Can't access website on one computer, but ok on another

I was able to access aescryp.com the other day. The I was trying to view/download the user guide found here: https://www.aescrypt.com/documentation/ (on Windows). Right after that I couldn't get access to the site anymore. I tried another computer (Linux) and the site was working fine there. Then I tried to access the same user guide and again I all of a sudden can't get access to the site. What I experience when I enter aescrypt.com into the address line is first nothing. After some time I get a "Problem loading page" and "Connection times out".

I have

tried ipconfig /flushdns without success.
(of course) restarted the computer(s) and that didn't work.
waited 24 hours, still no success.
tried different browsers and cleared cookies
tried the tor browser also without success.
pinged the website and got a fine return
checked with my systems administrator and the site has not been blocked (re comment below)
checked the host file on Windows and it does not have any websites listed.

On a third computer I can still get access to the website, but I am afraid to click the user guide link (it is a pdf file).

I have read the following: Why are some websites not accessible from one computer on a network? and Why can't I traceroute or access certain websites in my browser even though I can ping them from terminal?

but they don't seem to help.

Any suggestions?

Thomas

Posted 2014-09-27T17:43:39.240

Reputation: 175

Are you trying to access the site on a computer at work? If so, your system administrator may have blocked the site after you attempted the download. – Edward – 2014-09-27T17:47:54.957

Try on another browser and check you hosts file. – matan129 – 2014-09-27T17:48:14.697

@matan129: Host file? – Thomas – 2014-09-27T17:48:25.170

1@Edward: yes, the problem is occurs at work. But at one point it was fine at one computer at work, but not another. – Thomas – 2014-09-27T17:48:47.597

@matan129: I found the host file and it is empty – Thomas – 2014-09-27T18:03:54.477

Do you get an error message in your browser (a HTTP status code) or does it simply say "server not found"? – RasmusP_963 – 2014-09-29T14:26:50.073

2@RasmusP_963: In Firefox I get a "The connection has timed out

The server at aescrypt.com is taking too long to respond." – Thomas – 2014-09-29T19:31:47.220

Try workaround using Opera browser, ensuring that File > Opera Turbo is checked. Then it uses proxy and bypasses even your etc/hosts file. This approach bypasses significant part of standard route and can help to better understand the problem.

– miroxlav – 2014-09-29T20:09:19.483

@miroxlav: Thanks for the suggestion. That also didn't work. – Thomas – 2014-09-29T21:26:34.030

1Does the same happen when you browse to the site in private mode in the browser? – John Reid – 2014-09-30T10:18:14.380

Since this happens at your work, it is probably something with your work network. Corporate networks are byzantine mazes of requirements, old and no longer required settings can linger in the network hardware and software configurations until someone complains to IT about it. EDIT: On, now I read the solution. Still, don't hesitate to call your IT guy(s) when this happens. – CyberSkull – 2014-10-01T12:23:51.320

In such cases one can try a site with wget or curl in verbose mode. Also "DDOS attack" may be just an effect of posting URLs on stackexchange. – Dims – 2014-10-01T12:26:56.430

Answers

Mystery solved!

As suggested in chat, I got in contact with a person behind the website. Because the site had experienced DDoS attacks the server had some aggressive software running ti block these attacks. In short the server interpreted the attempt to view the pdf file as an attack and the IP was added to a blacklist. From what I understand this has now been corrected and I can access the site again.

(Now I don't know what to do with my bounty.)

Thomas

Posted 2014-09-27T17:43:39.240

Reputation: 175

The same thing just happened to me when I tried it. Simply unbelievable!
I did some more research and these are my results:

I browsed to http://www.aescrypt.com/ without any problem, looked at the documentation, also without any problem, then tried it again. But the second time it blocked, same as with you.

When trying again, I noticed that when I entered the address http://www.aescrypt.com/, the address bar suddenly changed to https://www.aescrypt.com/ (notice the https), which timed-out. Evidently, the aescrypt website was redirecting my http request to https. From that moment on, both the http and the https requests keep on timing-out every time that I try, and this also happens on every browser that I try.

I then connected to a Web VPN service and tried again : The result was the same, even though my IP address has changed!

I have done a whois lookup of www.aescrypt.com, IP address 174.129.216.74, and found out that their server is an instance on Amazon EC2 AWS. Like with you, ping works fine.

Before my access to the aescrypt documentation was cut-off, I noticed that it was in the format of a PDF file, so you might be able to access their site from another computer and download it for later use.

As a temporary solution, you can find the documentation in the Google Cache using this google search:
cache:https://www.aescrypt.com/documentation/AES%20Crypt%20User%20Guide.pdf

If you can get an address for the aescrypt Support, then you should complain. The problem might of course clear up in the future when(if) they fix what they did to their webserver.

harrymc

Posted 2014-09-27T17:43:39.240

Reputation: 306 093

I give you the bounty because you took the time to look into this. Thanks! – Thomas – 2014-10-01T12:30:05.973

-1

Have you tried clearing the browser cache? I've seen things get b0rked when an invalid CSS (or JavaScript!) file gets loaded. This is different from clearing the cookies from the browser.

Jason

Posted 2014-09-27T17:43:39.240

Reputation: 1

He states he has tried several different browsers. This should rule out the browser cache. – lzam – 2014-09-30T02:38:36.393