Direct Loan Servicer inaccessible

February 14, 2008 8:09 PM

Why am I unable to access one particular website? Since moving out of the country, I cannot access the Federal Direct Loan Servicer site to maintain my student loans. I take care of all my financial business online - stateside banks, credit cards, etc. This is the only website in the world that never loads.

I've used Firefox and IE, I've tried from home, work and my wife's office, I've tried at all hours of day and night. I've tried with the www and without. And I've tried off and on for five years now.

The internet often runs slow here in Sarawak, Malaysia, but I have no persistent problems with any other website, including ed.gov sites. I've called and spoken to Direct Loans - they say they've never had complaints of this kind and that the problem must be on my end. To my knowledge, the Malaysian government does not censor the internet.

At this point, I don't hold out much hope for a solution, but I'd sure like to know what is going on. Any ideas?

posted by BinGregory to computers & internet (10 comments total)

I've hit sites (such as www.annualcreditreport.com) that will only talk to web browsers using a USA-based ISP, as a way to limit fraud (and to annoy those of us trying to do business from outside the country).
But if that is what is happening, I would think the site should tell you though (ie foreign ISPs get redirected to a page explaining that you need to be using a US-based ISP).
So it might be that, but they're being most unhelpful if it is.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:16 PM on February 14

Well a few solutions may be to use a proxy inside the US - however, given the potentially sensitive nature of the information you're trying to get to, using your standard "anonymous web proxy" wouldn't be recommended.

So another option may be a TOR-based approach, the simplest way of getting that set up is probably with Xerobank Browser. Note, however, that a lot of TOR nodes are also outside the US, so you may have to go through some trial and error until it works, and also that it will probably be extremely slow for you. But it's probably the most secure way of pretending you are in the US when you access this site.
posted by Jimbob at 8:22 PM on February 14

Jimbob, I'll try Xerobank as soon as I get home, thanks. It's blocked at work.
posted by BinGregory at 8:27 PM on February 14

How much of it isn't working for you? Can you see the front page? Can you log in?

From here in .au I can see the front page and get as far as the various login pages e.g. "Your Account", "1098-E Tax Information", etc - all are secure https pages.
posted by Pinback at 8:47 PM on February 14

Most Tor nodes that I go through seem to be in Germany, FWIW.

Also, Tor is not a privacy tool, it's an anonymity tool. You shouldn't send sensitive info through it. It's already been shown to be theoretically vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
posted by chrisamiller at 8:59 PM on February 14

Pinback: I can't reach the front page. In Firefox, I get the standard "Problem Loading Page", and in IE the beloved "the page cannot be displayed". Curious that it works from Australia, but if they are blocking international addresses, I suppose it's possible that they are blocking some countries and not others. Malaysia isn't Nigeria, but there is a decent amount of fraud originating here.
posted by BinGregory at 9:47 PM on February 14

Try running a tracert from the command prompt. That might give you an indication as to where in the chain things are breaking down. Also, it might depend on the time difference. I've had problems in the past when they take the site down for maintenance in the middle of the night (mountain time - what's the time difference in Malaysia?).
posted by phrayzee at 11:46 PM on February 14

Page loads fine in the UK, and quickly. Since you've tried from multiple places, it's not likely to be DNS. Somewhere between you and their webserver is a firewall that's blocking your IP from getting there.

Since it's blocking much of malaysia, it's probably them, with an over-broad rule on their host to protect the webserver.

One secure option is to route round it with a VPN service. This effectively tunnels your connection out via another country, as an encrypted connection. To all intents and purposes, you have an IP in the vpn-endpoint country to any website you visit. You can safely connect https traffic over the vpn, as even if the VPN provider is listening in, the https connection is encrypted as normal.

I personally use relakks.com (paid for), which is swedish. Secureix.com is a US-based alternative, and they also have low-speed free accounts which you could try (the free accounts can take a few goes to login with though) They're obviously used heavily by p2p types for a level of anonymity; they also work very well for preventing your own ISP from listening in.
posted by ArkhanJG at 6:02 AM on February 15

I've lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for the past six years (I'm American). I also have a student loan with DLS, and have never been able to access my account from here. I've written them numerous times with this concern, but to no avail. I find it disturbing that they would say they've never received such a complaint.

They have, however, been able to provide me with account information, account balance, payments, etc via email. The contact address I've used is: dlservicer (at) acs-education (dot) com Hope that helps.
posted by jakarta at 6:22 AM on February 15

I used an anonymous web proxy and I loaded the front page with ease. I guess that clinches it: the direct loan servicer is blocking certain countries and not informing people. How infuriating!

Jimbob, I tried Xerobank but it was too slow to be useful. I'm not savvy about these things - just how much risk am I exposing myself to by going through an anonymous web proxy? Are there more reliable or trustworthy proxy services out there?

Thanks for all the help, folks - really appreciate it!
posted by BinGregory at 4:56 AM on February 17