13 Responses to “Download failed – name lookup timed out – Installation Failed – (HART’s fix)”

1. 

   Filipino Nurse (1 comments.) March 26th, 2009 at 9:15 am

   I tried and it doesn’t work so far. Do I have to restart or something? Any other work around?

2. 

   HART (1-800-HART) March 26th, 2009 at 10:53 am

   It worked for me as soon as I allowed the download.wordpress.org location – that’s all I can suggest – that it worked for me.

   Perhaps – try the /etc/hosts thingie … it’s in your c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\ I believe and add
   72.233.56.139 downloads.wordpress.org

   Good Luck! Grr – I know it must be annoying for you, as I was annoyed

3. 

   Kaiser (1 comments.) April 27th, 2009 at 8:23 pm

   Worked for me instantly. Thanks

4. 

   HART (1-800-HART) April 27th, 2009 at 11:05 pm

   Glad this has helped you! thanks for letting me know

5. 

   Paul (1 comments.) May 19th, 2009 at 8:00 pm

   It worked for me in IE. Go to

   - Tools
   – Internet Options
   — Security tab

   Click on “Trusted sites”, then the “Sites” button, then “Add”. Add “http://downloads.wordpress.org”, and clear the “require server verification…” checkbox.

   I was able to update two plugins automatically, though one did give me a “failed” message initially – hitting refresh took care of it.

   I think the above instructions will work for IE7 as well.

6. 

   HART (1-800-HART) May 20th, 2009 at 8:37 am

   Thanks Paul for passing that on about I.E.

7. 

   Carlton Bale (1 comments.) June 1st, 2009 at 9:49 am

   This is an intermittent server-side problem. I think making those changes to your browser settings probably wasn’t the solution, but it just happened to concieded with the problem temporarily resolving itself.

   The problem can be resolved by by disabling cURL using the Core Control plugin. Here are the details:

   Download and install this plugin manually: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/core-control/ Once you’ve activated it, Load the “Core Control” settings page and activate the “HTTP Module”. Go to the new tab fore the “HTTP Module” and test cURL. You will most likely receive the following error message “An Error has occured: name lookup timed out” Now click the “Disable Transport” link in for cURL. You should now be able install plugins and plugin updates.

   Here is the WordPress.org bug report: http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9998

8. 

   HART June 1st, 2009 at 11:41 am

   Thanks for that fix Carlton .. I will have to check out that plugin, and that ticket

   HART

9. 

   Shrewdy (1 comments.) June 17th, 2009 at 8:38 am

   Thanks HART, it worked great for me, and a lot simpler than the tech support / Core Control solutions.

   Actually, it worked OK for a few plugins, then stopped. I deleted all wordpress cookies and tried again. Perfect, and I have had no problems since.

   If it is a coincidence, I don’t care – it worked!

10. 

    Holly July 10th, 2009 at 10:17 am

    I tried all of the fixes listed on this site including Carlton’s and editing the /etc/hosts file, adding downloads.wordpress.org to Firefox and even cleared the cookies. Nothing is letting me automatically update my plugins. Any other suggestions?

11. 

    HART (1-800-HART) July 10th, 2009 at 11:36 am

    Holly .. are you using an anti-virus program? check to see if that URL is marked or something. I don’t know if that would be the case, but I did have a similar thing with my ZoneAlarm and tinyURLs being blocked – (under anti-virus section/spy site blocking .. then grant access)

    have you upgraded to the new version 2.8.1 and tested this out?
    ** Check out HART (1-800-HART)´s last blog .. How People Count Cash Around The World

12. 

    PetLvr November 19th, 2009 at 10:51 am

    @Themelis_Cuiper Well, I hope you meant you were on http://tinyurl.com/ygt94a7 and didn’t receive that error while on my site! Did it help?

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter

13. 

    Themelis_Cuiper November 19th, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Yes @PetLvr on http://tinyurl.com/ygt94a7 it is a general cURL error:name lookup timed out. ?? have my NSlookup open on Centos linux

    This comment was originally posted on Twitter