Today I ordered a new dedicated server at rackshack.net. I have been having a pretty complicated problem.

Every 20 minutes or so I get booted and my FTP account, Telnet, and the web user control panel do not allow me to log in - It appears that I connect, but the password does not work in all of the applications. When I try to visit the site at these times, it prompts me to download a file, which is named as my IP address with no extension. The file, when opened in notepad, is some sites HTML file (not my site).

I can ping my site and tracert just fine when this happens. But visiting the site prompts me to download that file, and I can't FTP, TELNET, or access the web control panel.

rackshack doesn't see my problem. Everything works for them fine. About 10 minutes after it goes out, it comes back on. Then I can get into everything again.

I have tried troubleshooting on several different computers on several different platforms, in several locations in the Denver Metro area. All of these places reproduce my problem.

Again, it appears that I can connect in FTP but it doesn't accept my password. Login failure in FTP, 'Authorization Required' for the online control panel, and telnet freezes.

I AM using the correct password.

Geez. If you get this, you are the smartest person on the planet.

I have been working on this for 13 straight hours.

Any help is much appreciated! My IP address is: http://216.12.213.12 (if this helps at all) IF YOU SEE a site called kachara.net - PLEASE REPLY that you did and where you are (Katchara is not my site, it is the file that is downloaded - I have no idea why it is happening). If you get in, you will see some 'jensenweb' flash.

Thanks again for any help!

Addict

I see your site (the flash site that I guess I should be seeing). It's darn fast, and I didn't get any errors.

Dan

Well I'm seeing the right site, so I can't be certain, but this sounds to me like an ARP problem. That is, someone else has (mis-)configured their server to claim ownership of the same IP address, and some dumb people have set up a switch to believe the ARP packets it receives.

I see your site, not the other one you mention. I am located in Italy.
Keep us informed of what's happening and... good luck! :)

I didnt get your site, I just recieve the file to download. I am located in Phoenix Az.

Do you have portsentry running by chance?

I posted my message above a few minutes ago. I could edit it, sure, but it makes more sense to me to post another message: I visited this thread again and now, from the same location (Italy) I get the file to download.

Huston, we got a problem :D

Again, good luck

6:44 - 7:01 Ok
7:06, Connection Was Reset
7:07 Ok

(got distracted)

7:29 Ok

7:40-7:55 kechara.net page

(again distracted, looking for cause)

8:07 Ok

8:17 kechara.net(again, so soon??)

I have yet to get the kechara download page in Netscape, however I have had it time out, or give an error.

kechara.net is on the same network as your server, at: 216.12.213.15

Traceroute to your site while IE was flipping out yields:

Tracing route to 216.12.213.12 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <10 ms <10 ms <10 ms VGER [192.168.0.1]
2 200 ms 201 ms 190 ms dial-216-198-103-1.peedeeworld.net [216.198.103.1]
3 301 ms 200 ms 190 ms 12.127.24.113
4 211 ms 210 ms 210 ms gbr2-a31s8.attga.ip.att.net [12.123.20.38]
5 290 ms 231 ms 210 ms gbr4-p70.attga.ip.att.net [12.122.1.197]
6 190 ms 210 ms 571 ms gbr4-p10.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.2.162]
7 221 ms 220 ms 220 ms gbr3-p60.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.1.129]
8 310 ms 271 ms 210 ms gbr3-p20.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.3.53]
9 210 ms 290 ms 211 ms ggr1-p360.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.1.121]
10 231 ms 230 ms 280 ms att-gw.ny.verio.net [192.205.32.174]
11 200 ms 231 ms 220 ms p4-1-3-0.r00.nycmny06.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.3.129]
12 210 ms 230 ms 241 ms p4-0-1.r01.phlapa01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.3.125]
13 230 ms 371 ms 270 ms p4-1-0-0.r00.phlapa01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.3.153]
14 320 ms 261 ms 230 ms p4-6-0-0.r00.stngva01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.3.105]
15 241 ms 260 ms 241 ms p4-4-0-0.r02.dllstx01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.4.25]
16 260 ms 301 ms 240 ms p16-0-0-0.r01.dllstx01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.5.5]
17 240 ms 260 ms 241 ms p4-0-0-0.r00.hstntx01.us.bb.verio.net [129.250.3.194]
18 251 ms 270 ms 230 ms ge-1-1-0.a03.hstntx01.us.ra.verio.net [129.250.30.216]
19 230 ms 341 ms 250 ms EV1-1.HSTN.TX.VERIO.NET[128.241.3.162]
20 240 ms 321 ms 260 ms 207.218.245.20
21 260 ms 291 ms 240 ms 216.12.213.12

Trace complete.

Definately something freaky going on...

8:45am ET, I got server can not be found.

Some info:
[admin admin]$ nslookup kechara.net ns1.rackshack.net
Server: ns1.rackshack.net
Address: 207.218.223.132

Name: kechara.net
Address: 216.12.213.15


IP wars?
How does linux resolve conflicting IPs?
Does it shutdown one interface? If the server at 216.12.213.15 has a second ethernet interface with your IP 216.12.213.12, the you may get the symptoms that you see.

