Has Free Snipe Friday been canceled?

It started 2 hours ago. Unfortunately it probably only works if you have a balance or a snipe left. Which defeats the purpose for those that used all their free snipes and have pay with a credit card. I've added a penny to your account and it will probably let you add a snipe now.

Since I'm about to go to bed about the only way around this for those with a 0 balance and 0 free snipes left is to add a small balance with paypal. It's possible we may be able to refund it later, but I can't say for sure. Or you can wait for about 7-8 more hours at which time the programmers will be and I think they should be able to find the chunk of code that was possibly missed that will let you enter a snipe even though you have none left because it's a free snipe day of course.

Thanks for coming back to me!

Well, it's not working for me either - my Snipe was placed today at 2.26pm European time. AS took away one of my free snipes. AS giveth and it taketh away again.

Hi HRINSPAIN,

Sine you are reporting that you were charged a free snipe credit for this item, I suspect you must have added it to your account before "Free Snipe Friday" began. Any snipes that are added to your account today will be free of charge but, if you added snipes to your account before "Free Snipe Friday" began and the bids are placed today, you will still be charged snipe fees with respect to those items.

If the item you are referring to was entered into your account between 12:00 AM and 11:59 PM PT on 7/11/2008, please let us know by contacting our customer support team using the web form on the following page: http://support.auctionsniper.com/

-Mike

Hi Community,

The issue acknowledged by Sara earlier in this thread has since been resolved, so anyone should now be able to enter snipes on "Free Snipe Friday" even if they don't have a prepaid balance or a credit card on file. Happy sniping!

-Mike

I am still unable to add new snipes to my account. I have four free snipes in my account but have been unable to add new snipes.
I eneter the ebay auction number and the bid amount and click on the ADD button. The page will not load and add the snipe. I have tried this from two different computers in my house.
I am not running any Zone Alarm software.
Any ideas?

Hi Hunter.Bob,

I can't say for sure what is causing the behavior you are describing, but it sounds like there is most likely an internet security application or other process running on your machine that is interfering with your ability to connect to Auction Sniper. It also seems possible that there may be a connection issue somewhere between your ISP and ours.

While it may be a long shot, there is also a possibility that clearing your browser cache and restoring your default browser settings will resolve this problem, so I believe that's worth a shot too. If you are using Internet Explorer 7.0, you can accomplish this via the following process:

1) Clear your cache: Select "Internet Options" from the "Tools" menu, followed by the "Delete" button under "Browsing History". Then, on the ensuing page, click the "Delete Files" and "Delete Cookies" buttons. Please ensure that only one browser window is open when you are doing this or your cache may not empty properly.

2) Restore your Advanced Settings: Select "Internet Options" from the "Tools" menu and click the "Advanced" tab. Then, click the "Restore Advanced Settings" button, followed by "Apply" then "OK"

After making these adjustments, close your IE 7.0 web browser and re-open it for the new settings to take effect. If you try this measure and are still unable to add snipes to your account, I recommend adding AuctionSniper.com to the "excepted" list on any internet security applications you may be running. If you are connecting to the internet through a router, I also recommend adjusting your router configuration such that access to AuctionSniper.com is specifically allowed.

If you try all of the measures I mentioned in this post and you are still unable to add snipes to your account, please contact our customer support team by completing the web form on the following page: http://support.auctionsniper.com/

-Mike

Mike,
I am also unable to leave a message for AS tech support or respond to an existing case from the colocation problem.
Since I have the same problem with two different computers I would not think the Temporary Internet files cache would be the problem. My provider is Comcast. I have had this problem since Tuesday and have been unable to contact AS until I found this Forum.
Bob

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the clarification. Since the problem started when we moved our servers to our new colocation last week, it is now sounding more like it may be a DNS issue. The next thing I recommend trying is flushing your DNS resolver cache which can be done via the following process if you are using Windows:

1) Select "Run" from the Windows "Start" menu.
2) Enter "cmd" in the ensuing field and click "OK".
3) Then, in the black DOS window, type "IPCONFIG /flushdns" and press the "Enter" key.

