Campus internet messing with my website and email (for website)...

dude_56013

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Okay, first off, let it be known that I'm using campus internet. Everything HAS BEEN WORKING FINE until today. Also, today I received an email saying that they were doing network maintenance...I'm sure the two are correlated.

Anywho, the problem is this: I cannot send or receive from Microsoft Outlook (POP3 incoming, SMTP outgoing). Previously, I ran into this problem when I first got here to college. It was solved by changing my outgoing SMTP port from 25 to 465. I have tried changing it back to port 25 (and also 587) both with no luck. I've tried authenticated and un-authenticated and SSL and non-SSL...nothing's doing the trick.

Here's the kicker, I also cannot access the website for the email (zacscomputers(dot)com). However, it's not down! I can access it with a proxy serve, and my parents back home (different ISP, 2 hours away) can access it fine. I CAN ACCESS ALL OTHER WEBSITES JUST FINE!!

I have no idea what the problem it. I'm really befuddled.

Any suggestions? I'm concerned because I've got a few important emails to tend to. Looks like I'll be heading for a coffee shop if I can't get it figured out by tomorrow.

Thanks guys.
 
I'd wait and see what happens when the 'maintenance' is over. It might be related to whatever they are doing. It is unusual that it is the only site causing issues. Perhaps they were concerned about something on your site and blocked it? Does it just say 'page can not be found' or does it show something different. I think it's unusual for a campus to block sites though.
 
Well, maintenance is "over" and I'm still having issues. I'll put up the email between me and the network/tech admin:

Me:
Kyle,

I'm having issues with my work e-mail (I run my own business; I have my own website and the email is setup through that). The issues began yesterday and my assumption is that they are caused by whatever maintenance occurred. The website my email is run through is www(dot)zacscomputers(dot)com. I cannot access that site on either my laptop or my desktop, however, the website is not down--I have checked with family members who can access it, and I can also access it through a proxy server.

As for my issues with my e-mail, I'm assuming it's related to not being able to access the website (obviously, if I can't access the website, there's no access to the mail server). My incoming mail is POP3, and my outgoing is SMTP. Neither are working. I've tried pretty much everything in the book within Outlook. Initially when I arrived on campus, I was having trouble just sending mail (could receive just fine), and that problem was solved by changing my SMTP port from 25 to 465. So, consequently the first thing I tried was changing that back to 25. No luck. I have also tried port 587. Again, no luck. I've also tried SSL and non-SSL, as well as authenticated and non-authenticated transfer. Nothing is working and I have some important emails to tend to (one of them being a time-restricted email).

I guess I'm going to have to find a coffee shop tomorrow. I've never had to deal with any network as complicated as this has proved to be so far this semester--and that's saying quite a bit considering I run my own computer business!

Please shed some light on this issue.

Thanks

His reply (no help):
Zach
I have checked your website from my office PC and it's working fine so I'm assuming your problem is either your laptop or desktop's network connection...are you logging into Clean Access and completely getting through? Or do you still have Windows Updates or AV definition updates? I would check those first.
As far as email, we do not allow any computer on campus (except for our email servers) to send email on port 25. You are more than welcome (like you did) to change your SMTP port. I would check with your service provider as we are not (and don't) block any other type of traffic except for port 25 (just due to SPAM and any client machine that tries to send SPAM as this in the past has put us on blacklists.) Like you said, your receiving email should work just fine as long as you can connect through Cisco NAC.

Let me know if you have any other questions...

Kyle


As a side note, we use this thing called CISCO NAC (we have to use our student ID and pass to use internet) and it's a f-in bi*** to use. But like I said, everything has been working fine til this "maintenance".

I went to Caribou (coffee shop) yesterday and everything worked just fine...I was able to access my website and my email, so I know it is NOT my computer...it's this BS campus internet. And I'm getting a little sick of it. I mean, I can't even log into CPanel on my website from this campus internet.

FML.

Anyone have any other ideas?
 
VPN Tunneling is FTW! :D

I know that doesnt really help, but it sounds to me like they are blocking yo' shizz!
 
Is there anyway I can figure out any more on that? I mean, this is the ONLY site that I can't get on. I just get a blank page (no errors...just a white screen) and that's for my site and CPanel (cpanel is just the sites ip and a ":xxxx" after wards.

The IT guys pretty much told me to f*** off...that he has "campus business that is more important to tend to".

But I don't get why they'd be blocking my email anyways...I mean, I'm not misusing it or anything.

I've also tried messing with the MTU settings on Vista too...no luck.
 
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