Has anyone had trouble accessing the forum today?

[LaaLaa]

As title says. Problem possibly limited to virginmedia?
Be interested to know if anyone else has been affected.

[Basualdo]

Nowt untoward here toďay.

[Shedboy]

I couldn't access it until late in the afternoon and I'm with Virgin Media.

[Chris]

Not today.

Had problems yesterday.

I'm with Sky.

[Shedboy]

I'm with Sky.

That's because you can't find a virgin in Glasgow.

[Zambo]

I'm with Sky.

That's because you can't find a virgin in Glasgow.

badum tish

[warmleatherette]

All good here on talktalk and 3

[the rotary club]

Another unhappy virgin customer here.

Proxy server gave access.

[LaaLaa]

Looks like it's something to do with virginmedia's dns server.

I had a similar problem 2 days ago and later that day when I got on I made a note of the site's ip, and today when I couldn't get on I added the ip to my hosts file and that fixed it.

To add the site's ip to the hosts file...

For me (XP) it's in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
but for other os'es it'll be elsewhere so you might have to google to find what folder it's in.
In there is a file called hosts (no file extension , just hosts).
EDIT: Wiki has location of hosts file for different os'es. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_%28file%29

Open the file in notepad and scroll past any text that's in there already and on a new line add
(Don't add the "CODE: SELECT ALL" part! )

Code: Select all

23.229.183.226  www.talkforum.co.uk

After doing that, close your browser and reopen it. It's possible you might even have to reboot, but I didn't need to.
In fact it's probably best to wait until you next have the problem, then you'll be able to see the fix in action and know it worked for sure. (Save this info to notepad as if and when you have the problem you won't be able to see this page!)

You can happily leave that entry in your hosts file for a long time but it'll mean that at a later date if the forum changes ip you'll not be able to access it because the hosts will be sending it to the old ip.

Later you can remove the entry from the hosts file, or you can change the entry in your hosts file to this

Code: Select all

# 23.229.183.226  www.talkforum.co.uk

which deactivates that entry, then it's an easier job to re-add it again later by just deleting the hash sign.

Also note that some antivirus programs might point out that you have an entry in your hosts file.

[Shedboy]

Or you could just wait a few hours for the problem to be fixed.

[LaaLaa]

Or you could just wait a few hours for the problem to be fixed.

Of course, plus some might be wary of making such a change to the hosts file if they're not fully au fait with how things work, which is fair enough.

[Chris]

I'm with Sky.

That's because you can't find a virgin in Glasgow.

badum tish

Both reported for goading.

[Shedboy]

Or you could just wait a few hours for the problem to be fixed.

Of course, plus some might be wary of making such a change to the hosts file if they're not fully au fait with how things work, which is fair enough.

Which is why I'll wait but thanks for the advice, Laa.

[birdie]

I know that Virgin was off for for about 12 hours around Dudley way few days ago, upgrading or something, it seems that they upgrade every couple of months in that part of the country. lucky Dudley

[m4rkb]

I know that Virgin was off for for about 12 hours around Dudley way few days ago, upgrading or something, it seems that they upgrade every couple of months in that part of the country. lucky Dudley

There is no amount of upgrading that will make much difference in Dudlay, birdie

[Zambo]

I've been to Dudley twice. Once when my parents took me to the zoo, and once to do a stock check. Never been back since, and never likely to go again.

[birdie]

I know that Virgin was off for for about 12 hours around Dudley way few days ago, upgrading or something, it seems that they upgrade every couple of months in that part of the country. lucky Dudley

There is no amount of upgrading that will make much difference in Dudlay, birdie

off topic I know, but the first time I went to Dudley I thought that there was something strange but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, then I realised what it was, 99% of the women were quite short in stature and had, what I can only describe as, very sturdy legs. Must be the physical geography of the place, not too many streets 'on the flat', everywhere seemed to have an incline to a greater or lesser degree.

[Alex]

If your ISP is having problems with their dns service, another option is to change from the default settings in your modem/router and use a dedicated service.

The big free ones are Google dns (rock solid) and opendns (which also provides some value add features such as protection from dodgie sites).

Just google for the ip addies and instructions if you need them.

[Basualdo]

Im having a cunting mare on this place today. Its cutting out and going down every few minutes. Both on Chrome and whatever shitty browser my tablet uses.
I'm not having any hassle on any other sites on either.

[AlcoholBrazil]

The Virgin cunts are boiling my piss on this. This on top of asking an extra £5.60 a month for their triple package
of Tivo box, Tinternet and Landline. This makes me want to take a match to Branson's stupid beard.
If he wants to make us plebs pay for his new spaceship , the super-rich astronaut wannabees can cough it up, not use the commoners as a cash cow .
Following laalaa's advice. On windows 7 , the hosts file is in a subfolder called etc.

[Zambo]

Having probs today as well, and did what Laa suggested. Works but very slow. Taken the ip back off the host now and seems to be OK at the minute.

[Lord Notin Kwestion]

Yup. Seems like the forum is fucking up again.

[Jonathan]

Couldn't get on all morning yet was getting alerts via Tapatalk.

[birdie]

Had to try several times this morning, eventually got on and it did the same just a few minutes ago, it's not Virgins fault this time, I'm with BT now.

[Arthur Brutal]

Virgin Media was down in this part of London this morning but was back around 1pm.