can't access cityofheroes.com
By
flamevoid,
Posted on: 2011-01-27 22:27 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
Quote:
It's possible you haven't cached any new DNS info in a while and the system may be barfing after the old cache expired.|
Originally Posted by Tiger_Lady
I've posted this question to NC in multiple ways, but in trying to self resolve it fast. I can't access any part of cityofheroes.com from my PC, at all. I'm accessing the forums by cell phone on my home wifi right now. I've tried all my browsers (chrome, Firefox, IE) and checked everything that could block a single site (spybot, avast, peer guardian, superantispyware, malwarebytes, zone alarm) but none show a block on their logs. I can tracert and ping the site successfully. I tried accessing by going to the ip address of tge site but that failed too. So its not the network, the ISP, or the DNS.
My ISP is Comcast, but I could also access the site (poorly) via kproxy.. and my router has no blocked sites. Windows firewall is also off. Any ideas? |
- Open up a command prompt (Start >> Run >> cmd)
- Type in "ipconfig /flushdns" (without the " ")
- Uninstall ZoneAlarm. I've seen more problems with ZA going haywire than I care to admit. ZA is, at best, an okay product WHEN IT WORKS. The rest of the time it's just one gigantic, resource-sucking nuisance. Revert back to the Windows Firewall.
Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.
Quote:
I'll try the DNS flush tomorrow, but wouldn't ZA append the block to its log regardless? Wouldn't it block the ping and tracert attempts if its blocking the site's IP or a hub's? I also manually appended my hosts file to no avail. I also attempted to load the site using an OpenDNS DNS instead of Comcasts, also to no avail. Hope you're right, cuz weird one-sided problems like this drive me batty.
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Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
It's possible you haven't cached any new DNS info in a while and the system may be barfing after the old cache expired.
|
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
Quote:
Non-zonealarm user here... |
Originally Posted by Hyperstrike
It's possible you haven't cached any new DNS info in a while and the system may be barfing after the old cache expired.
|
Site's been weird today. I'll go from accessing it, to "Cannot find," to accessing it back and forth. On two computers. (Second one even gave the search results from OpenDNS in the launcher.)
I have also come across the same issue, 2 laptops and 1 desktop being able to access cityofheroes.com or coh.com. But the one desktop that I play the game from has not been able to bring up the web site, only viewable from a proxy which can get cumbersome. On an odd note I can bring up the EU site. Gone through all the trouble shooting steps in trying to figure out why but have not produce any results in regards to a virus, spy ware, or malware. Which is leading me to believe that the issue at hand is not on our side. Though it does make one wonder if they are able to block by MAC address(but that is a little far fetched). But it appears we will not get any answers or information regarding the issue until the people who handle this type of issue can tell the difference between a hole in the ground and their rears.
Well I've tried everything. Uninstalled Zone Alarm, flushed DNS, uninstalled AVG, turned off Spybot's Teatimer, renewed IP, Restarted IPSec, refreshed DHCP... And I still can't access cityofheroes.com from my normal PC. (I'm on another laptop, on the same home network, to access the forum.)
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
Quote:
Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what's going on with me. I've already started a tech support ticket, and ran the GameAdvisor to diagnose connections. It's like the MAC is blocked for HTTP but not PING
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Originally Posted by flamevoid
I have also come across the same issue, 2 laptops and 1 desktop being able to access cityofheroes.com or coh.com. But the one desktop that I play the game from has not been able to bring up the web site, only viewable from a proxy which can get cumbersome. On an odd note I can bring up the EU site. Gone through all the trouble shooting steps in trying to figure out why but have not produce any results in regards to a virus, spy ware, or malware. Which is leading me to believe that the issue at hand is not on our side. Though it does make one wonder if they are able to block by MAC address(but that is a little far fetched). But it appears we will not get any answers or information regarding the issue until the people who handle this type of issue can tell the difference between a hole in the ground and their rears.
|
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
Quote:
Let us know how the support ticket goes.|
Originally Posted by Tiger_Lady
Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what's going on with me. I've already started a tech support ticket, and ran the GameAdvisor to diagnose connections. It's like the MAC is blocked for HTTP but not PING
|
It's a minor inconvenience, but it is a frustrating one...
