website kills internet connection

Question

Level 1

142 points

website kills internet connection

probably anyone who reads this will think the same thing that i do: this is not possible. but it is, so, here it is.

I have an account at Bank of America. I can login to their website using my login and I can see my balance. When I click to view details, however, it begins to go to a page, but it never gets there, and (the reason i'm writing this here) it kills my internet connection. Not just my connection on my computer...the connection for the whole house. Every single time I attempt to check my account details, everyone in the house loses their internet connection. the only solution to this is to turn off/on the dsl modem and netgear wifi router. yes, i know, this is bizarre. the bank of america people had never heard it before either. it happens in safari, and firefox. it doesn't kill my wifi signal....just the internet signal running thru it. clearing the bank's cookies and all the cache doesn't help either. restarting safari doesnt' help. where does the problem lie? browser? leopard? modem? website? it worked a week ago and i'm not aware of any changes since then.

MacBook Pro 2.2GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Mar 10, 2008 4:00 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 10, 2008 4:48 PM in response to mark olson 3

I'd vote for browser.
Someone at the bank's IT department did an update to their page, which by the way is probably an exploder designed page, and now you need Internet Exploder to bank with.
See if you can work your page with a peecee using exploder.

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Answer 2

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Mar 10, 2008 8:11 PM in response to mark olson 3

If you need to cycle the DSL modem, it sounds like something in the BoA datastream is killing it.

If you could just power cycle the router, I'd put the blame there instead.

Bottom line is you should probably contact your ISP and/or check with the vendor of your DSL modem to see if there is a firmware upgrade available.

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Answer 3

Mar 10, 2008 8:18 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

It only does it at the bank's page?
If so, I wouldn't blame hardware.

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Answer 4

mark olson 3 Author

Level 1

142 points

Mar 10, 2008 8:21 PM in response to Donald Palmer

yes, only the bank's page. i can surf to 5000 other sites with no problem and each and everytime i get to that one point within my bank account, it kills it instantly. no spinning rainbows. no frozen apps. just a dead internet.

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Answer 5

mark olson 3 Author

Level 1

142 points

Mar 10, 2008 8:36 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

ok, so i just ran a more detailed test. cycling the netgear 108MBps router fixes it. cycling the dsl modem does not. so its got something to do with the website and the router.

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Answer 6

Mar 10, 2008 8:36 PM in response to mark olson 3

I still bet on the banks' crapy written for IE app.
Find a dosbox and try navigating to your account and see what happens.
You probably can find an old IE for Mac version somewhere if need be.

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Answer 7

mark olson 3 Author

Level 1

142 points

Mar 10, 2008 9:57 PM in response to Dogcow-Moof

so i downloaded the latest firmware update for the netgear router and that fixed the problem, so i'll never know if it would have worked with IE, but I don't care cuz i'd never use IE.

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Answer 8

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Mar 11, 2008 2:38 AM in response to mark olson 3

There should be nothing an app can do to crash a router, a mater borne out by the fact that newer router firmware fixed the issue for you.

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Answer 9

mark olson 3 Author

Level 1

142 points

Mar 11, 2008 2:42 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

yes, i would normally say an app can't crash a router either. i think i started my post along those lines. i would still say that bank of america's website crashed my router. i mean, no other website would do this, so it did 'cause' it to crash, wouldn't you?

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Answer 10

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Mar 11, 2008 2:44 AM in response to mark olson 3

No, the bug in the router caused it to crash.

If say the BoA sent 10 bytes of value 240 in a row, and that caused the router to crash, it's not BoA's fault they sent 10 bytes of value 240 in a row.

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Answer 11

mark olson 3 Author

Level 1

142 points

Mar 11, 2008 2:54 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

I don't think I know enough about data is sent/received and how routers work to actually have an informed opinion of this. if there's nothing qualitatively different about that data...then i'd agree the router was flawed. but i BOA's site is the only site on the internet that would have that effect, one may be justified in claiming it was caused by BOA, even though it may technically still be a router flaw. I guess. 🙂 I'm just glad its fixed.

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Answer 12

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

36,179 points

Mar 11, 2008 2:57 AM in response to mark olson 3

Let's simplify matters and say if BoA's site crashed all routers you'd leave a swath of destruction across the entire Internet anytime anyone visited their site; the fact that it was your router that crashed and Netgear already had a firmware update that fixed the bug says it was obviously a bug in Netgear's router firmware.

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Answer 13

mark olson 3 Author

Level 1

142 points

Mar 11, 2008 3:15 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

can't argue that one.

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