[RESOLVED] Can't access Steam or my webhost's cp anymore

Hi,

Is there anyway to test whether particular ports on a router are open or closed? I have been having a problem with my web-host where I have not been able to access the control panel to edit my website, etc. If I try to access the control panel from my home network I receive the following message:

The connection has timed out

The server at 96.9.162.227 is taking too long to respond.

The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.

I have tried disabling the firewall on the computer and accessing the site, disabling programs which might interfere with the connection but nothing as worked. One of the help desk staff suggested I check the router to see if ports 2082, 2086 and 2096 are configured to allow out going connections. However, I asked my dad about it and he said the router hasn't been configured since I had Windows 7 Professional 32bit on my pc (when everything worked fine) whereas now, I have Windows 7 Home 64bit and things have stopped working both on my pc and laptop.

Also, I'm not sure if the above has anything to do with it but I can't use Steam either because freezes at the update progress bar then a message box appears saying either "Steam.exe (main exception)": Unable to load library Steam.dll. I have uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times nothing seems to work.

Edit:

The router is a Billion BiPAC 7404 VGP

Thanks,

Nightwalker

I do not use a router of your type, but a quick search found some info. Hopefully a help to you.

http://archive.atomicmpc.com.au/foru...=2&c=17&t=5647

I found the manual for the Billion BiPAC 7404 VGP here. Hopefully, that will explain how to enable/disable the ports, etc so I can hopefully access my websites control panel again.

Routers don't normally block outgoing packets. The firewall included in most (if not all) consumer-level routers is a Stateful Packet Inspection firewall, which will most likely only block inbound traffic.

I just tested with telnet, and I can connect to all three ports you listed on that IP address. Can you try that and see if you get a connection? The "escape character" that you would type to close any open connection on telnet is Ctrl+], which appears as ^] when you type it in a terminal/console.

Code:

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telnet <IP> <portnumber>

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If that fails, can you run a traceroute for that IP address? On Windows, you run the "tracert" command, and on *nix, you run "traceroute". That should tell you how far the connection is getting before it drops out.

Code:

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traceroute <IP>

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The help desk people at my current web host have suggested that already:

Quote:

---

Hello Aaron,

We need ping and tracert results from your computer in order to analyze this problem further.

Please click Start -> Run -> type `cmd` (no quotes) and hit enter, this will give you DOS command line interface.

Now enter this command: ping Your_Server_IP
Where Your_Server_IP is actually numeric server IP address that you can find in members area or in account welcome email. E.g. if your server IP is 64.235.57.236, type `ping 64.235.57.236` (no quotes)

You should see ping results or a message that request timed out.

If you see ping reply with time in milliseconds, this means your website is accessible from your computer and it must be working fine.

In case you get timeout or host unreachable error, please make tracert from your computer to the server main IP.

To make tracert type: tracert Your_Server_IP
You can find your IP address in members area.

Process can take a while and you should see a lot information there. Please copy all information you got and paste it for us. Then we will be able to give you an answer if it is our server problem, or your internet service provider is blocking access to our server IP.

To copy all results you need to right-click anywhere inside DOS command prompt window and choose option `Select All`. Now right click again and text selection will be removed, and all content will be copied. Now simply paste everything to the ticket reply box.

Do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions.

Very Truly Yours,

Business Enterprise Hosting Media
www.hosting24.com

---

The results of those tests were:

C:\>ping 96.9.162.227

Pinging 96.9.162.227 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 96.9.162.227: bytes=32 time=276ms TTL=43
Reply from 96.9.162.227: bytes=32 time=277ms TTL=43
Reply from 96.9.162.227: bytes=32 time=276ms TTL=43
Reply from 96.9.162.227: bytes=32 time=276ms TTL=43

Ping statistics for 96.9.162.227:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 276ms, Maximum = 277ms, Average = 276ms

C:\>tracert 96.9.162.227

Tracing route to 96-9-162-227.static.hostnoc.net [96.9.162.227]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms home.gateway [192.168.1.254]
2 17 ms 17 ms 18 ms lns20.adl6.internode.on.net [203.16.215.174]
3 18 ms 17 ms 18 ms te3-3.cor1.adl6.internode.on.net [150.101.134.20
9]
4 199 ms 197 ms 197 ms gi3-0-0.bdr1.adl6.internode.on.net [150.101.225.
229]
5 198 ms 198 ms 198 ms te4-0-0.bdr1.syd6.internode.on.net [150.101.134.
186]
6 198 ms 198 ms 198 ms pos1-0-0.bdr1.lax1.internode.on.net [203.16.213.
190]
7 199 ms 199 ms 200 ms 2-2.r1.la.hwng.net [206.223.123.75]
8 247 ms 247 ms 246 ms e3-4.r1.ch.hwng.net [209.197.0.26]
9 267 ms 267 ms 270 ms e1-4.r1.ny.hwng.net [209.197.0.34]
10 267 ms 267 ms 270 ms 209.197.17.130
11 278 ms 277 ms 276 ms 209.197.17.134
12 276 ms 287 ms 276 ms xe1-03.agg02.sctn01.hostnoc.net [64.120.243.30]

13 278 ms 287 ms 277 ms ec0-43.bf2801.sctn01.hostnoc.net [64.120.246.130
]
14 276 ms 276 ms 276 ms 96-9-162-227.static.hostnoc.net [96.9.162.227]

Trace complete.

