Quote Originally Posted by Deathslayr View Post
I'm beginning to understand a bit better now, and now that I think about it, all the times restarting my computer, or clearing cache and cookies has worked, has been when I got the ticking clock of doom, not the network connection error.
The thing is, if something happens at the actual point of the problem, and the problem is resolved there just before you make your attempt after the cache and cookies thing, it gives the appearance that the cache and cookies was "the fix", when it really was just coincidence.

So what you're saying neko, is that in most cases, network connection error means it is something on the customer's side.
No. All I am saying is that in all cases, cache and cookies play no part in network connection error.

The most likely cause is a misconfigured firewall entry at Evony's data center or somewhere near the data center. In the event of the issue with Sky and Orange over in Europe just this past month, it was a firewall entry at the data center in Issaquah, Washington. No amount of fiddling around on a customer's computer would've ever corrected that issue. It had to be corrected at the data center.

The next likely cause is a firewall or router misconfiguration at the customer's location. Traceroutes work for first-pass diagnosis for both this and misconfiguration at the data center. It all depends on if the trace fails, and if so, where it fails.

Another possible is a temporary routing problem. For example, in the trace that I posted, Cogent might have some sort of temporary issue. With what he posted, perhaps Level3 has a temporary issue. It again depends on if and where a failure happens in a trace. Also, these types of things are generally temporary, perhaps lasting as short as 15-30 minutes. Traces are again the first thing to go for when trying to diagnose.

So, to answer you on how to isolate, instead of going for the cache and cookies thing, go for traces. From there, you have to know some things about networking, and how to try proxy servers or going to a network site that lets you ping or trace to where you're wanting to go from their network rather than yours (usually from a web interface).