I haven’t logged into my Bebo account much over the last couple of years. I did login earlier this year almost by accident. I logged back out again within a couple of minutes.
Last night, however, the site seemed to go offline completely. Looking into it further it’s pretty clear that either something is wrong or they’ve pulled the plug:
dig +trace bebo.com
; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> +trace bebo.com
;; global options: +cmd
. 2953 IN NS j.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS d.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS m.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS i.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS g.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS c.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS a.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS b.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS k.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS e.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS l.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS f.root-servers.net.
. 2953 IN NS h.root-servers.net.
;; Received 436 bytes from 81.17.240.194#53(81.17.240.194) in 3 ms
com. 172800 IN NS a.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS c.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS i.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS d.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS b.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS j.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS m.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS f.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS h.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS g.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS l.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS k.gtld-servers.net.
com. 172800 IN NS e.gtld-servers.net.
;; Received 486 bytes from 192.112.36.4#53(g.root-servers.net) in 56 ms
bebo.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.beboinc.com.
bebo.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.beboinc.com.
;; Received 102 bytes from 192.26.92.30#53(c.gtld-servers.net) in 82 ms
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
The above output is from the “dig” command, which is a simple utility to check DNS.
Running it against this domain (michele.me) gives a different and more useful result:
dig +trace michele.me
; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> +trace michele.me
;; global options: +cmd
. 2819 IN NS l.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS m.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS i.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS b.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS a.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS g.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS k.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS h.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS d.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS c.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS f.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS j.root-servers.net.
. 2819 IN NS e.root-servers.net.
;; Received 436 bytes from 81.17.240.194#53(81.17.240.194) in 3 ms
me. 172800 IN NS d0.cctld.afilias-nst.org.
me. 172800 IN NS a2.me.afilias-nst.info.
me. 172800 IN NS ns.nic.me.
me. 172800 IN NS c0.cctld.afilias-nst.info.
me. 172800 IN NS a0.cctld.afilias-nst.info.
me. 172800 IN NS b2.me.afilias-nst.org.
me. 172800 IN NS b0.cctld.afilias-nst.org.
me. 172800 IN NS ns2.nic.me.
;; Received 486 bytes from 192.112.36.4#53(g.root-servers.net) in 55 ms
michele.me. 86400 IN NS ns.blacknightsolutions.com.
michele.me. 86400 IN NS ns2.blacknightsolutions.com.
;; Received 86 bytes from 2001:500:27::1#53(c0.cctld.afilias-nst.info) in 102 ms
michele.me. 900 IN A 78.153.202.220
michele.me. 900 IN NS ns2.blacknightsolutions.com.
michele.me. 900 IN NS ns.blacknightsolutions.com.
;; Received 190 bytes from 2a01:a8:fe00::2#53(ns.blacknightsolutions.com) in 307 ms
So basically Bebo.com is not returning any A records which means it could not display no matter how hard it tried. Of course there could be all sorts of crazy going on with other DNS records, but it doesn’t look likely.
Checking the whois records for the domain the only thing that sticks out is that the nameservers changed back in December. They were using Akamai’s DNS, then switched to using their own nameservers. Akamai’s services are used by a lot of big content providers and aren’t cheap, so this switch would suggest a scaling back of Bebo in terms of their traffic levels etc.,
Is Bebo gone for good?
No idea. I’m not aware of any official statements from them as yet though I haven’t been following that closely either because I honestly don’t care
Does it matter?
Probably not, though the complete lack of any notification to any of the social network’s users is worrying and proves yet again why you shouldn’t rely on a social network to store anything important.
