Sometimes I have trouble accessing the FlightPhysical.com site, is there a server or host problem?
Sometimes we hear from AMEs who are not able to access their website hosted by FlightPhysical.com, or the connection is very slow, even though our network is up and running with no problems.
Just because the network is up; however, does not mean that it is always reachable from every point on the web. Many people are often under the false impression that once they reach the internet "backbone"they will enjoy uninterrupted throughput from server to client and back. However, there is not really an internet "backbone". The internet was created as a web by the Department of Defense over 25 years ago so that if any one linkwent down, it would not effect the whole. Power companies have now adopted the same sort of policy. Power used to be supplied in straight lines. Now it is distributed in loops so that if one line goes down the power travels the other side of theloop.
The web is composed of thousands of nodes. A node is the point at which two lines meet. When you upload a page to the server it travels anywhere from 2 to 30 nodes to travel between your client machine and the server. Your ISP is responsible for making sure you make it to the first node. We as a web hosting company have our servers connected to the last node, and are responsible for this last node. The nodes in between are the responsibility of what are frequently called backbone providers. It is a bit of a misnomer, but if you can think of what type of backbone an exoskeleton (like a spider) would have,you will understand. If your ISP uses Sprint as a backbone, the file you are uploading will be carried by Sprint to a point where traffic is traded with Frontier Global Center (FGC) -our"backbone" provider - called a peer hub (another node). Then FGC will carry the file to our server. In that route,Sprint might have 5 nodes and FGC have 5 nodes. When you cannot reach the server, there are three possibilities.
1) The ISP has a bad connection tothe node. If you can link to cnn.com,but not to us, it means the problem is probably not with the ISP. Althoughthe problem could be that your ISPchose a poor backbone provider.
2) One of the nodes between the ISPand Secure-Hosting is down or overloaded.Since there are so many nodes, thisis most frequently the problem. The browsers make the problem appearto be the server, since the error message is "The server did not respond." A more appropriate message might be, "The server did not respond, but it might not have ever been asked."
3) There is a problem with one of our servers or with our network. Luckily this has been rare.
Fortunately, there are diagnostic toolsto help pinpoint where the problem is. The most common tool is called traceroute. If you are using a MS Windows machine, here is how you can perform a traceroute:
(a) Click on the "Start" button, and choose "Programs", then "MS-DOS Prompt".
(b) Type in "tracert domainname"(without the quotes). Here is an example:
C:\WINDOWS>tracert secure-hosting.net
Tracing route to secure-hosting.net[209.239.47.200] over a maximumof 30 hops: 1 51 ms 73 ms 42 mssteu2-arc.1st.net [209.240.9.1] 2 46ms 44 ms 86 ms STC-bordercore.1st.net [209.240.0.254] 3 229 ms259 ms 173 ms 596.Hssi2-0.GW1.CLE1.ALTER.NET [157.130.100.225]4 233 ms 266 ms 290 ms 142.ATM3-0.XR2.CHI6.ALTER.NET [146.188.209.46]5 197 ms 258 ms 434 ms 290.ATM3-0.TR2.CHI4.ALTER.NET [146.188.209.14]6 141 ms 118 ms 157 ms 106.ATM7-0.TR2.DCA1.ALTER.NET [146.188.136.110] 7 202 ms 240 ms *198.ATM6-0.XR2.DCA1.ALTER.NET[146.188.161.145] 8 231 ms 219 ms *194.ATM1-0-0.BR1.DCA1.ALTER.NET [146.188.160.229] 9 29 ms 29 ms 15 mss8-1-0.br2.IAD.globalcenter.net[206.132.150.41] 10 18 ms 31 ms 18 msfe0-0.cr2.IAD.globalcenter.net[204.152.166.132] 11 27 ms 26 ms31 ms s3-0.cr1.BWI.globalcenter.net[209.143.255.6] 12 15 ms 22 ms 25 mssecure-hosting.s3-1.cr1.BWI.globalcenter.net [209.143.255.26] 13 37 ms 32 ms28ms secure-hosting.net [209.239.47.200]Trace complete.
C:\WINDOWS>
If you look at the example above,you see that there are 13 total "hops"between the client machine and the server"secure-hosting.net". Each hop has three numbers listed before the name of the node (some trace programs show the numbers after the name of the node), which represent the amount of time each hop took to reach that node. Each line also includes the name and IP of the node.
The next time you experience a problem, your site is slow or not coming up... try this. It may help determine the problem. If on a very rare occasion the problem is with our server ... rest assured our technicians are fully aware and doing everything possibleto get the problems taken care of immediately. If all else fails, contact us directly.
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