Unable to access certain sites

[Danonymoose]

Hi.

I recently changed address and brought my Virgin Media broadband package and equipment with me. The address change was a nightmare and, in total, required almost 14 hours of call time to VM before the change was finally arranged. It took a further 4 hours of call time yesterday just to get my service activated. It should have happened on the 12th but on the 15th I still had no service.

Last night, finally, my service was active again. I still have an issue, though. I am now unable to access many websites. I am unable to access porn, proxy, VPN, or pretty much any other website with any adult content. This has only been an issue since the service was activated again yesterdaty. We live in a child-free household, and therefore don't require any website blocks. I have spoken to VM several times about this today but they claim they aren't blocking anything, and are determined to get an engineer out to me.

If I use a VPN I can connect to any website perfectly fine, as I could until the service switch.

Without the use of a VPN, any attempteed connection to a blocked site gives me a PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR message. After some googling, it appears that this is an Apple/Mac specific issue. I have no apple devices. Clearly it isn't this issue because a VPN cures the issue.

I have scoured the settings of my SuperHub 3, as well as my VM account online. I am not signed up to Websafe or any other 'protection' features that VM offer. My settings on the superhub are exactly how they were prior to the move. The SuperHub has been factory reset several times now, and I have disabled all firewall and other security features in a vain attempt to get to the bottom of this issue, but it is clearly a problem with my VM account, and not my devices and hardware.

I pay for the VIVID 350 service. No TV or phone services.

[Danonymoose]

Hi.

I recently changed address and brought my Virgin Media broadband package and equipment with me. The address change was a nightmare and, in total, required almost 14 hours of call time to VM before the change was finally arranged. It took a further 4 hours of call time yesterday just to get my service activated. It should have happened on the 12th but on the 15th I still had no service.

Last night, finally, my service was active again. I still have an issue, though. I am now unable to access many websites. I am unable to access porn, proxy, VPN, or pretty much any other website with any adult content. This has only been an issue since the service was activated again yesterdaty. We live in a child-free household, and therefore don't require any website blocks. I have spoken to VM several times about this today but they claim they aren't blocking anything, and are determined to get an engineer out to me.

If I use a VPN I can connect to any website perfectly fine, as I could until the service switch.

Without the use of a VPN, any attempteed connection to a blocked site gives me a PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR message. After some googling, it appears that this is an Apple/Mac specific issue. I have no apple devices. Clearly it isn't this issue because a VPN cures the issue.

I have scoured the settings of my SuperHub 3, as well as my VM account online. I am not signed up to Websafe or any other 'protection' features that VM offer. My settings on the superhub are exactly how they were prior to the move. The SuperHub has been factory reset several times now, and I have disabled all firewall and other security features in a vain attempt to get to the bottom of this issue, but it is clearly a problem with my VM account, and not my devices and hardware.

I pay for the VIVID 350 service. No TV or phone services

[jem101 · Accepted solution]

This sounds for all the world as if the Websafe filters are actually on for your account, it works by modifying the DNS lookups and unfortunately the messages which actually pop up on the web pages you try to visit are certainly not clear or concise.

You can run a simple experiment to try this out, turn off the VPN and then change the DNS settings on one of your devices to something other that what the VH hub sets up for you, try Google's on 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or OpenDNS on 208.67.220.220 and 208.26.222.222 or even Cloudflare's on 1.1.1.1.

If, after changing the DNS setting on a device, you can then browse the websites OK then it's a reasonable supposition that the issue is that Websafe is still on, despite what you might have been told or indeed what the settings for Websafe in My Virginmedia might be saying. It might well be worth toggling the setting ON, saving and then turning it back off again - I believe though there is a bit of a delay between you making a change and it actually taking effect though.

[Danonymoose]

Thanks. I had forgotten to mention that changing my DNS settings also allowed me past the filters.

I have since spoken to VM and they maintain that there are no WebSafe (or any other) filters or blocks in place on my account, but clearly there are. I;ll activate Websafe and then deactivate it later and see if I get any results.

Cheers

[用心棒]

I am in agreement with @jem101 that this is a Web Safe issue and IMHO it is easier to prove this by either:

• visiting the unauthenticated website, for instance if https://example.com displays the error PR_END_OF_FILE_ERROR then try http://example.com to see Web Safe's blocked warning
• use nslookup to retrieve the IP address of the website, for instance if example.com:
  

  # nslookup example.com
  Server:		192.168.0.1
  Address:	192.168.0.1#53
  
  Non-authoritative answer:
  Name:	example.com
  Address: 81.99.162.48

  Where 81.99.162.48 (lang-sspiprxy.network.virginmedia.net) is Virgin Media DNS redirect  to enable then to display an error message howver be aware this only works for unauthenticated connections. Other DNSs can be queried to confirm the correct IP address, for instance:
  

  # nslookup example.com 9.9.9.9
  Server:		192.168.0.1
  Address:	192.168.0.1#53
  
  Non-authoritative answer:
  Name:	example.com
  Address: 93.184.216.34

  in this case the Quad9 DNS at 9.9.9.9 was queried.

BTW: The way modern web browsers process authenticated connections and how Web Safe works means there is no way to improve the error message.

[Fragpuss]

@Jem101

[quote]Google's on 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 or OpenDNS on 208.67.220.220 and 208.26.222.222 or even Cloudflare's on 1.1.1.1.[/quote]

I tried those on my pc and it worked fine, but i've tried it on my phone, and while it worked for a day or 2 it no longer works and i get the lying "websafe blocked" screen. Any ideas?

Incidently i have been involved in a dispute with VM for months abought their broken websafe which i neither asked for nor want and to be fair the support i have got on this forum has been great, they've fought my side against the technicians who claim they can't ever be wrong. But so far nothing has been done at all because the technicians are stubborn.

[Gareth_L]

Hi Danonymoose

This would be an account issue which I am happy have a look at a get it sorted 

Looks like we need to get this reported with ou IT department 

Instances like this usually take 7-10 days to be fixed but are always before this 

If you can check your purple envelope top right that would be great 

Gareth_L

[Ed_R]

I am also have this same issue. 
just get a message saying couldn’t establish a service connection to the server

[Fragpuss]

I gave up trying to get it sorted as none of the suggestions worked and they claimed nothing wrong at their end when obviously it is

[用心棒]

@Ed_R/ @Fragpuss,

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