504 Gateway Unreachable server ...PLEASE HELP

Hey ALL

I'm having a huge problem here! :x

see everytime I write the URL for a site, which I used to visit everyday, a message that says " 504 Gateway Timeout The following error occurred: Server unreachable " comes up. I've had this problem for more than a week now. I tried to search the Internet for a solution but no use.

I use Windows XP and My Firewall is ZoneAlarm (Is it good? )

PLZ PLZ HELP ME HERE. I REALLY LOVE THAT SITE

thanks
Dmix

What is the url you are trying to use?

Have you tried to ping or trace route to it?

the URL is www.fanforum.com

and how I ping or trace the route?

PLEASE tfs help me here

Dmix

Hmm you requested my arch rival tfs for help....
nevertheless..

First off, Zonealarm is a good personal firewall straight out of the box. I use it on my own home systems. Just make sure you know what programs you're allowing to access the net.

Now to fix our problem, we must understand what the error means :

504 - Gateway timeout

A server (not necessarily a Web server) is acting as a gateway or proxy to fulfil the request by the client (e.g. your Web browser) to access the requested URL. This server did not receive a timely response from an upstream server it accessed to deal with your HTTP request.

This usually means that the upstream server is down (no response to the gateway/proxy), rather than that the upstream server and the gateway/proxy do not agree on the protocol for exchanging data.

The Technical Stuff

Any client (e.g. your Web browser) goes through the following cycle when it communicates with a Web server:

Obtain an IP address from the IP name of your site (your site URL without the leading 'http://'). This lookup (conversion of IP name to IP address) is provided by domain name servers (DNSs).
Open an IP socket connection to that IP address.
Write an HTTP data stream through that socket.
Receive an HTTP data stream back from your Web server in response. This data stream contains status codes whose values are determined by the HTTP protocol. Parse this data stream for status codes and other useful information.

This error occurs in the final step above when the client receives an HTTP status code that it recognises as '504'.
Resolving 504 errors - general

In essence :
This problem is entirely due to slow IP communication between back-end computers, possibly including your Web server. Only the people who set up the network at the site which hosts the Web server can fix this problem.

Do you surf through a proxy server ? That might be having some issues.. though it would manifest more likely at many sites.

Now.. to ping and traceroute do this :
Click start >> run
type 'cmd' without the single quotes
in the window that pops up type
ping www.fanforum.com

You should see something like this if the site is up

[code:1]
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\WINDOWS>ping www.fanforum.com

Pinging www.fanforum.com [66.98.168.22] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.98.168.22: bytes=32 time=426ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.98.168.22: bytes=32 time=378ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.98.168.22: bytes=32 time=440ms TTL=51
Reply from 66.98.168.22: bytes=32 time=391ms TTL=51

Ping statistics for 66.98.168.22:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 378ms, Maximum = 440ms, Average = 408ms

C:\WINDOWS>
[/code:1]

The 'Reply' lines tell you that its responding to your ping. It shows you the time it took for the reply to come back to your machine

Now traceroute shows you each 'hop' on the path to the final site. This is useful in diagnosing where an error may be occuring.
At the same command prompt type tracert www.fanforum.com

You'll see something like this (probably much shorter)
[code:1]
C:\WINDOWS>tracert www.fanforum.com

Tracing route to www.fanforum.com [66.98.168.22]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 146 ms 139 ms 149 ms 202.54.115.139
2 139 ms 129 ms 148 ms RTR-115-152.bomvsb.vsnl.net.in [202.54.115.152]

3 349 ms 430 ms 429 ms 202.54.2.18
4 359 ms 430 ms 428 ms 64.125.12.121.available.above.net [64.125.12.121
]
5 340 ms 430 ms 428 ms core1-lga4-oc48.lga2.above.net [64.124.232.5]
6 340 ms 429 ms 429 ms so-0-0-0.cr1.lga1.us.mfnx.net [208.185.0.245]
7 349 ms 420 ms 439 ms so-1-0-0.cr1.iad1.us.mfnx.net [208.184.233.61]
8 399 ms 439 ms 430 ms so-1-0-0.cr1.dca2.us.mfnx.net [208.184.233.125]

9 369 ms 429 ms 429 ms so-6-2-0.cr1.atl2.us.mfnx.net [208.185.0.230]
10 360 ms 420 ms 409 ms pos13-0.er1.atl4.us.above.net [64.125.30.237]
11 380 ms 449 ms 429 ms so-3-0-0.mpr1.iah1.us.above.net [64.125.31.25]
12 379 ms 430 ms 429 ms 216.200.251.61.ev1.net [216.200.251.61]
13 379 ms 430 ms 430 ms 207.218.245.43
14 379 ms 419 ms 430 ms 66.98.168.22

Trace complete.
[/code:1]
This shows you each stop your packets take on the way to the server, if one of those links times out with asterisks or takes a long time (listed in ms) then you might have an error here.

This should give you an idea of what the problem is. Keep in mind though that troubleshooting networking problems is usually a rather vague process.. which is why guys like us have jobs

Chances are the server is just down. If you really wanna check if the problem is on your end, do these two things :
First :
Goto www.anonymizer.com or any other free proxy service. Try and surf to fanforum.com through their proxy service. If it works, the problem is between you and the server. If it doesn't its on the server's end.

Second :
Go to www.netcraft.com and search for www.fanforum.com in 'Whats this site running'. It might show you the uptime.

SOLUTION FOUND ! PROBLEM SOLVED

I just went to netcraft for you and it appears that on the 11th of November (today) the site changed its IP.. this could mean they're moving to a new hosting provider. I believe this has been the reason for your problem. Check the data out :
uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.fanforum.com

The site appears to be working by the way.

There you don't need tfs hehe just kidding !


Cheers,

sahirh thanks I understood what you have said
just one thing ...

***When I ping www.fanforum.com this following appears


C:\Documents and Settings\Muhammad>ping www.fanforum.com

Pinging www.fanforum.com color=red]66.98.168.22[/color with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 195.226.227.105: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 195.226.227.105: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 195.226.227.105: Destination net unreachable.
Reply from 195.226.227.105: Destination net unreachable.

Ping statistics for 66.98.168.22:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms


the IP address is different than the IP that replying ...
Is that a problem ...

***then when I trace rout:

C:\Documents and Settings\Muhammad>tracert www.fanforum.com

Tracing route to www.fanforum.com [66.98.168.22]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 as36.qualitynet.net [195.226.227.105] reports: Destination net unreachable
.

Trace complete.

do you see my IP ( the one that reply )
does that mean that the problem in my PC ???



thanks again sahirh and to tfs too

btw last night I tried entering www.fanforum.com and It opened
but this morning I entered it again the same error of 504 gateway comes up ...

Dmix

Badabing badaboom ! Looks like theres a problem along your route to the host.. judging by the error message you're getting it looks like a routing problem (okay that sounds obvious) and that your packets cant find your way to the 195.226.227.105 net. It might be a problem with your default gateway (though then nothing would route properly and you wouldn't be looking at this page).

You could contact these people with your query.

Ahmad Al-rasheedan
QualityNet ISP
phone: +965 804444
e-mail: asr@qualitynet.net

Menawer Y. Al-Khatrash
address: Po box 32
address: Dasman, 15451
address: Kuwait
phone: + 965 804444
e-mail: myk@qualitynet.net


If they ask where you got the contact details say from a 'whois' query.

or just visit the website at www.qualitynet.net

Give them a ring and tell them to sort out the connectivity. Keep the results of your ping and traceroute handy.

Btw I'm gonna move this post to the 'Design Installation and Troubleshooting' forum because its more relevant there.