I'm having a rough time getting to this site

Francis Barnswallow · Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:32 am

Been here for about a year and have had no issues accessing this site until a week ago. I have this site saved under my favorites and when I click on the site icon google and yahoo say that they could not find www.helpfulgardener.com.

I reclick around 10 more times and it finally brings me here. Anyone else having this problem?

cynthia_h · Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:38 pm

Do you get here more easily if you use the https:// prefix? ==>

https://www.helpfulgardener.com

Does that make a difference?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

webmaster · Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:48 pm

Make sure your link isn't misspelled, the way you misspelled it above.

www.helpfulgardener.com.

You have a period in the URL that does not belong. I understand that it could be your punctuation, just saying that you should verify that the URL that you have saved is correct. Please do that then let me know.

Francis Barnswallow · Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:06 pm

cynthia_h wrote:Do you get here more easily if you use the https:// prefix? ==>

https://www.helpfulgardener.com

Does that make a difference?

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

It's still doing it. Even when I click on the countless helpful gardener links google provides.

Francis Barnswallow · Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:12 pm

webmaster wrote:Make sure your link isn't misspelled, the way you misspelled it above.

www.helpfulgardener.com.

You have a period in the URL that does not belong. I understand that it could be your punctuation, just saying that you should verify that the URL that you have saved is correct. Please do that then let me know.

It was for punctuation. Under my favorites the link is now https:/helpfulgardener.com/

But for the past year it was this and I had no issues with this link https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

I works half the time for me now.

webmaster · Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:27 pm

Things like the punctuation mark can throw an error. Keep the Veg Garden Forum link in your bookmarks. Make sure it's the correct URL as you posted it above, without punctuations etc. Next time it doesn't work PM me or at least note the time of day.

Francis Barnswallow · Wed Apr 06, 2011 2:51 pm

okay, webmaster PM sent. Let me know if you got them.

Charlie MV · Wed Apr 06, 2011 4:39 pm

I was unable to access the sight a few times in the last few days. I use the same bookmark each time. The last time was about 1PM eastern today. I got the "server not found" error message each time it happens. I know it was 1PM one time but it was down for over an hour. I got right on this time.

I thought maybe Webmaster got tired of my cow story.

cynthia_h · Wed Apr 06, 2011 9:45 pm

Francis Barnswallow wrote:
It was for punctuation. Under my favorites the link is now https:/helpfulgardener.com/

But for the past year it was this and I had no issues with this link https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4

I works half the time for me now.

Be sure that you have both slash marks after the https:, like this:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/

(maybe you can copy/paste, then bookmark, the one here?)

Cynthia, still concerned that FB or Charlie MV may be having difficulty getting to the site...

Charlie MV · Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:18 pm

I have used the same bookmark since I joined. If I had to type in an httpwwwholycow, I'd never have started using a computer to begin with. I haven't had a problem getting on since early this afternoon but it has happened to me before and a bit more often the last few days.

I'll send a PM next time. I was busy planting pole beans and tomatoes today so I only noticed the time once.

Rogue11 · Wed Apr 06, 2011 10:20 pm

Charlie MV wrote:I was unable to access the sight a few times in the last few days. I use the same bookmark each time. The last time was about 1PM eastern today. I got the "server not found" error message each time it happens. I know it was 1PM one time but it was down for over an hour. I got right on this time.

I thought maybe Webmaster got tired of my cow story.

Could be the server is being serviced at a certain time of the day. It's usually done at night, but since we don't know where the server is located, 1PM Eastern Time could be nighttime there.
Could also be an server overload during peak hours.

webmaster · Wed Apr 06, 2011 11:58 pm

My server is on the west coast. I have the site on it's own server so as to handle the traffic. The problem is not my server though. It's the ISPs. I just checked where the Internet traffic is being routed for Charlie and Francis and it turns out they are both being routed through the exact same place, even though they are in different geographic areas. I'm checking with a friend to see if there's anything I can do on my end, but I'm pretty sure it's something on the ISP end.