Potential problem with fff.net domain name

POSTED BY: asarian
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 16:42
VIEWED: 6933
PAGE 1 of 1

ASARIAN

Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:12 PM

I don't want to alarm anybody... but I think we may have a potential problem with the fireflyfans.net domain name. A WHOIS query says the domain name has expired:

"Record expires on 06-Mar-2007"

And, indeed, fireflyfans.net is no longer reachable for a lot of folks. Myself included. The result of a dns lookup is RCODE 3, or "NXDOMAIN", which means that resolution was requested for a domain that does not exist (not a transient error, like a time-out). For others, it still works fine, though. They may still be running off DNS caches (or DNS proxy servers, and such). But fireflyfans.net has a TTL of 86400 seconds (one day); so DNS caches may soon run out.

Could be this will all resolve itself naturally. In case it does not, though, I found a temporay way around the DNS problem; which is to say, it's pretty standard way of defining certain types of (usually local) domains on servers.

Should you no longer be able to get a DNS resolution on fireflyfans.net, you can still reach fireflyfans.net by modifying your local HOSTS file in Windows (XP Prof.). Add these two entries:

168.215.229.9 fireflyfans.net
168.215.229.9 www.fireflyfans.net

The hosts file is typically located at:

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (or C:\Winnt\ ... ).

Open the file with a text editor, like notepad, add the two entries, and save the file.

N.B. Depending on how your system was set up, you have to add these entries to either the file HOSTS or LMHOSTS. Add it to the file that already has this line:

127.0.0.1 Localhost

That ought to keep her flying! Restart your browser for the changes to take effect.

RB

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

FOLLOWMAL

Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:19 PM

Also, if you're not having trouble but you start having trouble and the fix doesn't work or you're nervous about doing it...

come over to www.serenitymovie.org and visit the forum. Go to General Discussion and there at the top is a thread that's pinned called We're Campin' Out ... FFF.net is down...

Come and join us, it's our campin' style haven for when FFF.net is down.

Could be as Asarian says that this might not be necessary.. that all will be well, but there are folks unable to access the site and they're getting the above error. So.. this is backup.

www.goodworkspresents.org

CAPTAINCOUPI

Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:39 PM

I thought something was up. All that techno babble stuff doesn’t mean anything to me but I've been having trouble all day.

I couldn't get onto the site using http://www.fireflyfans.net/ and it was only after a little experimentation that I found that fireflyfan.net, (sans the 'S' at the end) works.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.bigdamnthankyou.com/

FOLLOWMAL

Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:46 PM

Wow.. www.fireflyfan.net worked? How odd....

Well, at least we're all aware of it now and we can watch out for each other and help each other find where to go to keep in touch.

Hopefully the technical folks will fix this and all will be well.

www.goodworkspresents.org

DAVESHAYNE

Thursday, March 8, 2007 11:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:

I don't want to alarm anybody... but I think we may have a potential problem with the fireflyfans.net domain name. A WHOIS query says the domain name has expired:

"Record expires on 06-Mar-2007"

Looks like the registration is now good through 2008. Thanks for the work around though It may come in usefull in a year. Thanks also to FollowMal. I couldn't for the life of me find that site before and now thanks to you it's bookmarked.

David

"Not completely as well as the series of Firefly..." - From a review of Serenity at amazon.de

SIGMANUNKI

Thursday, March 8, 2007 11:18 PM

FFFs.net has been renewed.

Btw, fireflyfan.net expires on the 31st and both point to the same IP. Haken probably bought them both as dropping the 's' would be a common typo.

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

ASARIAN

Thursday, March 8, 2007 11:40 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by daveshayne:

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:

I don't want to alarm anybody... but I think we may have a potential problem with the fireflyfans.net domain name. A WHOIS query says the domain name has expired:

"Record expires on 06-Mar-2007"

Looks like the registration is now good through 2008. Thanks for the work around though It may come in usefull in a year. Thanks also to FollowMal. I couldn't for the life of me find that site before and now thanks to you it's bookmarked.

