Free Republic DNS entry seems to be gone

N/A | 04/04/2016 | N/A

[Pox]

I was surfing FR this afternoon and suddenly was unable to access any page on FR and the error stated the server could not be found.

I located the IP address, 209.157.64.200, of the server and then added an entry into my PC's host file and I can now see FR again.

I still do not see a DNS entry for FR, and that is interesting.

[BigEdLB]

Frontier Telecom is creative I had help from NYRepublican to fix.
Later

[N. Theknow]

I am getting the same with Frontier on home network.

LG smartphone with Verizon wireless is allowing me access.

No problem with any other web sites, just FR.

[CMB_polarization]

Is the USG or someone else trying to degrade our communications?

[kingu]

For your android...

Long press on the link for the WiFi connection, then modify connection, then click the advanced options, change the dhcp to static and you can change the dns entries. When I changed mine to OpenDNS (208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220), freerepublic.com would not work, but http://www.freerepublic.com would.

[CGASMIA68]

Thats fine and works for me too but when I use that I can view but cant log on.

I had to change to 50.116.23.211/226.
That works OK viewing and logging on.
None of the DNS that frontier goes me allows me to log on.
He gave me this 74.40.74.40/41

Frontier tech supports answer was “it should work”

They have a problem

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Make note of my screen name, and if you need computer stuff explained msg me. I am pretty good at explaining in terms that non-techies immediately get.

I once had a 95 year old man 1/2 way across the country go throw his main breaker, leave it off for 10 seconds, and then turn it back on. (He couldn’t figure out where his cable modem was, so I asked how many clocks he would have to reset (3) and confirmed he knew how before I had him “reboot” his whole house.)

;-) (The things I do for family friends.... LOL)

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

What OS are you on? Just edit your hosts file. add the following:

209.157.64.200 freerepublic.com
209.157.64.200 www.freerepublic.com

I am on frontier and no problems at all with those two little lines.

[Cedar]

Hard-wired to Charter modem and can now log-in to FR on my laptop. But still cannot do it if using wireless—using Belkin wireless router, I get the “can’t find page” message.

[onedoug]

Sorry to bug you as you must be busy, but could you please give us an update?

[MainiacSquirrel]

It looks like the problem is with the DNS Servers hosted by gkg.net, other websites using the gkg.net name servers are down too, so someone should contact gkg.net and tell them about the problem.

[Slambat]

Your the badass. Worked for me. Thanks.

[Jim Robinson]

Sorry, have no update.

[The Continental Op]

Still out on west coast as of Tuesday AM. The Mac fix worked but only once. To get on now I have to use Startpage as home page, get to site via proxy, and then once on site, click “unproxy” to actually enter and sign in. So, has it been determined if this is a hack job?

[Zack Attack]

That sounds like what I am seeing from my Firefox WorldIP addon. It says:

“IP address does not coincide with the addresses of external DNS servers. Most likely that is a DNS cache poisoning attack”

Hostname: www.freerepublic.com
HostIP: 198.105.254.130, 198.105.244.130 (data center name also was different)

The host IP normally appears as 209.157.64.201, 209.157.64.200

It seems to be random as to which set of host IP I get on clicking articles. Not sure this is any value but wanted to mention it in case it was.

[RoosterRedux]

You're a genius. I did what you suggested and here I am.

Will I need to change the "user" settings back when Jim gets FR fixed?

[Scutter]

How to edit hosts file:

• Windows 10
• Windows 8/8.1
• Windows 7
• OS-X (Mac)

Add this line to the end of your hosts file:

209.157.64.200	freerepublic.com

On the Mac, it should start working right away, however Windows has a cache in memory that must be flushed before it will start working. The easiest way to do this is to just reboot the computer. If you want to skip the reboot, just open a CMD prompt and run "ipconfig /flushdns". Also, restart your browser, as some browsers also cache this information.

[John W]

Sent a note to their support email. Doubt if that will accomplish much.

[CreviceTool]

AT&T Wireless has no issues. TWC forces me to use IP address 209.157.64.201 to avoid DNS error. Afraid to authenticate using IP address though. Posted via AT&T Wireless.

[zzeeman]

Thanks for your post, Scutter.

I had added the FR mapping to my /etc/hosts file on my Mac once in the past, so I am fine from this machine. Now I also have an Android tablet, does anyone have info for a similar workaround for an Android tablet?

I have no clue about the networking on an Android.

Also, something that you can do on a Mac to ensure that your changes take hold right away, is to issue:
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
from the command prompt after editing /etc/hosts to flush the DNS cahce right away.

[Scutter]

I think on tablets and phones it's a bit more complicated because those devices are generally locked down (or at least that's the intent) so that the average user doesn't screw them up. However, if you search for this topic, there are some articles discussing how to change the hosts file on Android.