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Nest Wifi blocking website inexplicably? Need to unblock

Fozcat
Community Member

Hi 

I'm having a certain website blocked by my nest wifi router.  (https://wwsimstore.com/view/) It seems to be the same type of problem as these two posts:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Nest-Wifi/Google-Nest-Wifi-blocking-certain-sites-how-to-unbl...

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Nest-Wifi/Nest-Wifi-Blocks-certain-sites-troubleshooting-didn...

I only have one modem and the Nest Wifi router (so no double NAT issues).  I have changed my Nest wifi DNS to alternate settings (1.1.1.1) and get the same result.  I also have plugged my laptop directly into my cable modem bypassing the Nest router altogether and the site connects fine so it's definitely a Nest issue.  I have rebooted the modem, router and all computers.  I get the same blocked site result on wired and wifi devices that are connected to the Nest wifi router (wifi laptop, wifi ipad and hardwired desktop).  I do not have family blocking turned on.  I do not have ipv6 enabled.  I tried using the Brave browser with TOR (which is basically a VPN) and the site connects fine (presumably because the traffic is encrypted and not passing through the Nest.) I have no trouble with any other sites.  My neighbor who has the same cable modem provider is able to access the site fine so it's not the ISP.

I'm at a loss for why the Nest wifi router is blocking this site.  I should note that it worked about a month ago.  So this is recent.  I'm running Windows 11 on the desktop with the latest Chrome and iOS on the ipad (all updated).

Any help would be appreciated. 

 

7 REPLIES 7

PatrickP_Viking
Gold Product Expert
Gold Product Expert

Hey @Fozcat .

I can access the site without issue and have the Nest Wifi Pro mesh setup so this issue is specific to your network and not the product as a whole.

The issue is likely the DNS server you are being routed through. Nest Wifi uses the Google DNS Servers but sometimes is forced to use the ISPs DNS Servers when you use the "Automatic" or "ISP's DNS" settings. Even though you and your neighbor have the same ISP doesn't mean you are using the same DNS Server and those servers can change depending on traffic redirects, congestion, etc.; your neighbor may possibly have something like port forwarding enabled as well. Some DNS Servers, like Cloudfare, also have issues with some sites.

Turn on IPv6 in the Google Home app and configure the Custom DNS for BOTH IPv4 and IPv6 via the link below, save, restart the network, and try accessing the site again.

Google Public DNS - Get Started 

Let me know if it resolves the issue or not.

Hi. Wanted to thank you for the reply.  I did experiment with the dns being the issue but it was not.  I tried several different dns servers and my neighbor did the same. He was able to load the site under all of them, I was not. He did not have any special port forwarding and I asked a few other friends to try with the same result.  The issue was certainly with my specific google router. I did try enabling and disabling ipv6 with several network restarts and tried different combos of dns custom settings all to no avail.  I resigned to giving up, then one day last week (without changing anything) the site became reachable.  I do not have an answer why other than I learned the site had recently "updated" their servers.  There was no change to any of the ip addresses but that may have played a role? Perhaps my router had cached a setting or something that didn't work when the site updated and it just took some time for my router to refresh and then be able to load the site again?  No idea.  I just know the problem took care of itself somehow so I'll chalk it up to a google mesh glitch. Thanks again for the suggestions. 

Hey @Fozcat .

From the additional information you provided, it points to the site blocking your traffic and not the Nest device since it resolved after the site performed an update. These types of blocks are typically a security feature of the site based on browser version, connecting device settings (i.e. laptop needed an update, software used), validating new hardware/hardware it doesn't recognize like with new releases, or any number of security based checks. Sometimes it is because they haven't tested something yet; I have issues accessing my bank site whenever I get a new ChromeOS Beta update. Since the previous sessions are cached in the browser settings and not the Nest device, it also points to the site itself.

Glad you got it working after the site updated. Let us know if you need any further assistance.

Hey folks, 

Thanks for lending a hand, @PatrickP_Viking.
@Fozcat, I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Abi

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi Fozcat,

Chiming in to see if you still need assistance with this. Hope the previous post helped. Let us know if you have additional questions ― we'd love to help.

Best,
Abi

Fozcat
Community Member

Thanks.  I think we can close this thread because the problem resolved, but I still don't know how it resolved.  I just wish there was more of an answer for others because after researching this topic I found that I'm not the only one with Nest WiFi this has happened to.  Others have had the same blocking with other "normal" sites as well.  It could have been that one site blocking me specifically as mentioned above, but that's not likely since the site was working for others but not for me both before their site updated and after and I didn't have any changes to my system on my end.  My best guess it that it was some latent or cached setting in the Nest WiFi router that resolved after a couple days. 

AbigailF
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello Fozcat,


I’m happy to hear it’s all working now. The example provided by PatrickP_Viking about site blocking based on browser version and device setting is most likely the reason why. As we got our resolution here, I'm going to mark this thread as resolved. I'll be locking this thread if we won't hear back from you in 24 hrs. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

Cheers,
Abi