David

Actually, I just received word from the technical domain contact. They hadn't let it expire. There seems to be some conflicting info between registrars, though. TUCOWS, for instance, still has it expire on March 6 2007. He assured me they're on it, to get this resolved as soon as possible.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

ZOID

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:03 AM

Thanks, Asarian!

I just posted to another thread, and then tried to go back to the discussions page and got a "Not Found" error in Firefox v2.0.0.2. So I used your fix action.

Somewhat tougher to do in Vista actually. First I closed all instances of Firefox. Then, I edited the hosts file as you described. But when I went to close out, I couldn't save the edited file directly to the /etc folder it came from. Vista said I lacked administrator permission, even though I was signed on as admin. So instead, I had to save a copy to My Documents, then move it to the /etc folder manually, using Windows Explorer (file manager, not the internet browser, for n00bs). Once it was there, I renamed the original hosts file as hosts.bak, and then deleted the .txt extension from the edited copy. Vista still prompted me for permission at every step, but at least it allowed me to complete the edit. I guess doing a straight file replacement from inside the restricted system32 is okay, but the file is otherwise read-only when attempting to do an in-place open-and-edit of the file itself. A nice security feature, actually, so I'm not complaining too much.

Then I restarted Firefox and got the website back. Now y'all are saying it's all re-registered. But my "Not Found" error occurred even while y'all were saying it had gotten fixed. I'm guessing there's still something going on, and that some folks can't get on.

Please feel free to pass my addendum to your procedure along to any other disenfranchised FFFn subscribers, who likewise use Vista. And thanks again for the tip that kept me on FFFn in the first place, even if I had to modify it a little.

Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Can't stop the signal, Mal." -Mr. Universe, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDBOF'

CAPTAINCOUPI

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:13 AM

OK, just did the fix with me using Firefox 2.0.0.2 and XP. All seems to be back to normal again.

Xie Xie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.bigdamnthankyou.com/

PENGUIN

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:22 AM

Followmal!

I'm having no trouble getting here at home. My trouble at work may be the browser (IE 6...ewwww lol), or the way the internet is set up at work...

We'll see tomorrow!

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

PHOENIXROSE

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:26 AM

I was getting an error when I tried to get on earlier, but now it's working fine. I'm nervous about it

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

CAPTAINCOUPI

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:43 AM

Space monkeys. Has to be space monkeys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.bigdamnthankyou.com/

PENGUIN

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:45 AM

*starts to panic*

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

PHOENIXROSE

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:49 AM

Has anyone written to Haken about it? I don't have his email (and in all honesty I'm a little lazy....) but I know there are folk who'll get ahold of him about these kinds of things. Sometimes he doesn't even know there's a problem until he's told. He doesn't get on here all that much anymore....

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

FLYVOTE

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:53 AM

Frankly if someone else "took" fireflyfans.net they could ask for big bucks to sell it back.

---- ---- ---- ---- ----
FlyVote (version 2.4) Be a Big Damn Hero: http://www.usbmicro.com/misc For Windows/Linux/MacOS9/MacOSX
Vote for our Big Damn Heroes big push for March 27th, Nathan Fillion's birthday.

PENGUIN

Friday, March 9, 2007 12:58 AM

I'm sure someone from the inner circle has told Haken what's happening.

I'm watching the domain name...it won't go far!

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

ASARIAN

Friday, March 9, 2007 1:15 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:

Thanks, Asarian!

I just posted to another thread, and then tried to go back to the discussions page and got a "Not Found" error in Firefox v2.0.0.2. So I used your fix action.

