Re: Page Cannot Be Displayed Errors

From: Kristofer Gafvert (kgafvert_at_NEWSilopia.com)
Date: 03/24/05 

Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 07:54:32 -0800

Hi Jesse,

I have gotten a better understanding of your problem now.

It sounds like you are quite close to the webserver. Is this correct? Is
it on the same LAN as your workstation (the one you was not able to access
the webserver with this morning)?

Anyway, i have seen this before. In that case, the problem was related to
their LAN.

Can you reproduce this on the webserver itself? Please use the IP every
time you try, so that we can rule out DNS. You could also use WFetch from
the IIS 6.0 Resource Kit. (do not access the website using a proxy, you
need to connect directly to IIS)

But testing is only a shortcut to find out what the problem is. To find
out if IIS is the problem, we need to find out if the request really gets
there. So, you need to monitor the network traffic on the webserver, and
compare it to the IIS logs. If you see requests in the network monitor
log, but nothing is logged in IIS, then it is possible that IIS is the
problem. As you can understand, it is very time consuming to do this, and
that is why i suggest you to do some testing first to narrow down from
whom this issue is reproducable.

If you still get the error message, and the IIS log and the network
monitor log does not differ (regarding http packets), then the request
never made it to IIS. We still do not know if the webserver is the problem
(the NIC could be the problem), or some other device. We do however know
that IIS is not the problem.

So if i were in this situation, i would first try to reproduce it on the
webserver itself. If you have a programmer in the house, with nothing to
do, have him or her write you a small application that can do some http
requests every 2 second, and run it on the webserver and see if there is
any problems.

There is a network monitor included in Windows Server 2003 (not sure about
the Web Edition however) that can be installed from Add/Remove Windows
Components. It is called Network Monitor, or Netmon or something like that.

Also, make sure that you have the latest NIC driver installed. It could be
the NIC that is dropping or not accepting connections. 

-- 
Regards,
Kristofer Gafvert
www.gafvert.info - My Articles and help
www.ilopia.com
Jesse wrote:
> The Event logs are clean.  I experienced the problem twice this morning, 
and
> there is no error with regard to networking or IIS in any of the event 
logs.
>
> The web site really isn't that busy.  I would estimate that we may have 
as
> many as 30 people in at one time.  We are various .ASP applications. 
Some of
> them use SQL Server, and some use MS Access for their database.  However,
> we've experienced the problem in both applications, so I don't suspect a 
SQL
> Server or MS Access problem at this point, since the problem is 
happening in
> both locations.  I've been through all of the systems to make sure that 
I'm
> closing connections.
>
> The people that experience the problem are located all over the place.
> We've had problems in Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, New Mexico.  So,
> this is not a problem located "on the other side".  It HAS to be either 
our
> ISP, Cable Modem, Router, or Server.  We've eliminated nearly 
everything. At
> this point about the only thing that hasn't been gone through with a
> fine-tooth-comb is IIS and the server settings.  That's the reason for 
this
> message, I have no idea how to track down a problem like this with IIS.
> I've been checking the logs, but they just tell me when I get access to
> something.
>
> I did notice this morning when I got the problem, I immediately went and
> looked at the log.  I didn't see any access entry there for what I was
> looking at, but it's possible that I missed it.  If I get the page error,
> and don't see an entry in the log, then I can probably assume that IIS
> either didn't get the request for the page, or didn't respond to the
> request.
>
> The problem with trouble-shooting this is when I get a page cannot be
> displayed error, it's cleared up in a split second, literally.  So, it 
will
> do no good by going to the web server and trying it again when I get the
> error here, because it would have cleared itself up by the time I get 
there.
>
> Thanks,
> Jesse
>
> "Kristofer Gafvert" <kgafvert@NEWSilopia.com> wrote in message
> news:xn0e04wgxitb5gk01p@news.microsoft.com...
> > Hi,
> >
> > In addition to what Bernard has suggested, also check the event log on 
the
> > server. Look for network related error messages, as well as messages
> > related to IIS.
> >
> > If you have a busy website, you could also look in the IIS log file and
> > see if you have any "missing" requests. That is, when (the time) there 
is
> > nothing logged by IIS. You could compare the time with other logs
> > (firewall, network, whatever) to try to figure out what is happening.
> >
> > It would be interesting to know where the people that gets this problem
> > are located. Maybe they have something in common?
> >
> > I do not think that it is caused by IIS, because it is not likely that 
IIS
> > would stop responding to requests, and then start again without any 
action
> > from your side.
> >
> > When this is happening the next time, try to access the website from 
the
> > webserver itself to found out if IIS is the problem, or if the problem 
is
> > elsewhere.
> >
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Kristofer Gafvert
> > www.gafvert.info - My Articles and help
> > www.ilopia.com
> >
> >
> > Jesse wrote:
> >
> >> We have been having a LOT of problems lately with people getting "Page
> >> Cannot Be Displayed" Errors on our web sites.  It indicates "DNS or
> > Server
> >> error" at the bottom of the page, but we've spent LOTS of time with 
our
> > ISP
> >> (Road Runner Cable Modem, level 2 Business Class), Our domain name
> >> registrar, and also our DNS servers (Register.com), and our network
> >> technician, who has been through our network with a fine tooth comb.
> > We've
> >> found NOTHING WRONG ANYWHERE.  We have had several people tell us that
> > the
> >> request for a page is getting through, but nothing is coming back. At
> > this
> >> point, we're suspecting IIS.  We're running Windows 2003 Server (Web
> >> Edition), which I believe has IIS 6 on it.  We're running this on a
> > fairly
> >> new Dell Web Server.  Is anyone aware of any settings that I can 
change
> > to
> >> resolve this issue?  It very well may be costing us business because 
of
> > all
> >> of the errors that people are getting.  Any help at all is greatly
> >> appreciated.
> > >
> >> Thanks,
> >> Jesse

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