A question for all you internet geniuses. Problem accessing a website.

Don M

I have Frontier DSL internet service. If I try to access www.python-forum.org all I get is their static blue background with some links and their header.

I have tried on several laptops, desktops and tablets. Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. Windows 7 machines and Linux. All the same result.

Here's what is weird- I can access the site on my cell phone just fine. I can use my cell phone to tether the internet to my laptops and tablet and they too work fine. I tried power cycling the router and no change. All other websites that I frequent work fine. Including this one as I'm typing on it now.

I called Frontier and the CSR could not get to that site either. Gets the same screen I get. He tried his cell phone and it worked ok for him.

What is going on? Do I email the site master at python-forum.org and let them know? Weird stuff...

Don M

Here's what the screen looks like:

Don M

And here's the same website when my laptop is tethered to cell phone:

Electrodude

Looks like a parked domain to me.

Don M

Well maybe so but it's the same computer. Same website URL. Just different internet service. Why would it be any different?

Don M

Now it doesn't want to load through cell service. The website must be having issues..

Electrodude

Oh, sorry, I somehow missed the second picture.

It looks like a DNS problem. According to the WHOIS database, python-forum.org just updated their DNS entry today. I've seen lots of websites act funny around the time their DNS entry is renewed. The problem should go away soon by itself - your DNS server is probably caching old data. If you contact your ISP and ask them to flush their cached entry for python-forum.org, it might work.

If you connect your computer to your DSL connection but force it to use whatever DNS server your phone is using, it should work. However, you should still normally use your default DNS server, so remember to put it back to automatic afterwards.

ICANN WHOIS: http://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=python-forum.org (server too busy for me right now)
InterNIC WHOIS: https://reports.internic.net/cgi/whois?whois_nic=python-forum.org&type=domain

EDIT: I just saw your latest post. I am having the problem too. The domain must have just gotten parked. It seems to me that it expired, but that the registrar is keeping the domain to give the owner the chance to renew it without anyone stealing it. From your screenshot, the forum seems to still be pretty active, so I would guess that the site owner will find out pretty soon and fix it.

evanh

Here's what I just got -

Electrodude

evanh wrote: »

Here's what I just got -

Ghostery didn't give me that on my computer. I guess I forgot to tell it to block something...

Does it do what it's doing for DonM if you tell Ghostery to let the redirect go through (the middle play button)?

evanh

Just ads as expected -

evanh

Hmm, I just tried this from home and didn't get the Ghostery warning either. I did however get an equivalent warning from RequestPolicy (Which I don't use at work) and when disabling it the Ghostery warning would then show up.

Heater.

www.python-forum.org does not exist.

$ whois www.python-forum.org
NOT FOUND
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2016-04-12T08:49:32Z <<<

Don M

Thanks for the replies. I just signed up for the forum on Saturday and had posted a few questions. There seemed to be activity in recent posts.

Heater.

On the other hand python-forum.org does exist:

$ whois python-forum.org    
Domain Name: PYTHON-FORUM.ORG
Domain ID: D96709593-LROR
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL: http://www.onlinenic.com
Updated Date: 2016-04-11T23:39:20Z
Creation Date: 2003-04-08T12:33:33Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2017-04-08T12:33:33Z
....

But that is only serving adds just now as well.

Don M

Seems its back up and running now....

evanh

Yep, good for me too.

Heater.

Yep. All go in Finland.

Now, why do you want to use that crappy Python language?

Don M

Heater. wrote: »

Yep. All go in Finland.

Now, why do you want to use that crappy Python language?

What do you suggest I use?

Heater.

It depends on what it is you want to do.

If you want to program a Propeller there is no Python. There is C/C++, Spin, BASIC, Forth etc etc. Not in any particular order of preference. So there is no debate about it.

If you want to maximize the speed of your creation then C and C++ are the way to go. Especially if we are talking about a programs that you want to run on many different platforms.

Personally I don't get on with Python's white space block delimiting. But that is, perhaps, purely a subjective thing.

Practically, Python has only one major plus feature over most other languages in that it can do arithmetic on arbitrarily large integers. Want to multiply 9874398749238749874987234987239487923784 by 39875092847590873450987349085094387 ? No problem in Python. Most other languages have 32 bit or 64 bit or whatever size limits.

After that it goes down hill.

Just now my thing is Javascript. JS has all the interactive convenience of an interpreted language like Python, Lisp, Scheme, Perl etc. Which makes development much nicer than endlessly compiling languages like C/C++. JS has speed. I was amazed to find that JS can perform almost as fast as C++ in many applications. JS is event driven, which means that if your application is subject to all kind of different external events happening at random times they are very easy to deal with, no need for the complexity of multi-threading.

If you are into such things it's very convenient to use the same language and many of the same libraries/modules in the web browser as stand alone on the PC.

