GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 26, 2014) — Beginning Wednesday afternoon, many FOX 17 viewers could not get to our web site on their computers or through the FOX 17 smart phone app. Access has only gradually returned. The problem continued into Thursday morning.
Here’s why.
The Tribune Company has been divided into two separate companies, one with newspapers and one with television stations. Since our web domains were established through Go Daddy, Tribune notified Go Daddy of the change of ownership of the web sites, which required a new piece of code for each site.
Go Daddy broke the code, and Tribune Company’s web sites went down. Go Daddy admitted the error and fixed it, but the error created a new problem: internet service providers (ISPs) which are the direct connection for people to the internet, failed to recognize the newly fixed code, and people were sent to GoDaddy.com.
The recognition process was quickly resolved by some ISPs, but others, such as Comcast, have been taking much longer. Tribune was unable to do anything, and people trying to get to FOX17online.com were unable to do anything.
This problem is not related to caches or cookies, so clearing those did not work.
Obviously, if you are reading this, your ISP has recognized the new code.
FOX 17 continued to post news and features and continued to link to them from social media such as Facebook as a service to viewers who could get through.
We apologize for the mixup, and we thank you for your patience.
