Problem:Unable to access Dreamhost's (DH) webpanel from my home computer (Mac OS 10.4). When pointing my browser to panel.dreamhost.com I'd invariably get a "connection timed out" error. The output from traceroute suggested to me that the problem was at DH's end:
% traceroute panel.dreamhost.com traceroute to panel.dreamhost.com (66.33.201.130), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 [...] 2 [...] 3 at-1-2-0-1719.core-rtr2.bos.verizon-gni.net (130.81.9.245) 25.461 ms 26.321 ms 25.591 ms 4 so-0-2-0-0.bb-rtr2.bos.verizon-gni.net (130.81.20.86) 25.988 ms 26.193 ms 31.568 ms 5 0.so-5-2-0.xl2.bos4.alter.net (152.63.19.137) 32.311 ms 27.812 ms 27.315 ms 6 0.so-6-0-0.xl2.lax15.alter.net (152.63.112.61) 121.418 ms 121.219 ms 120.668 ms 7 pos7-0.gw2.lax15.alter.net (152.63.117.85) 111.140 ms 112.440 ms 112.517 ms 8 internapgige-gw.customer.alter.net (157.130.236.110) 115.499 ms 112.022 ms 111.304 ms 9 border1.po2-bbnet2.ext1a.lax.pnap.net (216.52.255.95) 112.983 ms 112.325 ms 112.211 ms 10 newdream-1.border1.ext1a.lax.pnap.net (216.52.220.78) 347.647 ms 114.602 ms 208.394 ms 11 lb1.sd.dreamhost.com (66.33.206.96) 114.535 ms 119.165 ms 119.207 ms 12 * * * 13 * * * 14 *^C %
DH tech support recommended that I flush my DNS cache:
% lookupd -flushcache
This didn't help. After many more back-and-forths with tech support, including elevation to a "level two queue" (whatever that is), I finally tracked down the problem to my /etc/hosts file.
Cause: An invalid entry in my /etc/hosts file. Earlier this year DH had recommended that its customers add these lines to their /etc/hosts file, as insurance against DH's DNS server going down:
66.33.201.130 panel.dreamhost.com 66.201.54.111 dreamhoststatus.com 66.33.201.141 dreamhost.com 66.33.201.141 www.dreamhost.com 66.201.54.111 www.dreamhoststatus.com
The trouble is that DH had subsequently changed the IP address of panel.dreamhost.com, without my knowing it.
Fix: Comment out those lines and restart the DNS daemon:
% sudo vi /etc/hosts [to insert '#' in front of those lines...]
% sudo killall -HUP lookupd
Moral #1: if you're going to add IP addresses to your /etc/hosts, it's up to you to make sure those entries are up to date. If your ISP tells you to add such-and-such to that file, don't count on them keeping you informed of any changes later on.
Moral #2: When troubleshooting DNS problems, always remember: if traceroute chokes on a remote server along the route, it might very well be a problem with your DNS configuration. Always check /etc/hosts first!
