CIS Classic User? Please help

[Dodi Schultz]

I'm having some technical difficulty with one Website, and among me, my computer guru, and the site support people, we're pretty much stumped.

If you have a CIS classic address (xyz@compuserve.com), would you please do me the favor of making your way to: http://www.medicalletter.org/ and letting me know whether or not you are able to get there?

Thank you!

--DS

[jdh]

I'm having some technical difficulty with one Website, and among me, my computer guru, and the site support people, we're pretty much stumped.

If you have a CIS classic address (xyz@compuserve.com), would you please do me the favor of making your way to: http://www.medicalletter.org/ and letting me know whether or not you are able to get there?

Thank you!

--DS

Dodi,

I don't have CIS, but I had a similar problem possibly caused by Zone Alarm firewall (free version running on Win 98).

I don't remember exactly how I fixed the problem. I think the solution involved uninstalling and reinstalling Zone Alarm. I may have had to change some of my Windows network settings and/or some settings in Zone Alarm.

This happened while I was using Dialup Networking (i.e. no router, no LAN, etc.).

The problem had to do with the fact that the web site I was visiting had 192 as the first octet of its IP address. As you can see, 192 is also the first octet of medicalletter.org IP address.

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>ping www.medicalletter.org

Pinging medicalletter.org [192.220.90.17] with 32 bytes of data:

This problem is probably related to two facts: 1. internal addresses on a LAN or ICS (Windows Internet Connection Sharing) are of the form 192.168.xxx.xxx , 2. Some free versions of Zone Alarm may [?] try to block having more than one computer sharing it's firewall capability on a single internet connection

Besides the finagling I did mentioned above I also sometimes use the free Sygate Personal Firewall to avoid this problem and also to avoid problems connecting to my Win 95/NT4 computer thru my router. However Sygate seems to be less stable than ZA and has problems with Real Audio protocols, I think.

FYI, adobe.com also has 192 as its first octet.

The above may offer additional angles to try.

DH

[jdh]

Oh, now I remember, the setting that had to be changed was the netmask.

I vaguely remember that ZA used to force the netmask to something or something other, depending on whether my router (which may supply DHCP service) was turned on or off at PC boot time. In those days I was using router for in-house LAN, but not for DSL Internet.

DH

[sidney]

If you have a CIS classic address (xyz@compuserve.com), would you please do me the favor of making your way to: http://www.medicalletter.org/ and letting me know whether or not you are able to get there?

I no longer have a compuserve.com email address, but I have to ask - What possible connection could there be between having a particular email address and being able to see a particular web site in your browser?

That said, I have no problem seeing the web site in Firefox. I agree with JDH that a likely cause is that the person who can't see the web site is running a firewall that is using the wrong bitmask (netmask), blocking all addresses of the form 192.xxx.xxx.xxx when it should be blocking just 192.168.xxx.xxx.

-- sidney

[jdh]

Another word of caution.

One would think that it should be enough to test this "192" hypothesis, to merely disable the fire wall, e.g. ZA, and reboot and then try to access the site.

I can't remember exactly how far I had to go before being able to access the 192 site that was giving me trouble. I may have had to go all the way to complete uninstall of ZA.

If you do uninstall, e.g. ZA, you'll want to be sure to have a version for Win 98, if you're on Win 98, to REINSTALL, BEFORE uninstalling.

IIRC, Zone Labs did have old versions available for DL on their site. ZA for Win 98 is no longer being supported by Zone Labs.

Of course, Sygate Personal Firewall, is no longer supported either. But appropriate versions of either ZA or SPF should work on Win 98.

DavidH

[Mike]

I have a Classic Email address. The web site has no way of knowing that. I clicked on the URL in your message, and voila, there it was, in my browser.

[Peter Creasey]

If you have a CIS classic address (xyz@compuserve.com), would you please do me the favor of making your way to: http://www.medicalletter.org/ and letting me know whether or not you are able to get there?

Dodi, I have a CIS Classic address and was able to access the page fine.

However, like Sidney, I cannot imagine what difference it makes what one's email address is.

I suspect your problem is with your firewall.

[Dodi Schultz]

Thanks to all who have replied.

I should also have added that I'm using dial-up (although that doesn't seem to make any difference either) and the reason I specifically mentioned CIS Classic is that I simply had only one test at that point from another CIS Classic user. I have asked folks using all sorts of ISPs, as well as dial-up, DSL, and cable to try this, and everybody can reach the site but me.

