Friday morning here in Portland, a web hosting customer could not check their email without an error saying that their mail server wasn’t found, and they couldn’t see their own website either.

Initial attempts to help her proved fruitless, and after trying everything, she was sadly told that it appeared to be a Frontier DNS problem.

Subsequently, we had several people over the weekend  with the exact same issue, and we’re not a large host,  so depending on how wide spread this problem is, a lot of people might be affected!

Frontier recently took over Verizons ISP service  here in parts of Portland Oregon, and without getting too technical, here’s what’s wrong…

The Frontier DNS Settings Need Changing in Your Modem

The DNS settings that were put into the modems when they were put  into the customer offices and homes are not functioning correctly, and need updating by Frontier.

I wish I could be more specific, but with so many models of modem installed by Verizon over the past 10 years since DSL came along, there’s simply no way to tell you exactly where to go to fix this.

Here’s how to fix the Frontier “I can’t see my website” problem.

1. Log into your modem IP address – (if you don’t do that then you’re going to have to call Frontier support)
2. Figure out how to change your DNS settings, from the hardcoded BAD ones, of which there appeared to be several, and check the box that says something like “obtaind DNS automatically”

Our own hosting customers have likely solved the problem by now,  so I’m putting these instructions out here for anyone else who happens to need them.

If you own your own domain, and suddenly cannot get your own e-mail or website, then you might try this on your modem and see if it works.

Can someone at Frontier please fix those bad Verizon DNS settings?

Update 10/26
In the wake of this blog post, we discovered that nearly 35,000 domains we knew of were xperiencing this issue not only from our servers, but from the servers of others in our datacenter, and even a couple of other small web hosts and reseller acquaintances who are unrelated to our business at all.

This morning I received a very courteous phone call from Frontier, who told me how WE could fix the problem.

In layman’s terms, the internet is running out of IP addesses, and Arin is releasing IP blocks in a range that the default NS config files had blocked, as being in a “black hole”.

The default BIND source code has some hard coded default exclusions that all webhosts are going to have to change theirs.

The reason WHY the default BIND source has exclusions is still a mystery, and I suppose there’s a case to be made that all registrars for all domains should be notifying all registrants in the same way that they insist upon annual ownership verification, but that’s neither here nor there, I guess.

Thank you to Frontier for responding so quickly, and if you’re a web host, here are the instructions to “fix” your config files so this doesnt happen with other ISP’s besides Frontier as the years roll by.

Here are the relevant details that I was emailed after the phone call…

Frontier customers trying to resolve your customers sites are not able to resolve them due to what appears as our cache DNS farms (184.16.4.22, 184.16.4.23, 184.16.33.54, 184.16.33.56) are unable to contact your authoritative DNS.

We have had this issue with several providers recently. The root causes have been outdated “bogon” lists or not allowing our subnet (184.16.0.0/14) via ACL or firewall.

Thanks Frontier, for the great service!

I’m proud to announce that we are one of the sponsors for Portland WordCamp 2010 that is taking place this weekend, although I’m very disappointed that I can’t go.

When I was first approached about sponsorship, I wasn’t really sure that it would be a huge value for me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I just had to support the event and the community.

I do believe that WordPress has been the single greatest catalyst for my success as an Internet marketer, and it was certainly the inspiration that led me to launch SEO Automatic in the first place.

Last year I spoke on the SEO panel (here’s the video) at the end of the day with Amber Case, Dawn Foster, and Rick Turoczy – (but I guess I must’ve sucked, because I didn’t get invited back this year

Who Wants To Go To WordCamp for Free?

At any rate, this conference is great, and I REALLY want to go, but both of my sons have football games on Saturday, and my youngest is playing a fall league baseball game on Sunday, so I’m unable to use my own sponsorship ticket.

I’ve now checked with the organizers, and I’ve gotten the thumbs up to give my ticket away, so who wants it?

All you have to do is leave a comment here,  e-mail or Tweet at me, and you could attend…

Please note that the “judging criteria” is completely arbitrary and I will give it to whomever I wish.  It’s not necessarily “first-come first-served”, but I do need to make a decision today and get them the name for the ticket, so you should act now.

So… do you feel lucky?  Well do ya?

(Comments now closed)

Ever since around the new year, when Comcast “doubled my speed for free”, I’ve had nothing but problems.

Even when its operating at what seems to be optimal capacity, it’s definitely slower than it was back in late 2008.

Frequently I will lose my connection for one to two minutes at a time, then it mysteriously comes back.

My 9 and 12-year-old boys are pretty adept now at powering down and rebooting the Comcast modem and my router, to get back online pretty quickly, but it’s become quite tedious.

Under the “new faster service” my wireless router is also not operating well. Apparently, it’s too old for their “recommended firmware upgrade”, so instead of getting 12mbs like I used to, would the new Comcast change I never get more than 5mbs, even when it’s working.

After all of the problems I’ve had over the years with Comcast, and having to deal with the games Comcast plays with people’s email, I’m finally now trying an alternative that’s recently become available here in Portland called Wimax from Clear.

I’m picking up my modem this week, and I’ll be reporting back as to how it works. I may keep the both, because Comcast works fine 90% of the time and it’s pretty fast.

Well, in my case, the service wasn’t available. in my neighborhood. When I went to get qualified, it was only offering me “mobile” . Too bad for me…

However, if Clear can keep a consistent connection, then I might just be fine with the 6 mbs downloads.

