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jalbert
join:2014-08-30
usa

jalbert

Member

Can't connect to medicare.gov

Hello all -

I'm an ATT Uverse user in Western Connecticut.

I'm a Mac user, OS X on several computers, several versions of X at my disposal (10.6, 10.7, 10.8). I'm well-versed on the Mac (Mac user for 27 years), but this has me stumped for the moment, and it seems to be UVerse-related.

I can't access the "medicare.gov" website using standard methods (read on).

I -can- access other "gov" sites, such as "loc.gov", "irs.gov", "va.gov", even "healthcare.gov".
But again, I -can't- reach "medicare.gov".

I have tried several browsers including Safari, Firefox, iCab, an old version of Camino. None work -- I enter "medicare.gov" in the URL entry bar and..... nothing.

This is on ALL the Macs in the household (four total), and I've switched between older and newer iterations of the OS -- again, nothing.

I -have found- something that works, but only part way:
If I use the EPIC privacy browser and choose the option to hide my IP address via a proxy server, it connects right up to "medicare.gov". However, using such a proxy limits my ability to interact with the site (example -- cannot get "find plans" search to work).

Interestingly, if I chose to run Epic in "non-stealth" mode (IP address NOT hidden via proxy), Epic behaves just like the other browsers above -- i.e., no connection.

Also -- if I use the Tor browser, I can get "part way into medicare.gov", similar to with Epic in stealth mode above.

As an aside, I can go anywhere else on the net I want. No problems connecting to sites, EXCEPT for "medicare.gov".

I've come to the conclusion that something insofar as UVerse is concerned is blocking the connection, or, more correctly, is preventing the medicare.gov site from establishing the connection. It could be some [seemingly] insignificant software or hardware setting in the UVerse Residential Gateway. I'm guessing it's software because I can bypass it by using EPIC in stealth mode (which I believe is establishing some kind of VPN with another site?).

Doing some googling, I've encountered postings from others (who seem to all be Windows users) who have had pretty much the same connection problem with the medicare.gov site. I even saw posts which said in some cases the only resolution was to change out the ISP's modem.

I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem with the medicare.gov site, and if so, how you were able to overcome it.
I'm particularly interested in comments from Mac users....

Thanks,
- John
walta
join:2001-05-22
Saint Louis, MO

walta

Member

1 First try medicare.gov on one of your computers at a public WIFI like Starbucks.
If it works there it is not the computer.

2 With an Ethernet cable Plug that computer directly into ATTs gateway with nothing else connected to the gateway. If it now works the problem is in your router, switch , airport, ect.

I would be very surprised if the problem is outside of your home in ATTs equipment.

Walt

brookeKrige
join:2012-11-05
San Jose, CA

brookeKrige to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
works for me (on a mac), also »146.123.140.204/

What about smart phones, both on your wifi, versus cell data? Can they reach?

What RG model do you have? Most have their own web pages to test run ping, nslookup, traceroute etc. on an IP or site name.

Occasionally there are sites not reachable from certain areas of the county. (Hopefully we'll also get a reachability data-point from Darknessfall See Profile).

What IP address do nslookup (and dns-sd -q) report for that site? Does /usr/bin/nc show port 80 listening for that IP?

% nc -z -v medicare.gov 80
found 0 associations
found 1 connections:
     1:flags=82<CONNECTED,PREFERRED>
outif en0
src 192.168.2.71 port 51797
dst 146.123.140.204 port 80
rank info not available
TCP aux info available
 
Connection to medicare.gov port 80 [tcp/http] succeeded!
 
mibrnsurg
join:2003-07-28
Grosse Pointe, MI

mibrnsurg to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
Have you tried Google DNS in a computer?
»developers.google.com/sp ··· cs/using

I had no problem typing it in Aurora's address bar and getting it immediately.

Chris

Darknessfall
Premium Member
join:2012-08-17
Motorola MG8725
Asus RT-N66

Darknessfall to jalbert

Premium Member

to jalbert
I remember someone posting about this in the AT&T forum awhile ago. Was that you?

Anyway, I'm in CT and I tried it for you and it's a no go. I think I see the problem....