And JS runs on tiny little micro-controllers like the Espruino: http://www.espruino.com/ or my STM32F4 boards, or my WIFI routers, everywhere!

JS is an international standard and supported by many vendors. Probably about the most stable language apart from C/C++ over the decades.

Many of the old complaints about JS no longer apply now that we have the new 2015 JS standard (ES6). Which introduces a lot of nice things into the language. Available now in node.js, Firefox, Chrome, MS Edge, etc. (Hmm...not sure how Espruino is doing with this)

Don M

I appreciate your comments. My latest project doesn't involve a propeller so my choice of language isn't affected by that. I was looking to develop a simple application to import a csv file, parse it and then be able to provide data from it by querying it. Python seemed a good fit and I believe will run on different platforms if necessary such as windows pc, linux box and raspberry pi.

I was also playing with TKinter as a way of providing a gui for my application.

I had considered using something that might involve a webpage and that too would be portable between different platforms. One of the problems I run into is time. Seems different people I talk to suggest different languages in which to develop my application in. Every time I switch gears to a different language it involves a learning curve.

I looked at JS but I need to be able to open and write to files along with access to the serial / USB port. Maybe you could suggest an IDE in which to develop and test in? Free of course...

erco

I also found it quite puzzling when websites load differently.

http://forums.parallax.com/discussion/163729/can-you-get-to-this-website/p1

Heater.

Reading and writing files from JS running under node.js is the same trivially easy as it is under most any other language.

Serial ports is not an issue with the serialport module https://www.npmjs.com/package/serialport

For an "IDE" I use vim on the Pi or the Atom editor on a PC. Do be sure to use eslint to look over your code whatever editor you use. It can pick up many silly mistakes.

For a GUI, there is the browser, almost any browser now a days. If you want to make a stand alone program there is Electron http://electron.atom.io/

Yes, everyone has different ideas about languages, editors, platforms, libraries etc, etc.

My approach to that was: Use JS, it runs everywhere. When it comes to a browser GUI, use JS and the DOM API of the browser. It's everywhere. Rather like programming in assembler. When your application gets big and complicated enough to warrant using a library or framework you will have enough experience to know which way to go.

Don M

Do you need to run a webserver when you use nodejs?

Electrodude

nodejs is just like any other program. You can run it on whatever computer you want. You can host a website you're working on on your own computer, or you can run it on a dedicated server. It's not just an http server - you could make it do whatever you wanted. You could write a text-based game that runs in a terminal using nodejs if you wanted to. You could write a GUI program in it, supposing there's a library to give you access to your computer's window server.

GordonMcComb

Heater's go-to is Node.JS, and it's very fine, but if you want something bone-numbing easy, Python's Web server is easy to install -- just copy the files somewhere -- and run from the command prompt. Where you run it becomes the document root. In most cases the defaults are all you need, so there's no setup or arcane command line switches required. To get started, merely download the pre-compiled Python binary for your OS, unpack, and go. Note that using the Python Web server has nothing to do with scripting in Python.

JavaScript supports a file API, so you can read and write files. Most browsers respect the limitations in cross-origin resources (CORS), and there are numerous local file access issues if you don't use a server (or choose to run the browser with these checks turned off). As long as you are running a simple http server, and call everything off localhost, you should be okay. The API operates in a sandbox, making these safe methods to use. From the sound of your application, the API should work just fine for you.

Heater.

You do not need a web server to use node.js. You can make a web server easily in node though:

// Create an express web server instance 
let express = require('express');
let app = express();

// Define the port to run on
app.set('port', 3000);

// Serve files from the public directory
app.use(express.static('public'));

// Listen for requests
let server = app.listen(app.get('port'), function() {
    var port = server.address().port;
    console.log('Magic happens on port ' + port);
});

You can write GUI apps in node using the Qt GUI tool kit https://github.com/arturadib/node-qt although I'm not sure how well that is supported now a days or if it gets much use. Because, I think most people would rather make their GUI web based.

Javascript has total access to all things on your machine under node.js. Like any other language. It is not limited to the API's of JS in the browser. For example on a Raspberry Pi you can use the GPIO pins, serial port, etc from node.

You can write standalone GUI apps in node using Electron http://electron.atom.io/

Electron uses Chromium for display so your GUI is made using HTML and JS. You have all the great HTML5 features like SVG, webgl, video, audio etc. Unlike a web app though your JS in an Electron GUI can use all of the node.js API's, it is not subject to browser sand boxing.

rjo__

Heater is always right. I'm too old to listen to everything he says, but from what I have listened to ... he is square on just about every time:)

Heater.

rjo__

aw-shucks, that can't be true.

msrobots

Heater. wrote: »

rjo__

aw-shucks, that can't be true.

yeah. It isn't. Not always but often...

Mike

Heater.

msrobots,

yeah. It isn't.

Citation please.

evanh

Would a cited opinion count?