Somewhat tougher to do in Vista actually. First I closed all instances of Firefox. Then, I edited the hosts file as you described. But when I went to close out, I couldn't save the edited file directly to the /etc folder it came from. Vista said I lacked administrator permission, even though I was signed on as admin. So instead, I had to save a copy to My Documents, then move it to the /etc folder manually, using Windows Explorer (file manager, not the internet browser, for n00bs). Once it was there, I renamed the original hosts file as hosts.bak, and then deleted the .txt extension from the edited copy. Vista still prompted me for permission at every step, but at least it allowed me to complete the edit. I guess doing a straight file replacement from inside the restricted system32 is okay, but the file is otherwise read-only when attempting to do an in-place open-and-edit of the file itself. A nice security feature, actually, so I'm not complaining too much.

Then I restarted Firefox and got the website back. Now y'all are saying it's all re-registered. But my "Not Found" error occurred even while y'all were saying it had gotten fixed. I'm guessing there's still something going on, and that some folks can't get on.

Please feel free to pass my addendum to your procedure along to any other disenfranchised FFFn subscribers, who likewise use Vista. And thanks again for the tip that kept me on FFFn in the first place, even if I had to modify it a little.

Respectfully,

zoid

Hi Zoid,

Glad it's working for you. :) And thanks for the additional Vista info.

Yeah, the new UAC (User Access Control) and the ever-annoying, continual "privilege elevation" required gets old real fast; and I know they drew a lot of flak for it in their beta testing, too.

P.S. No, it's not re-registered, because it was not expired. Or rather, some registrars seem at odds for when it actually does expire. But the technical domain contact is in the process of sorting it out; so, whatever the (probably administrative screw-up, on the end of the registrars) issue was, I'm confident it will get straightened out soonish.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

ASARIAN

Friday, March 9, 2007 1:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by PhoenixRose:

Has anyone written to Haken about it? I don't have his email (and in all honesty I'm a little lazy....) but I know there are folk who'll get ahold of him about these kinds of things. Sometimes he doesn't even know there's a problem until he's told. He doesn't get on here all that much anymore....

/B]

Hi PhoenixRose. :)

Well, I wrote both the Administrative and Technical domain contact for fireflyfans.net; and the Technical contact wrote me back; and they're sorting it out now. So, I'm confident it will get resolved any time soon.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

KAREL

Friday, March 9, 2007 1:27 AM

It just happened to me, too. The workaround worked.

If the domain name lapsed a bit and DNS servers were updated during the lapse, there may be a "rolling blackout" while DNS servers are updated again.

--Karel.

*neither is a web guru, nor slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night*

"Wondrous is our great blue ship that sails around the mighty sun and joy to everyone that rides along." -- Jeff Lynne, Electric Light Orchestra.

PHOENIXROSE

Friday, March 9, 2007 1:43 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Hi PhoenixRose. :)

Quote:
Well, I wrote both the Administrative and Technical domain contact for fireflyfans.net; and the Technical contact wrote me back; and they're sorting it out now. So, I'm confident it will get resolved soon.

That is very, very good to hear. I felt like my belly got filled with hot lead when I got that error about the URL not existing. I really almost screamed.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

FUTUREMRSFILLION

Friday, March 9, 2007 1:59 AM

YAY! I was going through withdrawal! Thanks King Penguin for sending me the host info!

----
Bestower of Titles, Designer of Tshirts, Maker of Mottos, Keeper of the Pyre, Owner of a too big Turnippy smelling coat with MR scratched in the neck (thanks FollowMal!)

I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

FORSAKEN original

PENGUIN

Friday, March 9, 2007 1:59 AM

The perfect smilie for the situation...

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

YINYANG

Friday, March 9, 2007 2:25 AM

So, question: why does those two lines work? And why did I have no trouble at school, but when I got home, it wenk berserk?

If it's technical mumbo jumbo, feel free to leave me un-enlightened. I'm just curious.

Rules and voting: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=22892

FOLLOWMAL

Friday, March 9, 2007 2:57 AM

It's up above in CaptainCoupi's response, but I'll repeat it...

