A company I contract my services out to had some problems recently with not being able to access one of their websites, while everyone else outside of their company network could.
It was a headache with trying to process orders and manage customers when there was no way to view the actual orders, much less the payment information.
If you’ve ever experienced this same problem, you’ve probably pulled out your hair, fighting with the customer support personnel of your website hosting company, probably getting nowhere (because truth be told, most of them don’t really know what they are doing beyond what they were trained to do).
A Solution To Your Website Viewing Issue
If you’re having this problem and white-listing your public IP address doesn’t help, then the problem has nothing to do with the server settings your website is hosted on.
The problem most likely lies with the name servers owned by your internet service provider. When an internet service provider’s nameservers aren’t resolving IP addresses to their respective host names, this prevents you from seeing your website.
To fix this issue, simply following the steps outlined below:
- Click your “Start” menu (Windows Orb on the taskbar of Windows 7 & Vista).
- Select Control Panel.
- Double-Click Network & Sharing Center or Network Connections Icon.
- Click to Open “Local Area Connection”
- Click “Properties”
- Choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), then click “Properties”
- Click the radio button that says “Use the following DNS server addresses” and type in one of the below listed IP addresses in the “Preferred DNS Server” and “Alternate DNS Server” fields.
- Click the OK button, the close all of the open windows.
- Click on your “Start Menu” again.
- Click “Run” on Windows Vista or earlier, or type the following into the search field in Windows 7.
- Type cmd & hit the enter key.
- Type ipconfig /flushdns
- When it says that your DNS has been successfully flushed, close the window.
- You should be able to access your website via your preferred internet browser.
If you’re not using Windows, you can find a list of steps to following here:
List of Available DNS IP Addresses
You can use any of these available IP addresses you want. It doesn’t matter who your internet service provider is. I’d recommend OpenDNS over any of the others.
OpenDNS
- 208.67.222.222
- 208.67.220.220
Genuity
- 4.2.2.1
- 4.2.2.2
Level3
- 209.244.0.3
- 209.244.0.4
DNSAdvantage
- 156.154.70.1
- 156.154.71.1
- 8.8.8.8
- 8.8.4.4
DynDNS Internet Guide
- 216.146.35.35
- 216.146.36.36
Have you ever had any issues like this? How did you solve the problem?
Get a Gravatar
Loading ...
My name is Steven Sanders and I'm a Professional Blogger, Izea Insider, Web Designer, Social Media Enthusiast, Dad, Husband, and Friend.
Steven, thanks for providing the process for ‘fixing’ this website access problem – I do have a question about how to access this site using my FTP client – both of my computers (both running XP-SP2) are hooked-up to the same router, voip adapter and cable modem, and BOTH PCs are unable to access 5 websites which are hosted with the same company, and these 5 websites have the same IP address – we also can not access these sites using FTP!
Of course, other people can see these 5 sites, it seems that we’re the only ones who have access problems with this group of 5 sites (Steven, please note that we are able to see your site and others!)
Thanks again for the great post – if you or anyone in your audience has any comments or suggestions we would appreciate hearing from them too.
Yes, it is an unreliable DNS server issue. If the DNS server that you use is unavailable, you will not be able to access any website. Thankfully, you can always opt to use an alternative, much more reliable DNS server. A good example that you can use is OpenDNS .
You just need to change your current DNS settings to one or two OpenDNS IP Address – 208.67.222.222 or/and 208.67.220.220 . Thats it.
Thank god i found this… I was so frustrated with this, was just about to submit a ticket to my hosting provider. Worked like a charm…. thank you!!!
Hi, I tried that but still no luck, any other suggestions??
Hi, have you found a solution yet? I’ve got the same problem and would love to know how you fixed it if you did.
Hi, I also tried this and am still having issues seeing the site.
I am also interested in understanding why this would happen only with one particular site. I do not have this issue with any other site… why?
Hi Steve,
I’ve just had this problem today and your instructions fixed it.
Many thanks,
Richard
Hi, I have exactly the same problem. Can’t see any of our 5 websites or our webhosting providers site. Everyone else can see them and our webhosters say they are not blocking our IP. I tried following the instruction above but I still have the problem. Any other solutions ? Thanks in advance
Thanks SO F****ING much. You are a true hero.
it helped so much! thanks. Any reason why it does this sometimes and other times there are no issues?
Hey Steven,
Thanks a bunch for the step by step. I manage to fix the issue!
Akos
my problem is solved completely with reading steps of this post.thank you so muchhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
marvelous post ! just read it and all of your problem gonna solve !!!!
What a great help and solution! I was really worried about my website and now, many thanks to you, it is working. What a relief! The problem is we administer about 80 computers, and I have to configure the DNS for all of this computers? Thank you again!