It's something on AT&T's network causing the problem.
Tracing route to Medicare.gov [146.123.140.204]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.2.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 30 ms 25 ms 26 ms -----------
4 35 ms 24 ms 25 ms -----------
5 522 ms 1000 ms 998 ms 32.223.104.37
6 497 ms 998 ms 999 ms 12.122.150.193
7 496 ms 997 ms 999 ms 12.249.72.58
8 501 ms 997 ms 1001 ms 192.57.116.66
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.

cralt
join:2011-01-07
CT

cralt to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
Im in CT and also can NOT connect to it.

from Milford
1 2 ms 1 ms 1 ms homeportal [192.168.1.254]
2 30 ms 27 ms 32 ms 32.210.176.2
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 29 ms 32 ms 30 ms 32.223.104.33
5 59 ms 60 ms 60 ms 12.122.150.193
6 62 ms 60 ms 62 ms 12.249.72.58
7 61 ms 64 ms 64 ms 192.57.116.66
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.

From Waterbury
$ traceroute medicare.gov
traceroute to medicare.gov (146.123.140.204), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.254) 1.524 ms 1.499 ms 1.385 ms
2 32.214.244.3 (32.214.244.3) 29.675 ms 26.821 ms 26.170 ms
3 * * *
4 32.223.104.37 (32.223.104.37) 30.517 ms 32.223.104.33 (32.223.104.33) 28.189 ms 28.707 ms
5 12.122.150.193 (12.122.150.193) 145.530 ms 115.28 ms 59.628 ms
6 12.249.72.58 (12.249.72.58) 60.799 ms 59.756 ms 59.771 ms
7 192.57.116.66 (192.57.116.66) 126.476 ms 75.954 ms 61.503 ms
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * *^C

Catch22
join:2013-07-04
Trumbull, CT

Catch22

Member

I can't connect to it from Trumbull, CT using the Google DNS and will run Namebench for some alternatives.

Funny that some of the "Is It Down" web sites say it is up and at least one says it it down.
jalbert
join:2014-08-30
usa

jalbert

Member

I want to thank all who replied to my original post, especially those from Connecticut who tried (and failed) to connect to medicare.gov.
This verifies that I am not the only one having problems.

I would like to address some issues that others raised above.

To "walta" -
I have to take the MacBook out later, to try a connection from some public wifi location.

But -- I tried plugging the MacBook directly into one of the ethernet ports on the back of the residential gateway. Result was same as reported in first post -- no connection under normal operation. But if I "go into stealth mode" using the Epic privacy browser, and make my computer and IP address "invisible" to medicare via a proxy, I can connect to the medicare home page.

To "brookeKrige" -
I don't own a smartphone or an iPad, etc.
I -do- have a Samsung Galaxy Player that has internet capabilities, and it can go online through my wireless connection.
I entered "medicare.gov" using its browser, and the response is the same as on any of my Mac computers -- that is, no connection, no response, nothing.

To "mibrnsurg", who wrote that he had no problem in connecting:
Are you in Connecticut ?
If so, and without prying into your privacy, could you disclose your approximate location, zip code, etc? (I'm in zip 06810)

I have gotten conflicting information when I try to use web sites that "verify" whether another web site is "up" or "down".
One reported that "it's not you" (others having the same problem).
Another said it -was- "me".
I sense there are other factors involved that these sites cannot indicate.

Although I'm well-versed in solving Mac difficulties, I'm not that much of "a network guy". Frankly, since back from the days of dial-up, I've rarely experienced network- or connection-related problems with the Mac. But this is a tough one.

Since others report the same (or at least very similar) problems, I'm thinking that this may "go beyond" my local (in-home) hardware (residential gateway), software, and firmware, and actually manifest a problem "somewhere higher up" in the ATT hardware/software hierarchy.

I'm not sure how to turn all this into a meaningful "tech support contact" with ATT (I sense those folks are based overseas) that will be able to convey my difficulties, or yield a productive response.

Final note: I've also posted this in the "direct tech help" area of broadbandreports.com -- hopefully an ATT tech will get back to me?

