Router possibly borked, can't access site.
September 10, 2011 12:04 AM Subscribe
I can't get to this one site and this one site only. Also, I think my router's borked. Help?
Okay, let me start off by saying that I am not very good at this computer stuff. So if I get terminologies wrong or say something monumentally ignorant tech-wise, I apologize in advance.
I've been visiting a certain site for the past few months with no problem. However, since yesterday, I haven't been able to get any page from the site to load at all--the main page, the FAQ, the comments section, etc. I could access other websites just fine though. I figured it was just some hiccup that would sort itself out so I let it be, at first. Then I checked the site out at Down Or Not, peeked at the site's twitter, asked around even, but it looked like there was nary a problem on their end or for other users. I was using an iPad to surf so I turned that off and then back on, but to no avail. I cleared my history, cache and cookies and still, nada. I set the iPad aside, booted up my laptop, flushed my DNS (whatever that is, I just followed instructions I looked up on the net, thinking it would help), did a release and renew for my IP address but I still couldn't get the site to load. Then I thought to turn off and back on my router and my modem and yep, still no go even after several attempts.
I did that ping test and a tracert and the former told me that the request timed out with 100% loss and the latter timed out at the 10th hop and so on until the 30th. I tried to access the site via its IP address but still got nothing. I *could* load it though through anonymouse.org but it's cumbersome and I would really rather not to use proxies. I poked around a bit on Google some more and then came to this advice. I figured it couldn't hurt and wanted to try it out, so I went to my router's setup section. Then I ran into another perplexing problem: all categories under my AirStation Settings other than Setup were blank. Like so. I haven't checked my router in forever and I'm not entirely sure what all this stuff means but I could've sworn *something* was there before. So does anyone have any idea why nothing shows up and if it's connected to my not being able to access a certain site? How can I fix this?
Other possibly relevant details: Browsers used were Firefox, Chrome and Safari. OS is Windows Vista Starter and router is Buffalo WHR-G300N.
Okay, let me start off by saying that I am not very good at this computer stuff. So if I get terminologies wrong or say something monumentally ignorant tech-wise, I apologize in advance.
I've been visiting a certain site for the past few months with no problem. However, since yesterday, I haven't been able to get any page from the site to load at all--the main page, the FAQ, the comments section, etc. I could access other websites just fine though. I figured it was just some hiccup that would sort itself out so I let it be, at first. Then I checked the site out at Down Or Not, peeked at the site's twitter, asked around even, but it looked like there was nary a problem on their end or for other users. I was using an iPad to surf so I turned that off and then back on, but to no avail. I cleared my history, cache and cookies and still, nada. I set the iPad aside, booted up my laptop, flushed my DNS (whatever that is, I just followed instructions I looked up on the net, thinking it would help), did a release and renew for my IP address but I still couldn't get the site to load. Then I thought to turn off and back on my router and my modem and yep, still no go even after several attempts.
I did that ping test and a tracert and the former told me that the request timed out with 100% loss and the latter timed out at the 10th hop and so on until the 30th. I tried to access the site via its IP address but still got nothing. I *could* load it though through anonymouse.org but it's cumbersome and I would really rather not to use proxies. I poked around a bit on Google some more and then came to this advice. I figured it couldn't hurt and wanted to try it out, so I went to my router's setup section. Then I ran into another perplexing problem: all categories under my AirStation Settings other than Setup were blank. Like so. I haven't checked my router in forever and I'm not entirely sure what all this stuff means but I could've sworn *something* was there before. So does anyone have any idea why nothing shows up and if it's connected to my not being able to access a certain site? How can I fix this?
Other possibly relevant details: Browsers used were Firefox, Chrome and Safari. OS is Windows Vista Starter and router is Buffalo WHR-G300N.
