I can ping the IP an get a response, but I cannot view the website on my browser. What is the cause of this?

Question

It was an interview question that I had and I froze and could not answer it, I think it cost me the job. Thank you for all your answers.

Joe, Thats what I told them, and he said lets just say that everything on their side (server) is working properly. Then he said what could it be on your computers side? Thats where he got me I froze.

Answer 1

Hi,

Ping tests for network connectivity, so by being able to ping an address, you know that packets can get from you to the website, and back again. This eliminates possible problems such as routing etc.

It would be good to know, if in the scenario, you were browsing to the IP address and got no response or if you were browsing to the website name.

You mentioned that it might be a DNS problem - remember this would only apply if you were browsing to the name of the website. If you were browsing directly to the IP address then DNS would not be a potential problem.

In addition to this in the interview you could demonstrate additional knowledge by mentioning that a good test would be to telnet the ip address on port 80. TCP port 80 is what web browsers use to communicate with web servers. It is the standard port for HTTP. If you telnet the IP on port 80 and get a connection then it confirms that the web server software is running, the next thing to do would be to enter http commands in the telnet session such as
GET / HTTP / 1.1
host: www.website.com

This is basically you impersonating a web browser. If you get the sites homepage back then you know that the problem lies within the actual internet browser, so it would be a good idea to try a different browser, or analyse it's settings such as is it configured to use a proxy server.

If your telnet commands returned an HTTP error message, then that would assist you in diagnosing the problem.

If you couldn't telnet to the ip address on port 80 then while you know you have connectivity from the ping, a firewall between you and the website may be blocking your request, or the device at the ip address may not be configured as a web server.

If you weren't comfortable going into details about telnetting it on port 80 etc, you should mention that it could be any of the following problems:
1 - incorrectly configured browser (ie proxy settings etc)
2 - a problem at the proxy server (if the browser was configured to use one)
3 - a corrupt browser cache
4 - a firewall blocking your http request
5 - the device isn't a webserver... :)
6 - if the site was a large one (eg yahoo) it could indicate a problem within their network, ie the ping only proves you can get to the edge of their network, they would be likely to have load balancing devices between the edge of their network and any servers etc.

Hope that helps,
Alex

Answer 2

I think the problem is that you froze, they could've rebuffed any of these as a 'working server' but they could've stall time and painting themselves to a corner because both of you know if such scenario actually exist it'll be a ***** to figure out.

PING works at 2nd bottom level of Internet 4-layer or 3rd bottom level of OSI rdeferential-7 while a browsing view with fully working HTTP goes all the way up.

Answer 3

There are a number of reasons for this.

1. DNS is not linked to the IP address properly
2. The http service is not running
3. The http service could be running on a different port
4. Firewall could be blocking
5. There is no default page for the website (ie if default page is set to default.html but all you have in that directory is default.htm)

Answer 4

It means there's an error in DNS somewhere. Either the URL was typed in wrong or DNS isn't set up on the computer. A domain name is just a representation of the IP address. DNS resolves the domain name to the IP address so you can type in www.google.com instead of the ip address that nobody would remember.

Answer 5

verify your no longer employing a proxy server on your IE settings. a million. Goto IE 2. equipment/information superhighway thoughts/Connections/Lan Settings 3. determine that Proxy Server is unticked If this seems ok then i could do a equipment restoration to the final time your interent became into working. equipment restoration could nicely be recent in start up/classes/accesories/equipment equipment

Answer 6

This is an old question, but I will add my two cents. If the MTU settings are incorrect, it can look like a DNS error at first glance.

Answer 7

There are several possible reasons - off the top of my head,
it could be:
Corrupted browser cache.
misconfigured firewall.
site deliberately blocked.

Answer 8

um. the web service is down? this is really easy dood. im not even an IT/MIS person.