As of a few days ago it seems my Internet connection has been unable to access a few sites and has been acting weird. It seems to have started one day while I was on Xbox Live where I got disconnected and my connection went dead. When it happens I can remedy the situation by restarting the modem/router. Although restarting everything got my connection working again, what's different this time is I'm unable to visit certain sites. A few are major websites like Microsoft sites and the smaller sites like w3schools are some of the ones I time out on. I'm able to visit sites like LPA with no problems and pretty much any other site seems to work just fine. It doesn't seem to matter what device I use (tested on PC, Mac & iPod). This leads me to believe it's either a problem with my modem/router or ISP but I want to know if it could be anything else interfering. I did a system restore to a date before all of this happened but nothing seems to have changed so if anyone has any insight as to what may be going on, I'd appreciate it. Thanks. edit: It looks like I can still access the sites through a web proxy thing (those things people use to browse anonymously). I've stumbled on a few more websites that aren't working for me: microsoft.com (without the www before it), xbox.com/xboxlive.com, playstation.com, nin.com, break.com.
Windows XP Home Edition, SP2. I've tried these sites on a PC with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome and on a Mac with Safari. All produce the same results. It seems like my inability to connect to sites like Microsoft/Xbox that it is also hindering me from being able to connect to Xbox Live.
Try plugging directly into the modem with your computer and see if you're still having issues. That way we can rule out the router right away if need be.
I've tried connecting directly to the modem and I'm still having issues. edit: After testing it again it seems by connecting directly to the modem on a Mac I can visit those sites, but doing the same on the PC doesn't. None of my wireless devices (including the Mac) can access the sites via my router though.
May I please have the router brand and model number please, see if you can update the firmware on the router. I initially thought that there might be some kind of security in place on your PC that may have been blocking certain sites, perhaps via a Virus Firewall or something. But the problem seems to be the router, but odd how directly connecting to the Modem is okay with the Mac but produces bad results on PC. If all else fails try esetting the router, that may do the trick. ::Be cautious:: try to remember/backup the router settings. please get back to me as soon as you can, late.
I use a Linksys Wireless-B Broadband Router, model BEFW11S4. It's kind of old. I thought it was the router as well but my router doesn't feature any type of url blocking as far as I can tell. I even checked the hosts file and the URLs are not blocked. Everything seems in order. What's weird though is I remember checking w3schools while doing some web work, took a break to play my 360, noticed I got disconnected at some point after finishing my game, went back to work and noticed w3schools was no longer accessible. I haven't been able to connect since.
(Yes, I know I'm double posting ) This is how my connection seems to be acting (I been using nin.com as my test URL since it's the shortest ) as of recently: - Directly connecting my modem to my Mac allows me to connect to the site without issues. - Directly connecting my modem to my PC does not allow me to connect to the site at all. - I cannot connect to the site at all when ran through my router. - I cannot connect to the site at all via iPod Touch via my router. - I can connect to the site via iPod Touch via another person's router. - Tested in IE, Firefox and Safari. According to my ISP's system status, they've been dealing with some technical difficulties, sometimes causing certain websites to load slowly or not at all, but judging from their reports, it's not as constant as my problem seems to be. I would blame my router but everything else about it is working perfectly fine. Also the direct connect to the modem and ability to access sites via web proxy mean it can't be my router, can it? Ehh... if anyone has any suggestions, I'd greatly appreciate them. edit: I don't know what I did but I seem to have fixed the problem. Thanks Neil and LJ for your help. I appreciate it.