why/how does google find posts on www.digitalgrin.com that are 404?

jcdilljcdill Registered Users Posts: 225 Major grins
edited September 29, 2011 in Dgrin Forum Support
I run a Google Alert on some topics (keywords) that I want to follow, and periodically the alert gives me results like this:
Keywords with LR and smugmug - Digital Grin Photography Forum
Keywords with LR and smugmug SmugMug Support.
<http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1674597>

When I try to follow the link, I get a 404. If I try to traceroute to the server I get

$ traceroute www.digitalgrin.com
traceroute: unknown host www.digitalgrin.com

So How The Heck is Google locating new pages at this URL?

I get apx 2x the Google Alert hits for links in digitalgrin.com as I get in dgrin.com
JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com
"Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett

Comments

  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    can you please give exact link that 404s?
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • jcdilljcdill Registered Users Posts: 225 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    Andy wrote: »
    can you please give exact link that 404s?

    Oops. Sorry about that. I *did* include the link, exactly as it was sent by Google. Google helpfully encases the links in angle brackets, which then makes the entire thing disappear when posted here. I've attached a screenshot of how it looks in email.

    http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?p=1674597
    JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com
    "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
    "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    Hm, I don't get any 404 message at that link, it just brings up Dgrin - sorry!
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • DonRicklinDonRicklin Registered Users Posts: 5,551 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    Maybe that is because the link provided by the OP is www.digitalgrin.com/, not www.dgrin.com/! I get a 404 with it too! :D

    Don
    Don Ricklin - Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, was Pentax K7
    'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
    My Blog | Q+ | Moderator, Lightroom Forums | My Amateur Smugmug Stuff | My Blurb book Rust and Whimsy. More Rust , FaceBook     .
  • jcdilljcdill Registered Users Posts: 225 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    Andy wrote: »
    Hm, I don't get any 404 message at that link, it just brings up Dgrin - sorry!

    Can you please have a networking specialist take a look at this?

    I'm on AT&T/SBC DSL, using their default DSN servers, and it's clearly 404 from here:

    $ traceroute www.digitalgrin.com
    traceroute: unknown host www.digitalgrin.com

    $ traceroute www.dgrin.com
    traceroute to www.dgrin.com (208.79.45.83), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
    1 home (192.168.1.254) 5.704 ms 1.152 ms 1.709 ms
    2 bras18-l0.pltnca.sbcglobal.net (151.164.184.85) 13.492 ms 15.480 ms 14.000 ms
    3 76.246.22.1 (76.246.22.1) 13.028 ms 14.062 ms 12.349 ms
    4 151.164.93.229 (151.164.93.229) 13.431 ms 12.870 ms 13.717 ms
    5 ggr6.wswdc.ip.att.net (12.122.86.89) 13.383 ms 12.958 ms 13.707 ms
    6 * * *
    7 ae-23-70.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.152.69) 17.784 ms ae-13-60.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.152.5) 18.782 ms ae-43-90.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.152.197) 18.130 ms
    8 SMUGMUG-INC.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.71.112.10) 18.204 ms 18.053 ms 17.739 ms
    9 www.dgrin.com (208.79.45.83) 19.065 ms 18.743 ms 17.553 ms
    $
    JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com
    "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
    "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    www.digitalgrin.com links are working just fine here. Maybe try flushing your DNS? http://www.tech-faq.com/how-to-flush-dns.html

    I can certainly have someone look to see if something's amiss - but try the flushdns first, please?
    Andy

    Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
  • alexalex Registered Users Posts: 32 Big grins
    edited September 24, 2011
    Not working here either. DSL from Qwest.
  • basfltbasflt Registered Users Posts: 1,882 Major grins
    edited September 25, 2011
    its the way Alert works

    its not a search engine like Google

    if you try it now , it will find this page

    tried several keywords , but got no 404
    Bas

    /ɯoɔ˙ƃnɯƃnɯs˙ʇlɟsɐq//:dʇʇɥ
  • jcdilljcdill Registered Users Posts: 225 Major grins
    edited September 25, 2011
    basflt wrote: »
    its the way Alert works

    its not a search engine like Google

    I don't know what you mean about this being the way Alert works, or that it's not a search engine like Google. Google Alerts are generated BY the Google Search Engine, when it finds a new page that matches the search/alert criteria. I've been using Google Alerts for many years, and this is the first time I've had the alert URL fail to work.
    JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com
    "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
    "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
  • jcdilljcdill Registered Users Posts: 225 Major grins
    edited September 25, 2011
    Andy, as you can see, I'm not the only one having a problem reaching digitalgrin.com

    The following was done when I was online at a coffee shop in Santa Cruz earlier today:

    $ dscacheutil -flushcache
    $ traceroute www.digitalgrin.com
    traceroute to www.digitalgrin.com (208.79.45.83), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
    1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 9.095 ms 2.835 ms 2.838 ms
    2 * * *
    3 te-9-1-ur01.scotts.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.85.101.5) 29.329 ms 14.219 ms 40.416 ms
    4 * te-1-9-0-5-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net (68.87.226.206) 22.179 ms 14.794 ms
    5 pos-3-0-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.90.93) 50.934 ms 46.275 ms 19.387 ms
    6 te-1-3.car1.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.71.118.37) 27.361 ms * 51.108 ms
    7 ae-43-90.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.152.197) 34.386 ms 41.166 ms ae-33-80.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.69.152.133) 33.663 ms
    8 SMUGMUG-INC.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.71.112.10) 26.251 ms 19.672 ms 30.377 ms
    9 www.dgrin.com (208.79.45.83) 39.920 ms 75.112 ms 25.514 ms

    Then, when I got home I tried to reach digitalgrin.com again, repeating the command that had worked previously at the coffeeshop:

    $ traceroute www.digitalgrin.com
    traceroute: unknown host www.digitalgrin.com

    So there's clearly something that is wrong with the DNS servers for many users, not just me. If I'm on a network whose DNS servers can reach digitalgrin.com (as with the comcast network the coffee shop used), then it works. When I'm on a network whose servers can't find digitalgrin.com (such as my home AT&T/SBCGlobal DSL network), it doesn't work.
    JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com
    "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
    "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
  • jcdilljcdill Registered Users Posts: 225 Major grins
    edited September 26, 2011
    DonRicklin wrote: »
    I get a 404 with it too!

    Don, what ISP do you use?
    JC Dill - Equine Photographer, San Francisco & San Jose http://portfolio.jcdill.com
    "Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Ansel Adams
    "Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it." ~ Terry Pratchett
  • DonRicklinDonRicklin Registered Users Posts: 5,551 Major grins
    edited September 26, 2011
    jcdill wrote: »
    Don, what ISP do you use?

    Speakeasy/MegaPath

    Don


    Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
    Don Ricklin - Gear: Canon EOS 5D Mark III, was Pentax K7
    'I was older then, I'm younger than that now' ....
    My Blog | Q+ | Moderator, Lightroom Forums | My Amateur Smugmug Stuff | My Blurb book Rust and Whimsy. More Rust , FaceBook     .
  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,245 moderator
    edited September 27, 2011
    Wide Open West. Can't locate the server www.digitalgrin.com
    i-jvZXkB5.png
    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
  • zweiblumenzweiblumen Registered Users Posts: 369 Major grins
    edited September 27, 2011
    So, this is interesting. Google DNS sees www.digitalgrin.com but OpenDNS does not. There is something funky with the propagation on this domain. We'll look into it and get it sorted. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
    Travis
  • zweiblumenzweiblumen Registered Users Posts: 369 Major grins
    edited September 28, 2011
    Okay, looks like Shane found the problem. www.digitalgrin.com should resolve properly everywhere within the next 48 hours. Please holler if you still see problems after that.

    Thanks,
    Ops Team
    Travis
  • David_S85David_S85 Administrators Posts: 13,245 moderator
    edited September 29, 2011
    Works for me now.
    My Smugmug
    "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
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