ASPX pages give Server not found or DNS Error

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From: Ken Cooper (ken__at__xeladev.net)
Date: 02/20/04 

Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:35:51 -0000

I have just encountered a problem that was driving me nuts. Every aspx page
in my web application gave the error "Cannot find server or DNS Error". I
was multi-tasking at the time and was developing and downloading from the
internet. I ran a virus scan and found a trojan on my system which I
deleted, but what damage had it already done?

I found the following reports of this problem without solutions
http://www.dotnet247.com/247reference/msgs/22/114547.aspx
http://p2p.wrox.com/archive/aspx_beginners/2002-09/3.asp

I was in deep despair contemplating a complete system rebuild as no matter
how I referenced localhost (127.0.0.1 machine name etc) I still got the
message "Cannot find server". I had recently managed to screw up my local
networking and a rebuild was necessary then to recover my system. Had I done
the same again?

Thank goodness I paused, took a deep breath and tried to debug my
application. All my aspx pages inherit from my own base class and I had
introduced an infinite loop into the base class. The error message was
completely misleading and had nothing to do with the trojan - it was all my
own doing. If I had completely rebuilt my system I would have come back to
exactly the same problem hours later.

There's a familiar moral to this story - don't beleive all error messages
and always consider the possibility that it IS your fault!

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