Firewall blocking only 1 site?

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Firewall blocking only 1 site?

On my MacPro I cannot open one specific site though Safari, Firefox or OmniWeb: they all respond with "time out" (It does not matter if I use IP address or URL). From this machine, I can ping the site, it responds normally. I can open the site normally from another machine but this uses a different network. I have no problems opening other sites from the MacPro.

So why does this happen - a URL specific block somewhere?

PowerMac G5 (10.4.11) | MacPro (10.5.8), Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Nov 21, 2010 6:29 AM

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Answer 1

Paul Vail

Level 1

144 points

Nov 23, 2010 6:08 AM in response to Bob Aalsma

Your firewall settings should show that, if such was the case.

You stated another 'network' can see the site just fine. Is that another network, or another computer on your network? Another network implies other devices upstream, such as different routers, gateways, possibly firewalls.

You don't state if you have tried your Mac on that network. Is YOUR network router or other upstream devices employing a firewall? Is the site Internet-Explorer-only (or some other mindless web-lacky nonsense that happens way too often)?

Just some thoughts for you to explore. Kindly report back so we can learn from what you discover.

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Answer 2

Bob Aalsma Author

Level 1

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Nov 23, 2010 8:00 AM in response to Paul Vail

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the response. The fact that I simply don't know where to look for this "error" makes this more annoying than anything else...

Anyway, in response:
The MacPro is connected to both networks.
Primary network is meant for Internet connection; secondary is for internal connections such as shared disks.
However, when I disconnect the primary connection, the MacPro uses the secondary network for Internet access (yes, through completely different hardware) and in that case, the "blocked" site is indeed reached and shown without problems. Re-connecting the primary and refresh: time-out.
I think this answers the Internet-Explorer-only part of your questions.

The primary network consists of MacPro wired to AirPort wired to ISP modem; as far as I can tell all firewalls have the setting "allow all incoming traffic".

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Answer 3

Paul Vail

Level 1

144 points

Nov 23, 2010 7:39 PM in response to Bob Aalsma

Well, that is a bit of a puzzle. Maybe we're looking at this wrong.

You can access the site from one network but not another -- using the same browser and machine.

Is it possible the site has set a cookie or something is cached in the browser that poisoned things? What happens if you try to get to the site on the angry network -- blow away your browser cookies/cache, and try again?

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Answer 4

Bob Aalsma Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2010 1:32 AM in response to Paul Vail

Yes, it is.

On a Unix level, the site responds to pinging from the primary network, which I take to mean that some form of connection is possible through the primary network.

If I use the secondary connection with the same software (Safari, Firefox and OmniWeb), I do get results. I take this to mean that there is no problem with cookies and related stuff.

I have tried your suggestion, and again got a time out.

I don't know how the RSS mechanism works; I've tried reading a RSS feed from the site and the Mail programme also shows "time-out" but if the feed in fact is re-routed from Safari then this may not be not extra information.

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