[Paul Coleman]

Not sure if this belongs in this section but it may be of help to someone.
I've finally managed to access the www.gardinerpolesystems.co.uk website.  It seems like I've been the only one unable to access it for weeks past - from any browser.  I couldn't find anything on my firewall that would stop me accessing it.  My computer knowledge is reasonable though I'm far from an expert.
Anyway, I've ended up ticking "use automatic configuration script" in the LAN setting of Internet Explorer and selected a proxy server to route my request through.  It's a bit slower that way but at least it works now.  Of course, it still doesn't access the site in the other browsers.
By using IE through a proxy server to access the site, it has the effect of masking my IP address.  This causes me to wonder if the server on which the website resides has been inadvertently set up to block requests from a particular range of IP addresses.  Of course, my knowledge on such matters is incomplete but, by the process of elimination and within the limits of my knowledge, that seems to be the only logical thing remaining.
Are you in a position to check that out Alex or to get your server host to check it out?  Sometimes such scripts can be misconfigured so I'm told.
I'm sure it's not a problem with my ISP because I can access the website without using a proxy server from my friend's place nearby and he's with the same ISP.
Alex.  It may be that a range of IP addresses are unable to access your site though it's unlikely that (m)any of the users of those addresses would be window cleaners anyway.

[Alex Gardiner]

Interesting.

I will contact our website hosting company and see if this could be the case. I certainly would not want to alienate a section of the population! Could you let me know which ISP you use.

Thanks

[Paul Coleman]

Interesting.

I will contact our website hosting company and see if this could be the case. I certainly would not want to alienate a section of the population! Could you let me know which ISP you use.

Thanks

Sure thing Alex.
I'm with blueyonder .
I believe that virginmedia and telewest may also be part of the same company.

I have exhausted all other possibilities that I know of and even had a brief discussion on the subject with my friend in Spain.  My friend is retired now but has worked in the nuts and bolts end of the computer industry since his university days and has configured his own servers from home, written server side software etc.  Anyway, the good news is that it can't be an entire ISP that is blocked (if indeed an accidental blocking is the problem) because the site is accessible from my friend's computer around the corner and he is with the same ISP as me.

Of course, it is quite possible that it is something to do with the settings in my operating system but that now seems less likely now that I can access the site when my IP address is masked.  I realise I could end up with egg on my face if I've overlooked something simple but I don't mind being wrong (occasionally)   

Also, I don't have a fixed IP address anyway.  ISPs tend to rotate them every few weeks as a security measure and to prevent people running servers from them.  They do this because servers tend to generate more traffic and they newed to charge more usually for the extra bandwidth required.
It may be that my IP address is due to change in the near furture which might even clear the problem.
I'm puzzled Alex.  Wish I knew more about this stuff.

[Darren O]

Iam with AOL and cant got on it either it just keeps coming up error.

[Wayne Thomas]

I'm on AOL and have no problems getting onto Gardiners website if that helps you.

[steve m]

I'm with virgin media and I cant get your website either, but in my office I get it perfect, thats with talk talk in there

[Alex Gardiner]

Thanks Guys for all the info, I really appreciate it.  I will use it to feed back to our host company and see what explanation they come up with!

[Alex Gardiner]

To all those who have problems accessing our website. I have been in communication with the hosting services and they are not aware of any http blocks that would affect anyone's IP.

They have offered a solution that may help, I have pasted their instructions below:

Dear Alex,

We are not aware of any http blocks that would affect viewing, but could be that the users xp dns client is corrupt, so if possible get them to go into the windows control panel, under administrative tools and then services. Click on the dns client and click stop service and then right click on dns client and in the startup properties, click do not start and reboot the machine.

Let us know if this was the issue or of any assistance.

As they say, let us know if this cures it.

[Paul Coleman]

To all those who have problems accessing our website. I have been in communication with the hosting services and they are not aware of any http blocks that would affect anyone's IP.

They have offered a solution that may help, I have pasted their instructions below:

Dear Alex,

We are not aware of any http blocks that would affect viewing, but could be that the users xp dns client is corrupt, so if possible get them to go into the windows control panel, under administrative tools and then services. Click on the dns client and click stop service and then right click on dns client and in the startup properties, click do not start and reboot the machine.

Let us know if this was the issue or of any assistance.

As they say, let us know if this cures it.

I wasn't getting an option displayed saying "do not start" Alex but  I did the rest of it and selected what appeared to be the equivalents.  It didn't resolve the issue though.
While we are on the subject, I will post how I access your site via proxy server as it sounds like it might help some others on here.  The following instructions are for Internet Explorer version 6 though there are probably equivalents in other versions of the browser.  The instructions are for broadband connections.  It looks like they won't work with dial-up but perhaps give it a try anyway.

Click TOOLS > INTERNET OPTIONS.
Click the CONNECTIONS tab at the top.
Click the LAN SETTINGS button.
Tick the box marked "USE AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION SCRIPTS"
In the window marked "ADDRESS" type (or paste) the following:-

http://rosinstrument.com/cgi-bin/proxy.pac

Click OK.
Click APPLY (if available).
Click OK.
Shut down the browser.
Re-open the browser.

For those who have been unable to access Alex's site, this will now allow you to access it.  It will take slightly longer to manage the access as it is going through a proxy site to get to Alex's.  If you wish to do other surfing without using the proxy, just untick the box marked "USE AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION SCRIPTS" and OK and/or APPLY your way out of the boxes.
There are other proxy servers available to use but that's the one that I came across.
Happy surfing.

[Alex Gardiner]

Thanks for the feedback Shiner.

I copied your reply to the website hosting company and this is their response -

'Dear Alex,

This does sound like a dns issue for those concerned. DNS controls were the PC looks for the website, i.e. the IP address the website resolves to on the Internet. The DNS Client is one such element of overcoming dns issues in local PCs, whilst the proxy approach is where it ignores the ISPs dns settings and uses the proxies knowledge of where the site is located.

For further information, the right click option opens up a properties option, within which the Startup type should be set to disabled.

But, basically it is corrupt or out of date dns information for the ISP which is causing this or corrupt local dns in the XP DNS client.

Hope this helps.'

Hope it does!

[windowwashers]

you also could use firefox as a browser

[Paul Coleman]

Thanks for the feedback Shiner.

I copied your reply to the website hosting company and this is their response -

'Dear Alex,

This does sound like a dns issue for those concerned. DNS controls were the PC looks for the website, i.e. the IP address the website resolves to on the Internet. The DNS Client is one such element of overcoming dns issues in local PCs, whilst the proxy approach is where it ignores the ISPs dns settings and uses the proxies knowledge of where the site is located.

For further information, the right click option opens up a properties option, within which the Startup type should be set to disabled.

But, basically it is corrupt or out of date dns information for the ISP which is causing this or corrupt local dns in the XP DNS client.

Hope this helps.'

Hope it does!

I will check this out later Alex.  Thanks for the feedback.

[Paul Coleman]

you also could use firefox as a browser

I don't think that will help things Ian.  I have three browsers on my system.  IE6, Netscape 8, and Opera.  No luck on any of them.  That indicates to me that browser settings are not the issue.

[elite mike]

hi shiner
i have not had any problems access gardiners site,im,e on virgin,running ie 7  xp
regards mike