From what you describe, it does sound like your IP address is blocked/banned either at the website or near it (since your traceroute worked until the 10th hop and then failed). If that's the case, there's not a whole lot you can do at your end. You could ask your ISP to give you a different IP address (sometimes releasing and renewing your DHCP lease will achieve this, sometimes not; it depends). You could wait a while and see if the block goes away— if you ran afoul of some overzealous automatic anti-abuse system it'll probably reset itself after a while. You could try to contact the site's admins and ask if you've been blacklisted.
posted by hattifattener at 12:47 AM on September 10, 2011
posted by hattifattener at 12:47 AM on September 10, 2011
It's probably nothing you can fix. If you're able to traceroute 10-ish hops that is a couple of hops through the equipment in your home, a couple or three more hops through the local routers of your ISP, and half a dozen more hops out across the internet at large. Anything past the first couple of hops is nothing you can fix (besides complaining up to your ISP and having them check).
A maybe decent example:
Now go to a public traceroute site on the internet like here. Do a traceroute from there:
In this case (mine), anything that makes it to the sbcglobal.net is out of my hands. If I can get traffic to my ISP then not being able to reach the site is their problem and nothing I can do would fix it.
Seeing as how you can reach other sites, the site you can't reach is up for others and through an anoymous browsing service, and since you can see at least 10 hops in... It's not your router. Especially if you're tracerouting to an IP address (bypassing any sort of DNS issues).
Call your service provider, tell them you can no longer reach the site and that it is up. Only they will be able to find anything else. If they can't find a problem (it works for them) then contact the site via email with your IP/Provider information and ask if you're being blocked for some reason.
Good job, it seems like you've tried everything you could and did all the right troubleshooting.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:49 AM on September 10, 2011
A maybe decent example:
traceroute to cnn.com (157.166.226.25), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets 1 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) 0.965 ms 0.930 ms 0.904 ms 2 adsl-99-48-215-254.dsl.lsan03.sbcglobal.net (99.48.215.254) 17.880 ms 19.876 ms 23.801 ms 3 dist3-vlan50.lsanca.sbcglobal.net (64.161.163.214) 25.526 ms 27.690 ms 31.409 ms 4 151-164-100-98.lgtpmi.sbcglobal.net (151.164.100.98) 37.289 ms 39.276 ms 41.161 ms 5 12.83.60.130 (12.83.60.130) 45.400 ms 47.164 ms 51.017 ms 6 la2ca02jt.ip.att.net (12.123.30.189) 53.378 ms 26.719 ms 26.685 ms 7 205.158.79.241.ptr.us.xo.net (205.158.79.241) 20.711 ms 17.381 ms 21.084 ms 8 207.88.14.217.ptr.us.xo.net (207.88.14.217) 28.987 ms 28.959 ms 33.057 ms 9 vb15.rar3.dallas-tx.us.xo.net (207.88.12.45) 86.101 ms 90.086 ms 90.060 ms 10 te-4-0-0.rar3.atlanta-ga.us.xo.net (207.88.12.1) 95.926 ms 95.916 ms 95.887 ms 11 ae0d0.cir1.atlanta6-ga.us.xo.net (207.88.13.153) 97.648 ms 99.595 ms 68.917 ms 12 * * * 13 * * * 14 * * *192.168.1.254 is my DSL, adsl-99-48-215-254.dsl.lsan03.sbcglobal.net is SBC global (the phone company here in Southern California), then some random AT&T host then through some xo.net, then it gets to Dallas, TX, then on to Atlanta, GA where I stop getting replies. A lot of networks block traceroute, and a lot of providers block the repeated scan-like traffic that traceroute uses, but still the traffic gets from Southern California to Texas to Georgia where I assume CNN lives.
Now go to a public traceroute site on the internet like here. Do a traceroute from there:
TraceRoute to 157.166.226.25 [cnn.com] Hop (ms) (ms) (ms) IP Address Host name 1 1 0 0 8.9.232.73 xe-5-3-0.edge3.dallas1.level3.net 2 0 0 0 4.69.145.254 vlan90.csw4.dallas1.level3.net 3 0 0 0 4.69.151.170 ae-93-93.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net 4 20 20 20 4.69.134.22 ae-7-7.ebr3.atlanta2.level3.net 5 20 20 20 4.69.148.254 ae-73-73.ebr2.atlanta2.level3.net 6 20 20 20 4.69.150.77 ae-2-52.edge4.atlanta2.level3.net 7 Timed out Timed out Timed out - 8 Timed out Timed out Timed out -Hrm, Dallas, TX through some level3.net to Atlanta again. Guess CNN is in Atlanta. Do a traceroute to the site your having problems with and eyeball the last few hops and see if there is anything in common that sorta looks like they may be heading towards the same place. Same city names, same networks (like level3.net). If they seem to be going to the same place then the site is blocking you in particular, or blocking your whole ISP for some reason.
