A member cannot access our Web site. Can you offer troubleshooting suggestions?
November 1, 2010 8:28 AM   Subscribe

A member cannot access our Web site. Can you offer troubleshooting suggestions?

She writes:

For the past several months, when I am using my home computer, I cannot not get onto [our website]. From anywhere else I can. When I use my son's computer, I can access the site through wifi on the same router. My 22-year old worked with me on different things. He could tell that I was getting to the site but it would not load. Finally he had me sign into a site that will give me a proxy ip address and then I was able to get in.

I did double check with our ISP to make sure we’re not blocking anyone. To quote the CS tech, I do not see any deny rules on your firewalls ACL, and based on the following rule your server is wide open to ALL IP addresses over port 80: permit tcp any any eq www It must be a local setting on her end.

I did search for related questions but didn’t find anything that fits this situation.

Can you offer any suggestions that I might pass along to her to try?

Many thanks!
posted by Short Attention Sp to Technology (8 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Clear cache, clear cookies. Have customer try a different browser.
posted by inturnaround at 8:31 AM on November 1, 2010 [1 favorite]


Make sure there aren't any software firewalls (ZoneAlarm, Norton, etc) blocking access.
posted by cgg at 8:45 AM on November 1, 2010


What are the access logs on your web site saying, regarding her ip address and browser info? Based on proxy-ip address working, I'd have to go with inturnaround's suggestions, esp. if a different browser (ff vs ie) works.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 9:18 AM on November 1, 2010


Check her hosts file and see if your site has been blocked/redirected to localhost there?
posted by Gator at 9:18 AM on November 1, 2010


Can you set up a wireshark sniffer on your end to be listening when she tries to connect? Our network team usually uses this as a last resort on debugging connection problems.
posted by jozxyqk at 9:19 AM on November 1, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks for your responses!

I started her out on inturnaround's suggestions. If those don't work, I'll move on to the others.

And I'll post an update as soon as I have one.

Cheers...
posted by Short Attention Sp at 9:27 AM on November 1, 2010


If her home computer is Vista, have her try flushing the DNS cache.

1. Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right click on "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as Administrator."

2. Click "Continue" in the pop-up message you receive.

3. A little black window will appear. Type the following and then hit Enter:
ipconfig /flushdns
4. Try visiting your site again.

This used to be a bigger problem a few years ago, before one of the service packs came out. So if doing this fixes the problem, she should run a big ol' Windows Update on that machine.
posted by ErikaB at 12:01 PM on November 1, 2010


I had the exact same problem once. It ended up being the router (yes, believe it or not). Even resetting it to default didn't work. I tried everything, much like your customer has. The site finally loaded when I got a new router. I never did understand it.
posted by buckaroo_benzai at 12:48 PM on November 1, 2010


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