projecteq website down?

[Teppen]

as of posting this, i havent been able to visit www.projecteq.net

for the past few days keeps sending me to page not found.

any info on this?

[Cripp]

that link works fine for me...
/shrug

[Teppen]

i was able to visit it a week ago but everytime i try to go to http://www.projecteq.net i keep getting this error.

----
The page cannot be displayed
The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.
----

and this is the only website that i get this error on. tried with mozilla firefox, and internet explorer.. no go either way.. any ideas?

[John Adams]

fwiw, works for me too.

[Teppen]

i need contact information for who ever is moderator of projecteq.net nowdays. i think i know what the problem is, however i dont understand why.

About a week ago I posted under quest team forum at peq that I was leaving the quest team, for several reasons most importantly dont have the time lately to spend coding quests. My only guess is that my post pissed off the lead moderator there.. not sure why unless it was my question why submitted quests havent been verified for over 5 months where they used to get verified within a week after being submitted.

If I got banned from peq site because I dont have the time to code perl quests then that is really childish. Ive been lurking on eqemulator.net since 2002, and Senzo (my username on peq forums) has been on peq forums long enough to submit over 50 quests. Now, I dont understand why I am banned from peq site... A friend hopped on his laptop and visited and it works fine for him. The reason this pisses me off is because I obviously cant visit site or for that matter download any future db releases.

This is how I get repaid for submitting over 50 quests to the peq project?

Someone who can visit peq forums please link my post from here to there and hopefully this will get sorted out so i can visit peq site again. A moderator from peq can contact me through private message on this forum.

eqemu forums: Teppen
peq forums: Senzo
peq server main character: Fatty Beerbelly

what gives?

[John Adams]

Unless things are changing while we're discussing this, I do not see Senzo as being banned at all on PEQ site - and your most recent posts have been acknowledged. I don't think anyone is upset about you leaving the team, nor questioning delays.

Are you sure there isn't something else wrong on your end?

Edit: posted there for you, btw.

[cavedude]

You're not banned from accessing the site or posting. In fact, I was hoping you wouldn't leave the quest team. Shoot me a PM here and we'll see if we can figure this out.

[Teppen]

Well im glad Im not ip banned for leaving quest team, but for some reason I still cant access peq website. I was able to log in to peq game server with Fatty last night. But still no go on logging into the website. I mean as soon as I either type www.projecteq.net in address bar or google projecteq and click link, I still get an error page not found and as Ive stated before. I guess this is on my end however I dont know what caused it. I need some ideas on how to fix this then. Here is what Ive done so far to try and fix:

1) on firefox, and internet explorer cleared out cookies, history, temp files.

2) made sure www.projecteq.net wasnt redirected to 127.0.0.1 in HOSTS

3) ran disk cleanup on windows machine and defrag (needed to do it anyway)

4) ran spybot s&d.. nothing found (didnt think this was it, but did anyway)

Not sure what could be causing this problem and any info would be greatly appreciated. I havent been able to visit peq site since I posted message that I was leaving quest team. A friend of mine was able to visit site but he lives in another state so that doesnt help me much.

re: cavedude, If I did stay on the quest team there wouldnt be any submissions from me for awhile as Im currently not active on live server, and when I was submitting quests I was gathering from a live account. Been abit busy lately, and no telling when I would re-activate my live account. I guess moderator incharge of peq forums can keep me on the quest team, so when I do return to live or decide to code from allakhazams I could.

Since I cant reply to my post atm on peq wanted to post here that if I was an active quest team poster again, I (Senzo) would like access to edit from peqeditor. Theres actually a post on forums that I posted months ago asking mystic414 or ylosh to fix a recipe sql mistake I made when using the quick tradeskill page. And when I checked recipe in peqeditor a week or so ago it still has my error (which was wrong product id). If I had access to edit this would have been fixed months ago when I made the error.

Then again, I cant view forums, quest status, or peq magelo atm.. atleast until I figure out why I cant access projecteq.net

[Angelox]

Make sure you clear all caches in your browsers, and also make sure there is no host file that has the old DNS, I think they have changed DNS/IP recently

[Teppen]

Ive done the following and still no go:

1) typed at winxp command prompt: ipconfig /flushdns
- this didnt work still get the dns page not found error

2) also downloaded a program called pagefix 2.0 which lets you type in a website address and its suppose to fix to the newer dns and when you type in, it asks you if you can see website now, and even this didnt work.

