I thought everything was back under control but it appears that there was a misunderstanding between myself and my web hosting provider.  My provider went way above expectations in trying to help me out when Dili-gence disappeared off the TL internet map but somewhere along the line, he got the DNS messed up.

It is normal for there to be 2 DNS servers for a domain which provide the translation from “wombathole.com” to an IP address.  Somewhere along the line, he had one pointing to the old server and one to the new.  So sometimes I could post (to the new) and sometimes I couldn’t – depended on whichever server I got.

When a reader pointed this out to me, I asked the provider to fix it and clearly asked him to shift the web site to the new server where my posts were going.  I really meant point both DNS servers to the new server.  So he copied the contents of the old server to the new and I lost quite a few posts.  I have put them back but lost a few readers comments along the way.

It has been a bad 2 or 3 weeks for the technical background stuff.

Yesterday may have been “Restoration of Independence Day” here but for Dili-gence, it was Restoration of Internet Day.  Dili-gence is now visible in TL again after about 2 weeks in the barbed-wire canoe.  It sometimes pays to be a surly curmudgeon or at least know someone who is.

Prepare for a brain-dump of the last 2 weeks of interrupted activity.  I know there must be something in there.

One of my readers has brought this issue to my attention and it possibly explains why Dili-gence is invisible to Timor Telecom customers.  Apparently, this issue is not uncommon but it just requires “keeping up-to-date” with the state of play on internet IP address allocation.  Not surprisingly, this is what ISPs are meant to be good at.

In plain English, all visible computers on the internet have a unique number (ie IP address) which identifies that computer.  The hardware that shovels around messages on the internet (called routers) generally know where they need to send stuff based on these numbers.   When the numbering system was first set-up years ago, no-one could have predicted the massive growth in demand for numbers.  However, the people that defined the numbers had left a block of numbers as “reserved” for other uses.

Once the available numbers became scarce, the boys decided to release some of the reserved numbers.  Before then, the routers only needed to know about shovelling around data for the known available set of numbers.  When the “reserved” numbers were released, routers needed to be re-configured to recognise these additional numbers.  If you don’t do that, those new numbers remain unknown and internet traffic for those addresses goes nowhere.

Please refer to the following web sites :

For a general technical commentary, http://www.team-cymru.org/Services/Bogons/
For the timeline of release of new numbers, http://www.cymru.com/Documents/bogon-list.html

TT, could you please refer to the list of numbers in the “Bogon List” and re-configure your routers accordingly.  The IP address of Dili-gence was changed to an address in a range released on 27 March 2007.  I am happy to come over and do it for you.  A slab of Sagres Preta will do fine.

If you do not do so, you may be breaking a contractual obligation with your customers.

Is this OK, JH ?

I have had a very confusing week.  Dili-gence is not visible through any customer connected through Timor Telecom.  But for everyone else, it is fine.  A series of coincidences certainly confused me.

Firstly, my regular credit card payments to my hosting provider ceased because my credit card has expired.  So when the first problems started, I put them down to the provider shafting me.  Then I discover that coincidentally, my provider had shifted dili-gence to a new server at around the same time, so assumed that must be the problem.  Then I have an email trade with the provider and resolve the credit card issue but I am told there has been no downgrading in my service at all and as far as they are concerned, my site is running fine.

I check with people out of the country.  Yep all is well out there.  I still get people constantly telling me they can’t see dili-gence from here in Dili.  I check IP addresses in case it is an IP address issue.  No, both TT customers and others report the same IP address.  If the IP address had changed a week ago (with the server change), it should have filtered through the DNS system within 24 hours and obviously did.

What can I conclude but either TT is blocking the site,  or their web page caching server is stuffed and needs re-starting.  I can’t think of anything else.  I can’t believe the first option is the case as I doubt TT have the skills to do it.  Stuffing up a caching server configuration makes more sense to me.

So if you are wondering how some people can access it here, there are a number of organisations who are permitted to bypass TT, such as the UN, World Bank,  ADB, embassies, country-based aid organisations and the odd grey market connection is being in slipped in.  I even recall the government office that had internet supplied via an informal cable strung over a fence from a rather large organisation.

I am not sure how long Dili-gence will be alive on the web as I have a problem with making payments to my web hosting provider.  I am a bit out of the loop with regard to just how one gets a new credit card delivered these days.

My credit card expires May 2008 and I am waiting for the new one.  About 3 weeks ago, I faxed a confirmation to OZ confirming that I do indeed live out of the country and yes, it is OK to deliver it overseas.  Since then, nothing.  I am not sure what I am meant to do next but nothing has happened and until I get my credit card with the magical numbers on the back, I can’t make my web hosting provider payment.

I have now received an email saying my web hosting subscription is cancelled but Dili-gence is still there/here.  I have emailed a grovelling reply but am stuck until Monday when I guess I will have to call OZ to work it all out.

These are just some of the things that can make life quite frustrating living here.  Boy, am I looking forward to the $50 worth of phone calls to sort it out.

On top of all that, I have been having trouble posting most of this week and my theory is that the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 via Windows Update on Tuesday has meant any PCs connected to the internet with Automatic Updates set to on, will be downloading furiously.  Thus grinding some parts of the internet to a halt.  Well, its my theory.