Re: For Microsoft Partners and Customers Who Can't Download or Access

I'm still on the job here. I talked to Akamai today and they told me their
services to Microsoft are load balancing the DNS requests. While they
provide content caching services they do not provide those services to
Microsoft for msdn2.microsoft.com.

I've tried to reconfigure my firewall to support NAT as you suggest but I
must not have done so correctly and I'm trying to ask Netgear for
documentation as its scarce. They have decent equipment but their
documentation and their support is lousy. I was successful using NAT when
using a Netgear router but their FVS318 firewall is not documented well and
I'm doing something wrong.

Happy New Year! :-)

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP http://wikimapia.org/#y=43038073&x=-88043838&z=17&l=0&m=h


<cduffy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1166831965.119411.203450@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Clinton,

"I use a NetGear firewall which gets the DNS
automatically from Road Runner as I recall I was instructed when setting
up
the Road Runner account"

This is absolutely the right thing to do for the firewall.

*But* check your PC using ipconfig /all from a command prompt (if you
are on a windows os of course).

If the DNS address listed on your PC is the address of the firewall or
router, this can cause the problem. The solution is to not use DHCP on
the client, use a static IP and set the DNS server addresses to the DNS
server addresses that your firewall/router accquires when it connects.
You can usually find that out from the admin console of your
firewall/router.

"Still, this doesn't answer how the same local configuration has been
rock
solid and reliable for years previous to Microsoft's network crapping "

Well, my local configuration worked perfectly for years too, then
stopped. I struggled with this for weeks, and stumbled onto the
solution in a networking group.

I think it has something to do with MS moving more and more content to
AKAMAI servers, and the complex DNS involved with their caching /
balancing act. I'm not any kind of expert at that stuff, but I know
that moving to static IP and entering proper DNS server IPS instead of
the routers IP solved mine, and several other peoples problems.

Of course this may have nothing to do with your problem, but it takes
less than five minutes to check.

Chuck





clintonG wrote:
The third party is a fascinating aspect of the problem Chuck. Thanks for
bring it to my attention. I use a NetGear firewall which gets the DNS
automatically from Road Runner as I recall I was instructed when setting
up
the Road Runner account. I talked to Road Runner about this problem
already
but I will revisit my configuration options.

Still, this doesn't answer how the same local configuration has been rock
solid and reliable for years previous to Microsoft's network crapping out
as
of late and all of the rest of us getting blamed for it.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP http://wikimapia.org/#y=43038073&x=-88043838&z=17&l=0&m=h





duffy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1166806203.887809.255910@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hey Clinton, are you by any chance trying to access microsoft URLS from
behind a linksys or other SOHO gateway or router? If you are using
linksys, are you using DHCP? If you are using DHCP is the DNS server
address assigned to your client the address of the linksys box itself?
If so there is a solution.

On my home network I could not access msdn, or microsoft downloads and
tons of other microsoft contents. It was driving me crazy. Didn't
matter what browser I used.

Turns out that the DNS on the linksys box was incapable of correctly
resolving the url transfers through the *akami servers* that lots of
microsoft content reside on.

The solution was to move to configure an IP on the client, instead of
DHCP, and to supply a DNS server entry of your providers external DNS
server (ie, the DNS servers listed in the WAN connection on the router
configuration itself).

All problems solved. I know many, many people who have resolved their
problems with this simple fix, and can now access all microsoft
content.

Chuck



clintonG wrote:
You are one of the lucky ones and I hate you ;-)


<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP http://wikimapia.org/#y=43038073&x=-88043838&z=17&l=0&m=h


"Dale" <dale0973@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:D46AF506-C305-4A99-A842-A75B7A5188C1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've never had a bit of problem accessing MSDN, MSDN2, or MSDN
Downloads
except on the day Vista was added to downloads - I had to click the
link a
whole 6 times before I slipped into the queue. Considering the
beating
the
Microsoft servers took on that day, I feel pretty darn lucky at
that.
I
access MSDN and MSDN downloads on at least 6 different PCs,
including
Windows
2003 server, Windows XP, and Vista operating systems.

