It works fine here but Michael is having his people check it out also.

Thanks for that :-)

I haven't been having any problems with it either. Maybe we can hear from some other parts of the world and see if the problem is limited to NZ or if it's anywhere outside the US.

Hi Todd,

I just tried using the link in FCBS & it works fine.

Maybe your nanny state is blocking the website to protect you. Try a google search on Michael's and then click on "cache" to see it from google's web site. Or, you might be able to see a "translation" of his web site.

Michael's Translated

Thanks for all the responses

I've had people check in other parts of NZ and Melbourne, they can't access it either. In Lyndi's post she said she also hasn't been able to access it since November.

The various link pages, google searches, translations etc all go to the same address (but I tried them anyway..)

The trace route I did shows a router between America and NZ gate (the main portal into Australasia) that was stopping the request. That router is almost certainly the problem, and also explains why most other countries aren't affected.

Devo - is it a site you've visited recently? (ie stored in your cache perhaps)

Michael's isp is in the best position to get this sorted (and it sounds like they've been told). All this geek-talk is exhausting! Reckon it's about time to put my feet up with G&T :-)

Bromadams - haven't you heard we've had a change at the helm? Back to the 'hands off' approach ;-)

Cheers, Todd :-)

It's very strange, most of my friends can access his website except me. Even his emails to me were returned from my yahoo.com.sg account. Those sent to my gmail or yahoo.com accounts were ok.

I have tried getting into Michael's site for the last two days - and keep getting "page load error". I'm in northern N.S.W., Australia.

K

Hi Lyndi,
the problem affects the domain name, so the website and email are both unaccessible in some areas.
However, your gmail/yahoo mailservers are likely to be in different countries, and still able to find the address.

In the Netherlands I have the same problem. I can't reach Michael's website.

Sander

In South Africa I never had a problem getting to Michael's site.

Japie

Hi brom todd - No luck on the south coast of New South Wales Australia either.

All the best, Nev

No problem from Italy

Tomas

it kinda came up for me had all the writting and links but no pictures Phil east coast nsw

I've found a way to view the website via a proxy, it's a wee bit of a fiddle but at least it works until the router is fixed.

First go to the proxy website (link below) then enter michaelsbromeliads.com into the text field. (you'll need to uncheck the 'no scripts' box for the order forms etc to work)

now, what to order?... ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Proxy Website

Maybe individual firewalls are set to high on the computers trying to reach the site..just a thought

FYI, there are 103 domains hosted on the same IP address, 65.57.240.8, that Michaels uses. There is nothing really wrong with that, but I suspect that one of the domains is black listed by somebody so the IP is blocked by somebody.

It used to be that every domain was encouraged to have it's own, unique IP address, but that isn't the case anymore. However, the black listers don't much care about that and still block by IP address.

Hi Bromadams,
blacklists were used some years back, but are widely accepted to be ineffective at stopping spam. These days isp's tend to block traffic by domain name, rather than ip address. But the bigger issue is that blacklists (or similar methods) are isp specific, and the chances of everyone affected subscribing to an isp that uses the same blacklist/method are incredibly slim.
Given that trace routes (from 2 countries now) point to one router which stops the request, my money is still on that as the problem.

HDD's suggestion is a valid one, and easily tested (don't switch off your firewall!). A firewall will stop data coming into your computer. A trace route will show that in this case the request doesn't even make it to the host server.

Here are the results of the test from Australia:
traceroute to www.michaelsbromeliads.com (65.57.240.8), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 1.867 ms 1.399 ms 1.328 ms
2 10.68.0.1 (10.68.0.1) 7.816 ms 9.425 ms 11.630 ms
3 sun1-ge4-0.gw.optusnet.com.au (198.142.160.209) 7.985 ms 8.346 ms 8.019 ms
4 mas3-ge2-0-0-811.gw.optusnet.com.au (211.29.155.11) 23.860 ms 21.952 ms 22.880 ms
5 203.208.148.97 (203.208.148.97) 178.726 ms 203.382 ms 183.298 ms
6 peer-01-ge-3-3-0-13.lsag.twtelecom.net (66.192.252.45) 180.323 ms 178.817 ms 179.723 ms
7 66.192.243.164 (66.192.243.164) 249.777 ms 250.693 ms 248.987 ms
8 * * *

(66.192.243.164 is where it all stops)

and similar results from New Zealand:
traceroute to www.michaelsbromeliads.com (65.57.240.8), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.5.100 (192.168.5.100) 1.208 ms 0.806 ms 0.306 ms
2 192.168.1.17 (192.168.1.17) 890.292 ms 920.618 ms 938.094 ms
3 192.168.190.2 (192.168.190.2) 891.837 ms 917.117 ms 939.290 ms
4 118.82.128.2 (118.82.128.2) 890.511 ms 1169.245 ms 977.018 ms
5 118.82.128.129 (118.82.128.129) 917.395 ms 1117.112 ms 980.534 ms
6 vlan-689.tkbr4.global-gateway.net.nz (202.50.236.9) 964.808 ms 936.669 ms 1116.279 ms
7 v30.tkbr9.global-gateway.net.nz (210.55.202.65) 1387.349 ms 585.562 ms 683.372 ms
8 so0-1-1.labr5.global-gateway.net.nz (203.96.120.78) 1212.175 ms * *
9 * so0-0-1.lebr6.global-gateway.net.nz (202.50.232.98) 1032.345 ms 994.546 ms
10 eqix.lsan.twtelecom.net (206.223.123.36) 1126.166 ms 908.281 ms 974.504 ms
11 66.192.243.164 (66.192.243.164) 895.708 ms 1729.246 ms 1236.515 ms
12 * * *

No problem here - went to site from the link posted in these forums Mid North coast NSW

Cheers Richard

tracert doesn't prove much. I can't do a tracert to michael's either.

Actually what we really need from the website is the pdf price list. I got my friend to send it to me the last time I needed it.

A new list will available soon

you can get to the lists and order forms through that proxy website

Just tried clicking Michael's website; to my delight, I managed to access this time. Thanks to all who tried to help!