If you cannot connect to the chat server (chat.tikiopolis.com), the problem is likely DNS.

TECHNOBABBLE: DNS is how A computer resolves a name (such as chat.tikiopolis.com) to an IP address. The computers on the Internet don't use names to communicate amongst themselves, they use numbers, called IP addresses.

At this time (17-Jul-2005 18:37 PDT), there are no known issues on the server end, and 22 users had been able to connect to the server. This means the problem is likely a client issue, either with your computer or your ISP. This is how you can disagnose and solve the problem. This is what you can do: Details below.


Go to your Command Prompt (usually found in the Start Menu under Accessories) and "ping" the server. Use the following command:

 ping chat.tikiopolis.com

You should see this response:



If you do not get a response (as indicated in the block of text in the middle of the above image), and the Command Prompt window displays "Response Timed Out", examine your output. Look to see if your output matches the output above. Specifically, line two above, which shows the IP address between square brackets:

 [199.245.134.13]

If your response shows a different IP address, reboot your computer, then try this same test again. If you get a response (similar to the image above), then the problem was on your computer. Windows stupidly caches information which causes these problems.

If your compouter still does not resolve the correct IP address, unfortunately, it is because your ISP is stupidly caching information, which is against Internet rules called RFCs. You can either wait 1 - 2 days for the TTL of the DNS servers to expire, or ask them to clear the cache on their DNS servers, something they are unlikely to do. They should, simply because their DNS servers are not respecting the TTLs of the DNS servers they are retrieving records from.