sitemap error on google sitemap webmaster tools

[listings]

Hi all,
I have been using the standalone site map for months without any problems.

last week Google showed an error on the site map with the error message...

Network unreachable: robots.txt unreachable
We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure your Sitemap follows our guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.

I have re submitted 5 times with the same result....

The tools here on this site show a sitemap error as well...

XML Parsing Error: no element found
Location: [ External links are visible to forum administrators only ]
Line Number 1, Column 1:

My sitemap is at [ External links are visible to forum administrators only ]

My hosts enabled phpsuxec at about the same time I noticed this error occurring... They said that this was enabled to stop spam but I wonder if somehow the Googlebot is being blocked as well...

Could anyone help please?

Thanks

Clive

[XML-Sitemaps Support]

Hello,

yes, the error message means that Google bot was not able to connect to your server, it is likely that your host also implemented a firewall rule that blocks (may be partially) google bot to reduce it's activity.
A similar case was reported here: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/forum/index.php/topic,1345.0.html
More details: [ External links are visible to logged in users only ]

[listings]

Hi Oleg, thanks for your reply and helpful links...
I am in contact with my hosts about this and am waiting for their reply. I am sure that it is the server blocking the googlebot.

Can you advise me on the other error message that says my site map is not valid when using your validator here at XMl... I have made no changes to it and it is the result of generating a sitemap..

Thank you

Clive