AT&T Uverse software bug screwing up Chrome's functionality?

June 19, 2013 4:38 PM

Chrome won't let me access the Metafilter homepage--among other issues. I am not having this problem with Safari or Firefox.

I have AT&T Uverse DSL, and have done for some time now. In the past... day? Or so, I can no longer get to www.metafilter.com by using Chrome (I can get to posts on the blue by going to metatalk or to ask and then navigating via Recent Activity, etc.). When I put www.metafilter.com in the URL field, I am redirected to "http://www.metafilter.com/cgi-bin/redirect.ha" and the screen says:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /cgi-bin/redirect.ha on this server.

Apache Server at www.metafilter.com Port 80

I emailed the mods, and Matt said a little googling revealed there's some kind of glitch with AT&T Uverse and the Metafilter homepage. If it were *only* the Metafilter homepage, I would post this to MetaTalk, but I've discovered that in the same recent period of time, Chrome has started stalling out loading my tumblr dash after a few screens' worth of posts. I just get the "loading more posts" message and the spinning wheel. Again, no problem with Safari or Firefox.

I have rebooted the computers and I have restarted the DSL modem (including turning it off and taking both the Ethernet cable and the power cord out of the modem so that it has to completely reset).

Does anyone know what's going on, or if there's anything that can be done? AT&T have no answer for me, naturally.

If it matters, I'm on a Mac, but my roommate is on a Windows machine and having the same problem.

posted by tzikeh to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I'm not an expert, but it sounds like a DNS server issue which might be exacerbated by Chrome's pre-fetch algorithm. Can you change the DNS servers in the U-Verse modem's settings or does the firmware lock you out? If they lock you out, you'll have to do it on a machine by machine basis. I'd try the Mac first by changing the DNS servers to Google's, saving the setting, and rebooting to flush the old DNS setting.
posted by bluecore at 4:48 PM on June 19, 2013

Best answer: It seems to have happened before. Looks like you need to clear the Chrome cache
posted by nightwood at 4:53 PM on June 19, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: bluecore: Can you change the DNS servers in the U-Verse modem's settings or does the firmware lock you out?

I am ashamed to say that I have no idea if I can do this or not. I used to be super-knowledgeable about all of the configurations on our network, but we've changed providers and routers over the years and I just haven't kept up. Where would I start looking to see if it's possible to change the DNS servers on the modem?
posted by tzikeh at 4:56 PM on June 19, 2013

Seems that getting redirected to /cgi-bin/redirect.ha is a common problem with the NVG-510 Uverse modem when it can't resolve something via DNS. Maybe you could convince AT&T to replace it with a different model if changing your DNS servers to Google's doesn't work.
posted by zsazsa at 5:08 PM on June 19, 2013

I've helped several people with this problem in the past, and nightwood's suggestion (clear the browser cache, history, cookies, etc.) always worked. Perhaps it's not the same issue now, but that error has been happening for years.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 6:14 PM on June 19, 2013

tzikeh: "bluecore: Can you change the DNS servers in the U-Verse modem's settings or does the firmware lock you out?

I am ashamed to say that I have no idea if I can do this or not. I used to be super-knowledgeable about all of the configurations on our network, but we've changed providers and routers over the years and I just haven't kept up. Where would I start looking to see if it's possible to change the DNS servers on the modem?"

If the cache flush others have suggested doesn't work (hopefully it does!) and you still want to access your router's settings, I believe the default IP address for AT&T's U-Verse modem is:

192.168.1.254

If not, you should check your documentation. It should be something in the 192.168.?.? range. You might be able to login to admin settings and check from there, although I don't have U-verse so I'm not certain.
posted by bluecore at 6:18 PM on June 19, 2013

Response by poster: Okay - update:

Clearing the cache and cookies fixed the problem with Chrome not loading www.metafilter.com (yay!), but tumblr in Chrome still stalls out after a few screens of my dash, presenting me with the "Loading More Posts...." message and the spinning dash-wheel. This problem started at the exact same time that the "can't get to the main page of MeFi" started, and it only happens in Chrome, so I have to believe they're somehow related.

Does anyone know enough about tumblr's back end to venture a guess? Is this still possibly a UVerse IP thing, while it turns out that clearing the cache and cookies was enough to fix the MeFi thing?
posted by tzikeh at 7:27 PM on June 19, 2013

I don't know how tumblr works - but you might check the javascript console in chrome to see if it shows any errors there.
posted by nightwood at 8:03 PM on June 19, 2013

Response by poster: Final update - looks like a timing coincidence -- tumblr savior is screwing up the endless scroll on tumblr, and whatever is causing that began on the same day as the weirdness with UVerse and metafilter.com (for me, anyway).

Thanks, everyone!
posted by tzikeh at 6:18 PM on June 21, 2013