Hippo in Audlem

A number of readers have reported sightings of a 'blue hippo' appearing on their screens when they attempt to connect to the new AudlemOnline. The icon is the logo of the now defunct Mark III website server which is appearing intermittently as the web gets used to Mark IV.

The problem occurs due to a worldwide internet system called DNS (Domain Name System). DNS is what maps internet addresses like www.audlem.org to their actual computer address which are much geekier series of numbers called IP Addresses.

AudlemOnline Mark IV is connected to a different IP Address than Mark III, so we have had to notify the DNS registrar that we are making the change. The problem is, that with billions of website names now mapped to billions of IP addresses, the system takes a while to filter down to the end user. Some people in Audlem are still getting Mark III, others are getting Mark VI and those in between are getting the server welcome page – which includes the hippo logo.

Naming servers is a tradition in IT companies. ThenMedia have always named theirs as colourful animals. Some readers have suggested that rebooting their routers has fixed the problem, but if not, we are told that all DNS servers will have updated the address within 24 hours.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.