problem with banners on this site - ADSL related?

[dodecahedron]

i've got a weird problem.

just got connected on broadband internet
ADSL

for some reason, banners don't load properly on this site's (www.cdrlabs.com) pages. any other site i tried, a few in Israel and a few in the US (cnn.com, hotmail, yahoo) all banners load fine. just here in cdrlabs it doesn't work properly for some reason.

most of the time the banners don't load and i just see a small 'x' in the upper left corner of the rectangle that's supposed to contain the banner. sometimes with the banner's name next to it. sometimes in see in that area the familiar "The page cannot be displayed" text.

however this is not consistent, if i hit F5 (or Ctrl-F5) repeatedly, sometimes the banners do load correctly. sometimes i have on the same page banners that loaded and ones that didn't.

tried deleting temporary internet files, offline files, cookies, resetting Web Settings in IE. all of which didn't help, just as i had expected.

went to www.java.com, clicked on the download button, and after a second got the message "You now have the latest version of Java software". since obviously nothing was downloaded (1 second) i'm gathering i had the latest version of Java VM before too.

my ISP's tech support are clueless and can't help me out.

and just to clarify: i've never had this problem before i changed to ADSL today.

anyone got a clue as to what's going on?

admins: any chance this is actually a problem with the site's servers

[dodecahedron]

downloaded and installed the latest Java 2 Runtime Environment 1.4.2.
it is enabled in IE.
didn't fix the problem.

[socheat]

As far as I can tell, it shouldn't be a problem with the servers. I can see the banner ads just fine, and according to some of the "complaints", so can other people.

Can I ask why you think upgrading your JVM would solve your problem? None of our banner ads (as far as I know) use Java. Are you doing any sort of ad or cookie blocking? Have you tried other browsers?

Socheat

[dodecahedron]

i didn't think updating java would help. the only reason i tried it was because of my ISP's tech support.
they are stumped too, one of them suggested updating java. maybe she thought some of the banners use java.
anyway, i updated java (3 times i think) and now have the latest java from Sun, not difference.

i'm not doing any sort of cookie blocking as far as i know.
i mean i'm not running any 3rd party program that's supposed to do somthing like this.
in IE internet options -> Privacy, i have Medium. but i don't think this should matter.
i don't think Norton Personal Firewall should make any difference, but just in case i have www.cdrlabs.com in the Trusted sites list.
no haven't tried any other browser yet. nor do i want to.

i haven't changed any setting on my computer, except for:
* disconnect external USR 56K modem
* install an Inter 100/Pro+ NIC
* connect it to a Samsung ADSL modem
* create a dialer through WinXP's New Connection Wizard

i can't see any reason at all this should have caused any trouble, and indeed i don't have any trouble with any site other than CDRLabs! grr... and this is the site i frequent more than any other! damn.

[Turkeyscore.com]

sometimes they dont load right here also, and I dont have dsl yet...I will tomorrow

[dodecahedron]

thanks to some help from cfitz, i have reached the following conclusions:

the banners that consistently don't load are from www.qksrv.net.
ones from media.fastclick.net cause the "page cannot be displayed" page within the banner space, right-clicking->properties shows: "res://D:\WINDOWS\System32\shdoclc.dll/dnserror.htm#http://media.fastclick.net/"

banners from www.cdrlabs.com (Marcan, Rant), from pics.ebay.com, from cdrom2go.com load fine and consistently AFAI can tell.

nslookup www.qksrv.net
i get:
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Can't find server anme for address 10.0.0.2: Timed out
Server: kd1.bezeqint.net
Address: 192.115.106.31

Non-authoritative answer:
name: www,qksrv.net
Address: 216.34.209.13

tracert www.qksrv.net
i get:
Tracing route to www.qksrv.net [127.0.0.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
etc.
30 * * * Request timed out.
Trace complete.

nslookup mirror.qkimg.net
i get:
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Can't find server anme for address 10.0.0.2: Timed out
Server: kd1.bezeqint.net
Address: 192.115.106.31

