strange problem

[adrian916]

I have several routers at remote sites that i access for
management via internet explorer. Earlier this week,
there was a problem on the internet several providers
upstream resulting in some routing problems. At this
time, there were two routers that i could not access via
IE although all the others were fine. I could ping the
routers and set up VPN's to them, but not log on to view
properties (page cannot be displayed). I did find however
that if I set up a vpn to my head office and used their
gateway, i could access the routers as normal. The
internet problem has now been rectified, but i am still
unable to access these two routers directly. (people in
other locations can)

I've deleted cookies/temp files/ flush dns etc in case it
was a negative cache, checked for spyware, viruses etc
all to no avail.

Does anyone have any idea why I have connectivity to them
but can't view the page? It's unlikely to be the routers
themselves as it's possible from other locations, and
other routers are accessible from my machine.

I have no idea whether the fault lies with IE/my
computer, or a routing/dns/internet problem, so I'll post
in other areas as well - any suggestions welcome.

 

[Charlie Tame]

Have they somehow ended up in your "Hosts" file? Has your firewall done
something odd? Is there any reason that the routers' firewalls may have
decided to block your address? Have you got anything in IE "Proxy" settings
that shouldn't be there?

Really haven't got anything positive but just a couple of ideas to check. I
appreciate nothing "Should" have changed but sometimes....

Charlie

 

[adrian916]

Thanks for the thoughts, Charlie and also the swift reply.
Unfortunately it has thrown up nothing new. Nothing in
the hosts file, firewalls/filters at both ends are okay,
no proxy settings and the routing tables look okay.
This is what makes it so strange - I'm beginning to
wonder if there is still a problem out on the net that
hasn't been discovered/solved yet.

 

[Charlie Tame]

It's early in the morning for me <g>

I still can't help thinking that this sounds "Like" some of the odd faults
that get reported here quite often where IE is doing something entirely
inexplicable.

You might think that repairing IE would be a simple suggestion but in my
experience it isn't because it doesn't go back to any sort of default
"Settings"... so in the case of many odd problems it really does work (in so
far as it checks and fixes the system)but achieves nothing if you see what I
mean.

Have you tried putting those routers in the "Trusted" zone? I am wondering
if the security settings (whichever zone is in use) are doing something
which maybe they shouldn't, or at least unexpected. Often the Trusted zone
is a quick way to check rather than messing with individual settings in
whatever zone applies. I appreciate you're using VPN but again who knows?

For example if you had Netscape installed and it worked (a scenario numerous
folks do have) we'd be fairly sure it's not a fault elsewhere in the OS, and
seeing the posts here that does seem to be the case quite often. I'm not
suggesting that, simply saying I see it happen a bit.

You do know that one of the latest patches has removed the URL
login/password option (where the @ sign in the URL no longer works). Do you
think that may have some bearing? Again I am not suggesting it "Should"
have, rather that it unintentionally "Could" have <g> Not being a regular
user of VPN myself I am not really familiar with what things might
interact... I assume these are the same routers as the ones that work so it
shouldn't happen but again who knows what's in between?

Damn, I have to go to work <g>

Charlie

 

[adrian916]

trusted zones didn't work either. URL's shouldn't be a
problem - we access the routers via IP address in the
address bar then log on with a standard user name and
password. I've even tried a system restore on the off
chance, but, wouldn't you know, it had no effect.
I suspect it's one of those problems that will either
sort itself out, never get sorted, or i'll stumble across
a solution by accident/without knowing.

Thanks for your time in replying.
Adrian

 

[Robert Aldwinckle]

I could ping the routers

Try some more comprehensive tests.

<title>KB314825 - How to Troubleshoot Black Hole Router Issues</title>

 

[Charlie Tame]

I know that feeling. Yes I didn't really expect anything to "Work" but worth
a try, often I get reminded of stuff I've either forgotten about or thought
I had done and then it's a slap on the forehead and duh!.

Stay tuned though, someone may still come up with the perfect answer. It's
not so much the problem as knowing "Why" is it <g>

Charlie

 

[adrian916]

thanks for all the input on this, but I now really believe
that the problem lies on the internet, probably a legacy
of the original upstream problem. At the time of the
original problem, I also monitored the situation from
home, using a different pc and ISP and could not log on
from there either.
Now that the problem is supposedly fixed, I still cannot
access the web interface from home either. I have also
just done a clean install of windows 98 on a separate
machine at home (admittedly sharing an internet
connection) and that cannot access the router either. As
this is now 2 different locations, 2 different ISP's, 3
different machines and 3 different operating systems, I
find it hard to believe that either the O/S, machine or IE
could be at fault. It seems to be a strange routing
problem that allows pings, tracert and vpn connections,
but not a direct web interface

Thanks again for all the suggestions - it's always good to
be aware of all possibilities.

Adrian