3) cleaned out all cache, history, cookies, from both browsers
- still get the dns page not found error

re: Angelox "also make sure there is no host file that has the old DNS, I think they have changed DNS/IP recently".

re: Angelox -could you be more specific on this, ive temporary backed up my HOSTS file and pretty much did a select all and deleted all entries and made a new HOSTS with no entries except for the default localhost 127.0.0.1 entry. Then rebooted machine, logged on internet and tried to access www.projecteq.net, still gave same error page. Im baffled, and this is the only website that gives me this error. Something has to be wrong because any browser I use still gets same error.

[cavedude]

Do me a favor and ping 66.28.184.13. Also, put it in your web browser and see if you can connect.

[rojadruid]

Do me a favor and ping 66.28.184.13. Also, put it in your web browser and see if you can connect.

If the ping works try a tracert 66.28.184.13.

[Teppen]

ok,

tried what cavedude and rojadruid said and here is the outcome.

1) ping info

C:\>ping 66.28.184.13

Pinging 66.28.184.13 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.28.184.13: bytes=32 time=1114ms TTL=46
Reply from 66.28.184.13: bytes=32 time=295ms TTL=46
Reply from 66.28.184.13: bytes=32 time=562ms TTL=46
Reply from 66.28.184.13: bytes=32 time=1015ms TTL=46

Ping statistics for 66.28.184.13:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 295ms, Maximum = 1114ms, Average = 746ms
----------------------

2) tracert info

C:\>tracert 66.28.184.13

Tracing route to 66.28.184.13 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 * 1156 ms 187 ms 65.194.128.1
2 187 ms 171 ms 187 ms 63.110.162.129
3 203 ms 201 ms 187 ms sl-gw25-rly-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.223.42.201]

4 187 ms 202 ms 187 ms sl-bb26-rly-3-2.sprintlink.net [144.232.14.105]

5 187 ms 202 ms 187 ms sl-bb21-dc-12-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.212]

6 187 ms 202 ms 202 ms sl-st22-ash-12-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.9.123
]
7 187 ms 186 ms 202 ms p15-2.core01.iad01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.13
.61]
8 203 ms 187 ms 202 ms v3491.mpd01.iad01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.3
4]
9 234 ms 234 ms 202 ms v3496.mpd01.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.4
5]
10 203 ms 202 ms 234 ms t9-2.mpd03.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.25
4]
11 203 ms 202 ms 202 ms g13-0-0.core02.jfk02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.
5.233]
12 234 ms 218 ms 234 ms p12-0.core01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.3.
202]
13 250 ms 249 ms 249 ms p5-0.core01.den01.atlas.cogentco.com [66.28.4.29
]
14 249 ms 249 ms 249 ms v108.na01.b000544-0.den01.atlas.cogentco.com [66
.28.66.170]
15 250 ms 249 ms 249 ms TelosOnline.demarc.cogentco.com [66.28.21.42]
16 249 ms 249 ms 249 ms 66.28.184.13

Trace complete.
---------------------

3) tried typing 66.28.184.13 in browser address bar and website loaded up, however, if I type www.projecteq.net in address bar or google projecteq and click on link it still sends me to that dns page not found error page. I guess I will just have to type in the ip address each time until my problem gets figured out lol. I have never had this problem and it baffles me.

[Teppen]

ok,

typing 66.28.184.13 in address bar loads site and lets me browse general forum area, but when i try to sign in with Senzo, it takes me directly to

-----

Server not found

Firefox can't find the server at www.projecteq.net.

Check the address for typing errors such as
ww.example.com instead of
www.example.com

* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

----

this happens on both webbrowsers. So seems that I cant login or post becasue of this error.

any ideas ? sorry to be a pain

[Angelox]

I posted here about possibilty that you may still have some sort of malware/virus in there. I have found that where one AV doesn't work, another does. Did you see the software posted you might look for and try?
I can't find the post in this thread anymore - anyone delete it, and for what reason?

[rojadruid]

ok,

tried what cavedude and rojadruid said and here is the outcome.

1) ping info

C:\>ping 66.28.184.13

Pinging 66.28.184.13 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.28.184.13: bytes=32 time=1114ms TTL=46
Reply from 66.28.184.13: bytes=32 time=1015ms TTL=46

C:\>tracert 66.28.184.13

Tracing route to 66.28.184.13 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 * 1156 ms 187 ms 65.194.128.1

These two pings and the 1st hop on the tracert tell me you have spyware on the computer.

can you copy and paste a "netstat -a" into the message do it right after a reboot and after the computer has sat for a few minutes.