If you’re interested in seeing if WiMAX is available at your home or business, let me know, I’ve got a partner that can help you out.

They can process an order for you and get you up and running in days. Just fill out the form below, to check availability and service offerings.

This morning, email and website access is sporadic (at best) on the PDXTC servers, and it is slowly being restored.

For what it’s worth, the problem was not actually on our end, but in the middle, with one of Portland’s primary bandwith providers making a stupid mistake. i know that’s of little consolation, but it’s the truth.

Tuesday afternoon about 4:45, our primary bandwith provider (Time Warner) made an unannounced and incorrect change to their system, causing not only web and mail servers to go down for PDXTC, but for nearly all of their Portland customers.

While we do have an alternative bandwidth provider for cases like this, they (apparently) have been unable to accommodate the traffic levels, since several local hosting companies have placed a huge load on them due to this Time Warner outage.

We realize the inconvenience this has caused, we apologize, and we are working diligently with Time Warner and yet another provider to achieve a speedy resolution, and prevent this from happening again.

Next Tuesday night, you’ll have an opportunity to hear two usability experts talk about real-life examples and case studies, and perhaps even some live reviews, (if you’d like to submit your own  site) in the February SEMpdx event.

Instead of the usual Hot Seat panel focused on nothing but SEO, two new panelists will be showing their skills:

Matthew Brown, NY Times
As Director of Search Strategy for the New York Times Company since 2005, Matthew Brown continues to drive the research and technology side of the search marketing effort for the Times, the Boston Globe (Boston.com) and the International Herald Tribune.

Matthew is responsible for the architecture and execution of solutions that deliver a more engaged audience to these online properties.

Melissa Casburn, ISITE Design
With 12 years of experience as a web strategist, information architect, project manager, and instructional designer, Melissa can get a lot done in a day.

Comfortable in both corporate and agency environments, she helps much-loved companies bask in the glow by adding stickiness to their sites.

She’s good at spreading the love too, creating experiences that inform, connect, and empower users.

As the Director of User Experience for ISITE Design, she leads a team of web strategists, information architects and content strategists whose focus is helping clients create and protect their competitive advantage online.

Are you brave enough to have your site critiqued in front of others? Maybe you just like to see others squirm? Maybe you just want to enhance your own knowledge, and stop making the same mistakes on your own site.

Join members of  SEMpdx next Tuesday, February 10th, 2009, at Hotel DeLuxe for an eventful evening of SEO and user experience, and you can sign up to attend right here.

Believe it or not, the board of SEMpdx has been getting a number of emails asking us where to register for SearchFest 2009, coming up in March.

So, I figured I would take a minute to point out the SearchFest registration, as well as the entire SearchFest 2009 agenda, and a link to our sponsors.

This year’s event promises to be the best ever, with a lineup of speakers including:

• Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land
• Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz
• Vanessa Fox, Nine by Blue
• Marshall Simmonds, New York Times
• Neil Patel, ACS SEO
• Riona MacNamara, Google
• Laura Lippay, Yahoo
• Matt McGee, Small Business SEM
• Greg Hartnett, Best of the Web

and many more…

I will be moderating two sessions myself, including SEO For WordPress, and SEO for Bloggers and copywriters.

The event will take place at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon on March 10, 2009, so what are you waiting for? Go register now!

I’m looking forward to next Tuesday nights meeting of the Oregon Computer Consultants Association.  The subject is going to be using open source software on your desktop as a replacement for Windows, whether personal use, business use or both.

I’m so fed up with computer problems that I’ve actually considered buying a Mac, but I have a hard time believing that it would help me in the long run, and it certainly wouldn’t be economical.

I want to move to an open source environment where every problem has a solution – but just may not have been invented yet.  There already seem to be open source applications out there that do everything I could possibly want, and I’m hoping that this presentation will give me an up-to-date overview for 2008.

Here’s the Meetup group details
Here’s the OCCA website

and here are the full details of the meeting:

When:
August 26, 2008
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner/Networking
7:00 – 9:00 Meeting/Presentation

Where:
Rheinlander German Restaurant
5035 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland OR 97213

What:
Open Source Software On The Desktop

You’ve heard and read the Linux hype, you may even be running Firefox, but what’s the 4-1-1 on Linux and Open Source Software? Is it ready for the desktop? or the laptop? for Business? for Grandma?

This presentation will address those questions and more:

• What is Open Source Software? What is Linux? and why should I care?
• Are there any ready-to-use open source applications?
• How can I make money if the software is free?
• and more!

This presentation will be “only mildly technical” and audience questions and answers are welcome. Linux and open source applications will be demonstrated live.

Jesse Black, Yellow Crayon Computer Services Jesse Black is Chief Technologist at Yellow Crayon LLC, a Portland-area computer services firm serving individuals and small businesses. He is also co-host of TVLinux, the long-running community television series which promotes Linux and other open source applications. Jesse has used both Linux and Microsoft Windows on a daily basis for several years.

This is an overview of a rural Oregon realtor website, but needs many, if not all, of the basic fundamentals of SEO101. When you’re trying to build links for a real estate site you have to give people a reason to link to you, by providing valuable information that their own visitors will appreciate.

This website is basically a Portland, Oregon business directory, but many of the individual pages are not being found in the search engines.

This applies not only to queries for phrases, but for specific URLs to0, which indicates a potential structural problem. This video points out some possibilities why, and also covers some fundamental search marketing issues.