Need an IP unblocked

[Gonzogoose]

Hello,

My computer seems to have blocked one solitary IP address for some reason, and it's a site I designed and constantly update.

The url is

http://www.comicavalanche.com

The IP is 64.202.193.150
I have tried adding it to my trusted sites, it's listed in my hosts file as 64.202.193.150 comicavalanche.com, and I've tried 3 different browsers, the current versions of IE, Firefox and Opera. I know others are able to access the site.

I also tried telnet 64.202.193.150 from a command prompt and it said connect failed. I don't understand why I can't access this site anymore. It just started happening the day before yesterday, and I need to update it as it is a news site. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Gonzogoose]

I have tried removing it from the hosts file and rebooting,but I'll give it another shot. My firewall's not up at the moment, so that wouldn't be an issue. And I have run adware and spyware scans recently and gotten rid of anything suspicious. I actually recently had another tech board help me clean out my system, but this problem was already well a problem when we did that, so it wasn't a result or anything.

No other computers present. I'll try that, reboot and hit you back with the results.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Gonzogoose]

Nope, result's the same.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[michigan]

Brant,

Let's just try one thing real quick. Go to this page: An Anonymizer browser.

http://www.anonymizer.com/

Once there, at the top of page - enter your website address. Can you view your page?

When you run your ipconfig /all from the cmd prompt, what are your DNS records?

I'm still kinda leaning towards something within these records - either not propagating correctly or having some block within a certain range of IP addresses. Simply because you can access some of those pages hosted/registered via GoDaddy and some you can't.

Have you tried other addresses close to yours recently? (GoDaddy owns all IPs between 64.202.160.0 - 64.202.191.255)
For example focusing on addresses closest to yours:

http://64.202.190.152

(goes to Ege Imbat Tours)

http://64.202.190.154

(Matrix Personal Staff Services)

http://64.202.190.155

(China Toy Factory)
etc...
etc...

 

[Gonzogoose]

Anonymizer - Actually, yes I can, though it takes forever for everything to load. Not that that matters though.

ipconfig/all - DNS records are:
24.51.159.140
24.51.159.139

Other Godaddy IPs - None of those you listed would open for me. I then tried several others in that range with these results:

http://64.202.190.240

- Would not load

http://64.202.190.255

- Would not load

http://64.202.191.150

- Would not load

http://64.202.191.240

- Would not load

http://64.202.191.255

- Would not load

So I'm assuming none of the godaddy IPs are working for me now.



Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Gonzogoose]

Here's an odd thing. I can get to

http://www.bryancarlyle.com,

which is another site on the same godaddy plan that

http://www.comicavalanche.com

(64.202.190.153) is on, but when I try to go to its IP address (which is 64.202.167.215 according to nslookup from the command prompt) it pops up the godaddy page not found page.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[michigan]

Brant,

See Anonymizer is actually blocking your DNS records (and using their own) when you visit a site. So as you hit your web site - it's seeing the visit coming from Anonymizer - not you. That said, I would bet if you tried any of those addresses close to your comicavalanche.com address - those too would open w/Anonymizer.

The other site you referenced as a site you could hit is more then likely on another subnet (167) - by the 3rd octet in the IP address range. The one's you can't see (including yours) is on the 190.

I think you're getting real close as to what the problem is. ((or if nothing else what the problem is not)) From the deductive troubleshooting you've done now, there's only a few things it could be at this point: Adelphia is either blocking access to any address within a particular range (for example 64.202.190.100 thru 64.202.190.200) or their DNS/NameServers do not have the correct mappings for these addresses. And lastly, GoDaddy is blocking your your IP address from accessing that block of addresses.

I know when Comcast messed with their main DNS Servers, I had connection issues for quite some time from my home PC. Perhaps there is someone you know in that area that also uses Adelphia (that would have those same DNS servers). If you could find someone, and they could your web site and others close by, that would pretty much rule out Adelphia's DNS records as an issue.

 

[Gonzogoose]

Actually my cousin lives about three houses down from me and uses Adelphia. That would probably work then, as far as her having the same DNS servers, right? She won't be home until this afternoon though.

Aside from that, should I contact Godaddy and make sure they're not blocking my IP? Why would they do that, any clue?

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[michigan]

Yeah, that should work with your cousin testing the site. You could even have your cousin run the ipconfig /all to confirm it's the same DNS servers you're using.

Sometimes, hosts have IDS (intrusion detection systems) or other agents running automatically - if they see unusual activity, SPAM, etc.... they can block addresses. Depending on their config, its possible (unlikely) but possible that while you were uploading some code/info - you entered your password wrong a few times, was trying to get to system directories, etc... anything that looks odd. Or maybe as the owner was logging in he/she triggered something. That's kinda reaching though - but you never know.

 

[Gonzogoose]

Ok, I'll have my cousin try it and contact godaddy and then I'll let you know from there. Thanks again for all your help.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Gonzogoose]

Well, I haven't heard back from my cousin yet, but I may not need to. I got the word from godaddy, but while I understand the basic message of being blocked, the rest of what they said is Greek to me:


Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, the IP address 70.35.209.85 is not eligible for unblocking. This IP address comes from a cable/dsl/dialup pool, or other dynamic IP pool. Connections coming from a pool are nearly impossible to trace back to the originating computer. It is for that very reason that cable/dsl/dialup pools are very commonly used by spammers and virus writers.