This procedure does not always work the first time so, if you continue to experience the same problem after trying that measure, it may be worthwhile to try it a few more times. If you are using MAC OS, you should be able to find instruction on how to flush your DNS by looking up "Flush DNS" on Google.

If you are still unable to add snipes to your account after trying this measure, please let me know via this thread, and I'll see if I can come up with some other suggestions that may resolve this issue.

-Mike

Mike,
I flushed the DNS cache three times successfully.
I still cannot add a new snipe.
I am running a PC with XP Pro and Internet Explorer 6.0 SP2.
Any other ideas?
Bob

Hi Bob,

Hmmm...that's too bad; I really thought flushing your DNS cache would do the trick since the problem started when we moved our servers over to different IP addresses. The next thing I recommend trying is contacting your ISP to see if they can diagnose why you are having trouble connecting to most areas of our site. If they aren't able to figure out what's going on, I'd be interested in hearing what they have to say.

Given all of the other things we have tried, I doubt this issue is associated with your browser, however, I still think it's worth a shot to conduct a test to verify whether this issue is browser specific. In order to do this, you could download the free Firefox web browser from http://www.mozilla.com and try adding your snipes when logged in through that browser.

I must admit that I am runnning out of ideas but I'll still be happy to continue working with you to see if we can get to the bottom of this. Sorry this is turning out to be such a pain.

-Mike

Mike,
I downloaded and installed Firefox 3.0.
After clicking on the ADD Button I get a message at the bottom left corner of the window stating "waiting for www.auctionsniper.com".
After a long while (several minutes) things time out and I get a page load error. The window that opens says "Connection Interrupted The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading. The network link was interrupted while negotiating a connection. Please try again."

So it's not the browser and it's not the DNS.

I've been using Auctionsniper since 2002.
There was an issue a couple years ago when I was not receiving the Billing Statements. That turned out to be a problem between my email provider AT&T and Auctionsniper.

So now you think it is something between Comcast and Auctionsniper that happened last weekend when you moved your servers?
Bob

I use comcast and home, and we use Comcast at the office as well.

I assume you've rebooted your computer at this point some where along the line. Also reboot your comcast cable modem, and if you have a wireless router reboot that as well. After you've done that then reboot your computer.

Sara,
I shut the computer down each night.
I powered down the computer, cable modem, router and wireless. Re-powered Cable modem, router, wireless and then the computer.
Same problem. Can not add snipes or report a problem to AS technical support.
Bob

Mike or Sara,
One more piece of information. I have an active snipe under My Snipes that ends in a couple days.
I can click on the Modify button and bring up the Edit Snipe Window. However, I can not make any changes. I can type in the changes but when I click on the Change Snipes button the next page does not load and times out.
Bob

Do you know how to edit the hosts file on your computer? If so can you edit that and enter 1 of our 2 ip's for www.auctionsniper.com I'd like to try that and see if always using the same server fixes this. If not we'll wait till someone else with same problem knows how and they can try it. I'm not sure what else try.

If you use Firefox get this pluggin:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2166

Then watch to see which IP you are on for our servers. It has an option to alert you when it changes as well. It shows in the bottom right corner of Firefox.

How do I find out when I entered a Snipe (not when it was placed but the time I put it in) please?

All this PST stuff is confusing for me as a simple European.

quote:

How do I find out when I entered a Snipe

Other then contact support, you can't. I think they can access that info.

quote:

All this PST stuff is confusing

On "My Snipes" click "Modify Account", click "Preferences", under "Display Options" change your "Display Timezone" value.

Sara,
I am on your server IP 76.103.***.*** which is the My Snipes page.
The server number did not change when I tried to load a new snipe. The page timed out.
What exactly do you want me to edit in the Host file?
Bob

[Edited: remove your IP address]

Sara or Mike,
I took my laptop down to the office and I have no problem on the auction sniper site using AT&T DSL.

Both the desktop and laptop are having problems at home using Comcast to access the internet?
Bob

That IP is your IP at home. Our ip is: 65.49.8.141 or 65.49.8.142

That leads me to believe the problem is caused by something on your computer. Perhaps some firewall or other software running on your computer that is acting as a proxy server to try and stop you from getting a virus or ????