C:\>tracert 118.210.139.79

Tracing route to ppp118-210-139-79.lns20.adl6.internode.on.net [118.210.139.79]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms home.gateway [192.168.1.254]
2 18 ms 17 ms 17 ms lns20.adl6.internode.on.net [203.16.215.174]
3 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

Telnet:

C:\>Telnet 96.9.162.227 2082
Connecting To 96.9.162.227...Could not open connection to the host, on port 2082
: Connect failed

C:\>Telnet 96.9.162.227 2086
Connecting To 96.9.162.227...Could not open connection to the host, on port 2086
: Connect failed

C:\>Telnet 96.9.162.227 2096
Connecting To 96.9.162.227...Could not open connection to the host, on port 2096
: Connect failed

The connection was working fine before I reinstall Windows 7 64 bit! On my pc I was using Windows 32 bit and on my laptop Windows 7 64 bit.

Edit:

Although, reinstalling Windows 7 64 bit on my laptop and pc doesn't explain why it didn't work on my dad's computer when I tested it. :confused:

That shows that you can definitely access the other end of the connection :)

Are there any problems accessing it from another computer on your home network? If so, then I would be searching through every option on your router to see if there is some option setup to block ports outbound. It might not be under any "Firewall" heading, but might be blocking particular "services" or labelled as something else entirely.

Yeah I had the same problem on my dad's pc which, is in a different room and he assures me that he hasn't configured the router since sometime before I switched to Windows 7 64 bit.

Hmm...

Any chance you would want to consider resetting the router back to factory default settings? That would tell you whether it's definitely the router causing the problems.

It might not be advisable to do this if you have lots of custom settings set on the router, unless you feel like writing them all down first. It's never fun to have to re-apply router settings when you can't remember them all.

I'm not a hardware person as you have probably figured out so I wouldn't know what disastrous effects resetting the router would do to our current network of which we have about 13 things connected to it.

Have you tried disabling the Windows Firewall on your PC? I find that that somehow gets in the way of just about everything.

I can connect to that address on all three of the port numbers you mentioned, so the problem has to be within your network.

Edit: I see you have tried disabling the firewall... Do you have any other anti-virus or firewall programs installed? Disable them too. I'm not sure what else to suggest apart from swapping the router if you're not comfortable resetting it. I can lend you a spare if you don't have one.

I have disabled both AVG and Windows but it doesn't make a difference. I haven't been on a stand-alone connection to test it yet since our computers are all network and testing it at tafe produced the same result. Although, I have only tested the connection on Windows 7 computers. I think another laptop on my desk has Linux on so if that doesn't work at least I won't have to compare all the programs on each system to figure what is causing the problem.

That's strange. It didn't work from TAFE either? Were you using the same computer? (A laptop?) If so, it's definitely the computer. If not, it would seem like a whitelist set on the server side, except that it can't be, because tr333 and I could both connect via telnet. I used Linux, and I'm with the same ISP as you, too.

Code:

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$ telnet 96.9.162.227 2082
Trying 96.9.162.227...
Connected to 96.9.162.227.
Escape character is '^]'.
^]

telnet> quit
Connection closed.
$
$ telnet 96.9.162.227 2086
Trying 96.9.162.227...
Connected to 96.9.162.227.
Escape character is '^]'.
^]

telnet> quit
Connection closed.
$
$ telnet 96.9.162.227 2096
Trying 96.9.162.227...
Connected to 96.9.162.227.
Escape character is '^]'.
^]