Much of the terminology in your replies (especially David) is beyond me, but I am not using ZoneAlarm or any other firewall. (I run Spybot Search & Destroy every once in a while.) Mike, you said that when you clicked on the site name, it showed up in your browser. It shows up in mine, too. I just get a feedback notice that their server hasn't responded. I have the problem whether I use my bookmark (in Firefox), or I type in the address (in that browser, or Opera, or IE6), or I pick up on a link from Google; even tried with a link their Web manager sent me. No help. I'm using Win98 SE.

[Mike]

Have you tried using a different dial-up number? ISTR there are several in NYC.

[jdh]

Try to go to http://www.adobe.com

If the web page does NOT appear, then you probably have a network configuration problem or some kind of malware. (adobe also has a "192" address, similar to the site you mentioned)

I think Zone Alarm Firewall and Sygate Personal Firewall are both still available and free for Windows 98. You may need help finding them. These days anti-virus is feeble protection. And Spybot is pretty feeble too and only catches bad guys AFTER you've been infected, often too late.

David H

[jdh]

Dodi,

Here's something else to look at:

Internet Explorer | Tools | Internet Options | Connections tab | Settings button

look at proxy settings. You probably should not have any proxy settings. If you do, somebody needs to check them. (BTW, malware might [?] have installed a proxy)

David H.

P.S. Free online malware scans:

http://housecall.antivirus.com/
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
http://www.ewido.net/en/onlinescan/

Spybot is rather feeble malware protection. But don't lose it, keep it and use it. I use multiple different anti-spy scans to do ON-DEMAND scans of my PC (i.e. they are not resident load and running 24/7). One single program alone is very unlikely to find all kinds of attacks.

[Peter Creasey]

I just get a feedback notice that their server hasn't responded.

Dodi etal, Just a thought! Could there be an issue whereby their server is just slow and Dodi's dial-up system is giving up too soon?

[Dodi Schultz]

Thanks, guys, for your further thoughts!

Mike, yes, there are three CIS nodes here in New York. They're all prone to occasional malfunctions, and when one seems to zone out temporarily, I just switch to one of the others. This mystery malfunction occurs with all.

David, I had no trouble whatever reaching the www.adobe.com site via the link you provided, so there doesn't seem to be a network configuration or malware problem. Nor does the difficulty lie with IE, which I hardly ever use. But IE6 came with the computer, so it's handy as a backup alternative (and I DID establish that it, too, falls prey to this problem--as does Opera 9, my other alternative browser). My usual browser is Mozilla Firefox (the one I'm using right now).

Pete, you wondered if my dial-up system is simply giving up too soon when it says, "Hey, time's up and that server didn't respond!" I don't think so, since it happily gives some other, larger sites LOTS more time.

Maddening mystery, is it not? As I mentioned initially, I not only asked a bunch of other folks to try accessing the site; I also consulted--at some length--my own computer adviser and the manager at the Website, Jane Power. They are both stumped.

--Dodi

[jdh]

David, I had no trouble whatever reaching the www.adobe.com site via the link you provided, so there doesn't seem to be a network configuration or malware problem. Nor does the difficulty lie with IE, which I hardly ever use.

I think you should check the proxy settings, if any, i.e. are they non-empty?, in MS IE. If a proxy is set up it will affect ALL programs that use a particular Internet protocol (e.g. http protocol, i.e. browsing protocol), not just MS IE. That is, some of the settings called Internet settings in MS IE affect MORE than just MS IE alone, which is probably why MS called them "Internet Settings" (and not just because MS was trying to give the appearance of owning the Internet).

Having a proxy is not necessarily bad. For example, if you have an anti-virus program it may well include a proxy that scans incoming and outgoing emails for viruses, regardless of which email program you are using.

Of course, IF there really were a malware proxy installed on your system it probably would try to avoid revealing the fact in the MS IE "Internet Settings", but it's probably worth taking a look at those settings anyway , as I explained in a previous message.

Another remote possibility, which I have actually seen, is that there is something in the network that "thinks" that there is something wrong with the name www.medicalletter.org . One way to test this is to use the actual IP address in the browser instead of the domain name.

