Posted on 04/04/2016 2:27:46 PM PDT by 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.
I had to try it a couple of times, but it worked.
Same here. Phone works, but not WiFi.
Windows 8.1 “hosts” file is a system file, and by default it is hidden. UN-hiding system files may be beneath the skill level of some posters but probably not most.
Modifying the “hosts” file will require a user to open from notepad or similar text editor, after starting/running that text editor as administrator.
The file location: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
I modified to include BOTH entries
209.157.64.200 www.freerepublic.com
209.157.64.200 freerepublic.com
In the old days we could sign on to a BBS at a certain phone number at a certain time over a hard line and wait to post my responses and get new messages. We could listen in to news groups an d post. We could check semi dead email drops etc.. so that I could find out what is going on in the world.
Now, I go to search on one of the major data aggregators. We all do.
We should all develop a game plan. A network of modems, phone numbers, mailboxes etc in every “red” county of the USA. Something low tech, like smoke signals would be hard to crack. Tapping land lines is cost prohibitive as leos both good and bad at every level are more addicted to data aggregation programs and networks, than we are.
currently if I were a government agency gaming an attack, I would collect data during the recovery period from an event like this and see what meta data I could assemble on what network is feeding this or that activity. A final take down would wipe out every piece of data infrastructure at the center of the web, relative to the site I was taking out. I would move the ICANN DNS serves and legal authority over over the network off shore, to avoid legal requirements of the USA. The cost of anyone debugging the network of users they have built over the past say... 25 years, would be so extensive, the target would not be able to afford it... and if I were the government... I would make discovery very difficult with continual “whack a mole” outages that were ongoing.
What would a community organizer do to destroy the community of nebulous ‘conservatives’. he would find a way to attack the community without them grasping what had happened... at strategic times... and while we are watching one thing, that cadre of government criminals... would be stealing an election.
Wisconsin is important to the GOPe and their advisors in the tech industry would not hesitate to assist them in testing a US conservative organization that is grass roots. GOPe sites like red state, national review, etc... would be exempt... for now.
Thank you very much - I could get on to FR with the IP, but couldn’t log in. Using your instructions as a starting place, I was able to change the HOST file & now I am on FR and logged in. Whew!!
I’m in California and having the same problem. I can only access on my Nokia over Verizon. So how did you fix it for your mom?
And do not use a space between the number and www.freerepublic.com (or freerepublic.com), use a TAB.
Can’t reach FR through LAN. We’re served through Frontier, now. It’s good on my Windows phone through Verizon.
I had to re-login to Facebook this morning, but Twitter was fine.
Thank you. I had been told to never monkey around in the Windows files and never had the need to. But, your directions gave me the confidence to try and it worked.
I used spaces, and it worked fine.
Well, this has been a learning experience. I’ve been unable to come aboard for half a day, then unable to post another half. The last piece was having to put www in front of freerepublic.com in the hosts file. That after figuring out how to navigate into administrator mode, save the new text file as ‘all files,’ uncheck ‘read only,’ and needlessly restart the computer twice. Whew.
however, this is the first time I've seen it continue during the day.
Something else must have happened, such as forgetting to turn on the DNS server after the maintenance.
Here's how:
How to change DNS Servers in Windows 7
Some suggested addresses to use in the process above can be found at:
https://www.opennicproject.org/nearest-servers/
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/free-dns-server/
Windows does some default behaviors that are quite annoying. Hiding extensions of known file types is one that I run up against all the time. One of the first things I do when I set up a new machine is change that. Also, when saving a text file, like hosts, you either have to change it or rename the file later.
As for the rest, I sorta purposefully didn't explain how to change hosts. If you know how, it's easy enough, but explaining it to people that don't already know can be a chore for the reasons you gave and I didn't want to "own" it. For years I used to keep an extensive list of Malware tips and tools on my FR homepage but it turned into a lot of work as it constantly evolved. It's not that I mind helping folks, I try to as I can, which is why I posted how I fixed it. Anyone familiar with hosts would pick up on that right away.
+1
I know what I did to avoid such problems and further to negate DDOS attacks was to switch to a DNS provider that has huge footprint so that the TTL is very for refresh. Not sure if it a great plan. But being able to have domain resolve to new IP addresses in about 1 minute. Which is pretty fast.
For the fix to work on an XP box we run, had to work in Safe Mode.
That’s odd. I know I’ve altered the hosts files on XP systems before without having to use safe mode.
I had trouble at Starbucks and Carl’s today getting in.
AS a test DU was going and available. I thought maybe it was more a political issue.
The issue seemed to be recognizing me as admin in normal mode.
Or perhaps the restart was needed?
I now have two hosts files. Is that a problem?
Since you’re posting, it doesn’t seem like a big problem!
But it’s probably best to have only one. What I do is to make a backup copy of the original hosts file and call it something obvious like “hosts.old”. Then I can play with the original one without worry.
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