Nothing new from official support, but here's what I've uncovered.
after all the DNS and ipconfig tricks possible, rebooting router and modem,
After checking LSPs for corruption and resetting my winsocks (XP has a self heal feature),
I can't find anything on my system that's causing it.
Then I used NSlookup Query Tool online (enc.com.au/itools/nslookup.php)
It found 3 name servers for cityofheroes.com. I ran ping and tracert to each and timed out once at
68.86.89.58 (pccwbtn)
And twice at
4.69.145.132 (Level3)
I am now going to run duplicate ping and tracert on a computer on the network which has access and compare results.
The only difference between my PC that can't load the site and the other devices connected to the home network is the PC is wired while everything else is wireless. However the router has no blocking or denial settings enabled.
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
Update #2. The nameservers listed must not be a major impact on coh.com as I got the same result from ping and tracert on the laptop wireless as I did on problem wired PC. Said PC also can't access the FTP.coh.com site. Wiring the notebook did not change connection ability.
This basically resolves the problem to an individual computer basis, but what that problem is I still can't tell. I'm out of resources here, guys.
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
updated in thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showp...3&postcount=18
Official Support has only suggested public DNS servers (google public DNS and OpenDNS)
those haven't worked for me (yes following all instructions to clear caches).
I'm blaming Comcast. Again. (see nslookup log in linked thread)
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?! One thing to check...look at your hosts file (usually in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc) and see if there are any changes there.
Leader of the British Superhero Corps on Pinnacle
Shego: Another one saved from the fiery pits of EEeeeeconomy Computing Hell.
Another thing to check: when booting up the computer, hit F8 and select Safe Mode with Network Support. Should open Windows with nearly no third-party stuff enabled. Try to browse to the site that way. If it works, you know it's a software conflict somewhere.
www.SaveCOH.com: Calls to Action and Events Calendar
This is what 3700 heroes in a single zone looks like.
Thanks to @EnsonsDeath for the GVE code that made me VIP again!
I had done and tried that a long while ago. Hosts file and lnhost (so?) held nothing unusual and even manually adding the site IP and URL did nothing.
Safe mode attempt was also fruitless.
I'm honestly out of ideas on what else to try (proxy works but I don't trust proxies). I've tried everything I know and researched.
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
How are you able to access the forums? Is it through work?
Can you access ncsoft.com from home?
Quote:
As i said in an earlier post, I was accessing over my phone, over proxy (kproxy doesn't work for it anymore, though), and via another computer on the home network that i'm now not certain had a fully cleared DNS cache. And in the matter of the phone I can't clear that DNS cache anyways.|
Originally Posted by vorpal
How are you able to access the forums? Is it through work?
Can you access ncsoft.com from home? |
the NCsoft sites have been loading up fine, and the other nationality/language versions of coh.com load fine, but anything that's just on --.cityofheroes.com (that includes boards, and newsletters sent via email & hyperlinked) are not accessible.
I have truely tried everything that I know and researched into. Everything that could block without permission/log has been cleanly uninstalled (and yes I checked for "zombie" processes/files still in there & registry.) I'm at a total and complete loss what else could be blocking just those sites, but kproxy not being able to access the sites anymore leads me to think this is not an isolated incident. It may be a combination of things (such as random computer error that caused a LSP or winsock corruption that won't "self-heal" (as MS states Windows XP can do), combined with DNS errors on the ISP or hub's behalf.
It's not the end of the world, but it's incredibly annoying. Official Tech Support has not been able to help me yet.
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
Quote:
I'm having the same issue on one of my home computers (It is also Windows XP).|
Originally Posted by Tiger_Lady
As i said in an earlier post, I was accessing over my phone, over proxy (kproxy doesn't work for it anymore, though), and via another computer on the home network that i'm now not certain had a fully cleared DNS cache. And in the matter of the phone I can't clear that DNS cache anyways.
the NCsoft sites have been loading up fine, and the other nationality/language versions of coh.com load fine, but anything that's just on --.cityofheroes.com (that includes boards, and newsletters sent via email & hyperlinked) are not accessible. I have truely tried everything that I know and researched into. Everything that could block without permission/log has been cleanly uninstalled (and yes I checked for "zombie" processes/files still in there & registry.) I'm at a total and complete loss what else could be blocking just those sites, but kproxy not being able to access the sites anymore leads me to think this is not an isolated incident. It may be a combination of things (such as random computer error that caused a LSP or winsock corruption that won't "self-heal" (as MS states Windows XP can do), combined with DNS errors on the ISP or hub's behalf. It's not the end of the world, but it's incredibly annoying. Official Tech Support has not been able to help me yet. |
/flushdns doesn't help. Changing DNS servers doesn't help as well.