For the technically challenged like me, just go to fireflyfan.net ( without an s ) rather than fireflyfans.net with an s until this gets straightened out.

My new comp has Vista and despite Zoid's excellent instructions I was afraid to try it.

www.goodworkspresents.org

FUTUREMRSFILLION

Friday, March 9, 2007 3:02 AM

or, you can just cut and paste the IP address he posted into the browser address window. That works too. Course how will you know this if you can't get in to see this post............*FMF gives her tired brain a headache pondering the conundrum*

----
Bestower of Titles, Designer of Tshirts, Maker of Mottos, Keeper of the Pyre, Owner of a too big Turnippy smelling coat with MR scratched in the neck (thanks FollowMal!)

I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

FORSAKEN original

DAVESHAYNE

Friday, March 9, 2007 3:18 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by yinyang:
So, question: why does those two lines work? And why did I have no trouble at school, but when I got home, it wenk berserk?

If it's technical mumbo jumbo, feel free to leave me un-enlightened. I'm just curious.

It's not too technical. The numbers in the line are the IP adress of the server that holds FFF.net. That's the actual address that the network uses to route traffic to the site. fireflyfans.net is for us humans because we don't like trying to remember which long string of mostly arbitrary numbers belongs to which web site. So there are computers that hold files of domain names and the IP addies they go along with which allows us to type in an easilly remembered (well usually) word or phrase to access our web destinations. If those computers think the domain no longer exists they won't send you where you want to go. But if you use the work around Asarian posted you are telling your computer where it needs to look for FFF.net therefor the domain name doesn't need to be looked up first.

David

"Not completely as well as the series of Firefly..." - From a review of Serenity at amazon.de

PENGUIN

Friday, March 9, 2007 3:23 AM

I posted this over at Serenitymovie.org too!

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

FUTUREMRSFILLION

Friday, March 9, 2007 3:44 AM

*FMF glowers at King Penguins crown with jealousy and wishes her FireGirl had one*

hintwhisperhint

----
Bestower of Titles, Designer of Tshirts, Maker of Mottos, Keeper of the Pyre, Owner of a too big Turnippy smelling coat with MR scratched in the neck (thanks FollowMal!)

I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

FORSAKEN original

SIGMANUNKI

Friday, March 9, 2007 5:29 AM

@YingYang:

I'll give your second question a go.

The lazy answer is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dns

But, the "simple" answer is that the server that holds this information cannot handle every single request, every single time. For example, say this server held the information about a couple million domains. It'd get hammered and fall down if it needed to handle /everything/.

So, your ISP has its own servers that keep that information for a period of time. This lessens the load on the "big boy" servers.

Basically, when someone on your ISP (you for instance) makes a request for fireflyfans.net, your computer asks your ISP for that information. Your ISP's computers then go about getting the info. Once your ISP has this info, it relays it to you and keeps this information for a while as well. So, if someone 10 minutes later wants fireflyfans.net, the ISP doesn't need to get the info b/c it already has it. This speeds things up for everyone.

The people at your school seem to like FFFs.net (or at least you do ). So, the ISP that your school uses was already holding FFFs.net's info. So, you were able to come here.

But, the ISP that you go through at home didn't have this information (it probably timed out and the ISP needed to get it again). So, when it went to get it, the domain wasn't found; no dice.

Now that the domain info has been fixed, you can get here again.

At any rate, that's my tired hazy nontechnical attempt at explaining how things work. I hope it didn't confuse things.

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

FOLLOWMAL

Friday, March 9, 2007 8:41 AM

I can now reach the site via a simple url type in and go, so I think it's back up and running in my area of the world anyway. YAY!

Good to have our shiny home back!

www.goodworkspresents.org

ZOID

Friday, March 9, 2007 10:59 AM

FollowMal wrote:

Quote:
...My new comp has Vista and despite Zoid's excellent instructions I was afraid to try it.