Depending upon which server wins the IP war, you either get your server or the kechara.net site. This could explain why you get cut off during sessions. If you can get into your server, take a look at the logs to see if there are any ethernet related errors.


Also, I cannot lookup a domain name for 216.12.213.12. Do you have a domain name yet?

Sounds like misassigned IP address.....

I just put in a request to transfer jensenweb.com yesterday at register.com. The transfer hasn't fully completed yet.

Please keep the ideas coming. They are still asking me if I have been putting in the wrong password (I haven't been putting in the wrong password for 13 hours.).

Let me know what you see! Maybe if they read this thread, they can find the problem.

You guys have been awesome! keep it coming. Rackshack had me believing that it was me or on my end, but the problem is appearing around the world now! So it IS in fact looking like it is not me.

Go to the IP and let me know what you see and where you are. Or if you have additional Ideas about what it could be. I like hucks theory!

I asked them that, and they said no (misassigned IP). But that could very well be it too.

Assigned IPs are Irrelevant
On a Raq4i there are two NICs. If you are both behind the same router using the same gateway, then there is nothing to prevent the client form assigning your IP to the second NIC -- thus causing the nightmare.

They only way to verify this is to log into their server and check its configuration. It does not matter what IP was "assigned" -- I can always change my IP address and still have my box work. The only issue is DNS, which you can also setup. This setup would work until Rackshack assigned an IP to a new, thus causing the conflict. I do not know whether or not they actively scan IPs before issuing them. We used to have similar problems at another site that I managed -- people would self-assign static IPs, then when we assigned IPs there were problems. Fortunately, MAC-based DHCP solved these issues.

Any access at all?
Can you access your machine at all? If you can telnet into the box, take a look at the various log files. Do a tail on the messages log to see if there are any network related errors. Also look at the secure log file for any clues. You will have to switch to root, which should be the same pass as the admin.

Odd Behavior
The kechara.net site is a real site within the Rackshack network with its own IP. I got three different responses when tyring to access your IP. The first was a not-found error, then your site, then their site, then your site again. This is exactly what would occur during a IP battle. Both IPs are down, one comes up, battle insues, one wins, the other site goes down. This would result in the other site coming up for everyone regardless of location. This would explain why people get different results at different times.

Routing Issue
The only other thing I could think of is an improper route table somewhere. Where requests for your IP get sent to their IP. This could explain different results with different locations because an upstream router is making this switch. If you come through a different router then maybe you get a different result???? I am not too sure about this, but the router would have to be pretty far upstream to get different results.

Just tried to access your site at 12:33 EST.

I get the other sites download page or web site from three different locations. Ping goes through as well. I bet your machine is offline -- which means your login and pass will not work because you are actually going to the other computer.

Get this, if I go to jensenweb.com I get the kechara.net download. Your DNS record in the rackshack nameserver points to 216.12.213.12 -- if I try to go to this IP or your domain name from within Rackshack (that is using their DNS), I get the other site. The only way this could happen would be that they have your IP on their second NIC or the device at 207.218.245.20 is making the switch (threre are only three hops between your box and mine).

oops.

RackShack 'did it again'. We were assigned .12 temporarily about a month ago when our RaQ moved from one side of the data centre to the other, to get ahold of more IP space. This was promptly changed to .15, but I guess the person that did it made a mistake.

I've disabled eth0:0 (the .12 alias in question) and informed RackShack that they should take measures to correct it perminantly asap.

Sorry guys. :eek:

Finally figured out Cobalt's odd way of managing interface aliases, I've disabled it completely now. Shouldn't cause any further problems again.

Once again, my apologies!!

Lee,

Is kechara.net on your server?

For Huck, All I can say is that you are a god!
For everyone else, thank you for taking the time to send in your comments - it is the ONLY thing that would have helped me in this situation.

I had been on the phone with their tech people telling me that I had somehow screwed up the server, that I was entering the wrong password, and I was even asked if I had been drinking (all over a 13 hour time span).

You cannot feel my elation when they finally admitted that there was a problem (which they are trying to figure out now) - but if you ever saw "Conspiracy Theory" with Mel Gibson, he may have been a bit 'wacked in the head', but he knew there was something going on. Everyone thought he was crazy. He finally got one person to believe him. Just one person. She helped him investigate the problem, and get the resolution that he was IN FACT NOT CRAZY. If you felt how he felt at that point in time, then you know how I feel now - 'relief'.

If it wasn't for you guys I am POSITIVE this problem would have NEVER been looked into, much less resolved, and the techs would be 'red flagged' when I called "It's that CRAZY Addict again", and fed me the line that I am using the wrong password.

I owe you all a beer! Shoot make it dinner!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!:D

I let you all know what it finally ended up being, when they get back to me.

My kindest regards,

Addict

Originally posted by Addict
Lee,

Is kechara.net on your server?


I can answer that for him since he doesn't seem to be around. right now. I sent an email to support@kechara.net pointing them at this thread; Lee replied a few hours ago to say that he was unaware of the problem but had fixed it now.

Yes it is. (kechara.net is the 'home' site)