While I can't talk about all browsers, anyone who is developing for
Windows
must certainly have access to IE6 or IE7 so, as far as I am
concerned,
it
matters little if other browsers work with MSDN or not. As it is, I
have
made at least a quick test of MSDN on FireFox 1.5 in the past with
no
obvious
problems.

As for your statement that you are a professional, I disagree.
While
you
are wrong about your assertions, pretty much across the board, it is
not
the
fact that we disagree on those assertions that me think you're not
very
professional at all. If you believe the sites to be flawed, I
accept
that
it
is your privilege (not your right) to post your concerns here but
it's
not
what you're saying, it's how you're saying it.

I wonder if all those customers you list and quote on your website
would
have the same respect for your professionalism if they saw this
immature
and
seemingly out of control rant.

Dale
--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA


"clintonG" wrote:



To all Microsoft partners and customers who have been unable to
download
recently or access ASP.NET documentation from the msdn2 website and
for
all
of those customers who have been lied to and misled by some of the
sleazy
MVPs and the lying cockroaches that Microsoft has working for the
company...

Microsoft has serious problems with their servers and websites. The
entire
MSDN server farm and all download resources MSDN manages has been
FUBAR
for
at least two months now and longer in fact. The failures started
way
back
when Visual Studio 2005 was released. At least it is correct to say
that
is
when these recent failures began to be discovered by those who have
paid
Microsoft thousands of dollars for MSDN subscriptions but have not
been
able
to download resources they paid for.

This is also widely known and discussed to some extent within other
newsgroups hosted by Microsoft and has become a serious problem for
developers who can not access the ASP.NET 2.0 documentation from
the
dysfunctional msdn2.microsoft.com website. Yet, Microsoft has done
what?

Like cockroaches Microsoft staff have lied and scurried away from
the
problem without an honest acknowledgement of the problem and a
concerned
attempt to at least explain what the company is doing to resolve
these
failures.

So be prepared to continue to be lied to and misled by some of the
MVP
cockroaches that use these newsgroups. The same will be true of the
so-called Product Managers who are closer to the problem and even
less
honorable than the slime that function as MVPs. In other words,
when
the
cockroaches from tech support, Microsoft Product Managers, and some
of
the
slimier MVPs try to suggest you have a problem with your machine do
not
allow them to manipulate you and put you to work for hours and
perhaps
days
wasting your time with troubleshooting. Their favorite lie is to
suggest
people have a problem with the cache on the local machine. This has
been
proven to be a lie by many people.

When this first occurred with Visual Studio 2005 -- I TRUSTED --
Microsoft
support and fell for the lies the cockroaches told. I was actually
working
with Tier Two support who sent me troubleshooting scripts and
documents I
had to carefully follow so I could run the scripts in order. I ran
scripts
for those cockroaches for SIX HOURS and then the cockroaches told
me
we
had
to start all over because the cockroaches said they sent me the
wrong
scripts. I had enough of that ca-ca de toro and later that same
evening
POOF! downloading started working again on any and all machines on
my
network.

Because I consider myself a professional -- with integrity -- I
have
recently once again tested and replicated Microsoft's recent server
failures
on three different well maintained and service packed machines
running
XP
Pro, XP Home and Windows 2000 using IE6, IE7, FF1.5, FF2 and Opera9
because
I want to make sure I have done due diligence before the bottle
rocket
goes
off.

The msdn2.microsoft.com website is FUBAR and so is the Express
Suite
website(s). MSDN Subscription Downloads continue to be FUBAR.

This is Microsoft's problem and the cockroaches the company has
working
for
it do not have the integrity to acknowledge this problem let alone
cooperatively help people understand what they are doing to try to
resolve
the problem -- but -- a young lady from corporate sales called me
the
other
day as I am involved with the partner program and she did indeed
ask
about
this at my request and she returned to the phone to tell me "yes,
my
boss
just acknowledged there is something wrong with MSDN servers but I
am
not
technically skilled so I can't explain further."

I am asking everybody adversely affected by these failures to start
demanding a reasonable response to these failures.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP
http://wikimapia.org/#y=43038073&x=-88043838&z=17&l=0&m=h







.