Thanks,
- John

cralt
join:2011-01-07
CT

cralt to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
The att.com forum is prob your best bet. I have had this happen before and it goes back to their hyper sensitive malware site blacklisting.

EDIT check this out..
»forums.att.com/t5/Featur ··· 4#M42470

brookeKrige
join:2012-11-05
San Jose, CA

brookeKrige

Member

Do you mean some intermediate router is blacklisted?
If destination blacklisted by ATT doesn't it fail nationwide, universally?

Or even blacklist inconsistencies are just swept under the umbrella of lasting legacy network side-effects of the original baby bells?

MarkLawrence
@32.210.40.x

MarkLawrence to jalbert

Anon

to jalbert
I have the same issue. I live near New Haven and have a Windows 7 pc and laptop. I have been on the line with AT&T tech support for over 5 hours trying to solve this problem. After replacing my Uverse gateway/modem, and trying other things, AT&T has finally admitted that the problem does not exist inside my computer or my home. Using my laptop, I have been able to log on to medicare.gov with no problem using the wi-fi at Starbucks and at a private business, both less that a mile from my home. I asked my neighbor to log on to Medicare.gov using AT&T Uverse and he was also unable to get in. My neighbor then switched to his Verizon 3G network and was able to access the web site with no problem. This problem appears to be unique to AT&T Uverse and Medicare.gov. I can access every other website I try to get into with no problem. Since I am about to turn 65, I really need to access Medicare.gov, and I have decided to solve the problem by switching from AT&T Uverse to Comcast/Xfinity.

Darknessfall
Premium Member
join:2012-08-17
Motorola MG8725
Asus RT-N66

Darknessfall to jalbert

Premium Member

to jalbert
In case anyone was curious, I was able to access Medicare.gov over IPV6.

Turn on IPV6 by going here »esupport.att3.2wire.com/ ··· ndex.jsp

and then clicking the enable IPV6 button after the test completes that'll show up on the right.
jalbert
join:2014-08-30
usa

1 recommendation

jalbert

Member

Thanks to Darknessfall for a working solution.

I went to the URL above, and the test said that my gateway did not support ipv6.

I clicked the button to enable it, then waited a couple of hours and went back and checked again. The page said that ipv6 was now enabled on my system.

I then tried "medicare.gov" and the connection went through without difficulty.

Somewhere "along the way", the lack of ipv6 support had been quashing my attempts to connect to the medicare.gov site. As a side note, this also corrects problems when trying to connect to the cms.gov site, as well.

Gina
@32.214.127.x

Gina to walta

Anon

to walta
I'm from CT as well and on Uverse. Very frustrating. I was able to get on using my phone when I turned off my wifi.
Gina

cralt
join:2011-01-07
CT

1 recommendation

cralt to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
IPv4 works fine on comcast, sprint, att wireless, VZN and cablevision. I wonder if this problem started when they moved us to the new IP block?

Darknessfall
Premium Member
join:2012-08-17
Motorola MG8725
Asus RT-N66

1 recommendation

Darknessfall

Premium Member

said by cralt:

IPv4 works fine on comcast, sprint, att wireless, VZN and cablevision. I wonder if this problem started when they moved us to the new IP block?

I find it odd that your AT&T wireless works fine. I say that since the new IP block are listed under AT&T wireless.

cralt
join:2011-01-07
CT

cralt

Member


My att wireless ip is 166.170.

The new CT uverse block reverses to a "wireless" range now but my bet is that the new 32.214 block that we are on will soon reverse to *.Frontier.net.
Zoder
join:2002-04-16
Miami, FL

Zoder to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
If you get no results with AT&T, call your Senator's office (Blumenthal) as he sits on the committee overseeing the merger with Directv. I'm sure his office can reach right out to AT&T's goverment affairs person and put the pressure on them to fix this ASAP as blocking the Medicare site, even by accident, effects a lot of people in your state.

Catch22
join:2013-07-04
Trumbull, CT

Catch22 to jalbert

Member

to jalbert
Just tried it and it is working in Trumbull, CT

cralt
join:2011-01-07
CT

cralt

Member

Yep working now on v4