# Problem with Kencove site



## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

My computer hates Kencove. I use Kencove for fence supplies. When I go to their site, I can order one or two things, and then the site times out and says connection to server was broken. I have no problems with any other sites including those that have shopping carts. 

I'm using Firefox, Win 8.x, and satcom internet.

I've asked Kencove if they have had any other problems like this reported and they say no. This has been going on for months. I usually place an order every 4 - 6 weeks and it has happened the last 3 or 4 times I've tried to use them. If I walk away and come back to their site in a few hours, it will work again and allow me to see a few pages and then poops out again and has lost what I already had in my shopping cart. 

Is there some setting I can change that would get me past this?

ETA: my browser keeps on working with other sites even after Kencove stops.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

It's them, not you. The problem is in their DNS.

First, they have declared a relatively short TTL (time to live) in their DNS settings. They have it set to 1800 seconds (30 minutes). That tells your ISP to come back and check their DNS server for updates every 30 minutes. They probably set it that low for a web server migration but never set it back. The standard TTL setting is more like 86000 seconds (~1 day).

A TTL that short would be fine if everything was working OK with their DNS servers, but it's not. If you look at the intodns.com profile for kencove.com you'll see that two of their nameservers are down (actually, lame). Look about half way down for the error in red.

http://www.intodns.com/kencove.com

The following nameservers are not responding with info about kencove.com:

69.197.21.29
69.197.21.28

So when the TTL times out and your ISP goes looking for kencove.com at one of those nameservers, the lookup fails. Without DNS your browser doesn't know where kencove.com is located so the connection to the server is broken.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Wooo wooo. Who'da thunk it? Nevada to the rescue. I take back 37% of the bad things I've ever said about you!

Many thanks, sir!


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

DEKE01 said:


> Wooo wooo. Who'da thunk it? Nevada to the rescue. I take back 37% of the bad things I've ever said about you!
> 
> Many thanks, sir!


Well, this is what I do. 

Technically, those two nameservers are not down, as I suggested, they are lame. The difference is that those nameservers are running but not returning relevant information about kencove.com. That usually happens when the kencove.com DNS information isn't in the nameserver. In other words, those nameservers are responding to DNS queries but they don't know anything about kencove.com.

It would be better if those nameservers were down. If they were down then your ISP would look for a different nameserver to ask, but since the lame nameserver responded the connection is broken.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Thanks. they said there was nothing wrong with their website. Then I told them which servers were lame. They assured me the servers were operating just fine. Then they rebooted the servers and suddenly the website works for me. 

I'm thinking those servers have been off line for months and they don't want to admit they don't know what they are doing. The woman seemed a little intimidated that I could tell her the DNS of the lame servers. I didn't admit that I don't know squat.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

DEKE01 said:


> Thanks. they said there was nothing wrong with their website. Then I told them which servers were lame. They assured me the servers were operating just fine. Then they rebooted the servers and suddenly the website works for me.
> 
> I'm thinking those servers have been off line for months and they don't want to admit they don't know what they are doing. The woman seemed a little intimidated that I could tell her the DNS of the lame servers. I didn't admit that I don't know squat.


I'm still seeing those nameservers reported as lame, but hopefully that will be the end of it. If not then check again with intodns.com and look for red errors.


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

:grumble:

well, it worked just fine for a few minutes. I banged thru bunches of pages trying to see if it would lose the server again and all worked fine. I posted here to thank you, Nevada, and a little while later went to place my order. Crashed again and yes, I still get that same lame server error. 

:kung: >>> :grumble: >>> :doh:


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

I'm wondering if something else is going on here. The problem only appears during checkout, which is the only time you enter https mode. I'm wondering if there is something going on with SSL.

What is the exact URL you are at when the error is generated?


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

Nevada said:


> I'm wondering if something else is going on here. The problem only appears during checkout, which is the only time you enter https mode. I'm wondering if there is something going on with SSL.
> 
> What is the exact URL you are at when the error is generated?


It is different page every time and I don't even have to be buying anything. If I just cruise thru pages window shopping, it will only let me see a few pages before it locks.


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