...And you know what, FMal? If it had been any other website, I might not have tried it either. Messing with a system file is something to be done with extreme care and most judiciously. It's like doing your own dentistry: You want to do your own brushing and flossing. But the fillings and extractions? Not so much. Messing with your hosts file is a procedure analogously between flossing and performing a periodontal scale on yourself. (NB: Dental humor. Who knew it was possible?)

But then I thought, if the only two entries in my hosts file are gonna be Fireflyfans.net and www.fireflyfans.net, then I'm actually strangely proud to have them in there. 'Branding' my comp with Firefly in its innards is kinda cool...

The entire contents of my Vista hosts file follows this paragraph, which should be identical to everyone else's on the planet. This illustrates that it's got nothing to do with cryptography and I ain't afraid of getting hacked by posting it, cuz it's safe to do so. Please also note that my local hosts address line is identical to the one Asarian cited in his initial post (and yours will be too).

Quote:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
::1 localhost
168.215.229.9 fireflyfans.net
168.215.229.9 www.fireflyfans.net

See? The hosts file itself even tells you how to edit it. So, Be not afraid. Just be a little careful, scraping around your computer's roots...

Operatively,

zoid

P.S.
Tell me it's not oddly kewl to have Fireflyfans.net scrawled like a street tattoo into a system file like this. Okay. So I'm a geek. Next step: Creating some spurious registry entries and entering Firefly-related places and names as values (i.e., blingin' your own grill)...
_________________________________________________

"I aim to misbehave with my hosts file." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, (sorta), Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDBOF'

FOLLOWMAL

Friday, March 9, 2007 2:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
P.S.
Tell me it's not oddly kewl to have Fireflyfans.net scrawled like a street tattoo into a system file like this. Okay. So I'm a geek. Next step: Creating some spurious registry entries and entering Firefly-related places and names as values (i.e., blingin' your own grill)...
_________________________________________________

"I aim to misbehave with my hosts file." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, (sorta), Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDBOF'

It is way kewl, Zoid and after I have a couple of cups of coffee this a.m. I may attempt to scrape my computer's roots... er try this fix and brand my comp too.

www.goodworkspresents.org

FOLLOWMAL

Friday, March 9, 2007 2:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by FollowMal:

I can now reach the site via a simple url type in and go, so I think it's back up and running in my area of the world anyway. YAY!

Good to have our shiny home back!

And this morning I cannnot reach the site at all by normal means so I had to come in via the no s route.

Better get to drinkin' coffee..

* goes back up to read Asarian's and Zoid's posts*

www.goodworkspresents.org

FLYVOTE

Friday, March 9, 2007 2:51 PM

Yesterday when some people were having trouble getting to FFFs.net I wasn't.

Now I'm having trouble getting to FFFs.net, but FFF.net is OK. Likely because dns servers are timing out and need their "fix".

---- ---- ---- ---- ----
FlyVote (version 2.4) Be a Big Damn Hero: http://www.usbmicro.com/misc For Windows/Linux/MacOS9/MacOSX
Vote for our Big Damn Heroes big push for March 27th, Nathan Fillion's birthday.

FOLLOWMAL

Friday, March 9, 2007 3:29 PM

Weirdly, FlyVote... when I came on earlier and clicked in to answer Zoid's post I couldn't get in at all.. had to try the no s route.

Now coming here to answer you... it worked.

But I ain't countin' on it....

This will be spotty at best, just as Asarian predicted.

www.goodworkspresents.org

FLYVOTE

Friday, March 9, 2007 3:39 PM

FollowMal:

I got an email notification:

Quote:

FollowMal has responded to a message you posted

in the 'GENERAL DISCUSSIONS FORUM'
with the topic 'POTENTIAL PROBLEM WITH FFF.NET DOMAIN NAME'

You can go to the following URL to read the response.

http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=27469&m=462231#462231

Naturally clicking that doesn't work for me. But after it failed, I removed the 's' in the URL and the right thread was loaded. Caveat emptor.