In this case (mine), anything that makes it to the sbcglobal.net is out of my hands. If I can get traffic to my ISP then not being able to reach the site is their problem and nothing I can do would fix it.
Seeing as how you can reach other sites, the site you can't reach is up for others and through an anoymous browsing service, and since you can see at least 10 hops in... It's not your router. Especially if you're tracerouting to an IP address (bypassing any sort of DNS issues).
Call your service provider, tell them you can no longer reach the site and that it is up. Only they will be able to find anything else. If they can't find a problem (it works for them) then contact the site via email with your IP/Provider information and ask if you're being blocked for some reason.
Good job, it seems like you've tried everything you could and did all the right troubleshooting.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:49 AM on September 10, 2011
It is not uncommon to be unable to ping routers between you and your destination. Doesn't really tell you much.
I can change my IP address by changing the mac address of the device that is plugged into the modem (it hands them out based on the mac address it sees). So if the router is set to clone the mac address of the pc that it is connected to, connecting the pc directly to the modem nets you the same IP address (heh). You should be able to get a new IP by simply turning the cloning on or off, whichever it isn't set to currently.
Really, though, how likely is it that you have an IP ban at this website? Probably just a routing issue. I would definitely call the ISP. After turning cloning on/off and then, if that doesn't work, bypassing the router, you've done about all you can do from your end.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 12:58 AM on September 10, 2011
I can change my IP address by changing the mac address of the device that is plugged into the modem (it hands them out based on the mac address it sees). So if the router is set to clone the mac address of the pc that it is connected to, connecting the pc directly to the modem nets you the same IP address (heh). You should be able to get a new IP by simply turning the cloning on or off, whichever it isn't set to currently.
Really, though, how likely is it that you have an IP ban at this website? Probably just a routing issue. I would definitely call the ISP. After turning cloning on/off and then, if that doesn't work, bypassing the router, you've done about all you can do from your end.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 12:58 AM on September 10, 2011
Oh, traceroute failing at some point is not really a good indicator of anything. Depending on the program/type of traceroute you're using. Old traceroute sends UDP packets to a cycling range of high ports with increasing TTL settings. Any sort of firewall/NAT will cause it to fail. Even with no firewall/NAT in the way it can still fail when the endpoint machine is configured to ignore UDP packets to ports without a listening process (instead of sending back a port unreachable message). The more 'security' people put on networks the more impossible it is to use the use the tools to diagnose problems. Blocking Ping/Traceroute is security by not letting the prober know that your really there, but it breaks the network test that says "well I can get to you so that's not the problem" and leaves you in the dark. grrrrrr.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:00 AM on September 10, 2011
posted by zengargoyle at 1:00 AM on September 10, 2011
Response by poster: I'm assuming you're fucking around with your router because it works perfectly fine when you hook up the computer directly to the modem?
Damn, I knew I forgot to try something. I just tried it and it still doesn't work unfortunately.
Do a traceroute to the site your having problems with and eyeball the last few hops and see if there is anything in common that sorta looks like they may be heading towards the same place.
Uh, I have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing but the last addresses that show up before all those time outs when I did a traceroute with the cmd is this:
Call your service provider, tell them you can no longer reach the site and that it is up.
I sucked it up and called my ISP. After making me wait a surprisingly short while on the phone queue (seriously, the last several times I called them they made me wait bloody ages hence my reluctance to contact them), they told me they were able to access the site with no problems. They had me do a ping test again, turn off my virus protection program, open up IE, but still no dice. They told me to sit tight and let them do "remote testing." They don't know what seems to be the problem but told me it was unlikely that I had been banned from the site, given the lack of pop-ups declaring my ass blocked. Still, I don't think it would hurt to drop the site admins a note.
if you ran afoul of some overzealous automatic anti-abuse system
I...may have gone to that website a lot. Like a lot-lot. Maybe they thought I was a robot or some kind of spammer or something? (But then again, despite my frequent visits and flagrant abuse of the F5 button, I do go to other places more often and yet have no problems with them.)
