RT-N66U wont resolve web extension

[Pnut]

Hi all, I have an RT-N66U with the latest build 380.64 installed. I have been running Merlin for about 3 years on this router which has been great apart from one issue, it wont seem to resolve unusual website extensions. I like a few car and other forums which sometimes use different extensions, so one example i know doesn't work is http:\\my.is.

If i try a different router it works fine, so its not being blocked at the ISP. I have the router set up to use the parental controls and have the DNS servers set to openDNS, but even if i set it all back to the factory defaults it still wont resolve the webpage so i dont believe it is any of the settings on the router.

The webpages just time out, with the error:
This site can’t be reached
my.is took too long to respond.
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

Does anyone have any suggestions to fix this?

 

[thelonelycoder]

.is is the TLD for Iceland.
It should resolve just fine, in any router, as this is not an operation done by the router. It gets resolved by the DNS, openDNS if you have that enabled or your ISP's if not.
Clear your device's and browser cache and try again.

 

[ElectronDF]

My first thought is check basic connectivity and then work your way up. On the different router, do a ping on my.is and get its IP address. Then on the Asus, do a ping on that IP (not the name, the IP address) and see what happens. If it works, then we know at least you can talk to that site. Then work on DNS. Do a ping on the Asus router to the name my.is and see what IP address comes up. If it can't resolve it, then check your settings for your DNS in your Asus router compared to the router that works. Then we can try more from there.

 

[RMerlin]

Your WAN IP could be blacklisted by that site. Changing router causes your ISP to issue a different IP (IPs tend to be associated with the router's MAC), which would be why it works then.

Try cloning the other router's MAC address on the non-functioning router, on the WAN page, then reboot.

 

[sfx2000]

Might also consider clearing the local machine caches...

Current Macs(OSX 10.11):

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder​

Windows 10/8/7/XP

ipconfig /flushdns​

Ubuntu 14.04LTS

sudo /etc/init.d/dns-clean start​

 

[Pnut]

Thanks for all the answers and suggestions, I have given them a go, results below. Sorry I should have mentioned I have the router connected to the modem, if I turn the modem's wifi on I can connect to my.is so it looks to me to be something in the router settings but I could be wrong.

Clearing the cache on the client devices doesn't appear to make any difference, neither does restarting the modem or router.

Interesting on the Iceland extension, I tried a couple of sites from Iceland with the .is extension and they open fine.

Trying from my iPad using safari it gives the error "safari can not open the page because the server stopped responding" which to my limited knowledge is what the traceroute below seems to say.

If I do a ping on the website it won't resolve the address, but to me from the traceroute it appears to be getting out past the modem. (I am in New Zealand so the .co.nz extensions are the local ISP out.)

Does that help point to a possible cause?

PING my.is (75.126.50.197)
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
--- my.is ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, lost 100.0 %


Traceroute to my.is (75.126.50.197), 64 hops max.
1 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) time=28 ms
2 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) time=25 ms
3 *
4 *
5 ae8-10.akbr6.global-gateway.net.nz (122.56.116.5) time=8 ms
6 ae2-6.tkbr12.global-gateway.net.nz (122.56.127.17) time=10 ms
7 xe7-0-4.sebr3.global-gateway.net.nz (202.50.232.250) time=31 ms
8 122.56.119.86 (122.56.119.86) time=33 ms
9 as36351.sydney.megaport.com (103.26.68.102) time=31 ms
10 ae7.bbr01.eq01.syd02.networklayer.com (50.97.19.60) time=32 ms
11 ae3.bbr01.cs01.lax01.networklayer.com (50.97.19.192) time=195 ms
12 *
13 ae0.cbs01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com (50.97.17.81) time=251 ms
14 ae33.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com (50.97.17.53) time=308 ms
15 ae5.dar01.dal05.networklayer.com (173.192.18.215) time=223 ms
16 po1.fcr04.sr03.dal05.networklayer.com (173.192.118.149) time=224 ms
17 *
18 125-238-187-1.jetstream.xtra.co.nz (125.238.187.1) time=1197 ms
19 *
20 *
21 *
22 *
23 *
24 *

 

[thelonelycoder]

As a temporary fix, what if you do this:
Create the file /jffs/configs/dnsmasq.conf.add
and add this to it:

server=/www.my.is/75.126.50.197

Then restart dnsmasq:

service restart_dnsmasq

Does it work now?

