fs.usda.gov ip address cannot be found

[B and C]

[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]I am getting the error that the www.fs.usda.gov sites ip address cannot be found.  There are a lot of forest service campsites and when I click on one to get more info, it has a link to the forest service website: www.fs.usda.gov [/font]

[font=Roboto, Arial, sans-serif]Is anyone else getting this error or is it just me?[/font]

This has been happening for the past two days.

 

[Kaylee]

It works for me here (northern WI).
Regional outages are somewhat more likely than complete outages, so it'll probably clear up soonish (i.e. minutes to a few days).

Hmmm.... since you Made Me Look, I checked some DNS stuff, and to misquote Firefly, their mechanic isn't half awake.
For example, their SPF record (part of an email anti-spoofing technology) is right on the cusp of a "PermError" which is as bad as that sounds.

More generally, here's an awesome (albeit very techie) cybersecurity site:
https://isc.sans.edu/
At the top left, there's a "Threat Level" indicator, which is an easy & reliable way to see if Bad Internet Stuff is being caused by Evil Scum.
It tends to discard the "normal" blips of background/continuous noise/bad-stuff.

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah it's working for me.

however I would like to point out that the Forest Service(FS) and the BLM have notoriously bad web sites that are full of dead links. it's very hard to save a link to something because most of the time when you come back to it in a month or 2 the link is dead.

I use both of them a lot and I have never seen such poorly run web sites. it is very frustrating at times.

highdesertranger

 

[B and C]

Thanks for the updates. I can't even get to their homepage.

 

[B and C]

Really frustrating as I can't even get to their homepage. Hope it is just one of their local DNS servers out of whack. They probably can't afford the brightest and I would sure like to think that there are alarms going off somewhere.

 

[Kaylee]

Brian, have you tried an alternate DNS server?

 

[B and C]

Well dang Kaylee. I changed from get DNS automatically to Google's (I think) 8.8.8.8. It now redirects me to fs.fed.us. I guess they are in the middle of changing the internet name?!?

 

[Qxxx]

Works fine for me too. Brian, if you have a specific NF or CG you're interested in, maybe we can get a direct link that will work for you.

Not sure what you are using, but many times when I'm on the road, my Android tablet browsers just will not work with the usual websites, as with my laptop.

You might also go to google maps, search on "camping", and try getting to the NF portals that way. It might work.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/N...1cbfa150c1bf29!8m2!3d35.2881566!4d-83.6665535

https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/nfsnc/recarea/?recid=48634

 

[B and C]

Well, I guess it has to do with my local ISP's DNS servers. When I click on links that point to fs.usda.gov, they now work with the new DNS address added.

I think I'll just leave it with Google as it works.

Thanks for your help everyone. Sorry for the panic on my part. I thought this might affect us all.

 

[Kaylee]

Brian, it was a good question.

Good choice choosing Google's DNS server - I should have recommended that!
I do hate them as a corporation, but their redundancy & infrastructure engineering team are generally better than any ISP.
Plus, 8.8.8.8 is stunningly easy to remember & recognize.

Many times I've been beating my head against some internet oddity, and switching my DNS server solves it.
In general, that's one of the net's Achilles' heel.
The main technical spam analysis I do uses tens of thousands of DNS lookups, and free wifi sometimes has wonkiness.


P.S. Like I keep saying, I'm not an Engine Kaylee (well proven!), I'm a Computer Kaylee.

 

[B and C]

Your part of the engine that drives the internet! Shiney.

 

[wayne49]

For me: "www.fs.usda.gov"automatically converts in the address bar to https://www.fs.fed.us/ which displays the home page.

Possibly you have type of super browser security that protects you by disabling such redirection?

 

[B and C]

Nope, no super anything here. Mine redirects to fs.fed.us home page of the forest service too. If I go to Google maps and search for camping now (after changing my DNS), if a campsite has fs.usda.gov, there is not a redirect but goes to the camping page at fs.usda.gov. Maybe it has always been this way and I never noticed until it didn't work. In any case, all is well now.

 

[blars]

Some ISPs ignore "don't cache" flags, keep returning old DNS results long after they have expired (sometimes months) etc. Cell providers are frequently among the worst for this. 1.1.1.1 is another public DNS server with an easy to remember address, less well known since they have only been around a couple of years.