That is , try going to this web site (it's the same one):

http://192.220.90.17/

This could workaround two different problems (if they exist) 1. somebody wrongly thinks the domain name is weird 2. Compuserve domain name servers are messed up.

David H

[jdh]

A couple more things to try too:

1. Click START, then RUN, and type COMMAND, then click OK.
Then run the PING command I showed in my previous message

ping www.medicalletter.org

and it should give you the same number 192.220.90.17

If you get no such (IP address) number or if you get a different number, then it's possible that the CIS DNS name servers are messed up or that your computer needs to be configured to use a different name server in your computer network settings. This would not be the first time that CIS name servers have been messed up.

-----------------------------

2. Download the software for a free dial-up ISP, such as NetZero and try to view the site with that. Netzero gives you 10hrs free per mo.

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

[QUOTE=jdh;37468]I think you should check the proxy settings, if any, i.e. are they non-empty?, in MS IE.

Another remote possibility, which I have actually seen, is that there is something in the network that "thinks" that there is something wrong with the name www.medicalletter.org . One way to test this is to use the actual IP address in the browser instead of the domain name.

That is , try going to this web site (it's the same one):

http://192.220.90.17/


Someone else has made the suggestion about the proxy settings in IE, David, and they were, and are, empty.

Also, using the actual IP address had the same result as using the domain name.

--Dodi

[Dodi Schultz]

I thought this was part of my other message, but it didn't come up that way.

I did that ping thing, too, and it did come up with the right number.

--Dodi

[jdh]

Many servers do NOT respond to ping's these days, but some do.

www.medicalletter.org does in fact. At least it does for me.

Therefore if you have not already tried the ping command on www.medicalletter.org as in:

c:\>ping www.medicalletter.org

then you should try it.

A successful ping (1 or more successful queries out of 4 queries) would indicate that there is a more or less intact network path from your PC to the server. If such an intact path does not exist, then of course the http protocol in any browser on your pc would NOT work to browse that site.

If the ping gives you a correct IP address (the number already discussed in this thread) but zero successes out of 4 tries, then it would tell that your DNS (CIS) is ok, but something else is wrong in the network.

David H

[jdh]

I thought this was part of my other message, but it didn't come up that way.

I did that ping thing, too, and it did come up with the right number.

--Dodi
So the next question would be "How many of the 4 pings (if any) actually succeeded?" (each ping command makes 4 tries)

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

David, it reported that it had zero success on all four ping attempts.

What does this mean? What could be wrong between here and there that ISN'T wrong between here and any OTHER site? (And that doesn't prevent anybody ELSE from reaching the site.)

--Dodi

[jdh]

David, it reported that it had zero success on all four ping attempts.

What does this mean? What could be wrong between here and there that ISN'T wrong between here and any OTHER site? (And that doesn't prevent anybody ELSE from reaching the site.)

--Dodi

It would only take a single router between you and the site server to be messed up somehow. If that's the case, then the other people who CAN get in apparently follow a DIFFERENT path to get in.

You could try running "tracert www.medicalletter.org" at the MSDOS command prompt in Windows 98. If that test does at least two "hops" successfully, then it proves about 99.9% that the problem is in the network OUTSIDE your computer somewhere.

I don't know if Compuserve would be any help or not. The Classic network is different than the CS2000 one. And AOL/CS only rents use of the networks now, unlike the old days when CIS actually owned a network. If the problem turned out to be in a router or something owned by the company from which AOL/CS rents connectivity for Classic dial up, then there is a chance that CS might be able to do something about the problem. I'm just guessing here.

If you'd rather not pursue the problem further, then it might be worth looking into NetZero as a back up dial up ISP, for free. Of course, if you plan on spending more than 10hrs/mo on that site, Netzero would not help you a lot, for free anyway.

David H

[jdh]

FWIW, It looks like that site is hosted by verio.net.

If you happen to talk to Compuserve, you might mention that.

David H.

[Dodi Schultz]

I've done the trace operation, David, and for its max of 30 hops, it came up with 30 timeouts.

At least I'm learning a whole bunch of troubleshooting tricks...thank you for that!

What I wonder is, what might have changed since the last time I was actually AT the site, which--as I said earlier--was in June or July. And if it's some fault of CompuServe, how come others who use it can get to the site?

