Author Topic: Can't view my own website on home broadband [edit - SOLVED]  (Read 1421 times)

Can't view my own website on home broadband [edit - SOLVED]
« on: 05 December, 2018, 09:42:27 pm »
I have a website set up on one domain ("A"), and forward my business domain ("B") to the website hosted on "A" - so if a customer types the URL for domain B they end up at the right place on domain A.

Using my mobile 4G (or anyone else's home broadband or mobile) I can type in domain B and view my site just fine, but if I try to use my home broadband I get a "server cannot be found" error.  I can however directly view the the website if I use the domain A URL
It's as if my router isn't recognising the domain forward but everything else does.  I get the same problem in Firefox, Safari etc until I switch the router off and use a different comms. approach.

What's going on, it's driving me nuts.  It's done it on one or two other websites as well where I can only view it if I use a mobile hotspot.  It's not like my website is owt dodgy or has a dodgy name or no SSL certificate.  Everyone else seems able to view it fine.

Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband - why?
« Reply #1 on: 05 December, 2018, 10:07:20 pm »
Start off by pinging both domains. IME, it's usually something to do with the DNS server your home broadband is using.

If domain b can't be resolved, then try changing the DNS provider to google 8.8.8.8 or opendns 208.67.222.222

Kim

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Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband - why?
« Reply #2 on: 05 December, 2018, 10:19:55 pm »
It might be temporary: DNS changes take time to propagate, as they get cached by the resolver.  If you've just made changes to domain B, your ISP's name server may have the old data in its cache until it expires.  Hitting some other DNS server that doesn't have anything for B in its cache yet will cause it to load the current version, hence you can get inconsistent results for a period.

Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband - why?
« Reply #3 on: 05 December, 2018, 10:31:57 pm »
Your own computer may also do client-side DNS caching (macOS and Windows usually do). You may be able to flush the cache without rebooting, although the procedure varies depending on the OS version.

Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband - why?
« Reply #4 on: 05 December, 2018, 10:44:06 pm »
There's no connection of any kind between the hosting of your business server, the forwarding service, and your home broadband? (Well, obviously, they're all on the Internet, but that's not what I mean.)

How is the forwarding done? If I've read it right, customers ask for http://www.mybusinessname.com/ and get back a page not from that address, but from http://www.myrealsiteaddress.com/

It might be not your broadband, but some hyperactive security software on your PC spotting some kind of dodgy-looking forwarding? Have you tried using a phone on your home broadband as well as a PC, to see if the same thing happens?

On the premise that URLs are not normally confidential, you could always post the real addresses and let us play? We promise not to buy anything ;)

Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband - why?
« Reply #5 on: 08 December, 2018, 11:40:51 pm »
It might be temporary: DNS changes take time to propagate, as they get cached by the resolver.  If you've just made changes to domain B, your ISP's name server may have the old data in its cache until it expires.  Hitting some other DNS server that doesn't have anything for B in its cache yet will cause it to load the current version, hence you can get inconsistent results for a period.

I suspect this was the issue.  The DNS settings had been updated.  It all seems to be working tickety-boo today.

Thanks everyone for the input.

Kim

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Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband - why?
« Reply #6 on: 08 December, 2018, 11:48:47 pm »
It might be temporary: DNS changes take time to propagate, as they get cached by the resolver.  If you've just made changes to domain B, your ISP's name server may have the old data in its cache until it expires.  Hitting some other DNS server that doesn't have anything for B in its cache yet will cause it to load the current version, hence you can get inconsistent results for a period.

I suspect this was the issue.  The DNS settings had been updated.  It all seems to be working tickety-boo today.

If Forward Planning is a possibility, this sort of problem can be avoided by temporarily setting very short TTL values for the domain before making changes.  Unfortunately, you need whatever the current TTL value is worth of advanced notice in order to do this...

Re: Can't view my own website on home broadband [edit - SOLVED]
« Reply #7 on: 09 December, 2018, 12:15:38 am »
And it depends whether your provider allows this. I'm used to doing it for server/hosting changes, but at my current place our DNS provider doesn't allow TTL management.