# Why is most of the internet gone? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 28, 2001, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087 "2001-10-28T08:16:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/1 "2001-10-28T08:16:03Z")
As far as I can tell, I can only use the Straight Dope & Google. Every other link I’ve tried for the last half hour has given me a **CANNOT FIND SERVER** error. WTF? Can I only get stuff that’s located between here and the latest NAP, or what? ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/2 "2001-10-28T08:19:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > \*\*As far as I can tell, I can only use the Straight Dope & Google. Every other link I’ve tried for the last half hour has given me a **CANNOT FIND SERVER** error. WTF? Can I only get stuff that’s located between here and the latest NAP, or what? \*\* Problem is somewhere on your end or via your ISP. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/3 "2001-10-28T08:20:19Z")
I guess I should mention that I am using a dial-up connection in Vancouver, Canada. No firewall issues or anything. I wish I was home with my _real_ internet connection. ---
**Author:** ![Genseric](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Genseric](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genseric)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/4 "2001-10-28T08:27:29Z")
You mean you’re trying to go to some other website than [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com)? The mind boggles… ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/5 "2001-10-28T08:37:21Z")
I think the problem is at your end. I can surf the Web just fine. BTW, most of the Internet wouldn’t be gone unless Usenet and IRC and Gopher and FTP a host of other services died. The World Wide Web, consisting of HTML documents transferred using HTTP, is only a fraction of the Internet. (And AOL’s little dominion is only a fraction of that …) ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/6 "2001-10-28T08:40:05Z")
You have reached the end of the internet. It is now safe to turn off your computer. ---
**Author:** ![bda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@bda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bda)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/7 "2001-10-28T13:05:58Z")
sometimes this happens to me too. i purge my temp internet files and then everything works fine again. give that a try. ---
**Author:** ![DVous\_Means](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@DVous\_Means](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DVous_Means)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/8 "2001-10-28T13:26:56Z")
I have an almost similar problem, which recurred again tonight. When I connected to the net, the only screen that came up was the DNS error message within IE. This persisted despite flushing the cache. Also, whenI tried to connect simultaneously with Outlook Express, it reported that the mail server could not be found. I cancelled the connection, and tried again five minues later. Everything works as normal. other times when I have had this hassle, the only cure was to reboot my computer. I put it down to one of those annoying traits of Windows, where the only cure is to quit and start again. I’m using Win 98 - I wonder whether the other flavours of Windows have the same quirk? ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/9 "2001-10-28T13:28:53Z")
I’ve had similar problems, but it was down to major grief with my ISP’s DNS. I tried creating a local hosts file for my favourite sites, but that didn’t do wonders either. It may be worth checking to see if your ISP is having problems with its domain name server(s). ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/10 "2001-10-28T13:51:10Z")
The internet has decided they’ve had it with you, **Larry**. They don’t like how you’ve been using it, and to be quite frank with you, I don’t blame 'em. Looking up all that smut, downloading things you shouldn’t be downloading, using it for cheap thrills and not for what it was intended for- _something_ usefull- and, well, your overall attitude… face it, it stinks. Until you shape up your act, you’re outta here, bud. Now get with it! This time it was just a warning, next time… well, you don’t want to know what they can do. (And if that isn’t the case, do what **DVous Means** recommends. The few times it’s happened to me, a simply flush of the cache and temp folder, along with a re-boot, got things back to normal.) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/11 "2001-10-28T13:55:36Z")
It does sound like it could easily be DNS problems. If you couldn’t reach your ISP’s dns server, or it failed, you would still be able to view sites that are in your local DNS cache - which, in this case, may be straight dope and google. See if you can ping [http://www.yahooo.com](http://www.yahooo.com) If you fail, see if you can ping 64.58.76.226 If the first fails, and the second works, it’s a DNS problem. ---
**Author:** ![tapioca\_tundra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a88e57/32.png) [@tapioca\_tundra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapioca_tundra)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/12 "2001-10-28T15:02:06Z")
~~ Maybe Al Gore’s pissed off he lost the election… ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/13 "2001-10-28T15:12:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > \*\*As far as I can tell, I can only use the Straight Dope & Google. Every other link I’ve tried for the last half hour has given me a **CANNOT FIND SERVER** error. WTF? Can I only get stuff that’s located between here and the latest NAP, or what? \*\* All of them went out of business. Haven’t you heard about the [dot.com](http://dot.com) crash? More likely, you’re having trouble getting to a working nameserver. Google and Straight Dope work because they’re in your local DNS cache, probably. Most ISPs try to make you use their nameserver for all queries instead of doing your own direct name service resolution, so if their nameserver crashes you’re toast. Many of us geeky types run our own name servers so we’re not captive to the crappy DNS servers our ISPs run. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/14 "2001-10-28T21:01:00Z")
Thanks, folks, it is my friend’s ISP’s DNS server out to lunch. **Derleth** , I never use usenet from a dial-up. As we speak, I’m getting twitchy to get back home to my high bandwidth connection to catch up on the binary newsgroups. \ Oh, yeah, and the rest of the [http://www](http://www). It’s nice to be able to use the SDMB, but I can’t follow any damned links or look stuff up for myself. Argh. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2001, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-most-of-the-internet-gone/90087/15 "2001-10-28T21:02:08Z")
vB playing with me. Read that “link” as “World Wide Web.”