[Angelox]

Let me try again;
http://www.superantispyware.com - free
http://www.ccleaner.com - free
http://www.weebroot.com (Spy Sweeper) gives you one free month

get all three, install/run them in detail - each has its unique features.

[Teppen]

spybot always updated and norton av always updated, ran both including clamav from my linux box to check out my windows machine and everything came back with nothing found..

I dont know what my problem actually was, but I have fixed this by using the Acronis True Image backup I made when bought my windows pc. I can logon and post on peq forums now. Sorry about my previous posts inwhich I thought I was ip banned. Ive reposted under my last post there, stating I will remain as active on the peq quest team, after reading a post by Cavedude, which sounded promising.

[Angelox]

spybot always updated and norton av always updated, ran both including clamav from my linux box to check out my windows machine and everything came back with nothing found..

I dont know what my problem actually was, but I have fixed this by using the Acronis True Image backup I made when bought my windows pc. I can logon and post on peq forums now. Sorry about my previous posts inwhich I thought I was ip banned. Ive reposted under my last post there, stating I will remain as active on the peq quest team, after reading a post by Cavedude, which sounded promising.

I had a malware problem like this with a friend , Spybot, Ad-Aware didn't work, don't know about Norton, but Bitdefender and Fprot didn't see it either.
Spy Sweeper would spot it, delete it , but it kept coming back. The other two cleaned it out for good, with other crap that was in there too. If you use programs like "Bearshare" they screw you good with malware , although they say they don't. There's a lot of real nasty stuff out there, very well cloaked, and very hard to flush out one you have it.

[John Adams]

Teppen, glad to see your issues are worked out. Your problem is a very scarey one, though. Sounds like you had all the technical savvy to attempt to troubleshoot, yet something still was clinging in there. Welcome back!

[GeorgeS]

Acronis True Image backup is very valuable. I bought my copy a few months ago, and is leagues better than norton ghost.

GeorgeS

[Teppen]

after i used the Acronis True Image backup and reverted to factory install, patched to current windows updates, patched up to current norton av version, ran full norton av check which came back nothing wrong, I installed and ran the three programs listed by Angelox, all came back nothing wrong. also ran latest spybot s&d, nothing returned.

if i type in 66.28.184.13 page loads. but if i try to login takes to same error page i was getting and doesnt log me in. also if i try googling projecteq and clicking or www.projecteq.net in address bar returns with same error.

also if i try 66.28.184.13/quests
or 66.28.184.13/edit
or 66.28.184.13/quests/submit
or 66.28.184.13/quick_recipe.php

all redirect to www.projecteq.net and then loads same error page i was getting. so im still stuck.

only sites i visited was:

updates for windows
updates for norton av
those 3 sites listed by Angelox
google search for projecteq

so i didnt wander far but still got hit by this nasty thing again. any ideas?

[cavedude]

You may have an infection. More than likely spyware, and the thing you need to know about spyware is one program is NEVER enough. Spybot, like all other anti-spyware programs on its on SUCKS. But, if you use spybot, ad-aware, ewido, M$ defender, etc all together than you have quite the defense. Also, you'll need to make use of tools such as hijackthis, autoruns, and Winsock XP Fix to fully get rid of most infections. The other thing you need to know is there isn't a single anti-virus program on the market that effectively fights spyware. Sure, they can detect a couple of variants here and there but they can't completely remove them.

So, I recommend grabbing as many anti-spyware tools as you can (starting with the ones I mentioned above) install them, boot into safe mode, and do full scans with all of them (let your machine scan over night) When they are finished cleaning, run hijackthis and autoruns, remove any suspicious entries either finds. Hell, if you don't mind reinstalling a couple of programs, remove everything both find EXCEPT Microsoft entries and your device drivers (though keep an eye out for any odd ones). Run Winsock XP Fix to repair your winsock, and reboot into safe mode again. Run hijack and autoruns again. If any of the entries are back (and they aren't obvious ones that aren't malicious) track down the file, remove it if you can, remove the entry and reboot again.

In most cases that should clean your machine. Many exceptions apply, but the scanners will tell you everything you need to know. If something lingers, do a search on the web for manual removal directions.

If it still doesn't work, then I would recommend backing up any user data, formatting and starting fresh. A backup image is useless if it too, is infected or has the problem.