---- ---- ---- ---- ----
FlyVote (version 2.4) Be a Big Damn Hero: http://www.usbmicro.com/misc For Windows/Linux/MacOS9/MacOSX
Vote for our Big Damn Heroes big push for March 27th, Nathan Fillion's birthday.

CITIZEN

Friday, March 9, 2007 10:08 PM

I had no problems untill today, but it stopped working today. I did in the end manage to pickup the direct IP after a ping returned "Ping request could not find host www.fireflyfans.net. Please check the name and try again." meaning the DNS lookup had failed for the domain. If the Domain is actually okay I'm wondering if there was a problem with the master DNS and that has been replicated to my ISP's cache. Hopefully it'll sort itself out soon, if not and for the time being thanks for the local host file information, I'd completely forgotten where the hosts file was.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

FOLLOWMAL

Friday, March 9, 2007 10:22 PM

Still having to access the site via the no s way.

Yes, bless Asarian for helping us all out and noticing this before the site went away for all intents and purposes and none of us figured how to get back in....

www.goodworkspresents.org

PENGUIN

Friday, March 9, 2007 10:45 PM

Me too (at least at work)!!

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

SIGMANUNKI

Friday, March 9, 2007 11:23 PM

@Citizen:

I got the problem today as well. Since it was yesterday that the domain expired I imagine that we're experiencing a problematic propagation of that expiration. I would think that all will be well and good with the world again within a couple of days at most, as the good records will probably propagate in that time frame.

I find it interesting that a feature that makes the internet work can also work again us.

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

CYBERSNARK

Friday, March 9, 2007 11:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SigmaNunki:
I find it interesting that a feature that makes the internet work can also work again us.

Not surprisin' at all.

Never goes smooth.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

SIGMANUNKI

Saturday, March 10, 2007 4:48 AM

It actually seems to be worse than originally thought. Internic's whois gives the domain status as "clientHold" (which is a change). So, the problem is now with the registrar, even though the listed expiration date is 06-mar-2008.

This is just 'ed up. So, unless these people are working weekends... *sigh*

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

DERANGEDMILK

Saturday, March 10, 2007 4:54 AM

Quote:

Me too (at least at work)!!

Ditto (and amen)!!
-e

"Storms getting worse."
"We'll pass through it soon enough."

Vote for Firefly at http://richlabonte.net/tvvote/index.html

CLJOHNSTON108

Saturday, March 10, 2007 1:32 PM

Missed this thread when it was first posted.

I started to panic when I tried to access the site this morning, and got this...
http://earthlink-help.net/?d=error_earthlink-bf&q=fireflyfans.net

Thought Fate was playing another of its cruel pranks on me!

But I went over to serenitymovie.org and found the "Fireflyfans.net Down - We're Campin' Out" thread, and somebody suggested dropping the 's'.

Whew! That's a load off!

SISTER

Saturday, March 10, 2007 3:13 PM

Aye...the problem has hit Tennessee USA; can't get on with the "s" dropping the "s" I can see the general discussions threads and respond but can't read anything up top in fanfic - get a notice that "server not responding" or "cannot find server"....**heavy, disappointed sigh**

FIZZIX

Saturday, March 10, 2007 4:02 PM

XD I'm here via the no-s, but added to my system file. I panicked after 3 days sans my FFF.net goodness, 'n' posted at the Skiffy board... happiness abounds; TDBrown is a wonderful guy and decided to point me at this thread. XD

/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
May not be smart, and it may not please you, but you're definitely gonna see what I have to say.

NEWOLDBROWNCOAT

Saturday, March 10, 2007 5:28 PM

www.fireflyfans.net

still screwing up Saturday morning with XP HomeSP2 and Firefox.

www.fireflyfan.net working OK.

tried to do the

serenitymovie.org

thing, and while I could access the site and the forum, I couldn't find tha camping out thread.

FINN MAC CUMHAL

Saturday, March 10, 2007 5:38 PM

'cause you have to register.

Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

ASARIAN

Saturday, March 10, 2007 6:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by SigmaNunki:

It actually seems to be worse than originally thought. Internic's whois gives the domain status as "clientHold" (which is a change). So, the problem is now with the registrar, even though the listed expiration date is 06-mar-2008.

This is just 'ed up. So, unless these people are working weekends... *sigh*

From the TUCOWS FAQ:

"The domain is put on Hold (either a CLIENTHOLD or a REGISTRAR-HOLD) by the Registrar in order to take the domain offline and give some indication to the domain owners that a renewal needs to be attended to since it wasn't made before the expiry date."

It was on CLIENTHOLD ever since TUCOWS claimed it expired.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

SIGMANUNKI

Saturday, March 10, 2007 7:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Quote:
Originally posted by SigmaNunki:

It actually seems to be worse than originally thought. Internic's whois gives the domain status as "clientHold" (which is a change). So, the problem is now with the registrar, even though the listed expiration date is 06-mar-2008.

This is just 'ed up. So, unless these people are working weekends... *sigh*

From the TUCOWS FAQ:

"The domain is put on Hold (either a CLIENTHOLD or a REGISTRAR-HOLD) by the Registrar in order to take the domain offline and give some indication to the domain owners that a renewal needs to be attended to since it wasn't made before the expiry date."

It was on CLIENTHOLD ever since TUCOWS claimed it expired.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

To my knowledge the status AT INTERNIC wasn't updated until shortly before I posted (note that there may be a delay from what TUCOWS says v.s. INTERNIC). For that matter, the domain was renewed the day it expired (which was a couple days ago). So, why this still hasn't been resolved is beyond me. Quite frankly, IMO, it shows a level of incompetence at these organizations.

----
I am on The List. We are The Forsaken and we aim to burn!
"We don't fear the reaper"

FOLLOWMAL

Saturday, March 10, 2007 8:39 PM

Hi again. Still unable to access the site via standard means so I've decided to send out a BSC
( Browncoat Signal Corps ) post to let the rest of the 'Verse know what is going on.

Here's the gist of it:

Quote:

For folks who have been trying to get into the site Fireflyfans.net and have been unable to --there is a problem currently. It seems as if the domain name registration may have expired. While some folks are having no trouble reaching the site at all, others are unable to access it. The problem seems to be getting worse as the time since expiration gets longer. Whatever may be the cause, our post is to let everyone know of the workarounds and help available until the problem is resolved.

Should you no longer be able to get a DNS resolution on fireflyfans.net, you can still reach fireflyfans.net by modifying your local HOSTS file in Windows (XP Prof.). Add these two entries:

168.215.229.9 fireflyfans.net
168.215.229.9 www.fireflyfans.net

The hosts file is typically located at:

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (or C:\Winnt\ ... ).

Open the file with a text editor, like notepad, add the two entries, and save the file.

N.B. Depending on how your system was set up, you have to add these entries to either the file HOSTS or LMHOSTS. Add it to the file that already has this line:

127.0.0.1 Localhost

That ought to keep her flying! Restart your browser for the changes to take effect.
( Work around courtesy of Asarian at FFF.net )

Also, if you have Vista on your computer here is some further information you'll need to make the workaround work:

Somewhat tougher to do in Vista actually. First I closed all instances of Firefox. Then, I edited the hosts file as you described. But when I went to close out, I couldn't save the edited file directly to the /etc folder it came from. Vista said I lacked administrator permission, even though I was signed on as admin. So instead, I had to save a copy to My Documents, then move it to the /etc folder manually, using Windows Explorer (file manager, not the Internet browser, for n00bs). Once it was there, I renamed the original hosts file as hosts.bak, and then deleted the .txt extension from the edited copy. Vista still prompted me for permission at every step, but at least it allowed me to complete the edit. I guess doing a straight file replacement from inside the restricted system32 is okay, but the file is otherwise read-only when attempting to do an in-place open-and-edit of the file itself. A nice security feature, actually, so I'm not complaining too much.

