Web surfing puzzle

mgfvvc

There are some websites that seem to be inaccessible from my laptops and I can't see why. They include bekospares.com and gocomics.com. Until recently I have had no issues with gocomics.com. Most other websites load just fine.The error I get is that the connection reset while the page was loading.

I am accessing the internet via a TP-Link Deco M5 mesh and a Vodafone router.

I see the same errors on both Firefox and Chrome on my personal laptop running Windows 10 so it doesn't appear to be a browser issue. I also see the same error on Firefox my work laptop running Linux, so it doesn't appear to be specific to my personal laptop or the OS.

My wife's Laptop running Windows 10 loads bekospares.com with no issues, so it doesn't appear to be the network either.

I have rebooted both my personal laptop and the mesh. I have also moved my personal laptop to a different room where it connected to a different mesh node.

I am a bit puzzled.

[Deleted User]

I'd start with the basics and clear the cookies / cache in the said browsers.

Try nslookup in the command and see what you get back (it checks the DNS lookup)

forgotmyname

Try different browsers and maybe contact the site owner to see if they have banned an ip range.

Seem to have had an influx of crypto spammers trying to signup and have blacklisted a whole range myself,
downside is that it may block some genuine users trying to signup.

IvanOpinion

Some other less likely considerations. 
Is it possible someone has enabled parental controls (or similar) and these sites fall into such a category. 
Could it be a firewall issue - they have somehow become blacklisted?

mgfvvc

forgotmyname said:

Try different browsers and maybe contact the site owner to see if they have banned an ip range.

I had already tried Chrome and Firefox. I have just added Opera and I get the same results with Opera.

forgotmyname said:

Seem to have had an influx of crypto spammers trying to signup and have blacklisted a whole range myself,
downside is that it may block some genuine users trying to signup.

My wife's laptop can access these websites from our home network, so it's not related to our IP.

[Deleted User]

mgfvvc said:

forgotmyname said:

Try different browsers and maybe contact the site owner to see if they have banned an ip range.

I had already tried Chrome and Firefox. I have just added Opera and I get the same results with Opera.

forgotmyname said:

Seem to have had an influx of crypto spammers trying to signup and have blacklisted a whole range myself,
downside is that it may block some genuine users trying to signup.

My wife's laptop can access these websites from our home network, so it's not related to our IP.

Did you try the nslookup I mentioned in the first post?

The reason I asked was that I'm trying to retrace all the steps the browser takes when connecting to a website.

The very first thing a browser does when you type a website address is a DNS lookup. Once the result of the DNS lookup are obtained, the browser tries to connect to the IP address provided by the DNS lookup to load the webpage.

So the standard way I diagnose websites that don't work is to check the DNS lookup matches with a computer where the website works. If it doesn't then the problem lies in your DNS lookup - either misconfigured / poisoned / stale etc.

Open command prompt and enter:

nslookup bekospares.com

Once you have the results of that, post them here or compare them to a computer where the website works and see if this matches:



If it doesn't match, the problem lies in the DNS config. We will then check your DNS settings and also flush the DNS cache.

If it matches, then we move on to the next stage of tracing a connection to that website and see where it fails - I'll post those details once you have done the above.

TELLIT01

Could it be an update to anti-virus software causing the problem?

mgfvvc

Deleted_User said:

Did you try the nslookup I mentioned in the first post?

I didn't. "Connection reset when loading" is the wrong error for a DNS fault. Having said that, I might as well be thorough.

I get an IPv4 address of 52.209.249.52 for www.bekospares.co.uk and bekospares.co.uk (my bad, not the .com) on both Windows laptops.

I can ping that IP from both laptops.

mgfvvc

TELLIT01 said:

Could it be an update to anti-virus software causing the problem?

It seems unlikely. We aren't running anything beyond the default Windows Defender/firewall and they should be identical. I'll take a look at Defender updates.

[Deleted User]

mgfvvc said:

Deleted_User said:

Did you try the nslookup I mentioned in the first post?

I didn't. "Connection reset when loading" is the wrong error for a DNS fault. Having said that, I might as well be thorough.

I get an IPv4 address of 52.209.249.52 for www.bekospares.co.uk and bekospares.co.uk (my bad, not the .com) on both Windows laptops.

I can ping that IP from both laptops.

Thanks, yes the connection reset issue is as you say probably not DNS, but if it was directing you to the wrong server then potentially you could get a connection reset response.

Personally I'd do the following, but without knowing the background to the two PC's in question it is a bit of guesswork - ie what is installed in terms of AV / Firewalls / VPN and have the browser or network settings ever been changed eg security / proxy config? Also what is your internet gateway setup - eg ISP router / modem / bridge mode and is it all set as default?

1. Full clear of cache and cookies in the browsers. Maybe even clear the SSL slate.

2. Confirm the same happens with these 3 exact links clicked or pasted into address bar - ie secure / non-secure (looks like they have HSTS enabled so non-secure should redirect to HTTPS anyway)

http://www.bekospares.co.uk
https://www.bekospares.co.uk

also

https://www.gocomics.com

The reason I ask is that both bekospares.co.uk and gocomics.com (without the www.) have a 301 permanent redirect in the http header and that could be blocked by your browser or security settings.



4. Also try in incognito mode.

5. Check your browser addon / AV / Firewall - anything non-standard? Can you try disabling it?

6. Run ipconfig / flushdns (I know we think it isn't DNS but websites get resources from other domains when loading)

7. Power cycle router and laptops (some routing tables / port mappings might be stuck or corrupt in the router)

8. Run tracert bekospares.com and see what it says - it will get some timeouts from routers that ignore the request but you can see if it doesn't match with a computer that can reach the website ok.



EDIT: 

Check this setting for any proxy config - go to Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Proxy (will look a bit different to this I'm on Win 11)

mgfvvc

[Deleted User] said:

2. Confirm the same happens with these 3 exact links clicked or pasted into address bar - ie secure / non-secure (looks like they have HSTS enabled so non-secure should redirect to HTTPS anyway)

http://www.bekospares.co.uk
https://www.bekospares.co.uk

also

https://www.gocomics.com

The reason I ask is that both bekospares.co.uk and gocomics.com (without the www.) have a 301 permanent redirect in the http header and that could be blocked by your browser or security settings.

This seems to be the nub of the issue. The http links fail, the https links work fine.

I wonder what could cause that? It showed the same issue in Firefox debugging mode, so it doesn't seem to be an extension.