Why can't I access this site through Comcast in Chicago
July 23, 2014 2:33 PM

I have talked to a couple of Comcast users and none of them/us can access This site. I have no problem accessing it outside of comcast network.
posted by travis08 to Computers & Internet (20 answers total)
I'm in Chicago and Comcast is my Internet provider. I have no problem accessing the site.
posted by smich at 2:34 PM on July 23, 2014


What sort of error are they getting? Is it a "connection timed out" error, or a "host not found" error? Can they reach the IP address of the server the site is hosted on?
posted by Aleyn at 2:37 PM on July 23, 2014


Give it a few hours. Just the other day I had a similar problem with my company's new Comcast link-- a couple critical sites were unreachable by us (no 404, just unreachable, unpingable, and traceroutes went MIA), but just fine if we reached out to some of our servers remotely and tried the sites from there. It wasn't DNS because some of the cuts were to known IP addresses, machines that I could, by other means, confirm were up .

If your problem is like ours, it's a fleeting glitch in your service-- you should report it, but you'll probably have to wait it out.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:42 PM on July 23, 2014


Works fine for me from Beaverton, OR.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 2:45 PM on July 23, 2014


@Aleyn...it is just timing out.
posted by travis08 at 3:02 PM on July 23, 2014


Have them try this and see what it says?
posted by MinusCelsius at 3:07 PM on July 23, 2014


@minus it is definitely up for most. But for me and two others using comcast it is not loading. I have tried three different devices on my network, all fail. (including FTP). If I switch to my mobile data plan it loads fine. I am having no other internet issues while using my comcast network.
posted by travis08 at 3:14 PM on July 23, 2014


Try switching the IP of your DNS router to Google's 8.8.8.8 ?
posted by tckma at 3:16 PM on July 23, 2014


Another anecdotal "works for me" from Chicago. I imagine Sunburnt has the solution though... just wait it out.
posted by papayaninja at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2014


@tckma, tried it. Still not working.
posted by travis08 at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2014


Can you load http://198.58.112.168/? That's what the URL resolves to for me. (It doesn't actually load the page, but it loads an error page.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:46 PM on July 23, 2014


(Maybe I should mention that I'm a Comcast Business customer, not Comcast Home.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:55 PM on July 23, 2014


Another Comcast customer in Chicago: the site loads just fine for me, too.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:25 PM on July 23, 2014


Comcast Business customer in Memphis. Loads for me.
posted by raisingsand at 6:38 PM on July 23, 2014


Comcast user in Alexandria, VA. Works fine for me.
posted by invisible ink at 7:23 PM on July 23, 2014


Another Comcast user, suburban Chicago. Works for me.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:38 PM on July 23, 2014


If you are regularly having problems accessing a particular site you can add it to your hosts file (how is dependent on your OS). Another option is to go with an alternative DNS provider like OpenDNS or Google. I have AT&T DSL and I quit using their DNS years ago. It's just good to know the above for troubleshooting purposes, since you don't have to change permanently.

What likely happened is that the particular Comcast DNS server you were connecting to had missed an update (normal), only to catch up on the next round. But sometimes there's just something weird or rough about how it connects.
posted by dhartung at 10:27 PM on July 23, 2014


If you can load the link that Chocolate Pickle provided, then your issue is a DNS issue and it should go away on its own after about a day or so (call Comcast if it doesn't), and you can use Google DNS like dhuartung suggests in the meantime. If you get the same timeout error as before using the link, then there is an actual connection/routing issue between Comcast and the site. Again, sometimes these resolve themselves, but if it doesn't, go ahead and give them a call.
posted by Aleyn at 11:37 PM on July 23, 2014


Yet another Comcast user in the Chicago suburbs. I was able to get to it with no problem.
posted by SisterHavana at 12:32 AM on July 24, 2014


Might be late to the punch here, but given it might be a result of high traffic to the site, try accessing it by typing in the site at CoralCDN and hitting 'Go': http://www.coralcdn.org
posted by swoopstake at 11:59 AM on July 24, 2014


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