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jimff2b1ed9b4df
New Poster

Problem accessing a specific site

Hi, one of my regularly visited sites made some changes recently and now I can't access it anymore. Here's a post detailing the changes (encryption):

https://www.facebook.com/simbrief/

The site is http://www.simbrief.com

...or supposedly you now need to use the https prefix so theoretically the new URL would be:

https://www.simbrief.com


In IE 11 it eventually times out and the generic failure page tells me I should turn on SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 which are already turned on and have been for a long time. I've tried both IE 11 and Mozilla which was updated to the latest version yesterday. I've re-booted the PC and the modem several times, no change.

I started a thread in the Avsim forums asking if anyone else was having problems accessing the site and got 4 "no problem here" replies from individual members so it appears the problem is specific to me.

I've tried it with web acceleration on and off in the modem settings but had no luck either way. I've had no problems accessing any other site I normally visit, no minor oddities, no unusual behavior, nothing. Everything else seems to work great, it's just this one site and it's only been a problem since they added the encryption.

It appears I'm able to connect to the site but no content ever loads. As a last-ditch stab in the dark I tried ipconfig /flushdns and I've done tracerts both from my local machine and from an online tracert site, it takes a while locally but it does seem to eventually finish with all the hops. I don't really know what tracert is telling me but it seems successful.

I'm baffled, this is the first site I've ever had problems with while using HughesNet in almost 2 years. (except mediafire for example which also works fine if you turn web acceleration off)

I'd appreciate any help I can get with this as the site is irreplaceable and quite important to me.

Thanks,
Jim
12 REPLIES 12
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Tried it here and was able to access it with both IE11 and Chrome.  Hopefully someone is able to help.   
Amanda
Moderator

Hi Jim!

Thanks for reaching out - I've located your account and taken a peek at your system. Nothing seems out of the ordinary so that is good..

Now, I have tried to get to the site from here and it does work on the same system you're on, the only difference is I am in another beam and gateway. There is a user named GW who is on your same beam and gateway who might be able to test if he sees this 🙂

In any case, since it seems they made some major changes, I've reset your DNS on your modem manually and want to see if that did the trick. Can you give it a try now?

Also, have you tried from maybe your cellphone or another ISP? Do you know how to clear your SSL cache from Internet Options? Time and date on your PC are correct?

Sorry - lots of questions but want to make sure we cover as much ground as we can 🙂

Thanks
Amanda
jimff2b1ed9b4df
New Poster

Thank you for checking Gabe!

Amanda, thank you for your reply. Still no luck unfortunately. Sorry I don't have a cell phone or any other ISP to try. I did clear the SSL cache in both browsers according to some instructions I got off google and I'm afraid that didn't help either. System date/time is correct.

I have to admit I didn't have the patience to let Mozilla time out previously, I have now and this is what the error page says if that helps at all:

Secure Connection Failed

The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.

    The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
    Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

I do have NoScript and AddBlock Plus running in Firefox (main browser) but nothing of the sort in IE 11 so I assumed that wasn't the problem, is my logic correct or should I get rid of them? I'm also running Win7 with updates turned off because I'm terrified with all the Win10 horror stories I've been reading, is it possible I'm missing a critical update that's stopping me from accessing this site? It seems like I'd have problems with other sites too if that were the case though?

I appreciate the help, any further suggestions?

Jim
GabeU
Distinguished Professor IV

Jim,

I don't know if this will help at all, but it definitely won't hurt to try.  On your computer, you could try setting your IPv4 DNS settings to Google's servers instead of the automatic settings that it's normally on.  If you know how to get to your adapter settings, change your IPv4 setting to "Use the following DNS server address" and use 8.8.8.8 as the preferred and 8.8.4.4 as the alternate.  As I said, it may not help, but it certainly won't hurt anything to try, and if it doesn't work you can just change it back to automatic, if you like.  I changed mine to the Google DNS servers and actually found that web pages open a little quicker, too.  I wasn't having any problems, but just decided to try it for the heck of it. 

Good luck. 

debbie.jean.bro
Advanced Tutor

Hi Jim,

I was able to access the site just now from my iPhone using Safari. I have the latest iOS. I can't think of anything beyond what GabeU and Amanda have already suggested. I got that same error message from Firefox a while back, but it was because my laptop's internal clock was off. And I couldn't reach multiple sites. Dumb question, but do you have cookies enabled? Have you tried using Chrome?

Amanda, by any chance am I on the same beam/gateway as Jim? If so, I can try to access the site from my laptop. I'm using W10 and have the most current updates.
jimff2b1ed9b4df
New Poster

Thanks for the replies folks. Gabe I tried the google DNS servers but unfortunately that didn't help either. I'll leave it that way for a while and test it out, thanks for the suggestion.

Chewagirl thank you for checking it out! Yep cookies are enabled and the clock is correct. I haven't tried Chrome yet, it's on my list of things to try though.

I'm in contact with the site developer now, I sent him a bunch of IP addresses this morning and pinged the heck out of the site so he's going to try and check server logs and see if he can find anything out.

I also have an old WinXP PC in storage I thought I'd set up this afternoon and see if I can access it from that old machine.

It's a strange one! I seem to be the only person on the planet that can't access the site and it's the only site on the net that gives me problems! Very odd! I simply don't get it but I'm confident we'll eventually get it sorted out!

Thanks again everyone. 🙂
debbie.jean.bro
Advanced Tutor

You're most welcome! Keep us posted--this is a real whodunnit! 🙂
debbie.jean.bro
Advanced Tutor

Hey, random thought and question for those with more expertise: could this have anything to do with that thing where sometimes someone can't access a site because we all have the same IP address and someone has been banned from the site for doing naughty things? lol! Just a stab in the dark, but no bad ideas, right?
GW
Advanced Tutor

I guess it's not a beam/gateway issue. I'm able to access the https site using your links with Firefox, Chrome and IE. I also fired up a windoze 10 computer and simply typed in simbrief.com in FF and it went right to the https site.

I have trouble with https sites on occasion but usually rebooting the modem solves the problem.  It may take an hour or so sometimes but I've only had one occasion where this problem was incurable by normal means and required intervention for a fix. I lucked out that time and reached a competent phone rep who knew exactly where to look. It's been so long ago I don't remember the details but I think it had something to do with a kink in the web acceleration server.
FIA Ranch
New Member

The only dart I haven't seen thrown, unless I missed it, is flushing the DNS cache on your computer.  If you request a site, and the computer DNS has that site, it will not send out an ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) request to any DNS server, local or remote.  If you haven't done that, launch the CMD prompt (run as administrator), and enter ipconfig /flushdns.   I'm out of darts.
Amanda
Moderator

Hi Jim

Just checking into see if the web admin for the site found anything? Also, were you able to get to it via your XP machine? 

Amanda
Amanda
Moderator

Hi Jim

It's been almost a month since we've heard from you, so I will assume this issue was resolved. If you still have questions or concerns, please feel free to create a new thread with updated information.

Thank you
Amanda