Hi
My web site (free hosting on an rf.gd domain) sometimes doesn’t work. I get redirected to some scam web sites such as canada-winner.com or other ads.
It doesn’t seem to happen with all browsers or all the time.
What’s happening? Is this serious hosting or just a scam?
Nope, this is not a scam. This is just how the internet (or more specifically, DNS) works.
Did you notice the blue banner in your client area saying “Having trouble accessing your website?” It’s gone now, but it did point to this article, which answers your (very) frequently asked question: https://infinityfree.net/support/why-doesnt-my-domain-work/
Hi
I am not sure it’s the same issue.
Why are the ads so scammy? No reputable company would redirect to these kinds of ads.
Why does it happen even after 72h?
Why does it work and then doesn’t on the same browser?
Why do I see a ?=z after my URL?
Thanks
These ads are provided by Bodis, a company which specializes in domain parking services. As to how or where they source their ads, I don’t know.
Our systems normally tell internet providers to cache results for up to 24 hours. That’s a reasonable default which keeps providers from hammering our servers all the time, given that the DNS settings of a particular domain don’t change that often.
If internet providers would listen to what we told them to, all websites would work within 24 hours. But some internet providers cache these results for much, much longer. We say 72 hours because it leaves a sizeable margin for errors, but I’ve been told that some providers cache these results for up to two weeks.
One way to work around this is to stop using your internet provider’s DNS resolvers, and use a better one instead. There are various good, free options, like 8.8.8.8 from Google, or 1.1.1.1 from Cloudflare: Set up 1.1.1.1 on Windows · Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 docs
Was the device the browser is on connected to the same network in both cases? If it were different networks, they may have different DNS resolvers, which means they may have different caches.
But this is mostly an educated guess from my part. Your website is working fine from my end.
This is something done by Bodis. I have no idea what that is or why it is there.
OK thanks for your help. It’s working today so it must be a DNS cache issue. Even though when it stopped working I was on the same network with the same DNS servers as when it worked before. So if it ever comes back I’ll reopen this topic.
I understand Bodis is responsible for ads on your domains as long as they are not registered.
If it was my business, I’d investigate the type of ads which is currently being served as some may damage your reputation, for probably very little gains anyways. If Bodis can’t offer reputable ads, I’d switch to another provider or simply redirect to the main page. But of course this isn’t my call.
Fortunately, those with an ad-blocker should be protected from Bodis’ scam ads, but the result is a blank page.
Sadly, the number of domain parking services is extremely slim, and many of them have far worse ads than Bodis.
Hi
There I go again, my web site gets redirected to scam ads again. I didn’t change anything. Was working fine yesterday.
It’s still working fine from here.
This parking page is typically configured through DNS, but your domain is using Cloudflare’s nameservers so I can’t check it. So can you please check your DNS records with Cloudflare and delete any DNS record which contains the domain bodis.com, or points to the IP address 199.59.242.151 (which is from Bodis)? If your DNS records were somehow misconfigured to point your domain to Bodis, that would explain the parking pages.
It’s a rf.gd subdomain. I didn’t configure anything related to DNS. Nor can I.
It’s all on your side. If you can’t fix it (and provide the promised 99.9% uptime which hasn’t been met so far) just tell me and I’ll go elsewhere.
Just to add some information, as of now, all the following DNS servers are redirecting my rf.gd web site to bodis scam ads.
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
1.1.1.1
I’m having this problem too. Some days my website works and other days it doesn’t work. It’s extremely frustrating.
I’m sorry, but I keep looking for your URL in your post, see the domain you posted and assume it’s the URL of your website (despite you clearly saying it’s not).
It looks like this is a problem with the DNS records in our nameservers. From my end, your domain is working fine, but from other parts of the world it isn’t.
Can you please try to remove the domain name from the account and then add it again? That should cause the DNS records of your domain to be set again, which should result in them being configured correctly everywhere in the world.
I didn’t provide the URL of my web site in this thread. I wish it to remain private for now.
I can’t remove my .rf.gd subdomain from my account, since I would lose it. Right?
I tried adding a second subdomain (something.epizy.com this time) and I get the same problem, your name servers are redirecting it to scam web pages.
Also in the control panel, I see a “main domain” under "account details. It’s a random subdomain.epizy.com
It also doesn’t work.
My understanding is that your free subdomains just don’t work. Please fix.
You can delete it now and add it again right after that. Only if someone else decides to register that exact domain name in the exact minute it was removed from your account, you could lose it. But that’s a really small chance.
Unused domain names are redirected to a parking service, yes. As soon as you add it to an account, the nameservers are updated almost instantly, but it can still take a day or two for the subdomain to show your website:
https://infinityfree.net/support/why-doesnt-my-domain-work/
That “main domain” is just an internal identifier. It can’t show your website, and that’s perfectly fine because it doesn’t affect any other website on your account.
I removed my xyz.rf.gd domain and added it back. But I am losing 2-3 more days again. My web site has been down for most of the past week because of your DNS issues, I hope this time it is going to work. And I shouldn’t have to do this to begin with.
But now the web site path changed. It was something like
/home/vol6_6/epizy.com/epiz_xzy/htdocs and is now
/home/vol6_6/epizy.com/epiz_xzy/xyz.rf.gd/htdocs
Anyway to move it back? Can I create symbolic links on the server?
Also, is there a way to get rid of the following spam message at every step in the control panel?
To notify you of changes to service and offers we need permission to send you email.
Please click ‘I approve’ below to allow us, or refresh this page to see the control panel.
No, I don’t want to receive your emails so I will not click approve.
It is a path for addon domain and that doesn’t pose any problem to you
It’s more an internal tag and of course for easier user orientation
(If you have more domains that you know where to upload)
Upload files and install as usual (in htdocs folder) xyz.rf.gd/htdocs/ here
status as of today
the following name servers are still redirecting my domains to bodis, and there is nothing I can do about it:
ns1, ns2 and ns5.byet.org
n1 and ns2.epizy.com
only ns3 and ns4.byet.org are correct. So chances are, people can’t access my web site because they will fall on one of the 5 wrong servers instead of the 2 correct ones.
14 days since this topic as been created, and I still don’t see the end of the tunnel.
It seems that something is going with the nameservers causing domains to be down or redirect to ads pages. I’ve written an announcement topic with more information about the issue. Please keep an eye on that topic for updates.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.