Then I restarted Firefox and got the website back.
( Courtesy of Zoid on FFF.net )

Or for the technically challenged or the folks just plain nervous about fooling with the innards of your computer:

You can go to www.fireflyfan.net ( without the s ) because that domain name points to the same site and still works.

Spread the word to as many folks as you can til this problem gets resolved.

Thank you.

I intend to send it out thru my email too, for some folks who don't visit sites very often and may have given up entirely... anyone is welcome to copy this post to do the same.

www.goodworkspresents.org

FOLLOWMAL

Saturday, March 10, 2007 8:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by daveshayne:
Thanks also to FollowMal. I couldn't for the life of me find that site before and now thanks to you it's bookmarked.

David

You're welcome Dave. I'll be starting a thread re: that and try to keep it bumped throughout this... as it's always good to have a backup plan.

www.goodworkspresents.org

FLYVOTE

Sunday, March 11, 2007 8:18 PM

FireflyFans WITH the 's' is working for me right now!

---- ---- ---- ---- ----
FlyVote (version 2.4) Be a Big Damn Hero: http://www.usbmicro.com/misc For Windows/Linux/MacOS9/MacOSX
Vote for our Big Damn Heroes big push for March 27th, Nathan Fillion's birthday.

ASARIAN

Sunday, March 11, 2007 8:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by FlyVote:

FireflyFans WITH the 's' is working for me right now!

Yupo; the registrar dispute seems resolved. :) CLIENTHOLD has been lifted, you get a DNS resolution for it again, and TUCOWS now also lists Expiration Date: 06-mar-2008.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

PENGUIN

Sunday, March 11, 2007 8:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by asarian:
Quote:
Originally posted by FlyVote:

FireflyFans WITH the 's' is working for me right now!

Yupo; the registrar dispute seems resolved. :) CLIENTHOLD has been lifted, you get a DNS resolution for it again, and TUCOWS now also lists Expiration Date: 06-mar-2008.

--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam

YAY!! Me too!

King of the Mythical Land that is Iowa

FOLLOWMAL

Sunday, March 11, 2007 9:32 PM

Ahhh, our shiny boat is flyin' again!

Thank you to Asarian for noticing this before it got bad, and to everyone for sharing how to get here when it wasn't flyin' true.

www.goodworkspresents.org

FLYVOTE

Sunday, March 11, 2007 9:38 PM

It was the synchronizers...

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FlyVote (version 2.4) Be a Big Damn Hero: http://www.usbmicro.com/misc For Windows/Linux/MacOS9/MacOSX
Vote for our Big Damn Heroes big push for March 27th, Nathan Fillion's birthday.

CAPTAINCOUPI

Sunday, March 11, 2007 10:07 PM

Turned out someone just had to lift the landlock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.bigdamnthankyou.com/

FLYVOTE

Sunday, March 11, 2007 10:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by CaptainCoupi:
Turned out someone just had to lift the landlock.

Even better. You win!

---- ---- ---- ---- ----
FlyVote (version 2.4) Be a Big Damn Hero: http://www.usbmicro.com/misc For Windows/Linux/MacOS9/MacOSX
Vote for our Big Damn Heroes big push for March 27th, Nathan Fillion's birthday.

CAPTAINCOUPI

Monday, March 12, 2007 12:10 AM

LOL. No no no. There's no winning. I just like to throw my two cents in.

Under breath so no one hears: 'Yay! I win.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.bigdamnthankyou.com/

CYBERSNARK

Monday, March 12, 2007 2:31 PM

Yay! Thank you Haken!

*starts cheer*

HA-KEN, HA-KEN, HA-KEN, HA-KEN. . .

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

SAB39

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 4:42 PM

DNS - it's a nothin' part till you don't got one... then it appears to be everything.