Slashdot is reporting a remotely exploitable vulnerability found in iTunes 6. [link]

Why would I be getting a timeout error when trying to visit salon.com from home? This has been going on for a couple of days now. My service is through RCN. Should I just call them to complain?

Jon B., open a command window (Start > Run > [type cmd]) and type the word ping in the black box that opens (sorry if I'm talking below your technical level). You should see something like this:

Reply from 206.80.4.40: bytes=32 time=83ms TTL=240

If not, please post what you see.

Edit: I'm assuming you're on a Windows machine here. If it's anything besides a Windows or Linux machine I can't help.

Jon, are you using any kind of ad blocker or proxy? I've found that they occasionally interfere with the various startup ads Salon uses.

type the word ping in the black box that opens

I assume you mean type "ping www.salon.com"

I tried that yesterday. I get "request timed out". Specifically:

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


Ping statistics for 206.80.4.40:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

Jon, are you using any kind of ad blocker or proxy?

Not that I know of. It's not working with any browser, and not on either of my 'puters, including my DAW which has almost nothing on it other than Pro Tools!

Jon, have you tride traceroute (or whatever it is in Windows/DOS)?

Well, it looks like the URL is resolving properly so it's not a DNS issue but apparently there's no connectivity to the host. Since it's not computer-specific, there must be a firewall/router issue somewhere along the way. tommyrot's traceroute will help diagnose that. Initially, I'd say try rebooting your modem/router/firewall and see if that clears up the issue.

It does seem to be dying at the router:

>tracert www.salon.com


Tracing route to www.salon.com [206.80.4.40]
over a maximum of 30 hops:


  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.16.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.

192.168.16.1 is my router's address. Be back in a flash....

Yeah, but the second link should be to your ISP.

Here's my tracert (which is strange in and of itself, but I can get to Salon):

Tracing route to www.salon.com [206.80.4.40]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  2    10 ms     9 ms    11 ms  skngsysc01-gex0102000.ri.ri.cox.net [68.9.8.29]
  3    10 ms    11 ms    10 ms  ip68-9-7-1.ri.ri.cox.net [68.9.7.1]
  4    11 ms    11 ms    12 ms  68.9.14.1
  5    10 ms    19 ms    13 ms  provbbrc02-pos0101.rd.ri.cox.net [68.1.0.48]
  6    17 ms    17 ms    16 ms  nyrkbbrj01-so010100.r2.ny.cox.net [68.1.1.113]
  7    23 ms    33 ms    23 ms  mrfdbbrc01-pos0201.rd.dc.cox.net [68.1.1.18]
  8    24 ms    27 ms    24 ms  mrfdbbrc02-pos0100.rd.dc.cox.net [68.1.1.3]
  9    25 ms    25 ms    25 ms  ashbbbrj01-pos020100.r2.as.cox.net [68.1.1.232]
 10    24 ms    25 ms    26 ms  eqix.asbn.twtelecom.net [206.223.115.36]
 11    24 ms    24 ms    24 ms  core-01-so-0-1-0-0.asbn.twtelecom.net [66.192.255.228]
 12   102 ms   102 ms   101 ms  dist-01-so-0-0-0-0.snfr.twtelecom.net [66.192.250.3]
 13   104 ms   103 ms   104 ms  hagg-01-ge-1-3-0-1.snfr.twtelecom.net [66.192.250.199]
 14   102 ms   101 ms   102 ms  sys.well.com [206.15.64.14]
 15   100 ms   100 ms   101 ms  www.salon.com [206.80.4.40]