Why can't I open webpages?

June 9, 2008 9:49 AM

ADSL working but HTTP not working.

I just got an ADSL connection (in Armenia, provider is Beeline, only documentation is here and is in Armenian. 256k though. Woo!)

I can use all sorts of applications pretty well (iTunes downloading podcasts, Flickr uploader, Outlook for mail, gChat, etc.), but I can't do anything HTTP. I open Firefox and can sometimes get a mobile page to load and I can search Google or Yahoo and see the results, but I can't open "normal" webpages at all. I tried IE and Opera but the same problem occurs.

I tried getting into the configuration page for the DSL modem, but doesn't look like it'll work well.

Also, suggesting updating firmware for DSL modem or something isn't possible. I am on really bad dialup otherwise.

Why would this be? (And yes, I've called tech support. They are less than impressive. They only introduced this service this month and aren't exactly supporting it.)

I am running Vista. I have tried to turn off all firewall-related stuff that I can possibly think of.

Any other ideas?

posted by k8t to Technology (8 answers total)

Probably bad DNS servers.

http://ask.metafilter.com/91932/ISP-denying-bugmenot#1347006
posted by Nerro at 10:11 AM on June 9, 2008

One way you can test whether or not it's a DNS issue is to type in the following IP and see if you get anything: http://64.233.167.99/

It should be the Google homepage. If you don't see that, then there's something else afoot.

If it is the problem, then it could either be one of a few issues:
* Your local DNS cache is outdated. In this case, Start -> Run -> ipconfig /flushdns if you're in Windows.
* The cable modem is not getting a good DNS server from your ISP. You might be able to poke around your ISP's website to see if you can manually fill that in. If you find one and want help setting it up on either your modem or computer, memail me for details.
* It's an ISP issue. You have little recourse here other than to bug them incessantly until they fix it.

Let us know if this is the issue or not.
posted by spiderskull at 10:29 AM on June 9, 2008

It's possible that your network settings need to be tweaked a bit. See this microsoft article, which unfortunately applies to XP and not Vista. There is a description of how to do this operation on Vista here. I suggest trying 1454 first, and 1400 if that doesn't work.
posted by splice at 10:30 AM on June 9, 2008

Okay, I manually put in open DNS servers (from 1st link) and it works fine. So, do I keep on just using these open DNS servers and live with it or perhaps bug the people at Beeline?
posted by k8t at 10:44 AM on June 9, 2008

You can keep using those open DNS servers, you should be fine. If you want to complain to Beeline, you at least know what's wrong.
posted by Nerro at 11:39 AM on June 9, 2008

Hm, I'd complain to them. There's no guarantee on the reliability of the open servers, so if they were to go down, you'd be SOL.
posted by spiderskull at 6:59 PM on June 9, 2008

My friend also suggested trying to VPN to the USA for all surfing.
posted by k8t at 12:00 AM on June 10, 2008

It's possible the tech people are fluent enough to describe the problem, but in my experience it's not all that useful to call tech support even in the best of circumstances. If you can roll your own solution that's much better.

In general, I've found open servers to be more reliable than ISPs, simply because they have a dedicated staff that actually cares about this, many commercial ISPs, particularly outside of the West, don't.
posted by Deathalicious at 7:16 AM on June 10, 2008