FYX connection won't load some websites

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andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#108881 7-Sep-2012 11:54

I signed up for FYX about a week ago, and in general everything has gone really well (once Chorus came over and did their thing). Connection speeds are good, so I've been able to steam video really easily including from services like isky.

However, for some reason I can't open some websites at all, and also can't connect to the app store. I've tried calling and emailing FYX but have just been told that I'm the only person having this problem so they can't do anything for me yet, and it has been a full 24 hours since they were last in touch with me. Not great service.

I get varying traceroute results for the websites that I can't open, including some timeouts and some complete connections (but the sites themselves still don't load).

I can't work out why some websites will load (e.g. stuff.co.nz) but others won't (e.g. microsoft.com, rabodirect.co.nz). If anyone has some advice for me on this that would be great.

PeterReader

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andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#682797 7-Sep-2012 13:08

To be fair, FYX have now got back to me again (maybe they saw this post?) although they haven't been able to solve the problem. They reckon it could be my modem, although I've explained that the one I'm using is brand new so I struggle to believe that, and don't really understand how my modem could be letting some traffic through but not others. I'll try a friend's one as soon as I can anyway.

sbiddle

29223 posts

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#682798 7-Sep-2012 13:14

Are you using the correct DNS servera and MTU?

andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#682803 7-Sep-2012 13:23

Thanks, yep I'm using the DNS supplied by FYX (have tried a couple of others, including 8.8.8.8 but it doesn't appear to make any difference). MTU was a new term to me, but having checked I think my max MTU is 1500

frizianz

105 posts

Master Geek

#682808 7-Sep-2012 13:38

My guess is an issue with MSS (Maximum Segment Size).

andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#682878 7-Sep-2012 17:19

Thanks - I don't know what that is though. How would I check and/or fix that?

mattwnz

16757 posts

Uber Geek

#682884 7-Sep-2012 17:37

Have you looked in your computers 'hosts' file to see if there is anything in that causing problems? Have you tried other computers or devices connecting to the connection to see if they can connect.

ALso do you have any firewall, internet security software that could be causing problems/blocking websites?

sbiddle

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#682917 7-Sep-2012 19:16

andywhitenz: Thanks, yep I'm using the DNS supplied by FYX (have tried a couple of others, including 8.8.8.8 but it doesn't appear to make any difference). MTU was a new term to me, but having checked I think my max MTU is 1500

Many DSL MTU's are a maximum of 1492. It would clearly pay to see what FYX support and set this to the correct setting.

networkn

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#682920 7-Sep-2012 19:31

I am betting it's a MTU of 1500 that is causing your issue, on your modem change that to 1492 and try again.

andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#682955 7-Sep-2012 22:02

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've had a closer look at the modem's settings, and yes the MTU size is actually 1492. The problem is affecting the same websites on both my PC and macbook (and I can't access the app store over the wifi connection from my iphone or ipad either) so I don't think it's the hosts file on a particular piece of hardware. The security/antivirus stuff is different on each of these devices too, so I don't think that is the problem either.

mattwnz

16757 posts

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#682971 7-Sep-2012 23:25

andywhitenz: Thanks for the advice everyone. I've had a closer look at the modem's settings, and yes the MTU size is actually 1492. The problem is affecting the same websites on both my PC and macbook (and I can't access the app store over the wifi connection from my iphone or ipad either) so I don't think it's the hosts file on a particular piece of hardware. The security/antivirus stuff is different on each of these devices too, so I don't think that is the problem either.

Can you get a friends modem to test out, or do you have an old one you can try. Must be an annoying problem to try to fix.

andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#684054 10-Sep-2012 18:52

OK, I've tried a friend's modem now but that didn't make any difference. Still no further word from FYX either - their service on this has been pretty terrible.

andywhitenz

16 posts

Geek

#695981 4-Oct-2012 11:05

I've been a little bit distracted from this for a while, but have figured out the issue now. It turns out that my (brand new D-Link) router doesn't (and can't) enforce its MTU on the devices that are attached to it. So I needed to bring the MTU down on my pc as well as my router (I had tried changing it on the router before, as suggested above, but that didn't make any difference).

With the MTU set at 1440 on the router and the pc everything seems to work fine.

I had a painful conversation with tech support at D-Link this morning who couldn't tell me why the router can't enforce its MTU on the devices that are connected to it. Not very helpful.

My next challenge is to figure out if it's possible to change the MTU settings on my iphone and ipad. At the moment, these can't connect to the app store through my home wifi, presumably for the same reason (I also couldn't connect to the store from my pc before making these changes).