Forum Discussion

salamat's avatar
salamat
Dialled in
26 days ago
Solved

Unable to access sites

 

I have just switched back to VM, after an absence of several years....hope I won't regret it!

I am happy with the speeds I am getting, both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. My issue is that over the first two days, I was unable to access many sites that I need daily, either wildlife cameras that I operate in South Africa, or feeds (on YouTube) coming from them. (I have checked that all content is allowed in the settings)

After experimenting with some of the router's firewall settings, with no effect, I reset the router, but the issues remained.

My suspicion is that it's Virgin's DNS related, though am not 100% sure as I had already set 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 on two PCs. 

As an experiment, I set the VM router into 'modem mode' and connected it to my previous router. That produced none of the issues and could access the sites as I should. However, that router seems to be set with speed limitations and I could not get the VM speeds!

After trying that I had to reset the VM router and, touch wood, it's currently ok. 

Are there any tests I can carry out to ensure that everything is now ok and won't reoccur as, if not, I'm still in the 14 day period when I can 'pull the plug' if needed.

 

 

 

  • legacy1's avatar
    legacy1
    Alessandro Volta
    26 days ago

    it likely was DNS you can run nslookup in CMD to check like

    nslookup grc.com 194.168.4.100

    • salamat's avatar
      salamat
      Dialled in
      26 days ago

      I'm not familiar with that command but just ran it on a site that was working fine a little while ago, but suddenly has lost all it's feeds!

      These are the same results as when I substitute 8.8.8.8

      The site has a page of still images, that refresh periodically, and seem to be loading ok. When you click on an image, it then should bring up the live feed, but these are now coming up 'Video unavailable'! However, when I check on my phone, using the phone's IP, they are working! 🤷🏻‍♂️ Also, just tried loading the site on a Chromebook and the same thing is happening!

      1. If I have 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4 set on the PC, shouldn't this over-ride VM's DNS, anyway?
      2. It must be accessing the sites to retrieve / refresh the still images, so why is it blocking the streams?
      3. Why is it intermittent? It was fine all day, up to the last hour or two!

       

      Any thoughts appreciated.

       

       

    • salamat's avatar
      salamat
      Dialled in
      26 days ago

      Further playing around....don't know if it gives any clues.... Loaded the site in an 'In Private' and 'Regular' at the same time.....the 'In Private' fully loads, the 'Regular' doesn't!

       

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta
    26 days ago

    If you have a new VM connection, 
    login to the VM Online Account and Disable "Parental Controls" ( it is a DNS filter ).

  • salamat's avatar
    salamat
    Dialled in
    25 days ago

    Just fired up my Mac to see what happens there = site loaded ok, with all feeds loading.

    Did start up another PC today, and connected it via VM for the first time, and got the same  'feeds not loading' issue!

    Mystery deepens....

    • Client62's avatar
      Client62
      Alessandro Volta
      25 days ago

      Browsers are divided into Chromium ( Chrome, Edge, Opera ) and the rest Safari & Firefox.

      Which web browsers work and which ones do not work ? 

      Do the browsers that do work have less or no plug-ins or specific DNS configurations ? 

  • salamat's avatar
    salamat
    Dialled in
    25 days ago

    Just been trying to whittle this down.... In the past I was using Edge, but that is having issues now. (Though Edge on my Mac worked! 🤷🏻‍♂️ Tried Firefox and that wouldn't fully load the sites. 

    Just tested Chrome and in a regular page I get the 'Video unavailable' messages, however, when I did an Incognito window, the sites loaded! Any clues there?

    Interestingly, while that was loaded, I thought I'd reopen the site in a 'regular' Chrome page and while it was trying to load, the 'incognito' page started buffering in each feed. As soon as the 'regular' page had gone to 'Video unavailable', the 'incognito' was back streaming properly.

    Are there also DNS settings in the browsers, as well as in the Windows network settings?

    • legacy1's avatar
      legacy1
      Alessandro Volta
      25 days ago

      delete cookies  

      • salamat's avatar
        salamat
        Dialled in
        25 days ago

        Thank you so much! That seems to have solved it! Surely this can't have all been a coincidence with the changing of IP, can it? (I've been using that site for years, without the issue cropping up! )

  • salamat's avatar
    salamat
    Dialled in
    22 days ago

    Why do I get this, when I've used the link icon? 

    I was trying to post....