:47Z")
…and then to see if the routes are working for the rest of the world, try out [www.samspade.org](http://www.samspade.org) to see THEIR traceroute. I use it all the time to check on my own server. ---
**Author:** ![Urban\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Urban\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urban_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/14 "2002-12-26T04:39:20Z")
Your own server? Can’t you just telnet over even when you don’t have access to the console? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/15 "2002-12-26T04:57:59Z")
**Urban** : ssh, not telnet. Don’t send anything over telnet you don’t mind losing. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2002, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-problem-with-the-internet-yes-the-whole-internet/144854/16 "2002-12-26T04:59:13Z")
er… don’t send anything over telnet _you can’t afford losing._ Sorry.