[eq4me]

I was just browsing through this thread so dont beat me if I am way of.

I recon you have an Internet Router/Firewall. Maybe with an dhcp server.
If you have it might be a good idea to boot from some Linux Life CD like Knoppix and try if you can reproduce the behavior. If yes you most probably have an wonky/hacked Router/Firewall Setup.

[rojadruid]

I was just browsing through this thread so dont beat me if I am way of.

I recon you have an Internet Router/Firewall. Maybe with an dhcp server.
If you have it might be a good idea to boot from some Linux Life CD like Knoppix and try if you can reproduce the behavior. If yes you most probably have an wonky/hacked Router/Firewall Setup.

Or bypass the router and connect directly to the modem and then try the website.

[Angelox]

Here's more possibilties;

Make sure you don't have any hidden partitions - PC's like Dell, Compaq, like to make partitions that are "hidden" - I've had situations where the malware would come back from places like that.
What brand router do you have? look it up on the net make sure there's no bugs with it - Routers can be hacked too. If you can, Flash- upgrade your router to whats newest.

[John Adams]

Hey, as long as this is turning into a PC Tech suggestion thread, here's mine...

Do what they suggest, eliminate all connection points between the PC and cable modem, and ipconfig /flushdns and ipconfig /registerdns again. Check that there are no other servers but localhost with ipconfig /displaydns.

Then, hop on up to www.grc.com and run his Shields Up! profiler. It's horribly enlightening and scarey (not that you are affected, but you never know). Do this with and without your router.

The only other thing that I can imagine is something is intercepting the DNS lookups. Can you hard-code your ISP DNS servers on the connection profile?

I've honestly never heard of this - and I've run virusscanner/adware free for 10 years on the internet, and never been infected. Strange that so many people are.

[Teppen]

Ok, what Ive used on it so far in terms of anti spyware, and anti virus/trojan:
---
ad-aware
ewido
spybot s&d
spysweeper
spyhunter
trojanhunter
trojanremover
ccleaner
superantispyware
fprot
a-squared anti-malware
anti vir pe
norton av
xoftspy
ms defender
------

all these above came back nothing found. also used these projrams:

hijackthis
autoruns
winsock xp fix

these ran only things that hijack & autoruns picked up were the stuff from dell and norton av, and a few other misc programs that I had bought with run on startup. I ran winsock xp fix, it rebooted machine, but didnt fix problem.
------

also visited www.grc.com went through several tests and according to that site my pc is its wet dreams come true. posted exact outputs of each test from that site below:

------
file sharing tab results

Your Internet port 139 does not appear to exist!
One or more ports on this system are operating in FULL STEALTH MODE! Standard Internet behavior requires port connection attempts to be answered with a success or refusal response. Therefore, only an attempt to connect to a nonexistent computer results in no response of either kind. But YOUR computer has DELIBERATELY CHOSEN NOT TO RESPOND (that's very cool!) which represents advanced computer and port stealthing capabilities. A machine configured in this fashion is well hardened to Internet NetBIOS attack and intrusion.

Unable to connect with NetBIOS to your computer.
All attempts to get any information from your computer have FAILED. (This is very uncommon for a Windows networking-based PC.) Relative to vulnerabilities from Windows networking, this computer appears to be VERY SECURE since it is NOT exposing ANY of its internal NetBIOS networking protocol over the Internet.
------
common ports tab results

Your system has achieved a perfect "TruStealth" rating. Not a single packet

[Angelox]

Well, a good trojan will arrive through the firewall via email or java off a web page. But at this point , it doesn't seem to be that.
I know it's a pain, but it's a "checklist" you have to go through and make sure. did you check for hidden partitions?

[eq4me]

I would recommend to give it a try with another Computer/Notebook or Instant Linux CD. If you still get the phenomenon it might be your providers nameservers.
Did you check what your default nameserver thinks the IP of www.projecteq.net is?

If you dont have any problems under Linux or with another Computer you should look into the 'hosts' file see if you find any static entries. If there are none set one for www.projecteq.net to the right IP(66.28.184.13) and see what happens.

[Angelox]

Here's something else you can try and will help even if it's not the problem
tcp optimizer;
http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showpost.php?p=129137&postcount=25

Also, rojadruid mentioned you had spyware maybe because the ping was too slow?
maybe it's just not resolving fast enough, and comes back with that error?
try this;
go to you hosts file in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
edit with notepad and add the domains;
66.28.184.13 www.projecteq.net
66.28.184.13 projecteq.net

that should speed things up

[Teppen]

After reading everyones replies I tried Angelox's host insertions and it works now, able to login, post, etc, and able to visit all parts of projecteq.net through address bar.

