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Hive/Murphx issue - cannot view most webpages. Please help!

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and desperate for help as my ISP does not seem to have any idea how to slove this problem and I am now at the point where I think the only solution is to change providers. We are currently supplied by Hive but the Tech support is Murphx. Prior to this we have had excellent service and any previous issues have been sorted very quickly.

12/10/10 Broadband working fine and normal, but around 10:00 hrs we experienced a loss of connection to most of the common websites and this still continues.
We are able to send and receive emails, but not all the email content is visible, for example the pictures on a Debenhams advert are not seen.

We are able to access the following sites;

http://www.hivetelecom.com/ - fully accessible
www.google.co.uk - can access, carry out a search and display the search results, but if we click on any of the results they are not available.
www.tfl.com - fully accessible
http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/ - accessible and links available, but unable to enter most details into the complete holiday search box.

We are unable to access most other sites, including;
www.bbc.co.uk
www.tfl.gov.uk
www.ebay.co.uk
www.facebook.com

We have tried the following;

Unplugged everything and tried to access via the master socket - same problem.

Changed the modem - currently using a ZyXEL supplied when we took up the service, have also tried an Etec modem, both have the same issue.
Two wireless laptops running Windows XP have the same issue. The main PC is running Windows 7 Professional 64 bit; this has been in use for a few months.
An E63 mobile phone - this also has the same issue.

We also have a Freesat box which receives BBC iplayer via a wired ethernet cable plugged into the modem. This has been in use for a few months with no problems, and when connected is actually working fine. We currently have this unplugged.

We have checked the DNS with tech support and this is fine. We have carried out several procedures suggested by them but to no avail.

Tech support are simply passing the problem from one department to another; each time we phone them they ask us to try something we have already done, then say it is being passed back to whatever level they decide to send it to next... I am pulling my hair out with this one!

Any suggestions would be fantastic please, many thanks.
 
Have seen this before and changing DNS servers do not resolve it, we had instant resolution by reducing the MTU from what was 1500 in affected customers down to 1492.

Try it, what have you got to lose.
 
I've seen OpenDNS solve lots of problems like this and never known MTU tweaking to fix it but it's worth a shot. However I would stress the need to match any MTU setting to the ISP concerned.

1492 might be fine for FireFly but there's a good bet that Hive, which is an ISP/Telco that I haven't heard of before, probably uses something different. I'd try OpenDNS first and see what happens. It might also be worth checking to see if the websites you're trying to access work when you use https in front instead of http.
 
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For a "fail safe" MTU go to 1432, or they can check what MTU size if best for them by

ping [IP] -f -l [packet size]

When it says Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set this will tell you the upper limit.
 
We use murphx for a service which displayed the identical issue that the OP is posting about, no amount of DNS server address changes went close to resolving the problem, the MTU change fixed it instantly...either that or somebody somewhere flicked the "fix switch" at the same time :laugh: but recognise the need to test with varying values.
 
Try pinging both IP address and URL from your DOS-Prompt.
Go to run type 'cmd' and hit enter (if using Vista or later you need to type 'command' into start/search)

Once the black command prompt box opens type ping www.bbc.co.uk, if you receive a reply similar to the following, the connection is there, but your browser is not receiving the data...

C:\Documents and Settings\>ping www.bbc.co.uk

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.246.93] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 212.58.246.93: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=55
Reply from 212.58.246.93: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=55
Reply from 212.58.246.93: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=55
Reply from 212.58.246.93: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 212.58.246.93:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 26ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 26ms

If you receive no replys at all, then try the same command, but type the IP address instead of www.bbc.co.uk - ping 212.58.246.93

If you receive a reply it is simply a DNS issue and changing the DNS to open DNS may resolve this issue or even flushing DNS can resolve this, the command to do this in command prompt is ipconfig /flushdns (you should receive a message saying 'Successfully Flushed The DNS Resolver Cache'), reboot your PC.

If you receive a reply on both URL and IP address, then it is not a DNS issue and lowering the MTU setting as most are advising will usually resolve your issue (it is best speaking to your ISP to have them advise what they recommend the MTU setting is) but usualy 1432 bytes is advised.

Changing the MTU setting is easily done in most ADSL router's, however, some router's (Zyxel included I believe) require you to telnet into to change the MTU setting http://www.speedguide.net/faq_in_q.php?qid=204 may give you some idea how to do this.

I hope this helps :)
 
Tests we've conducted show ping responses from the URL and IP, i'm confident the OP will have similar results.
 
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Tests we've conducted show ping responses from the URL and IP, i'm confident the OP will have similar results.

I'm sure Firefly's right, I just checked the requested max segment size in the Syn,Ack packets from of a couple of the sites that the OP can access OK, and they both result in a packet size of less than 1500.

The two sites I checked that the OP can't access both had an MSS of 1460 = a packet size of 1500 bytes including headers.

I've used a couple of ISPs in the past whose networks wouldn't handle 1500 byte packets, one you had to lower the MTU or else email and HTTPS sites wouldn't be accessible; the other was AOL - their radius server used LCP to negotiate the MRU used by the router, so it didn't matter if you left it set at 1500.
 
Depending how your setting the router up disabling ping on some can cause the issues as it could be trying to use Path MTU Discovery and just refering to the default which could be 1500, just re-enabling ping can resolve the problem.
 
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