Only one other thing occurs to me: I cannot SWEAR that I've run into this on ALL THREE of CompuServe's New York City nodes (although I KNOW I've tried at least two of them, repeatedly). I'll now go dial up on whichever two I'm not on right now, to make sure. Meanwhile, maybe somebody knows of another (non-NYC) node I could try?

--Dodi

[Dodi Schultz]

Following up on my very last message: I have now established that whatever goes wrong, goes wrong using ANY of the three NYC CompuServe nodes.

I'm now off to see if there's a list of CIS nodes somewhere on the Web, so I can try one NOT in New York and see if THAT makes a difference.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

--Dodi

[Mike]

...list of CIS nodes somewhere on the Web
http://support.csi.com

Make sure you choose the option for Classic, not CS2K.

What version of Firefox are you using?

[jdh]

I've done the trace operation, David, and for its max of 30 hops, it came up with 30 timeouts.

Maybe you could cut and paste the first several lines of output, from the MSDOS window, of the tracert command, into a message here. It's not clear, from what you said, exactly what happened, but it sounds like the tracert never made it out of your pc into the network? If that's the case, then there still might be something wrong with your pc. If you have Windows 98, you should see the cut, copy, and paste icons in the toolbar at the top of the MSDOS window, where you run COMMAND, and then TRACERT, etc.

You could also try the tracert command on a web site that you know that DOES work, so that you can see how the command looks when it DOES work.

David H

[jdh]

Here's an example of a tracert command, on NetZero dial-up, going from my PC to www.netzero.net.

In this case, it took 8 hops to get there. The first hop was to the router at nas14.Tampa1.Level3.net . If I had not been able to do at least one hop (I actually made all 8 hops ok here) then I could not be sure there was not something blocked in my pc somewere.

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop>tracert www.netzero.net

Tracing route to www.netzero.net [64.136.45.168]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 973 ms 145 ms 119 ms nas14.Tampa1.Level3.net [209.247.22.174]
2 644 ms 1227 ms 1078 ms ge-7-0-2.hsa2.Tampa1.Level3.net [63.212.217.3]
3 981 ms 974 ms 1497 ms ae-1-51.mp1.Tampa1.Level3.net [4.68.104.1]
4 1376 ms 405 ms 245 ms ae-0-0.bbr2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.128.210
]
5 579 ms 492 ms 811 ms ae-44-99.car4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.68.17.19
8]
6 723 ms 945 ms 1493 ms UNITED-ONLI.car4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.79.17
0.106]
7 347 ms 149 ms 141 ms v1001.r1.bu1.dca.untd.com [64.136.1.11]
8 142 ms 504 ms 314 ms www.netzero.net [64.136.45.168]

Trace complete.

---------------

David H

[jdh]

Dodi, in your case, to see a "normal" tracert command, you might want to try

tracert www.compuserve.com

David H

[jdh]

What I would be even more concerned about than the possibility of a misconfiguration of the network either inside your PC or outside it (i.e. in Compuserve, Internet, etc.) is MALWARE INFECTION.

The reason I say this is that some (or many?) malware programs try to block access to anti-malware web sites on the Internet (by messing up the your network connection) so that you can't even download the software you need to rescue yourself. But they DON'T block other web sites so that your PC will be able download yet MORE MALWARE. It may be possible that there is malware on your PC that has inadvertently blocked medicalletter in the process of blocking anti-malware web sites?

Since your PC apparently has only very weak defenses against malware, it might be a very good idea to do one or more of the online malware scans that I posted earlier in this thread, if you don't resolve this network problem ASAP. It would be a good idea to do it , even if you do fix the medicalletter problem.

David H.

[Dodi Schultz]

Mike, thanks for the URL; I'll check into it. In A to your Q, I'm using whatever the latest version (or at least next to latest version) of Firefox is--2.0.0.6? Something like that. But please remember that, although I normally stick with Firefox, I have two other browsers, IE6 and Opera9, and the same thing happens with THEM. (That was probably the first thing I checked out when the problem arose, and I've rechecked since.)

David, I'll do all of the stuff you recommended. Gotta go out, but I'll do all that when I return. (Will I ever again get any actual WORK done? It's beginning to look unlikely!) I'll report back here when I have answers to your further questions. Again, thank you.

--Dodi

[jdh]

(Will I ever again get any actual WORK done? It's beginning to look unlikely!) :(

Just a small word of warning. I don't really recommend anybody to install NetZero software. It changes your default browser to MS IE every time you dial in. It also runs some kind of web search program on your computer, presumably harmless, but still a waste of computer resources.

