Forum Discussion

AdamCP's avatar
AdamCP
Joining in
6 months ago

Hobbymaker.com blocked on Virgin

Hi, HobbyMaker have updated their website domain from hobbymaker.co.uk to hobbymaker.com and for the last 2 days I seem to be getting blocked by my ISP, Virgin Media, from accessing the website which my wife uses and buys from regularly. Are any other Virgin uses seeing the same issue? Also, Virgin please upblock www.hobbymaker.com - it's not a phishing site, it's perfectly genuine and my wife has been buying from them 2 years or so.

Thanks

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    6 months ago

    hobbymaker.com is not blocked on VM.

    The hobbymaker.com IP has not yet propagated to the Virgin Media DNS.

    hobbymaker.com has the new IPs on Google Public DNS so use this for the moment and you will have access.

    Via our VM connection using Google DNS :

     

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    6 months ago

    hobbymaker.com is not blocked on VM.

    The hobbymaker.com IP has not yet propagated to the Virgin Media DNS.

    hobbymaker.com has the new IPs on Google Public DNS so use this for the moment and you will have access.

    Via our VM connection using Google DNS :

     

    • AdamCP's avatar
      AdamCP
      Joining in
      6 months ago

      Oh good to hear, thanks.

      How long would something like this normally take to be readily available again vis normal site access?

      Thanks again

      • coenoby's avatar
        coenoby
        Very Insightful Person
        6 months ago

        AdamCP Client62 

        VM are not blocking www.hobbymaker.com  but, for me at any rate,  Bitdefender is blocking it as a potential Phishing page.

        If I over-ride Bitdefender's warning I can access the website via VM.

        Coenoby

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    6 months ago

    Looking a little deeper into this I suspect VM Smart Security has been silently enabled on the VM DNS of our account.  We have a Hub 3 in Router mode & use the default VM DNS via DHCP.

    Earlier I said the IP propagation to the VM DNS had yet to occur, was I totally wrong ?

    Here is the NSLOOKUP first with VM DNS ( browser fails to work ) then with Google DNS ( browser works ).

    C:\Users\Philip>nslookup www.hobbymaker.com
    Server: cache1.service.virginmedia.net
    Address: 194.168.4.100

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: www.hobbymaker.com
    Addresses: 2a02:8801:200:1::1
    81.99.162.48             ( What actually is this IP ? Who own it ??? )

    C:\Users\Philip>nslookup www.hobbymaker.com dns.google
    Server: dns.google
    Address: 8.8.4.4

    Non-authoritative answer:
    Name: www.hobbymaker.com
    Addresses: 2606:4700:10::6816:3ca7
    2606:4700:10::ac43:170e
    2606:4700:10::6816:3da7
    104.22.60.167
    104.22.61.167
    172.67.23.14

    Seeing this I concluded that as the Google DNS worked, the VM DNS was slow to update.

    Look what happens when we reverse the process with the IP 81.99.162.48 a new host name is returned by the VM DNS.   Try the same via Google DNS and the IP is unknown.

    C:\Users\Philip>nslookup 81.99.162.48
    Server: cache1.service.virginmedia.net
    Address: 194.168.4.100

    Name: lang-sspiprxy.network.virginmedia.net
    Address: 81.99.162.48

    There are no DNS records for IP 81.99.162.48 or for lang-sspiprxy.network.virginmedia.net
    so Virgin Media are blocking www.hobbymaker.com by directing the browser to dummy IP / host.

    Looking at lang-sspiprxy.network.virginmedia.net does the ss mean Smart Security ?

    • 用心棒's avatar
      用心棒
      Very Insightful Person
      6 months ago
      Client62 wrote:

      ⋮

      Looking at lang-sspiprxy.network.virginmedia.net does the ss mean Smart Security ?

      AFAIK, no as naming pre-existed introduction of Smart Security

      -- 
      I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more
      Have I helped? Select Mark as Helpful Answer or 🖒 Kudos to say thanks

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    6 months ago

    Interesting, with Child Safe and Virus Safe disabled I did not expect our DNS lookups to be redirected.

    Smart Security is only controlled from the Connect app as far as I can tell & I'm not keen to install the Connect app as the first step is to make changes the the Hub Wi-Fi re-enabling Smart Wi-Fi which we do not want.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    6 months ago

    Out of curiosity I used the Connect app and yes it did instantly re-enable Smart Wi-Fi, but also enabled Guest Wi-Fi and deleted the Reserved IP entry for our Epson printer. 

    What a piece of intrusive garbage.  No signs of Smart Security settings.   
    I did see the settings that can cause the previous Hub's credentials to be applied to a replacement Hub.

    Connect app is now uninstalled and the Hub reverted to our choice of settings.

    So even with VM Virus Safe off DNS inquiries can still redirected resulting in internet blocking.
    Perhaps we should have our VOIP kit using a Public DNS !

  • debbie107uk's avatar
    debbie107uk
    Joining in
    6 months ago

    I am trying to access the website today and can't do it from my VM wifi but can through my phone on Tesco Mobile data. I do not understand what I need to do to access through the google DNS so I hope they get it fixed as am at a loss what to do