He has been responsive, however, it seems like somehow the problem should be able to be resolved, particularly since I figured out what was happening -- i.e. the firewall was blocking me. I would think this would be very troubling for him and anyone who has a site hosted through vive, as there has to be some bug somewhere -- either in how the firewall is set up, the hardware involved (if any), or whatever. I suspect that it is a problem that will grow, but normally when people can't reach your site you know nothing about it. They just assume that you went belly up or something. At least, that is what I do.

Remember, I was happily using the site two weeks ago, so this is a recent event. That's what I mean about I suspect it is an emerging problem, it can't be isolated -- I'm really not that unique!

I apologized and also offered a refund. I tried, and it isn't in my interest to ask you to find another host. But I can't seem to find the problem and it is only affecting you. I didn't want you to wait and thought it was best if you moved elsewhere. So, you can continue to work and see your own site. I'm going to be moving everyone to a new server in several weeks as announced in the forums, but I'm sure you wouldn't want to wait for that before viewing your site again.

Vivehosting did you contact you upstream provider to check if it could be a routing problem?

I am sort of the end of this tale now, but thought I would share with you what I have learned.

I am convinced, and so is Verizon now, that somehow Vive (and about 5 other places I have found) is blocking the whole range of 70.17 IP addresses. It turns out that Verizon just started using them. I tend to suspect that it is a problem upstream.

It is absolutely not true that I am the only person affected by this. All the people that Vive hosts are affected as no one who has a 70.17 Ip address can access any of those sites. I became familiar with a forum, Broadband reports, and it turns out that some of those folks could set their IP and also not get to Vive. If the IP address was in the 151.199 range they could also not get to Vive (or autica, or hoststock, etc.).

Verizon's says "okay, does it make more sense for Verizon to go to the trouble of taking those IP addresses off the market, or for the websites affected to stop blocking them?". I say, personally, both. I understand, now that I have been into it more, why ranges are blocked even. However, everyone should be aware that most people have a "random" (it is not random at all) assignation of IP numbers. It turns out that another site I work on the message board keeps the IP addresses. From that I could tell that before 6/25 I was being assigned one that was in the 151.200 range. Verizon just put those 70.17 ones on, and I got redirected to it.

It is a problem for everyone I am sure with all the viruses, worms, and so forth. However, I was looking at the Cpanel for my new site and saw that I could block ranges of IP addresses. Scary stuff, knowing now the heartache that can bring. I also saw you could block it for certain things. It turns out most of the blocking comes about because of spamming, and I sure can't see blocking someone from accessing a site because of that. However, that is what is happening with Vive and many other sites.

Again, and neither Vive nor Verizon wants to admit this -- I am not a lone wolf here. Many other people are being affected. Probably they don't know it unless they have a site that they have hosted as most of us, when faced with a "Page cannot be displayed" assume that the site is out of business, and go elsewhere.

Oops,

The problem couldn't be downstream if Vive could raise their firewall and I could get in, could it? Had to be right there as I understand things.

Okay, I know it seems far fetched, but could you change ISPs, or it would just be best if you could move to another host, because there are plenty of other hosts out there!

At Vive's suggestion, I did move to another host. I sure hope they don't buy that black list though!

As far as changing ISPs, I believe any DSL in this area goes through Verizon, so I am stuck with them if I want DSL. I've looked into paying more $$ for cable, though I don't know how they treat this problem if it comes up. I could also pay extra and get static addresses from Verizon, but I would hate to reward them with more $$ for not helping me.

The guy at Verizon did make the comment that normally the large hosts don't engage in this type of blacklisting, though I have no idea whatsoever whether that is true. If so, then I could move my site back to ATT, pay more for getting the .com type of name, and be assured (?) everyone could reach my site. That is, if this is not just another myth!

problem is now fixed. No real use for you to come back, but I'd like to again apologize for the trouble. It turned out the firewall had a bug I didn't know about.

im hosted with vive also..haven had nay problems...
but it stiill all seems pretty strange

Is anyone still using vive hosting...if so are you having problems with your site?? Mine has been down for a week!!!!!

Hi,

I stopped using them a few months back, because it was becoming very very unreliable!

So, sorry, can't help

Regards,
hshah

It seems that a lot of people have been having similar problems with the Vive Hosting site. I was going to set up an account there, but all things considered, it appears that the best thing is to give them a wide berth

Maybe they went out of business without leting their customers know. Do you have a phone number to call them?

Can anyone suggest a free web hosting that has web building templates

I can