However, in your case it might be worth the trouble. If tracert is not even making it to the first hop? then something could be blocked inside your computer. If Netzero ALSO could not browse to medicalletter, then you may have either an unpleasant misconfiguration or bug in your pc network software OR worse, you may have malware infection(s).

David H

[ktinkel]

Following up on my very last message: I have now established that whatever goes wrong, goes wrong using ANY of the three NYC CompuServe nodes.

I'm now off to see if there's a list of CIS nodes somewhere on the Web, so I can try one NOT in New York and see if THAT makes a difference.

Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!This list is old (1999!), but I did use some of them three or four years ago when I was stuck on dial-up for awhile, so maybe they still work. I am sure the speed designations are out of date.

Not too much of a long-distance hit, anyway.

Westport CT CS 203 222-8558 (2400)
Westport CT CS 203 222-1748 (2400)
Westport CT CS 203 454-7935 (38.4)

Stamford CT CS 203 324-1115 (9600)
Stamford CT CS 203 324-8943 (2400)
Stamford CT CS 203 351-9573 (V90)

[Dodi Schultz]

Kathleen, thanks for the CT nodes. Busy, busy, busy (as were a couple of 800 numbers I turned up via Google).

David, in reply to your wondering about the "tracert" operation: When I did it using the elusive site I can't reach, it said, "Tracing route to medicalletter.org [192.220.90.17] over a maximum of 30 hops." This was followed by, on one line, "1 * * * Request timed out." Next line began with "2" and was otherwise identical. And so on through 30 of them.

When I tried it with www.compuserve.com, the first line was "1 157 ms 164 ms 151 ms" followed by a string of letters and numbers. Line 2 was similar and so on through line 17, when it pronounced the "trace complete." Then I tried it with another site I knew to be okay, the Food & Drug Admin (www.fda.gov) and it similarly did a whole string of numbered lines, through 16; "trace complete." In short, similar to your example for NetZero. (I did NOT, BTW, download NetZero.)

Obviously, something different happened with www.medicalletter.org--but WHAT? What does that particular operation show, exactly?

Unless you or someone else has a Eureka! moment real soon, I think I'm going to just resign myself to never being able to reach the Medical Letter Website ever again.

I'll probably survive.

Thank you for trying. ;-)

--Dodi

[jdh]

David, in reply to your wondering about the "tracert" operation: When I did it using the elusive site I can't reach, it said, "Tracing route to medicalletter.org [192.220.90.17] over a maximum of 30 hops." This was followed by, on one line, "1 * * * Request timed out." Next line began with "2" and was otherwise identical. And so on through 30 of them.
...
Obviously, something different happened with www.medicalletter.org--but WHAT? What does that particular operation show, exactly?


TRACERT can't even make it thru the first hop. To the best of my knowledge it is HIGHLY likely that the problem is in the network INSIDE your computer.

Both PING and TRACERT can find the correct address of the site. That means that your DNS is working ok. DNS is a server (at Compuserve in your case) that translates from the human friendly address of www.medicalletter.org to the numeric computer-friendly IP address.

There is no good reason, that I know of, at all why Internet packet should not be able to make it out of your computer to the first router in the chain/path.

So my conclusion is that something in the network stuff in your computer is messed either by accident or on purpose by some bad guys.

If you don't want to bother to try to fix the web site problem, that's ok. But I think you at least owe it yourself to raise your shields a little higher. Sounds like they are pretty low now.

You really should try the Trend Micro HOUSECALL online scan. Run it in Internet Explorer because Internet Explorer uses Active-X which normally is potentially more dangerous than Java (as in Firefox) but in this case you'll want MS IE since Active-X is faster. Run the scan over a long lunch break or whatever with nothing else running on your PC.

Firewall could protect you in TWO ways: 1. prevent hackers exploiting weaknesses in Windows networking 2. prevents rogue or unwanted programs from accessing your internet without your permission (so they could send your private data to somebody or download more malware or get orders from their zombie masters.

The security situation on the Internet is probably orders of magnitude worse that it was in the early 2000's.

There are millions of PC's under the control of criminal gangs doing all sorts of evil on the Internet. The day of the teen age nerd hacker is long past.

