Comcast blocks acces to Safer-networking and Spybot

[tallard]

Good afternoon
OK, this is a little political I guess, but I really really really hate Comcast!

Nearly two months ago, our Comcast service went a little haywire so we shut down the desktop computer and accessed the web with our laptops through our neighbor's unsecured wifi.

two weeks ago, Comcast finally got their act together and our service returned, so we reconnected the desktop computer and I started updating everything (almost 2 months off). All updates were going ok but not Spybot, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling various older versions, I tried deactivating my firewall, AVG, making sure page permissions were right, cleaned up the registry, endless hours after work, to absolutely no avail. I then googled for help and and found various help forums but could not access anything from Safer-Networking or Spybot.info. At that point I pretty much lost hope and thought maybe Spybot was out of business, I just couldn't figure any other reason??? Then 2 nights ago, I accidentally logged my laptop onto the neighbor's wifi again, and boom, all spybot websites loaded fine and the upload worked fine. I disconnected and reconnected to my wifi, bam, no reaching anything spybot, back to the other wifi, everything is fine. At this point I realise it's a Comcast blocking issue.

So I google that and find that Comcast for the past couple of months has been blocking P2P sites and apparently this can affect Spybot downloads, although why it would affect spybot pages I don't know... Apparantly there's a court case being started up against them.

Anyway, so my laptop's fine, all I have to do is continue mooching off the generous neighbor, but the condo's desktop is doomed to say goodbye to Spybot as it's hardwired into Comcast and the condo bldg does not allow satellite dishes, so we're stuck.

I HATE COMCAST!!! I guess Spybot execs should join the lawsuit against Comcast. I am however a little intrigued how little this has been discussed anywhere on the web, either it's too recent, or there are localized policies, I don't know, but according to what I've read, Comcast denies everything...

[drragostea]

Hm, I don't see how Comcast may block access to SaferNetworking's page.

Your neighbors are sure generous , but tell them to secure their connection with... WEP or was it WEP2. I heard that the Zlob, aka, DNSChanger started snuggling into home modems.
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What is WEP?
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I'm not a Comcast user so I wouldn't be sure how good the service is. Is it a DSL connection?

You said that you could not access Spybot's page. Was it this?
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SaferNetworking's page (Spybot-S&D)
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I'm not sure if it has to do with the HOSTS file or anything :P. I'm stumped.

tallard, do you see a blank page when attempting to access the site, or did it say it was "not found"?

[shelf life]

hi,

comcasts "delaying,blocking,throttling" of torrent traffic is well documented.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...w-lawsuit.html
you sure your computer is malware free? Malware can often block access to security type web pages.

[tallard]

I'm not a Comcast user so I wouldn't be sure how good the service is. Is it a DSL connection?

It's cable, our cable line provides TV, internet and phone

You said that you could not access Spybot's page. Was it this?

I can't reach either spybot.info OR safer-networking pages.

tallard, do you see a blank page when attempting to access the site, or did it say it was "not found"?

To duplicate my problem, I had to logout of my neighbors wifi, login to mine, then I get a "this connection has timed out" error on this forum page and on the link you suggested. This is exactly what the article I read says, Comcast sends "fake" packets of information between user and site faking overload of website, suggesting we try back later.

My surprise is that the article states Commycast only does this to PW2P sites, and I don't see how Spybot qualifies as a P2P site, but then again, Commycast is denying everything so who knows.

How to know if Spybot owners/execs know about this?

[drragostea]

A cable connection (very fast) shouldn't time out that easily. So I'm assuming it has something to do with Comcast's service? *scratches head. SaferNetworking does not qualify or even is a P2P site.

Do you use a firewall?

I don't see how Spybot execs can do about this, apparently it's Comcast service that's in the way. Try giving them a call to the Tech Support.

Like they say, "We don't know unless you say it." Stand up, tallard.

[tallard]

comcasts "delaying,blocking,throttling" of torrent traffic is well documented.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...w-lawsuit.html

Indeed, that was the page I read, but it doesn't mention not reaching Spybot sites at large? I'd expect this to be on dozens of pages!

you sure your computer is malware free? Malware can often block access to security type web pages.

Three computers in condo, neither can connect through Commycast, both laptops CAN connect via neighbor's wifi. What are the chances the same ISP specific malware would be on all three computers, and is there such a thing as an ISP specific malware?

[drragostea]

Could Comcast be mistaken SaferNetworking for rogue "Spybots" such as SpywareBot or SpywareStop?

[tallard]

Do you use a firewall?

Only windows XP one, and I had it turned off for my "experiments"

I don't see how Spybot execs can do about this, apparently it's Comcast service that's in the way.

This is where I sound lame, my roommate, the comcast account holder, doesn't use spybot and isn't often around, so it's not much of a priority for her... :(

I Googled a couple of cases of POed website owners complaining to Commycast, but Spybot, my my! this is pretty big, surely I'm not the only one, it should affect thousands of user

I of course will get onto my roommate's case to get on this, but she's not too computer savvy... I do hope Spybot gives Commycast a hardtime, this should be a very public issue!

[drragostea]

Indeed it is. It's affecting not only you put others too.

Spybot execs can't make their site any better, by connections means, because if dial-up users can access it, then it's fine.

My strongest suggestion would talking to the Tech Support asking WHY is Comcast blocking service to Spybot.

I would suggest using a firewall, a third party would be better. At least having the default Windows firewall on would be better than nothing.

[129260]

And have never had any problems accessing there pages, as you can see i am on the forums almost every day, so i honestly do not know what is up..............thats really weird.....