Need some INTERWEB help - urgent

Villa · Post by **Villa** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:49 am

I can't get this page to load - http://visa.mofa.gov.sa/

From what I understand, several other people can access the page fine.
It gives me HTTP 500 error
I would normally attribute this error to a problem with the page on that website rather than any local issues/settings on my own machine.

The long winded way to access this page is as follows -
www.mofa.gov.sa
click on the 'english' button at top left
click on the 'consulate services' link on the left (7th down)
click on 'electronic visa services'

I need to know if anyone can access this page.
Even though my firewall is irrelevant to this, I have tried switching it off to no avail.

Someone speculated that this may be an issue with Service Pack 2 - Windows XP, but I am sceptical.
However, I have been informed that several people can access this page - unfortunately I am not in a position to be able to contact them.

Thanks in advance.

Nixon · Post by **Nixon** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:52 am

I get an error with that too.

Dodgy website, better not get busted for terrorist activities

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:03 pm

I get an error im using xp sp2 ill try on a win2k machine and let you know.

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:13 pm

Didnt work from a sp4 w2k machine just tried it on firefox on my machine and it came up with the following

"Failed to connect
The host 195.47.234.135 could not be contacted. If this persists, you should contact the administrator of the remote site."

Server looks like its having issues why dont you give the friendly staff at the saudia consulate a call and ask them to reboot.

Superfast Oz · Post by **Superfast Oz** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:22 pm

Doesn't work on my own PC, I can load their homepage but once I click the electronic visa service link it kicks out it with the same message as Dog.

I'll try from my work machine in an hour or so, that is XP SP1 I think.

Post by **Benn** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:30 pm

Failed to connect
The host 195.47.234.135 could not be contacted. If this persists, you should contact the administrator of the remote site.

Blatanetly a remote issue like Dog said, it's not your pc

Villa · Post by **Villa** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:45 pm

Thanks guys.

That page worked fine when accessed from various cities in Saudi Arabia.
Shortly afterwards it failed to load when tried in the UK.
At some point after this, some people in the UK reckoned it loaded OK for them.
It still failed to load for me and someone else.
Upon visiting the Saudi Embassy in London, the page was accessible by the less than friendly staff working there who demonstrated it live.
Back home, the page still won't load.

So, I have never got it load from home.
Some people reckon they got it to load elsewhere in the UK at other times.
It worked fine from within Saudi Arabia, and also from within the UK embassy at one point.

Not sure what to make of this, as the error given does suggest a problem at the web server end.
Perhaps this is intermittent and I've just been unlucky ?
Perhaps the other people who reckoned it worked for them were looking at some other page ? (These sources are unknown to me and this is 3rd hand information, so I can just imagine wrong URLs being tried by people who are even less IT literate than myself).
Not sure why it would work at the Saudi embassy, or from within Saudia Arabia itself - perhaps they had temporarily fixed whatever issue there was at the time, and we were just unlucky when we tried subsequently (i.e. its broken again) ?

Villa · Post by **Villa** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 12:46 pm

Also, can anyone with access to Win XP SP1 have a go for me please just for confirmation ?

Many thanks.

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:23 pm

Right well think is deffinatley an issue with the server i checked the DNS listings and its a legit listing. Tried https:\\ but no joy. Did manage to telenet to the box so there is something sitting on that address. IT might even be that there is a trusted link to the site from the embassy and thats why there getting in (vpn or summit) as apposed to coming from web.

This is the only thing i can think of unless somone has H/\xxor3d the Site with a Doa attack or hijacked it ..

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:24 pm

YOu can check the DNS listing on this site www.dnsstuff.com its the shizzle

Post by **Benn** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:39 pm

Villa wrote:Also, can anyone with access to Win XP SP1 have a go for me please just for confirmation ?

Many thanks.

done, same thing

Post by **Benn** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:40 pm

oh and

DNS Lookup: visa.mofa.gov.sa A record
Generated by www.DNSstuff.com

How I am searching:
Searching for visa.mofa.gov.sa A record at b.root-servers.net [192.228.79.201]: Got referral to MUNNARI.OZ.AU. [took 103 ms]
Searching for visa.mofa.gov.sa A record at MUNNARI.OZ.AU. [128.250.22.2]: Refused! [took 248 ms].

Answer:
The DNS server reported that it refuses to respond to the query. There's a problem with the DNS server for visa.mofa.gov.sa.

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 2:52 pm

DOS attack !

Villa · Post by **Villa** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:10 pm

Nice one guys.
Doing a trace route takes me as far as somewhere in Frankfurt before the timeouts start kicking in.

How did you determine this is a DOS attack ?

Dog · Post by **Dog** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:13 pm

ITS not

but it does look like one..im sure its a DNS issue whatever the problem i would stake my life savings on it being with them or the ISP they are hosting on.

Just to add didnt read your previous post clearly if the sources that can access this are based in saudi i would say its deffinatley a DNS issue. What you might be able to try is get someone that can connect to ping the visa.mofa.gov.sa address. try and connect to the ip it gives you. Very unlikey it will work but might be worth a go.