I highly recommend downloading the NoScript extension for Firefox to greatly increase your security. But that won't help much now if your computer is infected. Scan and disinfect first.

I'm not saying you ARE infected, just that you security has previously been so low, that you are in danger.

Security experts are even now discussing the question to AV or not to AV (AV=Anti Virus) because the usual AV programs , even the best, miss a lot of bad stuff.

I subscribe to the isc.sans.org (Internet Storm Center) RSS feeds to keep up on the bad news for over a year now. The news gets worse almost every week. There are so many zombie / bot PC's under the control of the bad guys that they could do serious damage beyond that already done if they attacked some big sites directly, but they're not terrorists (yet), just mafias looking to steal some money.

I don't see an emoticon weeping tears, or I'd use it here.

David H

[jdh]

In your WINDOWS folder on your Win 98 computer there may be a file called HOSTS with no extension.

It's a plain text file but has no TXT extension.

Symptoms so far do NOT indicate that it is corrupt. But if there is anything funny in it, it could be good evidence of malware attack.

To open the file you could drag it from Windows Explorer into Notepad and then cut and paste it's contents into a message here.

As I say, the reason for doing this is more to see if you are infected than to access medicalletter.

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

Sorry, David, I haven't GOT any file called "Hosts" in the Windows folder, unless it's using a pseudonym. Nothing by that name.

--Dodi

[jdh]

Sorry, David, I haven't GOT any file called "Hosts" in the Windows folder, unless it's using a pseudonym. Nothing by that name.

--Dodi No problem.
I think the default is for there to be none.

Having one is not a problem either.

Obviously , if it's not there, it can't be messed up :)

Best wishes on fortifying your computer security and finding a way to open that site.

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

David (et al.), I've discovered one other Website where the door's apparently closed to me! It seems to be a news service, and a colleague has referred me to an item there. But--same deal as the other problem site--it's unreachable for me, whether the specific item or the site generally, with all browsers, etc.

The site is: http://www.zwire.com/

I don't really NEED to reach it (I'll just tell my colleague to download and send me the item he wants me to see, which probably isn't all that important). But I thought I'd mention since this is the only other such instance I've encountered, and I wonder if the site has anything technically in common with the previously cited one that's the continuing problem...

--DS

[jdh]

David (et al.), I've discovered one other Website where the door's apparently closed to me! It seems to be a news service, and a colleague has referred me to an item there. But--same deal as the other problem site--it's unreachable for me, whether the specific item or the site generally, with all browsers, etc.

The site is: http://www.zwire.com/

I don't really NEED to reach it (I'll just tell my colleague to download and send me the item he wants me to see, which probably isn't all that important). But I thought I'd mention since this is the only other such instance I've encountered, and I wonder if the site has anything technically in common with the previously cited one that's the continuing problem...

--DS

I did a PING command on the site. First octet (byte) of IP addr is also 192. therefore maybe some reason to think network settings are messed up somewhere. At this point i'm still unsure if it's in your PC or in CS.

One could do a WHOIS maybe to find out who is the hosting company. If the hosting company is the same, then maybe there is a problem between CS and that hosting co.

Sorry can't help more,
David H

[Dodi Schultz]

Hi, David, and thanks for the new clue.

It seems not to pan out, though. The site we'd been talking about, www.medicalletter.org (192.220.90.17) has a server called NTT America, in Centennial CO; its range is 192.220.0.0 - 192.220.90.17. The server of www.zwire.com (192.104.183.50) is Lee Enterprises in Davenport IA.

I guess that means the "192" is just coincidental?

--Dodi

[jdh]

Hi, David, and thanks for the new clue.

It seems not to pan out, though. The site we'd been talking about, www.medicalletter.org (192.220.90.17) has a server called NTT America, in Centennial CO; its range is 192.220.0.0 - 192.220.90.17. The server of www.zwire.com (192.104.183.50) is Lee Enterprises in Davenport IA.

I guess that means the "192" is just coincidental?

--Dodi
At this point, I don't know what to think.

I forget if you've tried a dialup point outside NYC or not. If you can get to the sites via a CS classic dial up point outside NYC than that would indicate that the problem is not in your PC and probably in the CS network in the NYC area. If you could NOT get to the sites via an outside-NYC dialup point then the question would not be resolved.