If you are an end-user in a cable/dsl/dialup pool, then you should configure your mail software to send outgoing mail through your ISP's dedicated outgoing mail server. The server is usually named 'smtp.example.com' or 'mail.example.com'. The ISP's support line will be able to give you more details. We have whitelisted the mail server of most major ISPs, so the mail will get through if sent through these systems.

If you are the server admin, you can create a reverse DNS PTR record for the IP address involved and map it back to the name given in the MX record. If there are multiple MX entries, the rDNS PTR record will need to be done for each. We can not assist with the creation of these records. Once created and propagated you can submit a request again so we can review the IP in question and determine if it is available for unblocking.

Please let us know if we can help you in any other way.

Learn more about our Shared, Virtual-Dedicated, and Dedicated hosting: Click here

Sincerely,

Lindsay C.
GoDaddy.com
Customer Service Representative


So what can I do?

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[michigan]

Dang . . .that's kinda messed up Brant! But at least you know where the block is at now.

First, I'm assuming the 70.35.209.85 must be your home PC IP address (which is handed out to you by Adelphia when you connect).

In their response, GoDaddy has basically said their system(s) has discovered someone/something in your IP range that has been SPAMing their servers/systems and has blocked that entire range (or as they called it 'pool') of IP addresses. So for example, Joe Smith's (who has Adelphia 70.35.209.16) computer was infected w/virus that copied his entire address book and started sending out mass SPAM, virus, etc.... GoDaddy's servers was on the receiving end of this malicious activity and blocked the IP address pool in attempts to protect their users. By pool, they simply mean if/when Joe Smith logs back into his PC, and lets say he now has an new dynamically assigned IP address from Adelphia (70.35.209.114) GoDaddy is still protected - cause they're blocking anything between 70.35.209.1 thru 70.35.209.254, and sadly enough you fall in-betweeen that block.

Here's where it's gonna get a little tricky.
An MX (Mail eXchange) record simply shows what server handles email for a specific domain. A PTR is a quick (PoinTeR) record that points back to a domain, and rDNS PTR is simply a reverse lookup (IP address to the domain/mail server). However, all that greek talk in their last paragraph really doesn't apply to you or this situation. Those instructions would be applicable if you were attempting to get comicavalanche.com unblocked -- or email sent from comicavalache unblocked. That is not the case. You're trying to get 'yourself' unblocked.

Which now points to Adelphia. Somehow, you'll need to contact Adelphia's support and detail GoDaddy is blocking their traffic to specific sites. It's then going to be up to Adelphia's tech support to contact GoDaddy's tech support and resolve this issue.

*If I can make one suggestion, try to escalate to their level 2 or 3 network support. Once you have this level of support you may want to include GoDaddy's email response. The last time I called a 1st level tech support about an MX/DNS issue, they asked if I wanted to change my Outlook password! I was like WTF? I think the also asked if I had any USB devices. Not to bash first level tech supporters, but this is more involved then they can typically deal with.

 

[Gonzogoose]

Understood. I've worked in tech support at a few levels (in printers and cell phones) so I know what you're talking about.

Man, that does suck. Okay, off to contact Adelphia then. Thanks, I would have never gotten this far with out everyone's help here.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Gonzogoose]

Oh, by the way, my cousin could access it fine, and her servers were the same as mine, though I'm guessing her IP address isn't in the same range.


Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Gonzogoose]

And tonight I'm not near a phone, so I tried online support and they brushed me off telling me they couldn't do anything about other servers blocking their IP addresses. SHEESH!

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Gonzogoose]

Well, after running into a brick wall with Adelphia I contacted godaddy again and after looking at my tracert they told me that the range of IP addresses were blocked from email but not from accessing the sites. I then explained to them more emphatically that I can't access the site, but they haven't replied yet.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[Serbtastic]

Have your cousin run a tracert to your site and you run another one and post them both here for comparison.

 

[Gonzogoose]

Actually, they (godaddy) have escalated the issue to the next level of their support. It seems like an error on their end. I went through some troubleshooting with them and it doesn't appear to be on my end.

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[michigan]

Yeah!! Next level support rocks!
I've been watching to see how this issue turns out. Sounds like you're getting there.

 

[Gonzogoose]

I sure hope so. This has been a monumental headache!

Brant W. Fowler

http://www.brantfowler.com/blog.blog.html

 

[topwebdog]

I'm interested in knowing if this issue has been solved. I am having what appears to be the same problem with Adelphia users. We use name based virtual hosts on my server, and for some reason, as of last Thursday, my client on Adelphia can no longer view any sites on my server. Nothing has changed other than the fact that they can no longer view anything on my server. Tonight I got word that two more people located in Ohio are having the same problem viewing sites on our server. I'm trying to find out who their ISP is. I use GoDaddy to register my client URLs, and ZoneEdit for DNS. Adelphia was contacted by my client and they have told him that it is not a problem on their end. The client also contacted Microsoft support who said it was not a problem with his computer, after having him check all his settings.

When the client did a nslookup from his computer, it showed an incorrect IP. (We figure DNS problem) My system administrator asked the client to change the nameserver, and we are waiting to hear back to see if changing the nameserver enabled the client to get the right IP when doing a nslookup and if not, instructed him to add the correct IP and vhost name to his c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS file as a temporary fix. Unfortunately this client is in the process of moving, and computer is down for a week, and now we are having the same problem with the friends of the other client.

Thanks for any insight.

Topwebdog