Weirdest Internet problem ever?

[isoS]

This has never happened to me before, and before I dive into the bottomless chasm of my ISP's tech support, I thought I'd post something here (since I can, though I have no idea why -- read on).

My Internet is out. I can't access any sites -- except, for some reason, AST. I know this sounds like the first page of a really bad short story, but it's the truth. My email works (except for my .Mac account, which is IMAP), but nothing else can connect -- not iTunes, and no browser. Except if I go to AST, like I said. Oh, apparently IM works also.

WTF? Has anyone else ever had this happen? I've done the whole cable modem cycle thing (shut down computer, unplug router and modem, plug in modem, plug in router and restart) and it didn't change a thing.

I am flummoxed. I would almost feel better if everything were out. What is going on?

[Big Box Of Money]

On a PC I would suggest using the ping command at the command prompt - apparently you can do this on a Mac using the terminal utility. If you open that up and type in say, "Ping google.com", do you get any reply back?

[Berliner]

Yes! That actually has happened to me before. I could access no other site but AST. I actually emailed you about it and you had no idea. You recommended that I ask Jouster, which I never got around to.

Oh, I suspected at the time that it had something to do with using torrents.

[dan telfer]

Who is your provider?

Comcast just gave the green light to some pretty weird policies where they can block your traffic if they detect high-bandwidth. I doubt that's what it is unless Comcast totally botched the execution of the policy, but I guess I wouldn't be that surprised.

[Liezl]

This happened to me a month or so ago. I'm not sure if my mail and ichat were affected, but I do remember I could only access certain websites, otherwise it would redirect me to a search engine portal.

For me, it was some sort of DNSChanger Trojan which I removed with a tool from http://www.securemac.com/

Yes I am on a mac, and yes trojans do exist.

[karyrogers]

That's a strange one. I'm tempted to say it could be a DNS issue, (the service that translates names to IP addresses) but the fact that some things like mail and IM are working don't really lend credit to that theory unless your most often used services, like mail and IM, are cached.

The first thing I would try is to reboot your computer. If you've done that you can try a couple other things to determine the extent of the issue.

If you open Applications->Utilities->Terminal and run 'nslookup google.com' it should look something like (your Server line will be different):

nightcrawler:~ kary$ nslookup google.com
Server: 130.18.80.12
Address: 130.18.80.12#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 64.233.167.99
Name: google.com
Address: 64.233.187.99
Name: google.com
Address: 72.14.207.99

If that doesn't work and you don't get a reply, DNS is broken and is likely an ISP issue. If it works, you can try a basic connectivity test to google (Ctrl-c to quit):

nightcrawler:~ kary$ ping google.com
PING google.com (72.14.207.99): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=0 ttl=242 time=73.818 ms
64 bytes from 72.14.207.99: icmp_seq=1 ttl=242 time=73.895 ms

I reckon that's a start.

[isoS]

It's not redirecting me, it's just not loading, then timing out, as if my internet connection is out (checking in Network Diagnostics doesn't help -- that just tells me my connection is working properly). Also, the problem comes and goes. Maybe I'll try that DNSChanger tool anyway though.

Time Warner is my ISP.

[karyrogers]

If it turns out to be a DNS trojan like Liezl mentions, I'd suggest changing your email, IM, and any other passwords that are sent from your computer after you get it removed.

[isoS]

Oh, also: Google does work. As does Facebook.

[isoS]

DNSChanger scan came back negative. Everything's working right now, so I can't really try these other tips, but thanks for the ideas.

[ProfessorShutYoMouth]

If it happens again bypass the router, restart everything and see if you still have the issue.

Sometimes routers do screwy things.

[Meen Bellpeppers]

I had the same issue a while back, where some sites would load and others would not. What ended up solving it for me, though I don't know if this has had any negative effects, is I lowered the MTU size from 1492 [recommended for PPOE/DSL] to about 1450. It's a setting you change in your router and I think also your computer, but for me just changing it in the router was enough. I don't know what caused this problem, as it came out of nowhere, but I know that this fixed it.

[congolia]

I had the same issue a while back, where some sites would load and others would not. What ended up solving it for me, though I don't know if this has had any negative effects, is I lowered the MTU size from 1492 [recommended for PPOE/DSL] to about 1450. It's a setting you change in your router and I think also your computer, but for me just changing it in the router was enough. I don't know what caused this problem, as it came out of nowhere, but I know that this fixed it.

You must know he made all this up. He's pulling your chain.

[scamboogah]

I figured by now, with limited internet access, Squatch would be sounding like Dana Gould's bit about daylight savings time;

'What's going on? Is this milk still good?...'

[Mindyjoy]

Time Warner is my ISP.

That's all you needed to say.

[Jouster]

I figured by now, with limited internet access, Squatch would be sounding like Dana Gould's bit about daylight savings time;

'What's going on? Is this milk still good?...'

That's Paul F. Tompkins, sir.

[arruns]

I would guess a DNS error at your ISP. It had the cached IPs for sites you and others had looked at but there was a lookup error going up the chain for everything that had to be resolved.

[isoS]

Yeah but I was able to see new pages and even post on AST, so it wasn't just cache.

[Kurt]

I have Time Warner in North Hollywood and this same thing happened to me. I called tech support and they did what they do (tell me to unplug my shit and plug it back in). Obviously that didn't work, but it eventually worked itself out. I didn't change any settings or anything; I just waited. It happened for a couple of days.

I think that the reason these "high volume" sites are loading for you is because I believe the way that some ISPs work is that they kind of pre-load your most often-visited sites to a server nearer to you and your outage is somewhere further along the pipe. At least that's what I told myself when it was happening to me.

Unfortunately, Time Warner has terrible customer service and they'll be able to do nothing except schedule a guy to come out, by which time the problem will have worked itself out.

Have you tried unplugging your modem and plugging it back in?

[scamboogah]

That's Paul F. Tompkins, sir.

Shit, you're right. It sounds like it could be a Gould bit. Apologies to PFT, if showbiz hasn't 'taken him away from the internet for a year'.