Only My Computer Won’t Connect to a Specific IP

dnswindows 7

I'm having issues connecting to our Web Server IP from my computer. This seems to be isolated to my computer as I'm able to access it from every other machine I attempt just fine. By not connect, I mean that in a browser, I get "This webpage is not available", in putty, it just hangs. If I log into any other machine whether local or external, everything works as expected.

I've restarted my computer, flushed caches, and flushed DNS, and disabled Firewalls. The issue started after the most recent Windows updates though I don't know that it's related.

This is not a hosts file issue either. I've cleared the file and got the same results. Regardless, even attempting the IP directly, I don't get anywhere.

This has even stumped our IT company. I really don't want to have to reinstall Windows and my earliest restore point is after the issue started. I'd really appreciate any help I can get on this.

Best Answer

Check the cable. Make sure the LEDs are blinking when there is activity.

Install telnet via the instructions here. Alternatively, download nmap. Your'e going to use that tool to try to connect to the web-server:

telnet 193.52.1.6 80

(or whatever the IP is, but keep the 80). If it hangs, check the Windows Firewall and disable it completely. It will complain. Do it anyway. Try again. If it still hangs, it's not the firewall and you should re-enable it. Go to next step.

Next step: Get a packet-sniffer. The best option is to run it on the server if possible. The options for unix include tcpdump, wireshark. wireshark also runs on Windows. Get them to listen for all packets coming from your IP address. If you can't run it on the server, put another host on your network -- the same LAN -- any PC with Windows or Linux will do, and run it there. Tell your PC to connect to this new host (using telnet, nmap, or the browser). If you're not getting anything at all, we have to go down to very basics -- it might be a bad port on the hub/router of your network. Check that connection to, change ports, cables.

If you get it to your LAN's host but not to the server, it's possibly a router or firewall problem. You'll need your packet sniffer further on down the line to know what's going on. Are the packets reaching their destination? Are they getting responses? Does the session start and then stall?

My bet is: bad port on the hub/switch/drop.

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