Unable to login to account thru Comcast Internet

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 27, 2008 Posts: 6

Howyadoin,

I have 2 ISPs in my company, one is Comcast and the other is Prospeed, a local company. I can login to my Vonage account from Prospeed, but cannot do so through Comcast. Comcast swears up and down that they aren't doing anything funny, but I have my doubts. My Vonage service works OK on both providers, this is just a problem logging in to my account at vonage.com

Anyone know of any workarounds? I can't move the data connection from Comcast to Prospeed without causing a whole big mess, so I'd like to avoid that if possible...

Any ideas?

Thanks,

-Mark

Posts: 656 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

Describe exactly what happens. Saying you cannot log in is a bit vague. Is it that you can reach the website but cannot log in or your can't get even get to the site? If you get to the site, enter your login, at what point does it fail and what exactly is displayed upon failing?

If we can get a better understanding of the issue, we may be able to provide suggestions to assist you.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 27, 2008 Posts: 6

Sorry for the vagueness, I'm under the gun here and typing faster than I think, which isn't hard for me to do.... Smile

I can get to www.vonage.com (and everywhere else) with no problem. When I try to login to my account using the input at the top of the vonage.com page, I get "Waiting for https://secure.vonage.com/vonage-web/public/login.htm..." in the status bar of Internet Explorer, and the blue progress bar to the right starts to advance, but seems to stop after a while. IE doesn't freeze, it just seems to stop.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:12 pm Post subject:

So a few more questions.

How do you switch or determine which ISP connection your actually going over?

Are you using the same exact computer when testing over both ISP connections?

Have you tried Firefox?

This sounds more like an issue with a web browser then with the connection itself. If the same PC accesses both connections and only has the issue over Comcast, continue reading. If it is not the same PC, try the same PC that works on both connections.

This could also be some sort of odd DNS issue where your Comcast DNS servers are having an issue with secure.vonage.com which shouldn't happen.

If possible, get the DNS servers from your Prospeed connection and statically configure them into the PC network interface using the Comcast connection and see if this resolves it.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 27, 2008 Posts: 6

How do you switch or determine which ISP connection your actually going over?

I am physically disconnecting and reconnecting between the routers at which the connections come in; a Netgear BEFSR81 for the Comcast, and a Netgear WGR614 for the Prospeed.

Are you using the same exact computer when testing over both ISP connections?

Yes

Have you tried Firefox?

Yes

If possible, get the DNS servers from your Prospeed connection and statically configure them into the PC network interface using the Comcast connection and see if this resolves it.

I tried that, to no avail... Sad

I also tried clearing cookies, IP release/renew/registerdns via ipconfig, adding secure.vonage.com to trusted sites in IE... I've talked to Vonage tech support, they didn't have any clue, unfortunately.

I noticed that there was a previous thread about a similar issue in the Midwest... http://www.vonage-forum.com/ftopic12253.html
Was there any resolution on that, I wonder?

Thanks!

Posts: 448 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject:

VonTechMgr wrote:

This sounds more like an issue with a web browser then with the connection itself.

To me, it sounds like a possible DNS issue. Next time that happens, go to a command prompt (Start -> Run -> type in 'cmd' without the quotes and click OK) and do a manual lookup like this:

c:\> nslookup secure.vonage.com

You should get a response that looks like this:

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: secure.vonage.com
Address: 216.115.22.201

If you get a timeout, then keep reading below.

VonTechMgr wrote:

If possible, get the DNS servers from your Prospeed connection and statically configure them into the PC network interface using the Comcast connection and see if this resolves it.

If he's switching from ISP A to ISP B, but not switching his DNS resolvers, ISP A's DNS servers may not answer to recursive lookups from anything outside of A's network.

Posts: 86 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 6:47 pm Post subject:

FWIW, I have Comcast as well and for the first time ever today I cannot log in to my account page with the same user name and PW I always use.

My result is different however, it accepts the user name and PW and returns the message "Username or password incorrect".

I was getting a similar message while debugging Vonage Talk today and thought I would try logging in to the Vonage page to see if there was an issue and there certainly is. The service is working fine.

Calling Vonage technical support now.

UPDATE: Vonage reset my password and after changing to a new PW I can now log in, so this does not sound like the issue being discussed here.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:40 pm Post subject:

rebus...i PM'd mbp before with that exact information. We also saw this occur back in 2006 and it was a very widespread Comcast DNS issue. The workaround was to go to https://216.115.22.201/vonage-web/public/login.htm

Have not heard back so waiting to see if this resolves the issue for him or not .

Posts: 86 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject:

VonTechMgr wrote:

Comcast DNS issue. The workaround was to go to https://216.115.22.201/vonage-web/public/login.htm

Interesting. I switched to OpenDNS instead of Comcast's DNS servers several years ago, perhaps that's why I have not seen the issue.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Oct 27, 2008 Posts: 6

Howyadoin,

Apparently, I'm a idiot... Embarassed

In my debugging, I neglected to do the obvious first step, and connect my laptop directly to the Comcast IP Gateway (SMC 8014). When I did that, I was able to connect to my account, so Comcast seems to be off the hook. I can also get to the account from my Linksys router. This is really strange...

The network is setup like this:

Comcast IP Gateway (SMC 8014) -> Linksys BEFSR81 (DHCP Host) -> Encore 24-port switch model ENH924-AUT -> Netgear 24-port ProSafe switch model JGS524

Here's the weird part...
If I connect directly to my router (Linksys BEFSR81), which is connected to the Comcast IP Gateway (SMC8014), I can get in to the Vonage account with no problem.

If I connect my Thinkpad T60 (or any other computer I've tried) to the Encore ENH924-AUT switch which is connected directly to the Linksys router or the Netgear JGS524 which is downstream of the Encore switch, the login hangs up. This happens in both Firefox and IE.

The IP address and DNS server addresses are the same in either case.

I tried the direct IP address login, and got the same hangup.

Could this be a packet size problem?