I have tried to ask this to Tumblr support, but they don't think that it's a problem with Tumblr.

Recently, ever since I changed my hosting to Linode (using Linode's DNS) I often received a "connection reset" problem with my custom tumblr domain blog.jessearmand.com.

Sometimes it resolves to this query:
http://blog.jessearmand.com/?e0ff8008

With a random 4 bytes hexadecimal value as a suffix.

I have followed the DNS settings correctly for tumblr, and the custom domain test tool shows no error.
But, the weird thing is, it's always successful if I open it from mobile safari (the mobile format). Then, the non-mobile format could be opened again.

Any ideas on what seem to be the problem?

If it is able to throw that error, it is getting well beyond the point where DNS is involved. So, as long as it is pointed at the right IP address, there's not much DNS can do to break it.

blog.jessearmand.com resolves to 72.32.231.8, which is a Rackspace Hosting IP address; has tumblr confirmed that this is correct? (Seems really odd that they'd not use a CNAME in this situation.)

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That's what I thought before, but I don't really understand everything about this.



I think that IP address should be correct. My custom domain could always be opened if I use mobile safari (rendering the mobile format). But, sometimes it doesn't work if I try to open the non-mobile format (as I described before).

It's most likely a Tumblr problem, then. It could be a problem with your web browser, computer, or local network, but since this doesn't seem to happen for anything else, it's probably a Tumblr problem.

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This is just shooting in the dark, but maybe your DNS resolver has some sort of bizarre issue with nsX.linode.com, tries to send you to an ad page instead, but there's some *other* problem and your browser can't connect to the ad page?

Although if it redirects to ?xxxxxxxx, that means it's connected to *an* HTTP server, but the *second* connection fails...

Malware?

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Matt Nordhoff (aka Peng on IRC)

Weird. According to tumblr's check tool, that subdomain is not configured with any account. Have you changed something? The site currently gives me a page that says "not found".