 

[Pnut]

Sorry, I'm a bit new at customising the router at that level. I will give it a go if I know where in the router menu to do it :/

 

[thelonelycoder]

That's done through SSH, if you are uncomfortable with it, leave it.

 

[ElectronDF]

My thought is the DNS works, since when you ping it, it gives you the IP address for the name. Next is what RMerlin said "Your WAN IP could be blacklisted by that site. Changing router causes your ISP to issue a different IP (IPs tend to be associated with the router's MAC), which would be why it works then." "Try cloning the other router's MAC address on the non-functioning router, on the WAN page, then reboot."

 

[Pnut]

Thanks. Please correct me if i am wrong but i am struggling to see how that could be the case, as i mentioned above the router is attached to the modem so the modem is getting the external IP from the ISP not the router. The router is handling the internal home network IP, so how would the site know what the internal IP would be?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks. Please correct me if i am wrong but i am struggling to see how that could be the case, as i mentioned above the router is attached to the modem so the modem is getting the external IP from the ISP not the router. The router is handling the internal home network IP, so how would the site know what the internal IP would be?

The confusion is because we were assuming that your N66U was connected to a "cable modem" (what you've been referring to as a "modem"). On re-reading your posts together with your traceroute output it appears that your "modem" is in fact another wireless router (albeit with its own modem).

So you have a double-NAT situation, i.e. a router behind another router. This is slightly unusual but not a problem. But it does mean that the suggestions about cloning MAC addresses do not apply in your case.

 

[Pnut]

I'm using the Asus merlin with opendns to get better filtering and netsafe controls, unfortunately the modem/router supplied by the ISP is too basic for that but the modem works fine.

 

[Pnut]

Ok I'm thinking it's the ISP either blocking it or being blocked. It is timing out in the same errors at my in laws who are with the same ISP provider. :/

 

[ColinTaylor]

If I try a traceroute to the same destination (I'm in the UK) I end up going through the same 3 hops that you do at #14, #15 and #16 (Dallas, Texas).

The difference is the next hop. For me it is the final destination, 75.126.50.197. But in your case the next response is from jetstream.xtra.co.nz.

A quick Google suggests this might be a long standing issue.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1352624
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1185426

Of course traceroute packets are not the same as TCP packets, but it does suggest something strange is going on at networklayer.com.

 

[thelonelycoder]

Ok I'm thinking it's the ISP either blocking it or being blocked. It is timing out in the same errors at my in laws who are with the same ISP provider. :/

A new problem: Internet Service Provider provider, just like double NATing, is not always favourable.

 

[Pnut]

Its strange as from my work it also routes through networklayer.com but it gets to the website just fine.
So would this be an ISP issue, where they are routing it?

Tracing route to my.is [75.126.50.197]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms mako.firewall [10.0.0.253]
2 3 ms 1 ms 1 ms ae-0-942.cr1.mdr.vygr.net [114.23.3.248]
3 3 ms 5 ms 3 ms 203.97.9.97
4 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms be10-2.bgnzftc02.akl.vf.net.nz [203.109.130.41]
5 25 ms 25 ms 25 ms 10.123.80.58
6 26 ms 25 ms 25 ms as36351.nsw.ix.asn.au [218.100.52.100]
7 27 ms 25 ms 26 ms ae7.bbr01.eq01.syd02.networklayer.com [50.97.19.60]
8 150 ms 152 ms 150 ms ae3.bbr01.cs01.lax01.networklayer.com [50.97.19.192]
9 152 ms * 151 ms ae5.cbs01.cs01.lax01.networklayer.com [50.97.17.62]
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 179 ms 179 ms 180 ms ae33.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com [50.97.17.53]
12 185 ms 179 ms 180 ms ae5.dar01.dal05.networklayer.com [173.192.18.215]
13 * * 179 ms po1.fcr04.sr03.dal05.networklayer.com [173.192.118.149]
14 180 ms 181 ms 180 ms c5.32.7e4b.ip4.static.sl-reverse.com [75.126.50.197]

Trace complete.