Web-sites Going AWOL

Twice in the last twenty minutes or so, I tried to refer to two separate sites in connection with threads on this site.

For both, the system returned a message saying the site could not be found.

They were the Traction Talk forum, and that for the engineering parts-supplier Townsend Bearings - which is based in Bridport, the town that is also home to the Stuart (and other) castings foundry.

Anyone else found this problem with these or similar sites, or can suggest why they won't work? Anything else I look up seems fine.

Goind AWOL? Try Going!

Both still there. Best to use Google (or other) search on the name when the site can't be found message pops up.

Probably something obscure computer or network side getting in the way of old links. I've had this problem with links I saved several years ago and not used in the interim. I imagine the links you picked up from the forum were via someones stored list rather than picked up live.

These days I tend to grab links from live windows just in case.

Clive

**LINK**

https://www.townsendbridport.co.uk

**LINK**

https://www.tractiontalkforum.com

I don’t know what links you were using, Nigel ... but both of those ^^^ seem to be live today.

... As Clive says: Addresses do change

MichaelG.

Michael, the green "townsend bearings" visit site does not work from your link for me. TT is OK. as is Townsend's blasting site

.

Mmmm ... sorry, I hadn’t spotted that.

I wonder if they still do bearings ?

MichaelG.

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Edit: strangely, some [but not all] of of the pages here are working:

http://townsendbearings.co.uk/

http://townsendbearings.co.uk/pdf/BearingsCR.pdf

Perhaps the site is in the process of being migrated 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 27/10/2019 21:04:43

All the links above seem to work fine for me.

George.

Sometimes an ISP's DNS server has a problem. If you think a website isn't working downforeveryoneorjustme does as its name suggests.

BrianG

Of the two Michael gives, the first fails, the second works - but it opens only the bearing catalogue, a pdf file.

The first link opens the list of TT's internal links, but these simply return you to the browser and message that the site cannot be found

Trying to find them by typing the overall web-site name given at the foot of that, fails - the system cannot find it that way either.

Annoyingly, trying to use any link from within a site, such as this one, closes that host, and you have to re-open it!

I tried the Traction Talk forum again from the browser, to be met by this:

Have you tried with a different browser?

Could be a red herring, but it looks to me like the Townsend links that work are townsendbearings.co.uk and the ones that fail are www.townsendbearings.co.uk

Possibly someone messed up an website update?

I think that system may be prone to interference by a malevolent use of steam or scissors and by the redaction pen.😉

Edited By V8Eng on 29/10/2019 20:47:51

Could be your router is corrupted.

When you first ask for a website, a query is made that turns the human friendly website name into a network address, which is a completely incomprehensible binary number. As resolving names to addresses takes a long time, binary addresses are remembered by your computer and router. Strange things happen if a cache is corrupted by a power surge, or overheating. Not unknown for routers to be located on a sunny window sill or balanced on a radiator!

The computer's cache of addresses is refreshed every time it's rebooted and is unlikely to cause other than short-lived problems. But the cache in a router may not be refreshed for several months, and because most entries may be intact, it may not be obvious the router needs tlc. Therefore try this:

1. Shutdown your computer and turn the power off
2. Power off your router and leave it off for several minutes. Long enough to cool down.
3. Power the router back on an wait for its status lights to show it has reconnected to the internet. This should clear the cache and build a new one.
4. Power on the computer, login, start the browser, sacrifice a virgin, and check a few web site.

'Have you tried turning it off and on again' is a computer joke, except it really works! It resets everything to a known state. Less well known Routers are also computers that benefit from a restart sometimes. Worth a try, especially as a corrupt router creates Windows problems that not even Microsoft can fix.

Dave

Thank you!

Dave:

In fact I do that by default, switching off the power to both the computer and the router when I finish a session (obviously having closed the computer down properly).

The router sits on a shelf well away from any heat source or from the window, which faces North anyway.

Frances:

My PC is not very old, and it's the same one I have viewed both those web-sites on previously, with no problems.

Just a thought... I have been trying these from my main account. I wonder if my secondary one will work.

No. Just tried it. Same results.

Obviously this PC will find most web-sites I try, but no longer links to others; and there is no pattern or evident reason to it.

I can only assume it's something to do with the way these sites are written, so they are no longer compatible with my computer, as they used to work. (Hence my asking if it might be a WIN 10 - 7 mis-match, without knowing what the sites' writers use.)

.

Nigel,

Just to be clear ... That ^^^ is exactly what I was trying to demonstrate to you.

The first of those does work ... but the hyperlinks within it appear to be dead.

The second ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’.

... Quite where this leaves us, when the parent site “cannot be found” is beyond me.

MichaelG.

.

Edit: I haven’t used Internet Explorer for a while; but you might try this page:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/967897/cannot-access-some-websites-in-internet-explorer

or this

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/956196/internet-explorer-cannot-display-the-webpage-error

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 30/10/2019 08:29:49

I find it easier to use an iPad or Android tablet for web browsing or eBay etc,just use computer for things that need it.The links on the thread opened OK using iPad using mobile phone as a hotspot.

.

I am astonished, Maurice

Like you, I find the iPad most convenient for web stuff ... but I have not yet managed to open any of the links provided on the list at:

http://townsendbearings.co.uk/

... Can you please provide an example of one that works ?

Thanks

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 30/10/2019 09:41:41

Someone with more aptitude than I possess might find a hint here:

**LINK**

https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/results/townsendbearings.co.uk

But it’s beyond me.

MichaelG.