# Cannot Access Specific Website



## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I've been trying to access one website for two days now and for some reason I can't get through. It's the National Center for Biotechnology Information. I can get the main NIH website to come up just fine. It's just the subdomain I can't access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ This has to be the website where Pubmed is housed. Tried changing my IP address. I've tried flushing DNS and tried three different browsers. They all show Server Not Found. I contacted NCBI directly and am waiting on reply. Can you get to the web address listed above?


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## mmoetc (Oct 9, 2012)

How Do I said:


> I've been trying to access one website for two days now and for some reason I can't get through. It's the National Center for Biotechnology Information. I can get the main NIH website to come up just fine. It's just the subdomain I can't access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ This has to be the website where Pubmed is housed. Tried changing my IP address. I've tried flushing DNS and tried three different browsers. They all show Server Not Found. I contacted NCBI directly and am waiting on reply. Can you get to the web address listed above?


Just clicked on the link on my iPhone and got right to it.


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## Belfrybat (Feb 21, 2003)

I pulled it up just fine from your link.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

Chrome somehow links to Windows Diagnostics in the browser window. I clicked that link to check for problems and it states:

*Issues Found: Your DNS Server might be unavailable. Windows can't find the host name "www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov" using DNS
*
Whatever that means.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I checked DW's computer and hers is doing the same thing as mine. Can't access that portion of the site specifically.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

Got off chat with ISP and email from NIH. Basically I'm SOL as far as they're concerned. They can get through just fine...so no problem. Have two computers that can't get through to the same website. Something is screwed up somewhere. ISP says they do not block websites. Just refreshed again. Nothing.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I get the same from my phone going directly to Pubmed: The requested host was not found

ETA - I should say that is Wifi only. I can't get service out here to check otherwise. Probably works that way, but can't say for sure.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

Tried to ping the site: *Ping request could not find host www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Please check the name and try again*
The tried to ping Google immediately afterward, no problem


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## Declan (Jan 18, 2015)

How Do I said:


> Tried to ping the site: *Ping request could not find host www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Please check the name and try again*
> The tried to ping Google immediately afterward, no problem


I clicked the link for every time you posted it and it came up 3 times just fine for me. Not sure. If you have a second browser, try that.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I've tried three browsers so far and a phone thru wifi. None of them can reach the site.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

Tried to reset TCP/IP and restart. Still nothing.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

My guess is, probably a DNS issue. Try setting a DNS server in your router or one of your devices, instead of using whatever one your ISP uses.

https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I'll give that a look. I tried trace route and it got as far as you can see and the remaining timed out. Doesn't that sound like NIH has blocked some range for some reason on their end? I've changed IP addresses several times and still no luck.


7 31 ms 28 ms 42 ms port-channel225.car1.Louisville1.Level3.net [4.59.184.1]
8 209 ms 217 ms 214 ms NATIONAL-LI.ear2.Washington1.Level3.net [4.59.144.190]
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

That URL resolves to 130.14.29.110 . Plug that IP into your browser and see if it'll load. If it does, it's a DNS issue; if not, it's something else.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

That's what I got when I typed the IP address into CMD:

```
Tracing route to www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [130.14.29.110]
```
I still get 'Server Not Found' when using only the IP address. It resolves to the domain name, but still Server Not Found.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

How Do I said:


> I still get 'Server Not Found' when using only the IP address.


Then it sounds like they're blocking your ISP for some reason. Their security may not be up to snuff, and their servers may have been hacked and used to send spam. If that's the case, not much you can do but convince them to fix their security, or use a VPN.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I sent them another email with this address included, hoping they'll take another look into it and email me back. Only thing I can think to do at this point. Thanks for the help.


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## How Do I (Feb 11, 2008)

I *followed this article* from HOWTOGEEK to change the DNS settings over to *Google Public DNS*. When I restarted my computer Pubmed loaded right away. I rechecked by letting the system set it automatically again and it failed to load the website again. So once more, I entered Google DNS settings, rebooted and the website loaded right away. So that's nice and all. I get through now. But what does that say the problem is? The DNS settings the computer is setting automatically? Just weird it started happening out of the blue. I still had one page from the website open in my browser from when I was getting through a few days ago.


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## backwoodsman7 (Mar 22, 2007)

hmm, it occurs to me I should've had you reboot both router and computer before trying the IP address, to make sure it didn't associate the IP with the domain name it had already resolved. That may be why the IP address didn't work. In any case, looks like the issue involves your ISP's DNS, so using a different DNS server should be a permanent fix.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

backwoodsman7 said:


> hmm, it occurs to me I should've had you reboot both router and computer before trying the IP address, to make sure it didn't associate the IP with the domain name it had already resolved. That may be why the IP address didn't work. In any case, looks like the issue involves your ISP's DNS, so using a different DNS server should be a permanent fix.


More often than not, the IP address isn't going to resolve to the domain you're trying to reach. That's because today most web servers employ shared IP address hosting. Hosting control panels usually include a feature to declare a default domain, which displays that website when someone tries to access by the IP address. That's usually the website of the hosting service.

The problem of an ISP's DNS server resolving to a bad IP address is usually with a caching DNS server. ISP's use caching DNS servers to lighten the DNS query load. After all, there's no point in looking up yahoo.com hundreds of times a day when you already know how to find it. The ISP's DNS server should get an expiration time for a domain from its authoritative DNS server, which will be the TTL (Time To Live) parameter. But some caching DNS server use their own TTL of maybe 30 days. The DNS server won't go back and check for updated DNS until whatever TTL they are using expires.

If you question whether the problem is specific to your service or area, try to access the domain through a free web proxy service, like this one.

https://proxy.toolur.com/


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