Non-authoritative answer:
name: c.mii.instacontent.net
Address: 168.143.179.114
aliases: mirror.qkimg.net

tracert mirror.qkimg.net
i get:
Tracing route to c.mii.instacontent.net [168.143.179.114]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 19 ms 19 ms 19 ms bzq-218-121-1.red.bezeqint.net [81.218.121.1]
2 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-25-90-145.cust.bezeqint.net [212.25.90.145]
3 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-179-0-1.cust.bezeqint.net [212.179.0.1]
4 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-25-90-13.cust.bezeqint.net [212.25.90.13]
5 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-179-61-250.cust.bezeqint.net [212.179.61.250]
6 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-179-75-141.cust.bezeqint.net [212.179.75.141]
7 200 ms 199 ms 189 ms Serial1-5.GW4.NYC1.ALTER.NET [157.130.252.221]
8 195 ms 190 ms 189 ms 176.at-6-0-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.18.42]
9 190 ms 199 ms 190 ms 0.so-1-1-0.XL1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.19.86]
10 190 ms 200 ms 200 ms 0.so-2-0-0.XL1.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.27.30]
11 192 ms 190 ms 190 ms POS6-0.BR2.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.22.225]
12 320 ms 320 ms 320 ms a3-0-2-0.r01.nwrknj01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.9.165]
13 330 ms 360 ms 320 ms p16-1-1-1.r21.nycmny01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.5.13]
14 330 ms 330 ms 340 ms p16-1-0-1.r21.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.5.99]
15 320 ms 320 ms 310 ms p64-0-0-0.r20.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.2.34]
16 310 ms 310 ms 300 ms mg-1.a00.stngva01.us.da.verio.net [129.250.28.194]
17 310 ms 310 ms 320 ms vrp1.iad.xpc-mii.net [168.143.179.114]
Trace complete.

nslookup c.mii.instacontent.net
i get:
DNS request timed out.
timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Can't find server anme for address 10.0.0.2: Timed out
Server: kd1.bezeqint.net
Address: 192.115.106.31

Non-authoritative answer:
name: c.mii.instacontent.net
Address: 168.143.179.114

tracert c.mii.instacontent.net
i get:
Tracing route to c.mii.instacontent.net [168.143.179.114]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 28 ms 19 ms 19 ms bzq-218-121-1.red.bezeqint.net [81.218.121.1]
2 29 ms 29 ms 30 ms bzq-25-90-145.cust.bezeqint.net [212.25.90.145]
3 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-179-0-1.cust.bezeqint.net [212.179.0.1]
4 29 ms 39 ms 29 ms bzq-25-90-13.cust.bezeqint.net [212.25.90.13]
5 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-179-61-250.cust.bezeqint.net [212.179.61.250]
6 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms bzq-179-75-141.cust.bezeqint.net [212.179.75.141]
7 188 ms 199 ms 189 ms Serial1-5.GW4.NYC1.ALTER.NET [157.130.252.221]
8 199 ms 189 ms 189 ms 176.at-6-0-0.XR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.18.42]
9 190 ms 190 ms 200 ms 0.so-1-1-0.XL1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.19.86]
10 190 ms 190 ms 200 ms 0.so-2-0-0.XL1.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.27.30]
11 188 ms 190 ms 190 ms POS6-0.BR2.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.22.225]
12 310 ms 310 ms 310 ms a3-0-2-0.r01.nwrknj01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.9.165]
13 300 ms 300 ms 310 ms p16-1-1-1.r21.nycmny01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.5.13]
14 320 ms 320 ms 310 ms p16-1-0-1.r21.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.5.99]
15 318 ms 320 ms 320 ms p64-0-0-0.r20.asbnva01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.2.34]
16 330 ms 320 ms 330 ms mg-1.a00.stngva01.us.da.verio.net [129.250.28.194]
17 320 ms 310 ms 310 ms vrp1.iad.xpc-mii.net [168.143.179.114]
Trace complete.

same output as for tracert mirror.qkimg.net but the different times.

Socheat, does this help any to pin down the reason for my problem?

well, if i understand this a little bit, i'm gathering it's a problem with DNS of my ISP, not recognizing correctly the qksrv and (some? of) it's aliases.

so the fault isn't with my computer i guess

thanks.

[dhc014]

Might your HOSTS file have been modified? I know that one method of ad blocking is to modify your HOSTS file so that known ad servers are essentially routed elsewhere so you just get the X.

[dodecahedron]

LOL i don't even know where to look for the hosts file.
i know such a thing exists, and the nearest i've ever come to touching it is installing Spybot Search & Destroy (i think it updates the hosts file), and that was a long time ago.

[dhc014]

C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS

This is, at least, for Windows 2000/XP. The file has no extension, but you can open it in Notepad.

Besides the comments at the top, a normal HOSTS file will only contain "127.0.0.1 localhost"

[dodecahedron]

thanks,
already found it with help from cfitz.
thanks to you both.

yes, it does seem to have been a HOSTS file issue.

i find a line in the file:

Code: Select all

127.0.0.1 www.qksrv.net

so i guess that's what's causing the problem.

the thing is, that the HOSTS file hasn't been touched in the last month at least, and everything was working just fine before the ADSL upgrade. so that line was there before and after, and before there were no problems!