I update my host file religiously, use this site because they update frequently:
---
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
---
but I always have this as is, as downloaded so all entries are:
127.0.0.1 somesite
etc....
---

I guess for some reason my pc was still trying to load up the old ip address instead of the new one. opened HOSTS file and did a find www.projecteq.net but it didnt find any string that matched in there, however adding those two lines to the HOSTS file fixed my problem.

Anyways all I want to say is....

Woot! I scream, you scream, we all scream Woot!

[eq4me]

I update my host file religiously, use this site because they update frequently:
---
http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm


I am really sorry to say but this is ... very unwise. Go and get rid of all host entrys that are not in your orivate network. That is what DNS is for!
If you have problems with the DNS service of your provider go and complain about it. Putting official IPs into the host file can only be a temporary measure.

[Angelox]

Heh! , I was starting to get worried there ...
Even if you didn't need it, it still will make things go faster,as it has no need to resolve.

If you had just www.projecteq.net in the host, and no ip, then that was your delay in the ping. What might have been happening is, windows first tried the host file, and since it was null, might have tried an ip of "0" first. then went and resolved elsewhere.

[Angelox]

I am really sorry to say but this is ... very unwise. Go and get rid of all host entrys that are not in your orivate network. That is what DNS is for!
Host file works fine, you just have to remember to update it if the site-ip changes, and not use for dynamic-ip sites.

[eq4me]

Host file works fine, you just have to remember to update it if the site-ip changes, ...

I am sorry, but this defies all logic.

[Angelox]

I am sorry, but this defies all logic.
Well, I'm not going to harp on this much longer, but when internet started there was no dns, just IP-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System#History_of_the_DNS
In a nutshell, the guy who started dns did because he had trouble remembering the ip address to the sites. So he devised a system which provided names for the ip numbers. Everyone else profited from this idea but him; he's still "broke".
Anyways, it's very simple: take away the "name", and use the number - that will by-pass all the name resolving, and takes you straight to the site.

[Teppen]

I disagree, Ive been very happy with the HOSTS updates from mvps.

When I wasnt using and browsed web awhile then ran spybot or other spyware program I was hit by several adware or spyware and had to keep cleaning after sessions. But after I started using HOSTS i would scan and it never found that adware/spyware again in scans. So, I feel its quite effective. example section of the host file is like this:
----------
# [uoostm_me]
127.0.0.1 comrost.com #[Win32/Spy.Agent.FA]
127.0.0.1 ns192168-ip255.net #[Win32/Spy.Agent.FA]
127.0.0.1 useful-soft.net #[Win32/StartPage.ABJ]
# [Vvisionlm dot]
127.0.0.1 www.euro-dialers.com
127.0.0.1 www.hit4hit.com #[IE-SpyAd]
127.0.0.1 www.hitboss.com #[IE-SpyAd][SpySweeper.Spy.Cookie]
----------

As I said in one of my posts above, I never used actual addresses on the left side before. Also, projecteq.net wasnt in my HOSTS file so it wasnt being redirected to 127.0.0.1.. However, when I placed this:
------
66.28.184.13 www.projecteq.net
66.28.184.13 projecteq.net
------
at the bottom of my HOSTS file it allowed me to access the site with no problems. And these two lines is the only entries that do not have 127.0.0.1 to the left side.

Anyways, Im not wiping those entries, cause I dont want to get hit by them again, saves me big time. For one reason, spybot wouldnt detect a certain spyware once and had to use ad-aware to remove it, once I updated HOSTS surfed around like i did before then ran ad-aware it never appeared there again.

no offense, but like the site says theres no place like 127.0.0.1, which is equal to spybots immunize button.

thanks again for everyone help. appreciate it.

[John Adams]

I'll second the fact that 1) hard-coding actual destinations in your HOSTS file defeats the purpose of DNS, and is generally not a good idea unless you are "on it", like you seem to be. So no harm there. And 2) using HOSTS you can spare yourself popups, adserver shit and annoying little banner ads that no one really cares about on nearly every site you visit now.

I too swear by mvps. But I'd rather not find a site than have anyone shoving their marketing crap up my arse without my consent. :)