Bleg: Internet Weirdness
Suddenly, my home internet connection will not go to certain sites. All computers and all browsers. I can’t, for example, access Post Politics. The connections time out. Been happening a couple days now. Any ideas?
Update: The internets have apparently unfucked themselves. So, it works now. I guess someone poked Al Gore with a stick.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
It may be something with your ISP and/or its connections to the internet. While there are some forms of malware that block internet sites, the fact that it’s happening on all computers and you can’t get to something like the Nashville Post makes me inclined to think it’s not malware (which mostly blocks access to anti-virus and anti-malware sites).
There are some sites that will check a site for you to see if it’s reachable from their servers. One example is http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
Which is helpful only if you can get to that site from your home connection. 🙂
If you want to get more technical, you could try a traceroute (“tracert” at the Windows command prompt) against the site both at home and at work (or anywhere else it works) and look to see the differences in the routing and perhaps where the packets are getting dropped.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Can you access the site by IP address? 208.91.203.37
October 30th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
IP doesn’t work. THat site says it’s just me.
October 30th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Try a proxy server and use the bare IP address. If that works, call your ISP and throw a verbal brick at them for having retards screwing up their backbone connection.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
There was a major fiber optic line cut early this morning that was blocking connections to several servers on that network.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
To eliminate the last couple of possible problems on your end, unplug your router, then your modem, then power them back up in reverse order. Make sure all modem lights are lit before powering up the router. Then, release and renew your internal IP addresses. Sometimes the routing table gets flakey.
Did you just update any AV or anti-malware software or parental controls stuff? Sometimes upgrades will mess up blocked site history lists.
If this doesn’t work, contact the ISP.
Respectfully,
Pol
October 30th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
The network that owns the line. Don’t know whether or not they provide service to the Nashville Post.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Maybe Post Politics blocked your IP address.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
it’s not just the post. Digg, allrecipes, and a few others. Generally very odd.
I’ve not updated anything. And I’ve already done the ip release thing.
October 30th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Unc, your ISP may be having a routing issue between you and the ISPs for those sites.
It’s called peering, and it does screw up some times.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
What Pol Mordreth said, plus put your puter in that chain, but before you power down the puter, do a Flush DNS Cache.
After the flush, power the puter, router and modem down, then, for at least a minute, then bring back the modem, the router then your puter.
There’s something about two-week “leases” on DNS addresses I seem to remember that requires this.
November 1st, 2009 at 11:35 am
It may be DNS poisoning on your computer or at the ISP. Try Malwarebytes first, then install Spybot. Create a new host file on your computer.
If that doesn’t work the problem may be DNS poisoning at your ISP. In networking put in a a new value for the Primary DNS server. Use MCI’s DNS value of 205.152.37.23. If your ISP has DNS poisoning this fix will be immediate. This is a common problem at Comcast and Charter.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
Got a virus that did that. Had to reformat the drive to make it go away. It would pop up windows while browing for sites I did not request as well as deny access to sites. Most specificaly trends anti virus site. It would also go dormant for a time and let you think you had solved it. Real nasty little bugger.
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Update: The internets have apparently unfucked themselves. So, it works now. I guess someone poked Al Gore with a stick.
Sounds like classic ISP DNS poisoning. Now the bad news, it will come back. The best prevention is to use the MCI DNS servers. Cable is cable and it sucks.