I have tried to do nslookup from the router (I have Netgear WNR 3500L open source router) using different DNS servers (including google, verizon, opendns, my ISP's DNS servers) and responses were at best unreliable.
Strangely enough, my laptop has no problem at all connecting to .cityofheroes.com through the same router.
Yes! I found a solution, and hopefully it works for you guys. I'm posting this from my desktop, finally.
Thanks to Tiger_Lady, I googled "Winsock blocked websites" and found this little program.
http://majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html
Straight forward, easy to use, and took barely no time at all.
Run this and read the report. It will tell you everything and then email this to the helpdesk and they'll help you quickly.
http://us.ncsoft.com/gameadvisor
http://eu.ncsoft.com/gameadvisor
It doesn't need any of the games. Just click Statesman.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Joe_Schmoe
Yes! I found a solution, and hopefully it works for you guys. I'm posting this from my desktop, finally.
Thanks to Tiger_Lady, I googled "Winsock blocked websites" and found this little program. http://majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html Straight forward, easy to use, and took barely no time at all. |
Thanks, Joe! That did the trick for me. I can finally view the site again without having to switch to my laptop every time. Yay!
My name is Random, and I'm an alt-aholic.
Main / Badger: Flamesprite - Fire/Fire Blaster - Triumph
Global: @Dynamite Monkey
Way too many alts on Triumph, Virtue, Protector, Champion, and Exalted.
....or maybe not. Shortly after that post I discovered that, although I could now access www.cityofheroes.com, some other things are now broken. My firewall won't start now, and apparently I can't play any sound from any program other than Windows itself. God this is weird. Gonna go back to a restore point and look for another solution.
My name is Random, and I'm an alt-aholic.
Main / Badger: Flamesprite - Fire/Fire Blaster - Triumph
Global: @Dynamite Monkey
Way too many alts on Triumph, Virtue, Protector, Champion, and Exalted.
Quote:
That did the trick!!! I love you for finding this!
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Originally Posted by Joe_Schmoe
Yes! I found a solution, and hopefully it works for you guys. I'm posting this from my desktop, finally.
Thanks to Tiger_Lady, I googled "Winsock blocked websites" and found this little program. http://majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html Straight forward, easy to use, and took barely no time at all. |
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?!
Quote:
It did reset a couple things for me. 1) I had my computer's DNS server set to Google's, when i rebooted it was back to the earlier default (Comcast). 2) Certain media file associations seemed to reset, but that may have happened before I tried it.|
Originally Posted by Random_McEric
....or maybe not. Shortly after that post I discovered that, although I could now access www.cityofheroes.com, some other things are now broken. My firewall won't start now, and apparently I can't play any sound from any program other than Windows itself. God this is weird. Gonna go back to a restore point and look for another solution.
|
I run Avast and Windows Firewall and they're running fine. Music & other sounds also playing. What did you mean "any sound from any program", like MP3's? via what software?
Basically, my computer is acting like it normally does when I have to hard reset - not saving certain changes, but nothing too major.
The Beta is full of bugs?
How can that be?! After few weeks being unable to access forums and main site on one of my computers (WinXP SP3, /flushdns, changing DNS servers didn't help), it suddenly started working again yesterday.
I've posted this question to NC in multiple ways, but in trying to self resolve it fast. I can't access any part of cityofheroes.com from my PC, at all. I'm accessing the forums by cell phone on my home wifi right now. I've tried all my browsers (chrome, Firefox, IE) and checked everything that could block a single site (spybot, avast, peer guardian, superantispyware, malwarebytes, zone alarm) but none show a block on their logs. I can tracert and ping the site successfully. I tried accessing by going to the ip address of tge site but that failed too. So its not the network, the ISP, or the DNS.
My ISP is Comcast, but I could also access the site (poorly) via kproxy.. and my router has no blocked sites. Windows firewall is also off. Any ideas?
The Beta is full of bugs?