You should be able to get a new IP by simply turning the cloning on or off, whichever it isn't set to currently.
While my understanding of MAC addresses and such is fuzzy, I would've liked to try this out. But as much as I'd love to "[fuck] around with [my] router" even more, my router refuses to cooperate. Like in that screenshot I linked to in my question, the categories in the settings just show up blank. Which was my other problem.
Thanks everyone for your advice! It's very much appreciated.
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 2:35 AM on September 10, 2011
Damn, I knew I forgot to try something. I just tried it and it still doesn't work unfortunately.
Do a traceroute to the site your having problems with and eyeball the last few hops and see if there is anything in common that sorta looks like they may be heading towards the same place.
Uh, I have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing but the last addresses that show up before all those time outs when I did a traceroute with the cmd is this:
10 * * * Request timed out. 11 155 ms 161 ms 155 ms 10gigabitethernet2-1.core1.lax1.he.net [72.52.92.121] 12 * * * Request timed out. 13 217 ms 221 ms 224 ms 10gigabitethernet2-3.core1.ash1.he.net [72.52.92.86] 14 * * * Request timed out.And then all time outs until the 30th line at the end. Compare that to the traceroute at the site you linked:
9 33 33 33 67.217.171.18 v912.ash01-mls-dc-core-a.latisys.net 10 34 34 34 67.217.171.58 v942.ash01-mls-dc-dist-b.latisys.net 11 34 34 34 209.9.224.66 fastserv-gw-2.cx.ptptech.netAnd then followed by the 12th line with the IP address of the site.
Call your service provider, tell them you can no longer reach the site and that it is up.
I sucked it up and called my ISP. After making me wait a surprisingly short while on the phone queue (seriously, the last several times I called them they made me wait bloody ages hence my reluctance to contact them), they told me they were able to access the site with no problems. They had me do a ping test again, turn off my virus protection program, open up IE, but still no dice. They told me to sit tight and let them do "remote testing." They don't know what seems to be the problem but told me it was unlikely that I had been banned from the site, given the lack of pop-ups declaring my ass blocked. Still, I don't think it would hurt to drop the site admins a note.
if you ran afoul of some overzealous automatic anti-abuse system
I...may have gone to that website a lot. Like a lot-lot. Maybe they thought I was a robot or some kind of spammer or something? (But then again, despite my frequent visits and flagrant abuse of the F5 button, I do go to other places more often and yet have no problems with them.)
You should be able to get a new IP by simply turning the cloning on or off, whichever it isn't set to currently.
While my understanding of MAC addresses and such is fuzzy, I would've liked to try this out. But as much as I'd love to "[fuck] around with [my] router" even more, my router refuses to cooperate. Like in that screenshot I linked to in my question, the categories in the settings just show up blank. Which was my other problem.
Thanks everyone for your advice! It's very much appreciated.
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 2:35 AM on September 10, 2011
ATM, I suspect instability in Hurricane Electric (he.net). Using their Looking Glass the Los Angeles (lax) core router that is #11 in your traceroute *can* make it to fastserv-gw-2.cx.ptptech.net the hop before your destination (#11 in your second traceroute).
Has this been recent as in last 2 days? May be aftermath of the SoCal power outage and routing instability. LA -> down south -> across AZ & NM is a major path, a lot of stuff went out.
