Website randomly showing as offline

Semaphorism · April 10, 2015, 7:00pm

I am randomly getting the offline page for the website.
It only does this on Waterfox, but I can switch to Internet explorer, and it will work just fine.

Examples: They were both ran within less than 10 seconds from each other. And the offline still happened on roblox.

Waterfox:

Internet explorer

It is also random, and doesn’t seem to stick to any pattern. I’ll just be browsing the website just fine, and it will go offline.

Tone · April 10, 2015, 7:10pm

Anyone else experiencing this?

Semaphorism · April 10, 2015, 7:18pm

I’ll do a full analysis once it does it again using the developer console, see if it is javascript or something. I’ll also get the DNS if needed.

MrgamesNwatch · April 10, 2015, 7:21pm

I noticed this on a page I loaded when I first started up my browser at like 2:30pm EST, otherwise I haven’t been browsing the roblox website much today to know if it might happen again.

Semaphorism · April 10, 2015, 7:52pm

An update: Some of the ads like to show the offline page as well.

This is an ad shown on the side of the forums:

Edit:
I recorded the requests with the developer console, and it appears this request is shown, which is related to the offline thing:

http://www.opstest1.robloxlabs.com/Login/FulfillConstraint.aspx?ReturnUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.opstest1.robloxlabs.com%2fuserads%2f2

ostrichSized · April 13, 2015, 8:56pm

Sounds like it could be a client-side dns caching issue, or a (few) webserver(s) in an inconsistent configuration.

Can you ping both www.roblox.com and opstest1.robloxlabs.com and let me know the results?

You can try flushing your dns cache, but I believe that browsers cache their own dns results. Still, if you want to give it a shot:

[ol]
[li]Open Command Prompt.[/li]
[li]Type: ipconfig /flushdns[/li]
[/ol]

rip_indra · April 13, 2015, 9:28pm

this happened to my friend but in studio

EchoReaper · April 13, 2015, 9:29pm

Tell him to try what ostrichSized posted.

Qwertygiy · April 18, 2015, 3:20pm

This is happening to my friend as well. He is able to load the direct IP address I got from “ping www.roblox.com” but any attempt to access roblox.com leads him to opstest1.robloxlabs.com instead. ipconfig /flushdns didn’t work for him. He uses Chrome, as do I. I am not having any problems, but I don’t visit test sites often.

Update: Studio works fine at browsing the site for him, and clearing his DNS cache in Chrome didn’t work.

Semaphorism · April 20, 2015, 4:41pm

[quote] Sounds like it could be a client-side dns caching issue, or a (few) webserver(s) in an inconsistent configuration.

Can you ping both www.roblox.com and opstest1.robloxlabs.com and let me know the results?

You can try flushing your dns cache, but I believe that browsers cache their own dns results. Still, if you want to give it a shot:

[ol]
[li]Open Command Prompt.[/li]
[li]Type: ipconfig /flushdns[/li]
[/ol] [/quote]
ping www.roblox.com

C:\Users\Semaphorism>ping www.roblox.com

Pinging www.roblox.com [209.15.14.21] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 209.15.14.21: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=246
Reply from 209.15.14.21: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=246
Reply from 209.15.14.21: bytes=32 time=34ms TTL=246
Reply from 209.15.14.21: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=246

Ping statistics for 209.15.14.21:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 28ms, Maximum = 34ms, Average = 30ms

ping opstest1.robloxlabs.com

Pinging www.opstest1.robloxlabs.com [8.42.96.25] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=243
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=243
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=243
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 8.42.96.25:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 46ms, Maximum = 47ms, Average = 46ms

I tried ipconfig /flushdns, didn’t change anything, still getting the random offline ads.

Semaphorism · April 20, 2015, 4:45pm

Then the website appeared as offline again, and it showed this when I pinged it again, same Ip as the offline page, and yet, it was just working perfectly using the 209 ip.

ping www.roblox.com

Pinging www.roblox.com [8.42.96.25] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=49ms TTL=243
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=49ms TTL=243
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=243
Reply from 8.42.96.25: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=243

Ping statistics for 8.42.96.25:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 47ms, Maximum = 49ms, Average = 48ms

It only does this on my laptop as well, works perfectly fine on my desktop. I use the same browser on both, same operating system.

Semaphorism · April 20, 2015, 6:23pm

Adding this line

www.roblox.com www.opstest1.robloxlabs.com

Into C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file fixed it for me. But still doesn’t explain why it was doing this. Only happens on waterfox browser, which is 64bit version of firefox. I even got a plugin to clear the browsers DNS, and windows DNS cache.

Edit: Apperently, I am still getting it on ads.
And is it normal to get this many requests to it each page?

Edit 2:
I think I fixed the main pages from doing that on Waterfox, but now chrome is always doing it.

Edit 3:
Changing my hosts file to this fixed it completely.

209.15.14.21 www.roblox.com
www.roblox.com www.opstest1.robloxlabs.com
www.roblox.com opstest1.robloxlabs.com