re: how to ping a website help wanted I'm pretty sure hotcopper has an IP filter for ICMP (the protocol ping uses). This is to prevent attacks such as ping of death etc. That's why it responds with request timed out.
There is a lot more to it madmacs. There could be an issue with the dns server you are using with stale records. But yes, www.hotcopper.com.au resolves to 203.153.243.254