[dhc014]

so that line was there before and after, and before there were no problems!

Maybe there were no qksrv ads before... All I can say is that you found what's causing the problem.

[dodecahedron]

yep!

Maybe there were no qksrv ads before

not likely, as these are the larger portion of the ads on this site.
however, cfitz suggested that maybe the ppp dialer was configured to ignore the HOSTS file so this issue didn't arise till now.
seems strange to me, but it is a reasonable explanation for the phenomenon i've seen so it seems a likely one.

thanks dhc014 and cfitz.

[cfitz]

You're welcome. Of course now Ian will expect you to click some of those banners and actually buy something.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

LOL
we've been down that road before, remember?
Ads = Money ???

as for actually buying something, you forget?
i'm the guy who ony recently made his second online purchase!
and also:
know a hardware company that ships internationally?
so it isn't much of an option for me anyways...

[cfitz]

Then perhaps I could interest you in one of the fine products at www.cfitz.com?? We will be happy to ship internationally to you, for a price, of course...

(No, I am not the one who registered that domain. I have no interest in it.)

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

Then perhaps I could interest you in one of the fine products at www.cfitz.com?? We will be happy to ship internationally to you, for a price, of course...

yeah, an arm and a leg!

[cfitz]

Hey, you could still make two purchases anyway...

(sorry)

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

out of curiousity:
if the reason for the banners-not-loading-problems is indeed the fact that the HOSTS file contains 2 lines that cause www.qksrv.net and www.fastclick.net to be "ignored", and apparently the HOSTS file didn't have any effect when i was on dial-up,
then how/where do i control whether the HOSTS file has this effect?
can i change some setting somewhere so that the HOSTS file will be "ignored"?

before the ADSL upgrade, the online-update function of Spybot - Search & Destroy was not working for me, and i had to update manually. now it is working!!! i'm assuming this is somehow related to the HOSTS file issue, but can't see exactly how.

[cfitz]

can i change some setting somewhere so that the HOSTS file will be "ignored"?

The only way I know to configure Windows to ignore the hosts file is to either comment/cut out all the entries in the file or delete/rename it.

So why was the host file being ignored when you were using your dial-up? I'm not sure, but it is the only scenario that fits the symptoms you are describing: hosts file unchanged for over a month, dial-up resolving www.qksrv.net correctly but ADSL resolving it to 127.0.0.1 as listed in your hosts file.

In the past, when people used different TCP/IP stacks, there would at least have been the possibility that you were using a non-Microsoft stack that had its own hosts file located somewhere other than the standard Windows location, and that non-standard hosts file didn't have the 127.0.0.1 mapping for www.qksrv.net. But I really doubt you were using anything but standard Microsoft networking for your dial-up connection. Have you done a search over your whole system to see if there is another hosts file located somewhere else?

Maybe your hosts file actualy was changed recently and you didn't realize it. Too bad I forgot to have you check the modified date before you edited it.

Is your dial-up connection still installed? If you restore the 127.0.0.1 www.qksrv.net mapping so that the banners fail to load when using ADSL, can you switch back to dial-up and observe what happens?

There is also a possibility that there is a way to disable the local hosts file through DHCP commands, and your dial-up provider does so. I don't know.

cfitz

[cfitz]

I looked through the registry and found the named values LocalPriority, HostsPriority and DnsPriority under the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TCPIP\ServiceProvider.

These looked promising for setting the order of name resolution, so I looked them up in the Microsoft knowledge base and found that, sure enough, they can be used to change the order of name resolution:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... S;Q139270&

The name resolution order is specified by the associated DWORD values, lowest number being used first. Thus, by adjusting these values, you can change from the default order of:

1. Check to see if name is the local machine
2. Check the hosts file
3. Check DNS

to some other order.

Perhaps when you were running dial-up the order was changed so that DNS was checked before the hosts file:

1. Check to see if name is the local machine
2. Check DNS
3. Check the hosts file

In this scenario, since www.qksrv.net is a valid name and would have been resolved by DNS, your hosts file would not have been consulted for www.qksrv.net and the correct IP address as returned by DNS would have been used.

cfitz

[dodecahedron]

thanks for the elucidation, cfitz!

i had checked the modified date on the file, it was something like 3 weeks ago (i rounded it up to a month, doesn't matter, it was well before my ADSL upgrade). so that's not it.

no other HOSTS file on this volume.

i'll connect my modem again and try it out.

right now, in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider:
DnsPriority = 2000
HostsPriority = 500
LocalPriority = 499
so indeed the DNS takes precedence over the HOSTS file.