Anyone having trouble loading pages from Serverfault?

Question

Stack Overflow all fine, SuperUser all fine, even meta all fine, but Serverfault frequently just 'gives up' in Safari 4.

I've tried it from 2 up-to-date Mac OS X machines, in both Safari and Firefox, and it seems really hit and miss - I've cleared the caches and restarted both browsers, but I can't seem to find the problem. The 'sister' sites are all working fine but ServerFault just doesn't want to load. From the activity log in Safari, it looks like it times-out with this;

http://serverfault.com/content/js/master.js?v=3731

this just doesn't ever seem to finish loading. Any thoughts? This has been a problem at both my office and at home, so I've no reason to believe it's a broadband issue (though to be fair it's the same provider at both locations).

edit: I've tried it on 2 machines, both browsers, 2 physical locations, so 8 permutations. I'll try to get more diagnostic information and run on a few more permutations.

Answer 1

Can't seem to connect to serverfault at all - seems to be DNS issue.

$ dig +short @208.67.222.222  stackoverflow.com
69.59.196.211

$ dig +short @208.67.222.222  meta.stackoverflow.com
69.59.196.213

$ dig +short @208.67.222.222  superuser.com
69.59.196.219

$ dig @208.67.222.222  serverfault.com

; <<>> DiG 9.6.1-RedHat-9.6.1-2.fc11 <<>> @208.67.222.222 serverfault.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 16033
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;serverfault.com.       IN  A

;; Query time: 12 msec
;; SERVER: 208.67.222.222#53(208.67.222.222)
;; WHEN: Sat Jul 18 16:38:59 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 33

---

$ dig @ns22.domaincontrol.com serverfault.com

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> @ns22.domaincontrol.com serverfault.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 58675
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;serverfault.com.               IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
serverfault.com.        3600    IN      A       69.59.196.212

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
serverfault.com.        3600    IN      NS      ns21.domaincontrol.com.
serverfault.com.        3600    IN      NS      ns22.domaincontrol.com.

;; Query time: 81 msec
;; SERVER: 208.109.255.11#53(208.109.255.11)
;; WHEN: Sat Jul 18 23:20:00 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 101

I still can't get this from any other dns server... I've put it in /etc/hosts for now

Answer 2

ping serverfault.com
ping: unknown host serverfault.com

in Slovenia.

Answer 3

Can't repro -- just browsed a bunch in Safari 4 on SF and not seeing any issues.

Answer 4

Oddly enough, when I try to dig from stackoverflow's nameserver, from a UPC connection in .ie, I get no answer:

; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P2 <<>> @216.69.185.11 serverfault.com ; (1 server found) ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 552 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION: ;serverfault.com. IN A

;; Query time: 8 msec ;; SERVER: 216.69.185.11#53(216.69.185.11) ;; WHEN: Sun Jul 19 12:11:23 2009 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 33

When I try the exact same thing from a box in France (on ovh), I get an answer

; <<>> DiG 9.4.2-P2 <<>> @216.69.185.11 serverfault.com ; (1 server found) ;; global options: printcmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 33998 ;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION: ;serverfault.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION: serverfault.com. 3600 IN A 69.59.196.212

;; AUTHORITY SECTION: serverfault.com. 3600 IN NS ns21.domaincontrol.com. serverfault.com. 3600 IN NS ns22.domaincontrol.com.

;; Query time: 83 msec ;; SERVER: 216.69.185.11#53(216.69.185.11) ;; WHEN: Sun Jul 19 12:11:05 2009 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 101

I get similar data from other nameservers, so I think UPC must be silently redirecting DNS requests. Out of interest, how many of the other users suffering from this are on UPC?

Answer 5

I'm in Sweden and I get the same problem.

> dig serverfault.com                        

; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P1 <<>> serverfault.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

> dig stackoverflow.com                      

; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P1 <<>> stackoverflow.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 57515
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 2

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;stackoverflow.com.             IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
stackoverflow.com.      4507    IN      A       69.59.196.211

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
stackoverflow.com.      134614  IN      NS      ns52.domaincontrol.com.
stackoverflow.com.      134614  IN      NS      ns51.domaincontrol.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns51.domaincontrol.com. 3166    IN      A       216.69.185.26
ns52.domaincontrol.com. 3166    IN      A       208.109.255.26

;; Query time: 0 msec
;; SERVER: 10.0.0.1#53(10.0.0.1)
;; WHEN: Sun Jul 19 14:32:48 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 135

Answer 6

Finland here, also no reach to serverfault.com

$ dig serverfault.com

; <<>> DiG 9.5.1-P2 <<>> serverfault.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

There is my attempt going to get a woot badge on all sites.