Why are these sites receiving network timeouts for me, but not for others?

Question

I've kind of ran into an ugly snag. I developed a website for a client a few years back, and since then they've transferred their site to a different domain name provider and host. Now they want some updates, but when I try to access their site I get a Network Timeout (the page just tries to load for a few minutes, then firefox shows a Network Timeout error). I can access the site via a proxy, but proxies kinda suck and don't support everything, plus I'm a little paranoid about sending sensitive data through a proxy, not to mention I don't see how that would help me with FTP access and what not. I'm not exactly sure where along the line this problem is occurring... is my ISP blocking it, is the webserver blocking me, is it my router, or what's going on? I know of two sites that do this, and I think they're hosted by the same people.

The sites are http://fvringette.com/ and http://damngoodtimes.com/

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@MarkusQ: traceroute for fvringette.com (which turns out to be the same as with damngoodtimes.com)

traceroute: Warning: Multiple interfaces found; using 134.117.14.35 @ hme0
traceroute to 76.74.225.90 (76.74.225.90), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  unix-gate.physics.carleton.ca (134.117.14.1)  0.973 ms  0.513 ms  0.514 ms
 2  10.50.254.3 (10.50.254.3)  0.437 ms  0.385 ms  0.351 ms
 3  10.30.33.1 (10.30.33.1)  0.488 ms  0.394 ms  0.370 ms
 4  10.30.55.1 (10.30.55.1)  0.396 ms  0.416 ms  0.391 ms
 5  134.117.254.242 (134.117.254.242)  0.708 ms  0.720 ms  0.704 ms
 6  10.30.57.1 (10.30.57.1)  1.338 ms  1.221 ms  1.237 ms
 7  kolker.fcican.com (207.34.252.249)  1.464 ms  1.544 ms  1.459 ms
 8  * * *
 9  154.11.3.17 (154.11.3.17)  7.355 ms  7.393 ms  7.426 ms
10  oc48.so-2-0-3.van-hc21e-cor-1.peer1.net (216.187.114.137)  62.762 ms  62.838 ms  62.625 ms
11  oc48.pos4-0.van-hc21e-dis-1.peer1.net (216.187.89.253)  62.795 ms  63.238 ms  62.893 ms
12  64.69.91.245 (64.69.91.245)  64.103 ms  62.908 ms  63.266 ms
13  64.69.91.245 (64.69.91.245)  63.094 ms !H  63.072 ms !H  63.173 ms !H

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64.69.91.245 - Geo Information

IP Address  64.69.91.245
Host   64.69.91.245
Location  CA CA, Canada
City   Vancouver, BC v6b4n5
Organization  Peer1 Internet Bandwidth & Server Co-Location Faci
ISP   Peer 1 Network
AS Number  AS13768
Latitude  49°25'00" North
Longitude  123°13'33" West
Distance  9281.29 km (5767.13 miles)

64.69.91.245 - Whois Information

OrgName:    Peer 1 Network Inc. 
OrgID:      PER1
Address:    75 Broad Street
Address:    2nd Floor
City:       New York
StateProv:  NY
PostalCode: 10004
Country:    US

NetRange:   64.69.64.0 - 64.69.95.255 
CIDR:       64.69.64.0/19 
NetName:    PEER1-BLK-01
NetHandle:  NET-64-69-64-0-1
Parent:     NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType:    Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.PEER1.NET
NameServer: NS2.PEER1.NET
Comment:    
RegDate:    2000-04-12
Updated:    2007-08-29

RTechHandle: ZP55-ARIN
RTechName:   Peer1 Network Inc. 
RTechPhone:  +1-604-683-7747
RTechEmail:  [email protected] 

OrgAbuseHandle: NSA-ARIN
OrgAbuseName:   Peer 1 Network AUP Enforcement 
OrgAbusePhone:  +1-604-484-2588
OrgAbuseEmail:  [email protected]

OrgTechHandle: ZP55-ARIN
OrgTechName:   Peer1 Network Inc. 
OrgTechPhone:  +1-604-683-7747
OrgTechEmail:  [email protected]

OrgName:    Peer1 Internet Bandwidth & Server Co-Location Facilities 
OrgID:      PIBSCF
Address:    2100-555 W. hastings St.
City:       Vancouver
StateProv:  BC
PostalCode: V6B 4N5
Country:    CA

NetRange:   64.69.91.240 - 64.69.91.255 
CIDR:       64.69.91.240/28 
NetName:    PEER1-GVLANPRI-01
NetHandle:  NET-64-69-91-240-1
Parent:     NET-64-69-64-0-1
NetType:    Reassigned
Comment:    
RegDate:    2002-03-14
Updated:    2002-03-14

RTechHandle: MT1763-ARIN
RTechName:   Teolis, Mark 
RTechPhone:  +1-604-683-7747
RTechEmail:  [email protected] 

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-04-06 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

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It occured to me that it may be more useful if I do a trace from my home computer, to fvringette.com rather than from some random computer which may actually be able to connect. Output of tracert:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  <snip>
  2    24 ms    24 ms    23 ms  70.71.106.1
  3    24 ms    24 ms    24 ms  rd1bb-ge5-0-0-1.vc.shawcable.net [64.59.149.2]
  4    25 ms    29 ms    29 ms  rc2bb-tge0-15-0-0.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.137]
  5    28 ms    30 ms    29 ms  rc2wh-tge0-15-1-0.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.121]
  6    25 ms    24 ms    24 ms  204.239.129.213
  7    26 ms    29 ms    29 ms  oc48.pos3-0.van-spenc-dis-1.peer1.net [216.187.89.250]
  8    27 ms    29 ms    30 ms  64.69.91.245
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.

After this all requests just keep timing out. It's the same IP, 64.69.91.245 that seems to be causing the problem... does this mean that I'm just unlucky and got a dead server that won't forward my request? I have no idea how these things work.

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I can ping 64.69.91.245, but not telnet 64.69.91.245. It says 'connect failed', not 'connection refused'... I can't think of why it would fail for me, but no one else?

Answer 1

Try doing a traceroute for starters.

The "!H"s on line 13 mean that the host (64.69.91.245) is unreachable--but not all the time (see line 12). This looks at a glance to be further than your ISP, maybe at theirs.

Next step would be to figure out who that is...

Answer 2

My guess is either their hardware is faulty, or that they are blocking you inadvertently.

Some networks have the policies to block telnet connections/packets on the premise that they are unencrypted and only allow SSH.

Of course they may be blocking you for another reason.

Answer 3

Perhaps you should discuss it with them. It may be the case that they have blocked your IP address because you've been trying to telnet into their servers all day. :)