I do remember that there have been instances in the past, not necessarily involving CS, where it has not been possible to access some parts of the Net from some places, because of fights between whatever companies, sort of.

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

Thanks, David, for reminding me that there IS actually one remaining untested factor: I'd forgotten that I never did get to test that outside-NYC dial-up. At that point, I was getting a bunch of busy signals and I kinda gave up. I'm not even sure I tried all of the Connecticut nodes Kathleen listed.

But I still have that list, and I'm going to try them again--all of them, this time. We'll see what happens, and I'll report back here.

--Dodi

[jdh]

Thanks, David, for reminding me that there IS actually one remaining untested factor: I'd forgotten that I never did get to test that outside-NYC dial-up. At that point, I was getting a bunch of busy signals and I kinda gave up. I'm not even sure I tried all of the Connecticut nodes Kathleen listed.

But I still have that list, and I'm going to try them again--all of them, this time. We'll see what happens, and I'll report back here.

--Dodi
If you can make another dial up point work, it might be possible to have somebody give you or find for you a dial up script for CS that would work with a calling card at a lower per min rate (e.g. under 2 cents per minute). I've never tried this myself, but I remember that the CS Classic program used to come with many dialing scripts to access CS by various networks, etc.

OTOH, it might be easier just to download and install free netzero to access the bothersome sites, assuming that you'd use this less than 10 hrs/mo. The main thing I dislike about Netzero is it always makes MS IE my default browser when ever I use it.

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

Okay, I have now attempted to dial all six of the Connecticut nodes Kathleen listed, all just a short while ago--i.e., after midnight EDT. On every one, I got a report that the line was "busy." Kathleen wasn't sure that these numbers were operational, and perhaps they aren't.

So I've still not been able to perform an actual test with dial-up from an outside-NYC node.

If anyone has any CURRENT classic CIS dial-up number(s) anywhere in the US outside New York City (or you know where I can download a current list), please let me know! I'd like to try it/them. Thanks.

--Dodi

[jdh]

Okay, I have now attempted to dial all six of the Connecticut nodes Kathleen listed, all just a short while ago--i.e., after midnight EDT. On every one, I got a report that the line was "busy." Kathleen wasn't sure that these numbers were operational, and perhaps they aren't.

So I've still not been able to perform an actual test with dial-up from an outside-NYC node.

If anyone has any CURRENT classic CIS dial-up number(s) anywhere in the US outside New York City (or you know where I can download a current list), please let me know! I'd like to try it/them. Thanks.

--Dodi

Classic CS 56K Access Numbers:

http://webcenters.netscape.compuserve.com/menu/phone.jsp

David H.

[jdh]

Dodi,

Another way to get to the sites you're having trouble with is web based HTTP proxies. The web based ones are simpler to use since they don't require installing any software or changing any settings on your PC. However, I don't ever use any, so I don't have a list that I would personally recommend.

Perhaps someone else knows of some web based HTTP proxies they trust.

David H.

[Dodi Schultz]

David, thanks for the URL for the page of CIS dial-up numbers.

I can confirm that the ones listed for my own area code (212) are correct, although only two out of the three active nodes are listed.

I don't know what to think about the others. I tried: the two 800 numbers listed; two in Connecticut; three in New Jersey; and three on Long Island. On every single one of these ten numbers, I got a "line is busy, try again later" message. Do you suppose they were all really busy?

--Dodi

[Judy G. Russell]

Do you suppose they were all really busy?It's not terribly likely. I just tried 5 NJ numbers at random; got through on all five.

[jdh]

David, thanks for the URL for the page of CIS dial-up numbers.

I can confirm that the ones listed for my own area code (212) are correct, although only two out of the three active nodes are listed.

I don't know what to think about the others. I tried: the two 800 numbers listed; two in Connecticut; three in New Jersey; and three on Long Island. On every single one of these ten numbers, I got a "line is busy, try again later" message. Do you suppose they were all really busy?

--Dodi

-- Maybe you could try dialing by hand and listening to make sure there really is an audible busy signal.

-- Have you tried accessing any of the apparently busy CS numbers by the Classic software, e.g. CS 4.02 ? I think WINCIM (CS 2.x), CS 3.x, and CS 4.x all can access CS WITHOUT MS D.U.N. on Windows.

