Internet Explorer opens pages that Firefox/Chrome doesn't!?

[Nazgulled]

First of all, please forgive me if this is not in the proper forum.

I'm currently running Windows 8.1 x64 connected to my ASUS AC68U router through 1Gbit Ethernet cable. My Internet connection is a USB 4G modem connected to the USB 2.0 port of the router.

My problem is that sometimes I have a lot of issues opening certain pages with Firefox (my main browser) and Chrome. This is kinda random... I'm searching Google for something and the results page keep loading indefinitely - a white page is show and there's an icon spinning - it eventually times out and nothing loads. Eventually it works but it can take some time before it works; sometimes it takes a lot of time before I can get the page to load, which is very annoying.

The fact is that Internet Explorer loads that same page instantly. And I test this by opening/refreshing the same URL in the 3 browsers at the same time and only Internet Explorer loads the page.

My question is, what could be different in IE to load the page while the other browsers refuse to load? Anything comes to mind?

One last note, when this happens, I sometimes try to load the same URL in Chrome for Android and it works too. Which makes me think there's something wrong with my computer/browsers and not on the router/modem.

Thoughts?

 

[System Error Message]

Chrome is hardcoded to use google DNS. Depending on the website some are coded for IE and some are coded for other browsers.

 

[sfx2000]

Might try flushing DNS caches...

Current Macs(OSX 10.11):

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Windows 10/8/7/XP/2k

ipconfig /flushdns

Ubuntu 14.04LTS

sudo /etc/init.d/dns-clean start

older stuff look below…

-------

OSX 10.10 (10.10.3 thru 10.10.0)

sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches

OSX 10.9 – 10.5.2

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

OSX 10.5.1 and earlier

sudo lookupd -flushcache

Linux Generic (depending on what you’re running)

/etc/init.d/named restart

/etc/init.d/nscd restart

 

[Ronv42]

To rule out name resoltuion have you coded a DNS service such as OpenDNS into our router and also captured the DNS via IP Tables to force your chosen DNS. Since you are using 4G are they doing any type of "web acceleration" like they try to do with mobile devices. Sometimes they add a proxy to conserve bandwidth.

 

[Nazgulled]

Might try flushing DNS caches...

Tried that many times (I'm using Windows), doesn't seem to really help...

To rule out name resoltuion have you coded a DNS service such as OpenDNS into our router and also captured the DNS via IP Tables to force your chosen DNS. Since you are using 4G are they doing any type of "web acceleration" like they try to do with mobile devices. Sometimes they add a proxy to conserve bandwidth.

I'm forcing Google's DNS servers on the router (ASUS) with a custom script to override dnsmasq configuration. By default it picks DNS servers from /tmp/resolv.conf which is populated with the DNS servers from the 4G connection but I changed the configuration to ignore the resolv.conf file and always use my own DNS servers. For more details, check this post, it's the script I'm using.

 

[Nazgulled]

Also, I believe this issue only happens on HTTPS websites. Normal HTTP sites load just fine...

 

[Ronv42]

Hmm...well you know that SHA-1 encryption has been "retired" and mostly disabled in the browsers. So I would check to see if the sites you are working with are still using certs that are SHA-1 signed. Most browsers have set sunset dates of those certs. There are overrides that can be done in the browsers but I believe that all major players in the browser space have individual strategies for how they will handle the SHA-1 retirement for sites that aren't compliant.

http://arstechnica.com/security/201...k-millions-from-encrypted-net-facebook-warns/

 

[Nazgulled]

I'm not sure that's exactly the problem. I mean, when I'm over at my parents house - they have a fiber connection - with the same exact computer, I don't have an issue loading any website. But at my place - with a 4G connection - I do have the problem mentioned above.

 

[Ronv42]

Ok so that helps a bit more. So you can get to secure sites using someone elses service with this laptop. So I am back to something in the wireless carrier is intercepting your requests. It could be DNS or it could be a misconfigured HTTP proxy. It's easy validate if your provider is "commandeering" your DNS lookups by testing with this site:

https://ipleak.net/

It will show what DNS servers resolved some looksups and the IP's/owners of those servers. If you are hitting your providers DNS vs. Google's as configured you can easily fix that by using DNSCRYPT on your router if you are running ENTWARE usingDNSCRYPT.

https://github.com/RMerl/asuswrt-merlin/wiki/Secure-DNS-queries-using-DNSCrypt

To test if you are going though a proxy here is a site that does a test looking at the headers of the HTTP requests:

http://www.lagado.com/proxy-test

For hidden proxies this is an addtional test:

http://www.lagado.com/tools/cache-test

If your provider is proxying and it's not working across HTTPS then you need to contact them and have it fixed. The only other alternative is to setup a VPN to tunnel around their proxy.

 

[Nazgulled]

AFAIK, it's using only Google's DNS servers and there's no proxies in between. Used all those test sites above. Cause I've also realized it's actually happening to some HTTP sites too, not just HTTPS. There's no pattern to this, it just happens from time to time.

Honestly, I believe that my problem lies with the fact that I'm an older version of the firmware and/or ASUS firmware doesn't properly support my 4G USB modem. I believe this is my problem: http://www.snbforums.com/threads/usb-modem-not-connecting-with-latest-merlin-huawei-dongle.28810/

If only I could get this dongle to work as a primary WAN out of the box or with minimal setup. I believe my problems would be gone... I can't be sure of that, of course, and I haven't plugged the dongle to the computer directly (instead of the router), but I believe that works much better without any issues and that's the real problem.