EVTripPlanner? Don't you die on me!

[jerry33]

It was fine yesterday afternoon for Verizon, also. I wonder if some DNS's have a bad result cached? I'd recommend OpenDNS to those using their carrier's DNS, it's much better: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. The business side is now owned by Cisco, but the free consumer version is still OpenDNS, and I've used it for years and never had issues.

I run my own DNS, and EVTP was down for about a day, but the IP always resolved. One of either server issue, scheduled maintenance, or network issue is what I think happened. Once a site has been down for a few hours, DNS resolution depends on how long the cache is kept in the DNS server you talk to and how long the refresh interval is for that particular domain.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Wait.. Since when does a site being up or down have any relation to the DNS resolution of a domain name? They are entirely independent.

The only reason DNS resolution would change is if there's a DNS failover or other site status detection in place to change the IP address dynamically, which didn't happen here since the IP address never changed.

At any point in time I have several domains resolving to servers/IP addresses that don't exist. The DNS resolution for them never change.

 

[jerry33]

Wait.. Since when does a site being up or down have any relation to the DNS resolution of a domain name? They are entirely independent.

If the site (including if it's on some hosting server) is responsible for it's DNS listing, and you can't get to it, eventually the DNS entry will time out and become unavailable because the authoritative DNS server can't be reached.

 

[HankLloydRight]

If the site (including if it's on some hosting server) is responsible for it's DNS listing, and you can't get to it, eventually the DNS entry will time out and become unavailable because the authoritative DNS server can't be reached.

That never happens. If someone is stupid enough to host their website and their own authoritative DNS server on the same server, they get what they deserve. No hosting company on the planet will have a hosting server hosting dozens/hundreds of websites on the same machines as their auth DNS. I think you're confusing website hosting and DNS hosting. They are completely separate and independent things, nobody is going to combine them.

You said this like it's true for every website out there, including evtripplanner.com:

Once a site has been down for a few hours, DNS resolution depends on how long the cache is kept in the DNS server you talk to and how long the refresh interval is for that particular domain.

Which is just not true, except in the extremely unlikely circumstance both a website and DNS are on the same server that goes down. And definitely not true for evtripplaner.com.

 

[jerry33]

That never happens. If someone is stupid enough to host their website and their own authoritative DNS server on the same server, they get what they deserve. No hosting company on the planet will have a hosting server hosting dozens/hundreds of websites on the same machines as their auth DNS. I think you're confusing website hosting and DNS hosting. They are completely separate and independent things, nobody is going to combine them.

You said this like it's true for every website out there, including evtripplanner.com:

My thought was that if the network connection to the hosting data centre was down, for whatever reason, The DNS server wouldn't be reachable either. Obviously large companies have multiple data centres, but a small hosting company wouldn't.

 

[boaterva]

Very strange that certain providers were down for a lot longer for this one site. Comcast and others must do some sort of 'optimization' when a site is down? No clue, I've not used Comcast in decades and a providers' DNS in almost that long. Whenever a provider was 'down' was almost always their DNS was down. Just nuts.

But on this issue here reporting one site down when it wasn't, I can't see what's going on.

 

[Yarder]

I've not been on it for months and I wanted to do a possible trip evaluation today, and it's not working on my laptop, my tesla, nor my phone.

Maybe the owner got hit by a bus.

 

[HankLloydRight]

My thought was that if the network connection to the hosting data centre was down, for whatever reason, The DNS server wouldn't be reachable either. Obviously large companies have multiple data centres, but a small hosting company wouldn't.

Not in this case.. the IP for the site resolves to Frontier Communications... so at first glance, I'd guess he's hosting the website on his own cable modem connection, or possibly a small hosting company connected to Frontier, but that would have to be a really small hosting company to not have their own IP subnet allocation. Also, the name servers for the domain are from Enom or Tucows who also is the domain registrar, which by far is the most common place to have DNS resolution for small websites.

But even generally speaking, assuming a hosting company also hosts their own Auth DNS, it's phenomenally idiotic to host that within the same network infrastructure. There a reason most people and businesses outsource their authoritative DNS with backups and failovers around the globe.

Very strange that certain providers were down for a lot longer for this one site. Comcast and others must do some sort of 'optimization' when a site is down? No clue, I've not used Comcast in decades and a providers' DNS in almost that long. Whenever a provider was 'down' was almost always their DNS was down. Just nuts.

But on this issue here reporting one site down when it wasn't, I can't see what's going on.

This happened to me about 8 years ago on a large website I run. The website was up and running normally, but not a single Road Runner customer in the country could access my site. For everyone else, it was totally business as usual. This went on for two or three days, and every time my users complained to RR, their NOC would do a ping or traceroute, which would return nothing, so they would point their fingers back at me ("it's their problem!"). It wasn't until one of my users "had a friend who worked there" and contacted him directly that they would listen and actually realize that it was only their customers affected. After another day or so, they finally tracked down an errant router that was mis-programmed and dropping all packets to my website. Once they fixed that one error, everything started working normally again. So that wasn't even a DNS issue (which usually is the cause of stuff not working).

 

[SomeJoe7777]

evtripplanner.com is having a DNSSEC problem. See my post here:

Evtripplanner Down?

 

[HankLloydRight]

evtripplanner.com is having a DNSSEC problem. See my post here:

Evtripplanner Down?

Nice find.

 

[boaterva]

evtripplanner.com is having a DNSSEC problem. See my post here:

Evtripplanner Down?

Excellent! Sometimes security doesn't help keep things running. Or you need to put it on your calendar to renew it in advance!

 

[smilepak]

I did a quick search of the forum but couldn't find any comments.... EVTripPlanner.com has been down for a few days. Is it shuttered for good? Has anyone heard anything?

I donated and asked about a mobile app, and he said he had some summer project ideas for the site, so I thought it would be with us for a while. I loved that site.

There is an iphone app that does similar to this website. It is called EVTO-Tesla

 

[rahs]

Leaving for a long trip this weekend. NYC area to LA. I had a great route planned with link saved. I downloaded the csv file but still would be nice to get this back up. I'll donate $50. Is there any way to get in touch with Ben and find out ETA or if he needs a donation to help get it back up?

Also, I know about the other planner sites but they're not nearly as good as evtp.

 

[cpa]

I am planning an excursion as well. I have read through all the postings, including the one referenced above by somejoe.

So, what do all the references mean? Is the site toast?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rockster]

I've recently discovered abetterrouteplanner.com. My first impression is favorable, even though it's lacking some features that evtripplanner has (had?).

 

[Ugliest1]

Ben has posted in the other thread saying it was a power outage and the server didn't reboot automatically. They have done so now, and it's back.

 

[CHG-ON]

Working like a charm for me!

 

[cpa]

I used it on Wednesday to plan a trip from home to Phoenix returning through Vegas, Bishop and over the Sierra.

It would not route me from Mammoth Lakes to Fish Camp over Tioga Pass. It insisted on using Sonora Pass. I could not change the route manually.

Tioga Pass opened to automobile traffic one week ago today.