I would cross my fingers for a while and blame it on Hurrican Electric at the moment. It looks like they are having issues getting traffic from lax->ash and may be bouncing between using above.net and their own network.
he.net looking glass. Their lax router is the One Wilshire Los Angeles router selection.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:54 AM on September 10, 2011
1 10 ms 1 ms 1 ms 10gigabitethernet2-1.core1.lax1.he.net (72.52.92.121) 2 40 ms 8 ms 1 ms mpr1.lax2.us.above.net (206.223.123.71) 3 1 ms 1 ms 21 ms xe-2-2-0.cr2.lax112.us.above.net (64.125.31.194) 4 38 ms 74 ms 37 ms xe-2-3-0.cr2.iah1.us.above.net (64.125.25.17) 5 75 ms 73 ms 63 ms xe-3-1-0.cr2.dca2.us.above.net (64.125.30.54) 6 65 ms 73 ms 77 ms xe-7-0-0.er2.iad10.us.above.net (64.125.29.213) 7 73 ms 73 ms 72 ms 64.125.192.150.t00718-02.above.net (64.125.192.150) 8 65 ms 107 ms 64 ms v913.ash01-mls-dc-dist-b.latisys.net (67.217.171.22) 9 66 ms 74 ms 75 ms v944.ash01-mls-dc-core-b.latisys.net (67.217.171.70) 10 74 ms 74 ms 75 ms FASTSERV-GW-2.CX.PTPTECH.NET (209.9.224.66)And are now going over above.net.... In your traceroute they are going over their own network (the next hop that shows up is ash1.he.net.
Has this been recent as in last 2 days? May be aftermath of the SoCal power outage and routing instability. LA -> down south -> across AZ & NM is a major path, a lot of stuff went out.
I would cross my fingers for a while and blame it on Hurrican Electric at the moment. It looks like they are having issues getting traffic from lax->ash and may be bouncing between using above.net and their own network.
he.net looking glass. Their lax router is the One Wilshire Los Angeles router selection.
posted by zengargoyle at 3:54 AM on September 10, 2011
Response by poster: Yeah, this started happening just yesterday. If it's the aftermath of the SoCal outage though, I would expect other users besides me to have been affected as well, which so far seems not to be the case. But yeah, who knows, right?
Anyway, I contacted the site admins about my problem. Hopefully, I'll get a reply sooner rather than later.
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 4:48 AM on September 10, 2011
Anyway, I contacted the site admins about my problem. Hopefully, I'll get a reply sooner rather than later.
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 4:48 AM on September 10, 2011
I...may have gone to that website a lot. Like a lot-lot. Maybe they thought I was a robot or some kind of spammer or something?
The most likely hypothesis rears its ugly head. If you've been sending a lot of traffic to a relatively small site, it's possible the owner of that site may have blocked your IP (which wouldn't show you a popup telling you you've been banned, the site just wouldn't load for you.) The fact that you send more traffic to other sites and haven't been blocked there doesn't really matter much; those sites might be bigger, or their admins less overzealous about protecting themselves from crawlers or server overload.
posted by ook at 12:25 PM on September 10, 2011
The most likely hypothesis rears its ugly head. If you've been sending a lot of traffic to a relatively small site, it's possible the owner of that site may have blocked your IP (which wouldn't show you a popup telling you you've been banned, the site just wouldn't load for you.) The fact that you send more traffic to other sites and haven't been blocked there doesn't really matter much; those sites might be bigger, or their admins less overzealous about protecting themselves from crawlers or server overload.
posted by ook at 12:25 PM on September 10, 2011
I have something similar. At work I am on Comcast for my internet connection. Every once in a while some random website will be unreachable except by proxy. It will eventually go away on its own or I can simply unplug the cable modem/router and plug it back in.
Can't for the life of me figure it out but since a simple reset fixes it, haven't been too concerned even if the randomness is very perplexing
posted by 2manyusernames at 7:17 PM on September 10, 2011
Can't for the life of me figure it out but since a simple reset fixes it, haven't been too concerned even if the randomness is very perplexing
posted by 2manyusernames at 7:17 PM on September 10, 2011
Try, and bookmark, the wonderful site "Down for Everyone or Just Me?". Obviously that site can be blocked too, but it's a good, independent check as to whether a site is up.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:42 PM on September 10, 2011
posted by Sunburnt at 11:42 PM on September 10, 2011
I'm curious as to what winds up resolving the issue. If your IP address is assigned by the MAC address of the machine connected to the modem, you can try changing the mac address of your computer while it is directly connected to the modem (assuming the router was cloning the PCs mac address). This link does an OK job of explaining how to do it:
http://www.windowsreference.com/networking/how-to-change-mac-address-in-windows-registry/
You can go to your network connections and look up the "physical address" of your local area connection to get the current mac address. You can then go to the command prompt and type "getmac" to get the transport ID. When looking under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} in all those instances of "0001" "0002" etc for your device to add the key "NetworkAddress" to, make sure to look for that transport ID, it should be listed under Netcfginstanceid. Don't put any hyphens or colons in the String Value portion of the NetworkAddress key you add there. It would probably just be best to put the existing 12 character MAC in there and increment the last character by one. Might have to reboot the modem, too, for it to take effect.
