Friend can't access one site? Any ideas?

[debo]

One of my friends can not access the site unc.edu . This is a real problem since he goes to school there and his email is there and all of his course info is there. He has a router and neither computer behind the router can go to it.

First thought was dns, but he couldn't go to unc.edu if he typed in the IP.

Second thought was the host file. Didn't have anything in it that would block the site.

Third thought was maybe unc blocked his IP for some reason. He called, and some person who "sounded uninformed" said they don't do this.

Now he tells me that if he hooks the computer up straight to the cable modem, bypassing the router, that it will go to unc.edu. So I had him disable the firewall on the router as a test. Still wouldn't go there.

I'm running out of ideas here. Anyone got any?

 

[mkrishnan]

That's really interesting, and it sounds like the two of you did a really good root causing. Not that it explains your pattern of experiences, but have you tried resetting the router to factory defaults? Usually there is a recessed button somewhere on it that will do this for you if you push it in and hold it down.

 

[Doctor Q]

We had a problem like this that turned out to be a feature of the firewall software, looking for certain domains it liked or didn't like. But it sounds like you already bypassed that.

Are you trying this in a web browser? What does the status bar say when you try going to http://www.unc.edu/ ? Do you get a message in the window itself? Does anything change if you go to http://152.2.1.217/ ?

What happens if you launch Network Utility, select the PING tab, use "unc.edu" in the address field, and try PINGing?

What if you try ftp://ftp.unc.edu/ in a web browser?

And what if you do this command in Terminal to simulate an FTP connection?

telnet ftp.unc.edu 21​

(If you get a connection, you can type QUIT and press return to end the FTP session.)

 

[debo]

I don't have physical access to the computer, so this is all being done over the phone or IM. I told him to try a router reset, don't know if he's done it yet.

I haven't triend pinging the site yet, although I've thought about it and we should have done it already.

 

[ITASOR]

That actually happens to us about once a month. Select sites stop working for no reason including Google and MacRumors. Yahoo always works. I have a Linksys WRT54G and I just either unplug it and plug it back in or reset it if the first method doesn't work.

This used to be a pain when I had DSL, because I would have to re-setup the PPPoE and Packet/MTU settings. Now with cable, I just reset it and it's good to go again!

 

[snkTab]

Your local ISP might be the cause. They was a virus that affected DNS servers that randomly made sites go to "buy drugs" places or whatever. Also, they might have blocked a domain if they had problems with it. And then they are a variety of other things.

Anyway, I would call just to find out, after pinging to see what that tells you.