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Google wifi blocking some websites, but not others

xpetes
Community Member

I have google wifi at home. Suddenly some websites are blocked, but other work.  Websites that dont work  include:

www.unted.com

www.delta.com

www.backcountry.com

www.expedia.com

www.travelocity.com

www.hilton.com

 

google.com, yahoo.com and most other websites do work. But for the ones that dont work, I get the following error:

Access Denied

You don't have permission to access "http://www.united.com/" on this server.

Reference #18.c49419b8.1691959115.b484cb6

This just started out of the blue.

I have comcast/xfinity cable, hooked into an Arris T25 cable modem, then the google wifi is downstream of that. If I remove the google wifi and plug a desktop PC directly into the Arris modem, the websites work.  And if Im using my cell phone connected to the google wifi network, I get the same error, but if I turn off wifi on my cell phone and go directly over the cellular networks, the websites connect just fine.  So something between the Arris modem and the google wifi is suddenly blocking certain websites. 

I spent an exasperating two hours on the phone, first with Comcast (they said its a google wifi problem), the google support (they sent me back to Comcast).  I got nowhere again. I even called Arris customer service, they were no help.

I've turned on and off ipv6, and the same with UPnP.  I've done factory resets on the cable modem and the same with the google wifi system.   Same issue, 100% repeatable.

I've cleared caches, cookies, tried 4 different browsers, a desktop PC, tablet and cell phone, all have the same issue, 100% repeatable.

 

I'm too frustrated to call google customer service again right now, hoping someone has a magic silver bullet idea here?   Some kind of firewall thingy?  FYI, the Arris surfboard modem does not have any setable settings on its admin setup screens, so there is nothing I can change there, any settings would have to be made in the google wifi settings, or I maybe could ask Comcast to change something if I knew what I was asking them (they were no help when I called).

 

Again, we did nothing on our end, this problem magically appeared yesterday morning (8/12). Hoping for someone smart out there who can help!!!

 

 

1 Recommended Answer

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Yeah, your desktop PC has a different MAC (48-bit globally-unique hardware) address than your primary/router Google WiFi unit's MAC address, so it will get a different IP address assigned by Xfinity than the one your Google WiFi unit has. That's actually what made me suspect the IP address being assigned to your Google WiFi unit may be the problem.

If you don't want to spend time trying to get Comcast/Xfinity to try this, there's another option – but, I'll warn you, it's fairly tedious. Since you have Google WiFi, all of the units are the same physical hardware design. If you factory reset your system, you can set up one of your secondary units as the new primary (the one connected to your cable modem via Ethernet). Since that other unit will have a different MAC address, it should get a different IP address assigned without you having to get on the phone with Comcast. It will still mean spending some time messing around with your system, moving units from one place to another, and reconfiguring them, though.

View Recommended Answer in original post

6 REPLIES 6

xpetes
Community Member

I'll add a few more clues here.

 

If I try in "incognito" mode in  a browser, the problem persists.

But if I launch a VPN, the problem goes away (but why should I have to pay for a VPN?)

Also if I open a cmd.com window, I can ping the servers for the websites that wont open (eg "Ping united.com" and I get responses.

Almost seems like my IP address was put on some kind of blocked list???  This is all bizarre.

 

 

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Hello @xpetes 

This is a new one on me. I think you may be on to something with the IP address being blocked idea. I would call Comcast back and ask them to assign you a new IP address. Technically, they are "dynamic" (temporary), but I'm on Comcast/Xfinity as well, and I've had the same one for years.

If you are feeling technically savvy, you might try using "curl" to investigate – or perhaps just the developer tools in your browser. That might require understanding some low-level stuff, though (TLS and/or HTTP), so I don't want to send you down that path if you aren't already familiar with things at those layers.

xpetes
Community Member

Hi Michael, before I spend an hour getting through to them and trying this - I'd like you to consider the fact that when I plug my desktop PC directly into the comcast modem, the websites all load. Its only when the google nest is between my devices (laptop, deskop, tablet, phone, it doesnt matter, it happens with them all) and the comcast modem this issue occurs.  So do you still think this idea is worth trying?

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

Yeah, your desktop PC has a different MAC (48-bit globally-unique hardware) address than your primary/router Google WiFi unit's MAC address, so it will get a different IP address assigned by Xfinity than the one your Google WiFi unit has. That's actually what made me suspect the IP address being assigned to your Google WiFi unit may be the problem.

If you don't want to spend time trying to get Comcast/Xfinity to try this, there's another option – but, I'll warn you, it's fairly tedious. Since you have Google WiFi, all of the units are the same physical hardware design. If you factory reset your system, you can set up one of your secondary units as the new primary (the one connected to your cable modem via Ethernet). Since that other unit will have a different MAC address, it should get a different IP address assigned without you having to get on the phone with Comcast. It will still mean spending some time messing around with your system, moving units from one place to another, and reconfiguring them, though.

xpetes
Community Member

WOW!   So.. first I tried calling comcast, the only thing they were willing to do was reset my modem.  I asked about assigning me a new IP address and they said its done automatically and I can just reset my modem and that happens.  Basically I got nowhere (and wasted nearly an hour). Then I did what you suggested, I did a system reset, then took one of the other 3 pucks and moved it to where the one was that had been connected to the comcast router.  BUT - it would not connect to the internet... I kept trying, reset it multiple times and finally walked away in frurstration. I came back a couple of hours later and it not only connected right away, it let me go through the setup flawlessly, and lo and behold, the PROBLEM IS SOLVED!

 

So, MichaelP you are a genius.  But I still dont understand why this issue happened. Can you elaborate for my curiousity?  Was it some interim internet router that somehow blacklisted our IP address? And why only certain websites, or is that those websites get routed through that interim internet router and other don't?  Basically you did what comcast, google, and arris customer support could not do, so thank you so much! 

MichaelP
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

I'm so glad to hear you got this working!

I wish Comcast was better at this sort of thing, but... they aren't. A modem "reset" doesn't typically result in a new IP address assignment – that is done by equipment back in their network, and the assignment is tied to the MAC address of the device connected to the modem in your home (e.g., your primary/router Google WiFi unit). The modem is just in between those two.

I'm sorry the Google WiFi system reset and reconfiguration was so frustrating, too – a cable modem power cycle somewhere in there might have helped, but it sounds like you got it working eventually.

As for what happened, it looks like all of the sites you listed are backed up by the Akamai content delivery network (CDN). Rather than having client traffic go directly to their servers, these companies are paying Akamai to handle the bulk of that traffic for them. This includes various types of security checking, and one of the things Akamai does is watch for suspicious activity from client IP addresses. If it sees certain kinds of behavior coming from a client IP address, it can add that address to a block list that will stop requests to any of the web sites backed by Akamai. Here's a web site you can use to see whether your current IP address is considered "suspicious": https://www.akamai.com/us/en/clientrep-lookup/ – but note that there doesn't appear to be a way to check your old IP address, only the new one you have that is now working. CDNs like this are how the internet scales up, and Akamai is one of the biggest, so when they block an IP address like this, it can impact a lot of web sites.

So, the question is: did you get that old IP address assigned recently, and it was blocked because of something the previous customer had done? Or, do you have something in one of your systems (e.g., a virus or other malware) that is performing automated attacks? If it's the former, you should be good. If it's the latter, you'll know when your new IP address gets blocked again. Investigating that is beyond the scope of something I'd be comfortable trying to help with.