I bet when you run the same pluggin in firefox at work and everything works you're seeing our IP.

Thanks Rick. It's just that AS says the free snipe day only applied to snipes actually typed in on 11 July - not those placed on 11 July. Support asked me when I typed the snipe in - so I didn't have the faintest idea. Seems odd to me.

I've already got my timezone set to European time but AS, mostly, uses Pacific.

Sara,
The problem is on both of my computers at home.
The desktop and the laptop.
I have not loaded firefox on the laptop only the desktop. I will load firefox on the laptop and take it to the office latter today or tomorrow.
The only firewalls that I am aware of at home is the XP Pro fire wall and what ever my Linksys Router might be doing.
Bob

Sara,
I've tried going to several other sites on the internet using Firefox 3.0 with the plug in. The IP address in the bottom right corner remains the same. It is my IP address. The pages for most of these sites load okay with the exception of Auction Sniper and PayPal. I am having intermittent problems logging onto my account on the PayPal website??
Bob

Hi Bob,

I brought this issue up with our IT team and they are going to look into the possibility that something on our end is causing this. Can you please run a ping command to AuctionSniper.com and then paste the results into a reply to this thread? You can run this command by doing the following:

1) Select "Run" from the Windows "Start" menu.
2) Enter "cmd" in the ensuing field and click "OK".
3) Then, in the black DOS window, type "ping www.auctionsniper.com" and press the "Enter" key

-Mike

Mike,
Here is what I got when I pinged www.auctionsniper.com:

Pinging auctionsniper.com (65.49.8.141) with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 65.49.8.141:
Packets : Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

I can usually get to the Auction Sniper home page and to the "my snipes" page.

Once there I can't do anything from my home computers.
Thank you,
Bob

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the information. I'll see what I can find out.

-Mike

Hi Bob,

OK...the "ping" command you ran is resolving to the correct IP so I guess that's not the problem. Are you connecting to the internet through a proxy server by chance? If you are, you may be able to resolve this problem by purging the URL cache or direct object cache from your proxy server.

Proxy servers will generally store the IP addresses of sites you visit for 2 weeks by default and, if your proxy server still has our old IP range cached, that could be causing you to be unable to access most of the site. The frequency with which your proxy server refreshes its URL cache should be configurable from your end.

Let me know how it goes.

-Mike

Mike,
I didn't understand what you said about the ping command since I did not get a response how could you tell that it was resolving to the correct IP address?
I am using a linksys router/switch to connect to the internet. One of the first things Sara had me do was shut everything down and bring up the cable modem, router and then the computer.
I am still unable to add snipes from either computer at home via Comcast.
Bob

Hi Bob,

The main piece of information we were looking for from the "ping" command was the "Ping statistics for 65.49.8.141" statement. The time outs during the ping are actually to be expected. I'm going to have another chat with out IT team about this situation and I'll let you know if I come up with any other ideas.

In the mean time, it may be a good idea to contact Comcast and see if they have any ideas as to what may be causing this connection problem. I don't feel that the Comcast ISP as a whole is having trouble connecting to our system, but they still may be able to help.

-Mike

Mike,
I tried connecting to the Internet directly thru my cable modem with no router.
All of the pages loaded properly!!
I am using a Linksys BEFSR81 Router.
I reset it to the factory defaults and the pages would not load again?? I can not even get the prices to update on the AS website.
I'll be gone for the weekend. I guess I can contact Linksys next week and see if they have any ideas.
Bob

quote:

BEFSR81

I see that's an 8 port router. How many other devices are plugged in. The next thing I'd try is unplugging all other devices from it. Then only having your 1 computer plugged in, and of course repower the BEFSR81 after unplugging everything. Basically I'd be curious if only your computer is plugged into the router if it then works.

Of course that's if you've got it up and running and connecting to the internet correctly after your reset to the factory defaults. Or may I assume that since you posted this you are up and running. I am also curious when you plugged into your cable modem directly what IP address did Firefox report for our site in the bottom right? Was it still your own IP or did it register ours this time?