Wikipedia Outage

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Wikipedia Outage

Postby jon » Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:29 pm

I've never ever seen a Wikipedia outage. Before now:
Invalid host name (docroot=/usr/local/apache/common/docroot/www.wikipedia.org), can't determine language.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby jon » Mon Jul 25, 2011 2:31 pm

Workaround is to type http://en.wikipedia.org
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby PMC » Mon Jul 25, 2011 3:31 pm

jon wrote:I've never ever seen a Wikipedia outage. Before now:
Invalid host name (docroot=/usr/local/apache/common/docroot/www.wikipedia.org), can't determine language.


Probably occured because you are using Shaw DNS, which now intercepts the request, unless you turn the intercept off....
---------
Starting April 5, 2011, Shaw will begin implementing a DNS Redirect service. If you are a Shaw Internet customer and type an invalid URL, you would have normally received either a generic browser error, or likely a Google/Bing search results page with a list of recommended sites that closely match what you typed. You will now see a Shaw-guided search results page in its place.

If you would like to bypass this service, please follow these instructions.

http://nxr.shaw.ca/
--------

http://www.wikipedia.org will give you a language selection page

http://wikipedia.org defaults to the above.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby PMC » Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:17 pm

To add one more bit to the above...

Jon, you didn't mention what browser that you are using... I have found that the Google Chrome latest version has a few bugs and will pull a Google search page result of the URL that is typed in, regardless if the URL address is correct or not. The same applies to the latest Opera and IE. This result gets compounded by which operating system that you are using.... Linux or the various Windows versions of XP, 2000, 2008, Vista, 7 etc.

I have always said the Firefox browser is the best, and Firefox has never disappointed. Firefox is well known to pay for finding bugs in their software.

I also want to add that some places in the world are now filtering DNS, and blocking website access, because the government has decried that it has the right to do so.... Australia being one country... there are some people in the U.S. that are demanding this too. The original idea was to stop people from accessing sites that promote under age/child porn, but the same filters can be used to stop access to any website, like Wikileaks as example.

This filtering is nothing more than bureaucrats that have no idea on how the net works, imposing their views. It is very easy to get around any kind of address filtering if you know how, and there are many examples in the search engines on how to do it... basicly you open up the network settings on your own machine, and insert another DNS address that will work. There are many websites that offer DNS services, which is why Shaw lets you opt out of their interception.

If the day ever arrives that DNS is totally filtered by government, then it will be the day of BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby jon » Tue Jul 26, 2011 8:29 am

My Wikipedia problem went away the next time I checked. And a Google tells me that it occurred to others, too, a few of whom reported it on discussion forums around the world.

Interesting about Shaw DNS scanning, as I was not aware of it and it might explain some issues radiofan and I had shortly after Shaw implemented this. As we moved web sites from one web server to another, it took many hours longer for one or the other of us, both on Shaw, to see the new server when we typed the web site URL.

At least one anti-malware software product (VIPRE) is beginning to do its own DNS handling, to stop you from going to a web site with malware on it that would automatically infect your computer. I had been using ClearCloud (a free service offered by VIPRE's owners) to do my DNS for me, for the same reason, but it is being closed down on September 1st, in favour of the DNS handling inside VIPRE.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby PMC » Tue Jul 26, 2011 2:02 pm

jon wrote:At least one anti-malware software product (VIPRE) is beginning to do its own DNS handling, to stop you from going to a web site with malware on it that would automatically infect your computer. I had been using ClearCloud (a free service offered by VIPRE's owners) to do my DNS for me, for the same reason, but it is being closed down on September 1st, in favour of the DNS handling inside VIPRE.


Anti-malware software should not be doing DNS lookups... all the web browsers now will verify the site being accessed if the setting is turned on.

As I have mentioned previously, the original concepts of the internet are slowing being destroyed by the greedy and the stupid !
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby jon » Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:38 pm

Thinking about it, I realize that I don't know how VIPRE prevents you from seeing sites that carry malware. It is undoubtedly done with the built-in Firewall, but PMC is right: it would make no sense for them to run their own DNS, as ClearCloud did. More likely, they filter all requests against a list of known bad web sites.

The end result is that you get a VIPRE warning page instead of the real "bad" site.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby PMC » Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:29 pm

jon wrote:Thinking about it, I realize that I don't know how VIPRE prevents you from seeing sites that carry malware. It is undoubtedly done with the built-in Firewall, but PMC is right: it would make no sense for them to run their own DNS, as ClearCloud did. More likely, they filter all requests against a list of known bad web sites.

The end result is that you get a VIPRE warning page instead of the real "bad" site.


The biggest threat in virus are the rootkit type, where it sets itself on the boot sector of the hard disk. The usual solution is to format the hard disk and use the OS recovery disc to re-install... or use a Linux Live disc to fix the boot sector or follow these instructions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

Why would anti-malware software need to do DNS lookups ?... why would anti-malware software need to have a builtin firewall, when Windows versions XP, Vista, and 7 have/comes with built in firewall software and a DNS client software ?

Windows Vista/7 annoys every user to run a scan of their machine with the latest scan software from Microsoft.

Adding more software, that is not required software, doesn't make the product better. It only shows they try to fool the ignorant consumer.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby jon » Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:45 pm

While I have no experience with the relatively new (and free) Microsoft anti-malware, my experience with other anti-malware products for Windows has been very negative. Anything even reasonably comprehensive has become bloatware in recent years, making older machines with less than 2GB of RAM "glacial" in terms of reliable response time, i.e. - very slow.

I have used the built-in firewall in Windows and found it worse than having no firewall at all.

Microsoft should "stick to their knitting" and stay out of areas they have no clue about. To say Security is one of those areas may no longer be completely true. Anti-malware and firewalls would get very little argument even from Microsoft lovers. I cannot name one I.T. department in North American business or government organization that uses Windows firewall or Microsoft's anti-malware solution. For good reason.
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Re: Wikipedia Outage

Postby PMC » Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:51 am

jon wrote: Microsoft should "stick to their knitting" and stay out of areas they have no clue about.


I choked on my morning coffee after reading that line Jon :)

Today is the 30th birthday of Microsoft DOS http://www.extremetech.com/computing/91 ... -old-today

I would like to recommend Gparted, the live version, for any techie reading this. It is an ISO file, that is burned to a CD and then booted.

Gparted is/will partition or re-partition a hard disk if you want to run a machine in dual boot, or to simply have multiple logical drives on a physical hard disk. http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/ It can handle the Microsoft FAT32 or NTFS formats, and it can do a half dozen other file formats that are used in other operating systems... excellent concept of use, and send them a couple of bucks via Paypal if you agree that it is useful to you. Every techie should have this software tool.
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