(Another way to change the IP address, possibly, is to look at when the IP address lease expires for your local area connection when the computer is hooked up directly to the modem. You can do that with an "ipconfig /all" in the command prompt. Then when that time comes around, leave the modem unplugged so it doesn't try to renew the lease. The longer you wait, the more likely it will be that address is given to someone else, and when you plug the power to the modem back in, if that ip is no longer available, you will pull a totally different one.)
If none of that changes your ip address though, it guess it would then just be a waiting game to hear back from the site admins.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 5:51 PM on September 11, 2011
http://www.windowsreference.com/networking/how-to-change-mac-address-in-windows-registry/
You can go to your network connections and look up the "physical address" of your local area connection to get the current mac address. You can then go to the command prompt and type "getmac" to get the transport ID. When looking under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} in all those instances of "0001" "0002" etc for your device to add the key "NetworkAddress" to, make sure to look for that transport ID, it should be listed under Netcfginstanceid. Don't put any hyphens or colons in the String Value portion of the NetworkAddress key you add there. It would probably just be best to put the existing 12 character MAC in there and increment the last character by one. Might have to reboot the modem, too, for it to take effect.
(Another way to change the IP address, possibly, is to look at when the IP address lease expires for your local area connection when the computer is hooked up directly to the modem. You can do that with an "ipconfig /all" in the command prompt. Then when that time comes around, leave the modem unplugged so it doesn't try to renew the lease. The longer you wait, the more likely it will be that address is given to someone else, and when you plug the power to the modem back in, if that ip is no longer available, you will pull a totally different one.)
If none of that changes your ip address though, it guess it would then just be a waiting game to hear back from the site admins.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 5:51 PM on September 11, 2011
Response by poster: Update!
So a few days ago, the site started working for me. Hooray! But as if to punish me for getting a little too excited about it, it stopped. Again. Boo.
And then it went up again! I didn't want to say anything here though in case I jinxed it but so far, the site has yet to refuse to show up once more in my browser. I have no idea what happened to make it so but I'm just grateful. The site admins never did do anything other than tell me to clear my cache--although to be fair, neither did I ever get around to explaining my whole problem to them and instead resorted to just using proxies as a workaround.
So there it is! Hopefully, I'll never encounter this again. *crosses fingers* Thanks everyone for your help!
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 6:20 AM on September 22, 2011
So a few days ago, the site started working for me. Hooray! But as if to punish me for getting a little too excited about it, it stopped. Again. Boo.
And then it went up again! I didn't want to say anything here though in case I jinxed it but so far, the site has yet to refuse to show up once more in my browser. I have no idea what happened to make it so but I'm just grateful. The site admins never did do anything other than tell me to clear my cache--although to be fair, neither did I ever get around to explaining my whole problem to them and instead resorted to just using proxies as a workaround.
So there it is! Hopefully, I'll never encounter this again. *crosses fingers* Thanks everyone for your help!
posted by Wonton Cruelty at 6:20 AM on September 22, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
If it does not work directly to the modem, it could be due to some bad routing tables. Also, the site might not like your IP address, I've seen that with some *.mil sites not liking addresses that end in 0. Should be able to just call the ISP and let them know you can't ping that IP address and they should be able to verify that in their office.
If it does work directly to the modem, I duno, why not just try resetting the router to the factory defaults? Or updating the firmware? Or switching over to dd-wrt or something different altogether?
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 12:16 AM on September 10, 2011