Apolyton related tech question

[Asmodean]

Okay...this is weird. Whenever I try to connect to Apolyton, I can only do so by using "http://www.apolyton.net", and not "http://apolyton.net". Does anybody have any clue as to why this is so? It gets rather annoying, since most links in Apolyton are of the "apolyton.net" kind, i.e. without the three w's. I have to painstakingly open every link in a new window, and add the w's myself.

Is this due to some obscure setting in Internet Explorer, or could it be that my ISP's nameserver only has http://www.apolyton.net registered.

Mark or anybody: Can you offer any help on this??

Asmodean

[DanQ]

No, it is not weird given the recent server changes/technical difficulties Apolyton has been having and the process which has been implemented to work around it (the GameStats server issue has still not yet been resolved to the best of our knowledge). The following two paragraphs are somewhat technical and explain the background to the problem. What follows attempts to address your current situation, Asmodean. I do apologize for the length of this post but I could not begin to do the matter justice if it were any less -- I have tried to make it as thorough as possible while at the same time not being overwhelming.

When you connect to "apolyton.net", this relies on what is in your Internet Service Provider's DNS (domain name server) records which depending upon your ISP may be updated once, twice, several times a day -- sometimes more, sometimes less. The "www" part is usually associated with websites as it directs users to the HTTPD server that hosts World Wide Web requests (this is where the "http://" part comes from which refers to the technical protocol that makes WWW requests possible).

Changes to the DNS where "apolyton.net" points to can be changed at anytime but because of the said interval as to when ISP's update their DNS records it may be anywhere from ~24-72hrs. for the such changes to be propogated across the Net and take effect. If there is any changes made as to where requests for "www" go, this change is often almost or nearly immediate (<~1hr.) because no DNS changes are involved: it is simply a redirect. "apolyton.net" still points to the GameStats server but requests for both it and "www.apolyton.net" (and their ".com" cousins) were changed at the same time.

As per your present situation, Asmodean, it is unusual that after nearly a week you are only able to get to apolyton using the "www" and not without. All I can suggest is that your ISP has perhaps not updated their DNS records at least the part of their DNS records that holds domain information from Network Solutions, the domain registrar associated with apolyton.net. At least you are able to get to us in some way, and yes I recognize how frustrating it is it is given the links throughout the section of the site do not carry the "www" but this is only a temporary problem although it is one that you are experiencing for an extended period of time.

Out of curiosity, is there anybody else experiencing this problem? If possible, Asmodean, can you ask someone else who uses the same ISP as you do to see if there are experiencing the same problem or even trying to do so yourself originating from somebody else's point of access? Another good test to confirm that it is your ISP is if there is another local (assuming that your ISP is local too) ISP that you can try this same test with.

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Dan; Apolyton CS

[Asmodean]

Problem thankfully solved

My problem is now solved, thank God. After speaking with my father, who has the same ISP - and who had no problems connecting, with or without www - I called to my ISP. They had no clue as to what the problem was, but they gave me the address of a proxy of theirs, which I am now using.

Dan: Please disregard the e-mail I sent you earlier. I can now connect via proxy. And at a higher speed, even.

Asmodean

[Urban Ranger]

Sometimes the problem is this.

Most ISP's have two DNS servers, one primary and one secondary. Now, for 99% of the cases the database on these two servers are the same. But rarely, one of these two servers has outdated info. If your box is configured to only request DNS resolution from that server alone, then you can get into weird situations like what you have described.