Help on peculiar connection timeout

kotokomauri · 2010-05-11 14:27:43

I've recently been unable to connect to a site (www.bdm.nsw.gov.au) that I used to access all the time. Now I always get a connection timed out message.

The problem is independent of the browser I try to connect with: firefox, chromium, w3m, lynx, all have the same problem.

I have a second machine running debian (etch). Same problem there.

I have a third machine running OSX 10.4. No problem connecting to the site with firefox or safari.

I'm on a dialup connection. (Yes, arch on dialup. Don't let anybody tell you it can't be done.) Both the arch and the debian systems are pretty minimal. Can't ping the site from any of my machines.

I'm out of ideas. Can anyone give me a clue as to what could be the problem? What's the mac handling that linux can't?

Sin.citadel · 2010-05-11 17:13:06

do you have any iptables rules set up? do you get a static ip with the dialup connection, have you tried to ping the site?

kotokomauri · 2010-05-12 06:14:13

Sin.citadel wrote:

do you have any iptables rules set up? do you get a static ip with the dialup connection, have you tried to ping the site?

No iptable rules. No, it's a dynamic ip. As I said, I can't ping the site from any of my machines (no response at all).

It seems to me that something's changed on the site I'm trying to access. But what is odd is that I can still connect to the site with a mac, but not with either linux machine. All of them use the same dialup connection. My arch system is constantly updated, of course, but the debian system hasn't been updated for years.

Sin.citadel · 2010-05-12 11:54:32

since the problem is only with this site, try connecting it through web proxies http://anonymouse.org also, it could be that you are getting different ip address from ur dns server, try connecting using the website's ip 203.3.187.226

fukawi2 · 2010-05-12 12:04:18

sudo mtr www.bdm.nsw.gov.au

See where the packets are getting lost... The company I work for often has trouble with Australian government websites via our proxies (squid) which we still can not explain. Our government is just FUBAR in all respects!

kotokomauri · 2010-05-13 06:33:50

Sin.citadel:

Thanks for the ip address, which I can connect to (but still can't ping). The (bad) ip address I get from my dns server is 203.3.186.226.

(Now that I'm paying attention I see that my mac is using some different nameserver.)

fukawi2:

Thanks for the nice tool (mtr). After being passed through a few servers I just get "???", which I guess equates to an unresolvable address (see above).

Anyway, my immediate problem's solved, so thanks to you both. Any further thoughts welcome, though.

Last edited by kotokomauri (2010-05-13 13:54:19)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-05-11 14:27:43

Help on peculiar connection timeout

#2 2010-05-11 17:13:06

Re: Help on peculiar connection timeout

#3 2010-05-12 06:14:13

Re: Help on peculiar connection timeout

#4 2010-05-12 11:54:32

Re: Help on peculiar connection timeout

#5 2010-05-12 12:04:18

Re: Help on peculiar connection timeout

#6 2010-05-13 06:33:50

Re: Help on peculiar connection timeout

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