Fertility issues...

[sleepyjeff]

Can't seem to populate my DNS fast enough to load micechat.....am I alone :(


btw: what is a DNS?

[Morrigoon]

Nope, I can't get back in either.

[Ghoulish Delight]

DNS=Domain Name Server

When you type in a url, it doesn't mean much in computer terms. Your computer needs an ip address, a string of 16 digits, that allows the networks to route the information to the proper place. That's where a DNS comes in. Your computer, when connected to your ISP's network, knows the address of a special computer (usually 2 of them, just in case). When you type in a URL, your computer sends the text of that URL to that DNS and asks it if it knows the ip address that corresponds to that URL. If it doesn't know...well, the DNS has a list of other DNS servers, so it gives up and sends it off again.

But there's a problem...there are probably millions of DNS's and I'd venture billions of URL's. Simply trying to pass the request along until it runs across a DNS that happens to recognize the URL would take WAAAAY too long. So they request only gets passed along for a few hops until it gives up.

So here's the nifty bit. When someone sets up a website, they "register" the url with their local DNS, putting it on its list of known URL/ip addresses. From there, whenever that DNS communicates with another DNS, it will not just give the other DNS the address it was looking for, it will send over the list of URL's it knows about. So now we've got two DNS's that know the URL. Then those two friends tell two friends. And then those friends tell two friends...etc.

So that's what's happening to MiceChat right now. They changed hosts, and therefor IP addresses. Your local DNS tried the old address it had stored and got a "number disconnected" message. So now it's just a matter of wating until the new address gets passed around to enough DNS worldwide that either your DNS has it, or one that's a few hops away has it.

[sleepyjeff]

Wow! Thanks for that info GD.