-- Windows 98 has a little dialer program to dial phone numbers. It's separate from DUN and separate from CS software. It might be easier to play with when testing dialing of numbers in Windows to see if Windows thinks they're busy or not.

-- It's possible there could be something wrong in your modem settings, but at this point in time it may not yet be worth investigating it. Unless your manual dialing results (busy or not) differ from your modem dialed results.

-- If you're tired of trying to diagnose the problem, you may want to consider using NetZero to access the bad sites or use a web based HTTP proxy , instead of wasting more time. I'd recommend installing a free dial-up ISP ANYWAY , as a backup in case CS Classic has problems, e.g. goes down. Last year I still had Earthlink dial up. A couple times Earthlink dialup went down for about 24 hours in the Tampa Bay area, and I was able to use Netzero to check out my bank balance, etc. I hope the current latest Netzero still works on Windows 98.

-- If you have the Classic software installed you may or may not find a different list of phone numbers, using it. I forget if that's still possible or how to do that. But at least GO BILLING must still be possible.

-- There probably are still some ASCII menus still working on CS. You could use interactive mode in TAPCIS to get it and go to the TOP menu. TOP is also a command in ASCII mode too.

-- Or maybe look at other ISP's such as PEOPLE PC, they claim to have the most connection points and I see their free CD's in all the supermarkets around here. If you wanted to keep your CS email address you could check out if they still have the pay as you go plan, but you'd probably have to use CS POP3 email (same email address tho') instead of TAPCIS. The gov't forced ATT to offer DSL at $10/mo for 2 years and there is probably still 18 months still available according to the legal settlement and you probably could switch to $15/mo DSL on ATT or another ISP at the end. Chances are that problems may get worse on Classic CS as time passes since they don't have as much motivation to offer good service any more.

-- Try asking somebody at http://community.compuserve.com/cssoftware for help.

Good luck,

David H.

BTW, for lurkers, Firefox seems to have a number of extensions for handling http proxies, e.g. switching them. I haven't tried any of them tho'. I'm talking about non-web-based kind of http proxies now.

[jdh]

BTW, FWIW, Compuserve France will apparently close in 2 months and Compuserve Pacific has apparently already ceased operations:

http://community.compuserve.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?webtag=ws-cssoftware&nav=messages&tid=44463&tsn=

David H

[Dodi Schultz]

Thanks, David, but I haven't any idea how to do most of the things you list, and at this point, I think I've pretty much given up on this.

Thanks for all your help!

--Dodi

[jdh]

Judging by the example of Compuserve France, one might wonder how much advance notice one would get if Compuserve Classic shut down.

It might be wise to consider getting a permanent email address that one could leave unchanged even if one were to switch ISP's.

My personal recommendation would be to get an email service that has most of the following features:

1. access by multiple means:
a. POP3
b. web based
c. forwarding to another account

2. can access by POP3 to other POP3 email accounts you might have so you can get all your email in one place with a single download

3. good spam filtering

4. large amount of email space on server

5. free

6. company big enough that it would probably stay in business for a while, and services probably would remain available even if bought out

I have been using Google mail for a couple years now and it seems to satisfy the above well enough. AOL/AIM email might work too, but I don't like their web based access to email since it's rather slow (my Win 98 computer is 8 years old and I only have DSL lite).

One would also probably have to use an up to date email program, such as Thunderbird too. (Google email requires SECURE POP3, which some older email programs don't do.)

If you have a lot of correspondents and/or mailing lists, you might want to start moving your email account(s) sooner rather than later.

David H.

P.S. AOL mail used to use IMAP protocol but I think they added POP3 not too long ago. Thunderbird supports both IMAP and POP3 so one would not have to use AOL software. However, I don't particularly recommend AOL/AIM, except perhaps for Instant Messaging (as opposed to email).

[ktinkel]

Sorry I have not been paying attention.

I just tried the first six numbers I gave:

Westport CT CS 203 222-8558 (2400) : modem noise
Westport CT CS 203 222-1748 (2400) : person; wrong number (or mis-dial)
Westport CT CS 203 454-7935 (38.4) : modem noise

Stamford CT CS 203 324-1115 (9600) : modem noise
Stamford CT CS 203 324-8943 (2400) : modem noise
Stamford CT CS 203 351-9573 (V90) : busy signal

Not sure what all that means, but it seems as if you ought to be able to get through on 1, 3, 4, or 5 if all else is well.