OT - this is creepy.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

well, my current plan is to use the IP address of a non-responsive site to find the blocked server. your plan, and thanks for it, requires a responsive one. unfortunatly, a responsive site is probably not using the theoretical non-responsive server.

[Katchoo]

Originally posted by narf poit chez BOOM:
well, my current plan is to use the IP address of a non-responsive site to find the blocked server. your plan, and thanks for it, requires a responsive one. unfortunatly, a responsive site is probably not using the theoretical non-responsive server.

Hmmm.... So you need the full traceroute path to a website that you can't get a response out of in order to see which server along the traceroute is the one causing the problem?

Well, you'll likely need access to a ping or traceroute program not on your ISPs network (since almost everyone on your ISPs network should be experiencing the same problem as you're seeing). You could call your ISPs Tech Support Helpdesk and get them to run a few traceroutes for you and either mail you the results or read some of the server IPs to you over the phone.

Or, you could try an Online ping & traceroute site. Try this one out: network-tools.com . Just enter in your IP/Domain Name in the field in the middle, and hit the radio button next to the type of scan you want to do (ping/trace/dns lookup) and it'll give you back a response.

Doing a search for "Online ping traceroute" on Yahoo or Google will get you other sites too.

What you'll want to do is run a Traceroute on your end first, then the same one Online, and then compare the 2 to see which server the connection stops at.

I'm not sure you'll be able to bypass servers though. Unless you've got something that you can plug IPs into to specifiy a path to use to get to a site, then your other alternative would be to get yourself temporary access onto another network/ISP which would hopefully use a different path to get to the site you want.

Narf, if you're looking for an Everest of a Project to kill time, you're probably on the right path

If it's a case of dead/non-responsive server's on the path to a certain website, then your ISP may be helpless in fixing it. Once a problem is diagnosed outside your ISPs network, the ISP tends to "pass the buck" back onto you to notify whoever it is that runs the dead server. You might aswell start dropping anvils on your own head since you'll get futher that way than trying to track down/contact the operator of a routing server

[Jack Simth]

You could try them using a proxy in an attempt to get around things, Triumph PC, perhaps.

[ October 22, 2003, 23:25: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Jack Simth]

... Hmm... can't edit previous to add more info; oh well.

Anyway, a proxy can/will slow things down considerably if you are on a decent connection. I tried TriumphPC for this post, for instance - it adds a little tiny banner up at the top, advertising itself, nothing more, and slows things down.

There's a few odd things - I'm logged in, but the script says I'm not, so logging off requires a small amount of tinkering with the URL to get it to send the logoff variable, but nothing difficult.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

heh. while someone else was using the computer, the problem got fixed. there goes an interesting project.

but in the interest of curiosity, couldn't i tell my firewall to aviod the theoretical previously blocked server and route around it like that?