strange connectivity problems

[mikeEd]

This is a very strange problem I've had a few times with my ISP. I'm not looking for a solution, but just wondering what could possibly be causing it at their end. Last time a friend phoned them up (he had exactly the same problem) and they did admit it was a problem at their end saying they were "working on it."

Basically, the problem affects access to certain websites that require some kind of user authentication. When browsing my yahoo inbox for example, I can get in but not view emails. In a different webmail account I can read emails but not send; in another I can send but not add attachments etc. Whenever I try to do any of these things I just get server hangups.

I was just wondering what could possibly cause that? It's not that access to entire servers is down; just specific pages. I wouldn't have thought it would be possible to do this deliberately from an ISP/router, let alone unintentionally?

 

[rjs]

Some ISPs use proxy servers. Even though your browser doesn't point to their proxy servers, you still may be going through their proxy. Depending on the proxy server they are using, how it is configured and how busy it is, I have seen it cause the types of problems you describe.

 

[mikeEd]

But how can that be? Surely all they're getting from me is a series of packets? They don't know what http requests I'm making.