telnet> quit
Connection closed.
$
$ traceroute 96.9.162.227
traceroute to 96.9.162.227 (96.9.162.227), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  lns21.adl2.internode.on.net (203.16.215.199)  22.760 ms  23.714 ms  25.202 ms
 2  gi9-30.cor3.adl2.internode.on.net (150.101.134.190)  25.877 ms  26.451 ms  27.018 ms
 3  gi3-0-0.bdr2.adl2.internode.on.net (150.101.225.9)  227.328 ms  228.305 ms  228.882 ms
 4  te2-0-0.bdr1.mel4.internode.on.net (203.16.212.10)  229.444 ms  230.005 ms  231.003 ms
 5  te6-0-0.bdr1.mel6.internode.on.net (150.101.210.50)  214.438 ms  215.037 ms  215.590 ms
 6  te4-0-0.bdr1.syd7.internode.on.net (203.16.212.22)  216.157 ms  199.398 ms  200.100 ms
 7  po3-0-0.bdr1.sjc2.internode.on.net (203.16.213.158)  200.638 ms  201.185 ms  201.714 ms
 8  eqx-sv.4-3.r2.sj.hwng.net (206.223.116.234)  204.515 ms  205.083 ms  205.652 ms
 9  1-3.r2.ch.hwng.net (209.197.1.210)  222.638 ms  223.201 ms  223.777 ms
10  unknown.hwng.net (209.197.0.249)  273.305 ms  273.882 ms  274.492 ms
11  unknown.hwng.net (209.197.0.38)  296.939 ms e1-4.r1.ny.hwng.net (209.197.0.34)  296.248 ms  297.416 ms
12  209.197.17.130 (209.197.17.130)  311.656 ms  282.022 ms 2-3.r1.ny.hwng.net (69.16.191.93)  287.911 ms
13  209.197.17.130 (209.197.17.130)  288.461 ms 209.197.17.134 (209.197.17.134)  289.965 ms 209.197.17.130 (209.197.17.130)  290.534 ms
14  xe1-03.agg02.sctn01.hostnoc.net (64.120.243.30)  295.054 ms  295.625 ms 209.197.17.134 (209.197.17.134)  297.090 ms
15  ec0-43.bf2801.sctn01.hostnoc.net (64.120.246.130)  305.107 ms xe1-03.agg02.sctn01.hostnoc.net (64.120.243.30)  302.933 ms  303.940 ms
16  * ec0-43.bf2801.sctn01.hostnoc.net (64.120.246.130)  305.490 ms  306.045 ms

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by penagate

That's strange. It didn't work from TAFE either? Were you using the same computer? (A laptop?) If so, it's definitely the computer.

---

Nah, it was just a desktop pc in one of the rooms where I have classes. I don't think it would have made a difference if I took my laptop and hooked it using their connection. However, I can access the above mention site on my phone, Sam Sung Galaxy GT-S5670 without any connection problems. I though to be able to browse the internet would have to piggyback off any internet connections in the area?

Well, I received a response in regard to my support tick to my isp:

Hi,

I am writing to find out whether or not Internode has blocked access to outgoing ports 2082, 2086 and 2096. Apparently, those ports are needed to allow me to access the control panel in order to edit my website. I have listed program installed on a different system http://www.hosting24.com/members/tic...ZLRODg4NA4VcFu that uses TPG to connect to the internet and it allows me to view the login box for the control panel whereas from home I can not.

Also, I have been having the same issue with Steam not connecting and I have contacted their Support but have exhausted all the methods they have given me in order to resolve the issue that is when one of the suggested I contact Internode and see if it is something on your end responsible for the problem.

Thank you,

This is the response I received:

Hi,

Thank you for your email.

Internode doesn't block any ports, if you would like to test with the firewall turned off, log into My Internode with your username and password to disable the firewall.

If you have any further questions regarding this matter or wish to provide further information, please reply to this email or call the Internode Contact Centre.

Regards

Now I am at a total loss at what could be causing the problem.

Edit:

Well, it appears that our router firewall was the reason the popup box for my webhost control panel not display! Disabling it resolved the problem although, we need to figure out a way to get it to work while still using the firewall.

I'm surprised it was the firewall, since most router firewalls are normally only SPI firewalls. Maybe the firewall on your router does outbound blocking too.

Maybe although, I haven't read all of the manual I posted in post #3 so I wouldn't know. I wouldn't really surprise me if it did although, it does seem strange.

I have been having a problem on both my laptop and desktop where I can not play any Steam games because I keep receiving

http://www.vbforums.com/images/ieimages/2014/08/1.jpg

however, I can not switch to "Offline" mod either Steam still tries to contact the server. I have a suspicion that our router firewall is responsible and was wondering if there was a way I good test whether or not the router firewall is responsible without log-in to the router and manually checking the settings. It is the same problem I encountered last time although, last time the seem to resolve itself.

Edit:

Here is the list of required Steam ports. I find it a pain that Steam DOES NOT allow custom port mapping as pointed out in this note on the above page.

Quote:

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Many university networks and proxies block required ports for Steam operation - please consult your network administrator to ensure the required ports are open if you are using a university network or a proxy. Ports required for Steam can not be re-mapped to HTTP or reconfigured to a custom port range.

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Edit:

We have solved the problem yet and the router firewall was the culprit again.