Only a few websites available, most time out (all browsers, all rigs)

Really strange... Only websites working at the moment from those I try (all rigs, all browsers) are SF, 8F, Google, Speedtest.net and a Finnish newspaper plus GUI's for our two IPTV services. All others time out: CNN, BBC, TechNet, German and Finnish news sites, WordPress, online banking etc.

Streaming IPTV television comes without problems, both from Finland and Germany but for instance YouTube and Vimeo do not work ATM. I am currently not able to watch videos from these sites, the sites do not open. After posting this I'm going to see if I can upload an explaining video to this post from my neighbors.

I have now tried over 40 sites I normally visit more or less regularly, five sites work, others don't. Seven Forums, Eight Forums, Google, Speedtest.net and Iltalehti.fi, a Finnish newspaper are working without problems but clicking an external link in any of these is a no go. Online banking is also not possible ATM.

Any ideas? Belkin N1 Vision router, very fast VDSL connection. MSE 2, Windows Firewall. Until yesterday evening no problems, since that no updates on computers or router. One of the working websites is Speedtest.net which gives totally normal ping and speed.

Kari

EDIT:

My neighbor has the same ISP, having no problems, so I used his connection to upload this to YouTube. It shows my problem better than I can describe:

Hey Kari

Is the problem "global" - happens on other computers too - or is it just your laptop that does this?

Our local ISP (Comcast) has sporadic outages that affect traffic through certain sites that last a few hours a couple times a year. Networking is not my strong suit, so I don't know why that would be.

It's all rigs, all browsers.

Kari

Well it could either be the rigs or the router-modem or the ISP. The ISP is ruled out because the neighbour's fine, rigs are ruled out because malware infection or bad browser settings couldnt have affected all rigs and all browsers simultaneously and identically. So my guess is it has something to do with the router-modem- try resetting and reconfiguring it.

Bill, what you say makes sense. But: I have reseted both modem and router twice already, and once restored both to factory settings.

I have never seen something like this. It's as if I suddenly had a global host file that prevents me of using certain sites, except that the error message is "Timed out".

Kari

Ok, some random thoughts here. You maybe have the same security app on every rig, you could check settings there. Or try switching to opendns or googledns. Or maybe just sleep over it, might be a temporary quirk.

Hi Kari
Have you tried actually typing the address of one of the sites in the address bar rather than using the link?

Yes, I have tried typing both normal URL's and IP's (when I have known it).

Kari : that is very odd. A complete stab in the dark here : is it something about your account with your ISP? Could they have inadevertenly done/switched/limited something there?

Golden said:

Kari : that is very odd. A complete stab in the dark here : is it something about your account with your ISP? Could they have inadevertenly done/switched/limited something there?

Click to expand...

That was my first thought, but it seems the answer is no. I have called my ISP, they have no clue.

Past half an hour I've found a couple more sites that work but for instance the important sites for a news junkie like me (CNN, BBC World, Al Jazeera, YLE (Finnish PBS broadcaster) and so on) do not work ATM. Funny thing is, all John's sites work without problems Vista, Seven and Eight Forums come nice and fast. BBC World came through a couple of times but very distorted, no images and like some text only HTML page from early 90's.

Worth to notice, our IPTV systems, both Finnish and German, use the same connection and we have no problems with TV. Currently watching streaming HDTV, news from Finland.

This is bloody interesting! Is God trying to tell me something?

Kari

UPDATE:

This issue is by no means solved, I am very keen to hear possible explanations. However, since a few minutes now everything seems to work, all sites open fast as I am used to.

In other words, I'm not marking this as solved because there still is no valid explanation. Please if you have any ideas let me know so if this happens again I would then like to have something to try.

Kari

Common web browsing uses TCP, a protocol with a large overhead due to handshaking and such procedures built into it. Your streaming TV probably won't be using it (TCP) much.

How do you connect your computers' to the router/modem? If they're are all connected by wireless-- have you tried connecting one of them by an Ethernet cable to the router to see what the results were?

Kari said:

Golden said:

Kari : that is very odd. A complete stab in the dark here : is it something about your account with your ISP? Could they have inadevertenly done/switched/limited something there?

Click to expand...

Worth to notice, our IPTV systems, both Finnish and German, use the same connection and we have no problems with TV. Currently watching streaming HDTV, news from Finland.

Click to expand...

Lost Colonist, I tried both wireless and Ethernet.

What was interesting is that all those sites I could not access were found, but the read just took too long so they timed out. I could tell this for instance using that nice feature of Chrome, where you can see favicon replaced with a rotating circle. It rotates counterclockwise when site is not yet found, and changes the rotation to clockwise when site is found and browser is reading it.

Kari

I don't know Kari, are you on a watch list?
We all know you are an international man of intrigue!

hm, you might want to figure out the locations of the problem websites. This website: IP Address Lookup (if you can access it) lets you track down IP addresses down to a location. After having put in a few entries of websites you frequent, is it just sporadic websites not loading, or can you not load / not properly load websites from some countries at all?

Also, if you can, log into the admin area of your router / modem and check its network connectivity logs-- if it has such a feature. It could provide useful information (maybe.)

Have you tried temporarily putting one of your computers' into the DMZ of your router/modem and then tested its connectivity?

Kari said:

Lost Colonist, I tried both wireless and Ethernet.

What was interesting is that all those sites I could not access were found, but the read just took too long so they timed out. I could tell this for instance using that nice feature of Chrome, where you can see favicon replaced with a rotating circle. It rotates counterclockwise when site is not yet found, and changes the rotation to clockwise when site is found and browser is reading it.

Kari

View attachment 139767

Click to expand...

As I told, the issue is over for now. Before "it fixed itself", the IP's I was not able to access were all around the world. North America, UK, Scandinavia, even most of the local ones here in Germany. For some of these I knew the physical address already, for those I didn't I checked address lookup now when I was again able to surf normally.

In other words, there was no logic in which sites I could access and which not. Geographic's could not be the reason. Seven Forums servers are located in USA and I had no problems, CNN is also there but I could not enter.

Kari

A very strange fluke, particularly since the problem resolved itself, apparently without intervention. I guess it wasn't a case of Contention.

I do not believe it was contention issue, because it was certain sites that worked and others that didn't.

Personally I can not remember an issue as unexplainable as this was for me. I noticed it this morning around 9 AM, and then suddenly 2:30 PM everything was fine again.

Kari

Hi, just found this thread after much head scratching. I'm having the exact same problem. About 20-25% of my bookmarked sites will load, the rest time out (IE9rc, Firefox 4, Chrome). Started about 2pm today. I can access Facebook, BBC, Google, but not my Yahoo and MSN mail accounts, my University accounts or my work server, and most Google links won't load.

Hi Stew, welcome to the Seven Forums.

I still have no clue why this happened to me earlier today, but luckily it's over now. I hope I could tell you what and why happened. If you find an explanation and / or solution, please come back to tell.

Kari