Web Servers Down

[SUM1]

Every now and then something happens and my website goes down for a while. It happened now while I was editing avatar options in my blog. I went to save and it just said "The connection timed out. The server at spikeballunion.com is taking too long to respond." This happens on average for 5 or so hours every week. It's a little annoying and I would really like some help with whats going wrong thanks.

[fwh-Robert]

Hi SUM1,

Welcome to the forums!

I would like to reassure you that Freewind Hosting takes uptime and service availablility seriously. We pride ourselves for delivering 99.9% uptime and availability to all of our customers. All servers are monitored 24/7 across multiple geographical locations every 10 minutes - ensuring that your site is online and available 24/7/365.

This issue should really be raised through our support system located at https://my.freewhosting.com where our support engineers are ready to assist.

To help us with your issue, we require some more information. You mention that this occurs when you are saving avatar options on your blog. Are there any other scenarios when this occurs? I.E., general browsing of your website?

You also mention, "this happens on average for 5 or so hours every week". At what times during the day does this issue occur? Is it only when editing avatar options?

Finally, when this issue occurs - are you then able to browse the rest of your website? If you are not, then we would advise you to run a tracert on your website.

In Windows, go to Start > Run. Type "cmd" (without quotes). When the command prompt opens type: "tracert www.spikeballunion.com" (without quotes). If you can then take a screen grab we can then assist you further.

[SUM1]

When I said it happened when editing avatar options it doesn't always happen there. It happens at any time when I am browsing or editing my site. Right now when I am posting here it is down. It has no fixed time when it happens, it just comes out of the blue. When it happens I can only get back to my site my pressing back. If I click any further links that direct me "forward" it will come up with the server error. And I am afraid I cannot do this through my.freewhosting.com because it is down at the same time as my site. I have done trace route before so I know most of it already. I will do this process now and tell you the results. Here is a pic:

http://a.imageshack.us/img828/8331/c...ofspikebal.png

The connection times out and it keeps trying over and over to reconnect. No connection.

[fwh-Robert]

Dear SUM1,

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

We have a few more questions which we would appreciate you could answer in order for us to help resolve this issue for you.

1. When the site is working and you can browse it - could you perform a tracert?
2. How long does this issue take to resolve itself?
3. At what times during the day does this issue occur?

Having looked at your tracert screenshot (http://a.imageshack.us/img828/8331/c...ofspikebal.png) I have noticed that on hop 8 - there is a very large latency on the network (427ms) and you are also receiving timeouts for every step after the virgin media network.

You should be seeing a "hop" step resolving to 95.154.239.140 (the IP address of your site).

We appreciate your understanding on this matter.

[SUM1]

This is a screenshot of the tracert while the site was up: http://a.imageshack.us/img706/8331/c...ofspikebal.png

Sometimes, such as yesterday, it took nearly a whole day for it to come back up. But sometimes it only goes down for half an hour. It is a very random routine, and what I said earlier about it being on average 5 hours a week is sort of becoming false. It usually happens in the morning when I first come on the computer, but today it didn't. Like I said I never really know when it will happen. It can extend through to the afternoon but it is not very common.

[fwh-Robert]

Hi SUM1,

Thank you for providing the information. We have followed up with our networking and routing team and we require some more information from you.

We are actively monitoring your website's log files for errors, and checking the status of the server's resources at the time these issues occur. If you could provide exact dates/times when these issues occur we will then be able to further investigate this issue for you.

We appreciate your understanding on this matter and would like to thank you for your patience.

[SUM1]

The problem has apparently stopped occuring now. I will inform you of any more abnormalities from now on.