How can I get to about.com on my computer?

August 14, 2009 8:41 AM

I can't get to about.com or ehow.com on my macbook pro. Please help me figure out why.

They're not sites that I go to often, but over the last few weeks I've noticed that neither site will load for me.

I have a 13" MBP running 10.5.8. When trying to load either site, I get "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at [about.com] [ehow.com]"

This happens in Firefox, even with Adblock Plus disabled. It also happens in Safari. It happens on my wireless network at home as well as my wireless network at work (different providers).

I can get to both sites in both places on my ipod touch. I can get to both sites on the macbook if I access IE by connecting via RDC to my (Windows) work computer.

Pinging both shows "no route to host"; running traceroot shows the same.

So what's going on? I'm not desperate to get to either site - I have askme, after all! - but I'm wondering if it's symptomatic of something else, and it's weirding me out.

posted by rtha to computers & internet (14 comments total)

This may or may not be relevant, but opening the console shows me:

8/14/09 6:30:23 AM pploader[181] Download from 'Ads, Spyware, Bogon, etc' (URL:'http://www.bluetack.co.uk/config/hijacked.zip', File:'') failed with 'Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1001 UserInfo=0x149755b0 "timed out"'.

and

8/14/09 6:22:49 AM [0x0-0x4e04e].org.mozilla.firefox[805] (new TypeError("chromeWin.Firebug is undefined", "file:///Users/blahblah/Library/Application%20Support/Firefox/Profiles/j8dk3pk4.k_9_05/extensions/%7Be4a8a97b-f2ed-450b-b12d-ee082ba24781%7D/components/greasemonkey.js", 392))

How freaked out should I be?
posted by rtha at 8:45 AM on August 14

What does an nslookup return for those sites? Here are the IP addresses I get:

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: ehow.com
Address: 8.5.0.172

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: about.com
Address: 207.241.148.80

Can you ping those IP's?
posted by IanMorr at 9:05 AM on August 14

Searches for bluetack indicate that it's some kind of list maintainer for malware sites, or something about privacy. Do you have Peerguardian or some other anonymizer/privacy tool/firewall installed which may be getting a block list from Bluetack?
posted by odinsdream at 9:09 AM on August 14

Pinging those IPs returns "no route to host."
posted by rtha at 9:10 AM on August 14

Actually, I get no route to host too, they're probably dropping pings, but are those your results on nslookup? Also, as Hates_ said, can you browse to the IP's?
posted by IanMorr at 9:20 AM on August 14

this might sound odd but try plugging in your laptop and hitting those sites again. ever since the 10.5.8 firmware update my gf's laptop can't reach half the internet over wifi unless it's plugged in.
posted by noloveforned at 9:24 AM on August 14

Can't browse to either IP in FF or Safari, no.

Both load speedily on Firefox on my Windows box. The mbp sitting right next to it on the desk (but on the wireless network) cannot reach either.
posted by rtha at 9:26 AM on August 14

The laptop is plugged in (to a power source); it is a 2009 model, and not - according to Apple - in need of that patch. I don't have trouble connecting to wireless in the vast majority of circumstances, and don't have (consistent) trouble loading any other sites besides ehow and about. This issue has also been happening since before the 10.5.8 firmware update.
posted by rtha at 9:39 AM on August 14

Do you have PeerGuardian installed? If so, it's probably blocking them. Run PeerGuardian, go into the list manager, and add an exception to allow the IPs of those sites (or just quit PeerGuardian's helpers temporarily).
posted by shammack at 9:39 AM on August 14

Change the DNS on your macbook to use to 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 (System Preferences -> Network -> Airport -> Advanced -> DNA), removing any custom entries.

The next step I would try is create a new user (System Preferences -> Accounts -> unlock the padlock, then +), and without changing anything or installing any apps for that account, just run safari and see if you can load about.com that way. That should narrow down the problem to being either your account / applications / configurations, or your entire system having wonky routes in place.

> this might sound odd but try plugging in your laptop and hitting those sites again. ever since the 10.5.8 firmware update my gf's laptop can't reach half the internet over wifi unless it's plugged in.

Separate issue, but apple has an update to fix that problem as well.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:17 AM on August 14

shammack's got it, I believe. Adding about and ehow to the lists didn't seem to do the trick (perhaps I was doing it wrong...), but moving the PG autostart file from the library/application support to the desktop (just as a "will this make a difference?" trial) did the trick and both now open in FF and Safari. Now that I know that was the trouble, I'll put the startup thing back where it belongs - and figure out how to enable about and ehow in PG properly. Thank you very much!
posted by rtha at 10:35 AM on August 14

On closer inspection, it's almost definitely PeerGuardian. The pploader you saw on your console is a part of that. Even if the main PeerGuardian application isn't running, its helpers pploader and pplogger continue to run in the background, and its lists are telling it that those IPs contain malware, so it's blocking access to them.

So you should either reconfigure your lists to allow access to those IPs as I described above (then remember to click the "update now" button to reload the lists), or kill those processes (which will of course render PeerGuardian ineffective).
posted by shammack at 10:44 AM on August 14

Oh, you found that out already. If you haven't got the lists working by the time I get home, I can go into more detail about the process once I'm in front of my own computer. I had this problem with some other site recently and it kind of drove me crazy until I figured it out.
posted by shammack at 10:47 AM on August 14

Thanks, shammack - I'll fiddle with it a bit more and if I have trouble adding them to the lists, I'll drop you a mefimail.

Thank you all very much. Hive mind rules!
posted by rtha at 11:04 AM on August 14