Can isp's block people from going on websites?

[saucysal]

On 12 July, coinciding with the o2 problem, we received only about one tenth of the usual quantity of orders online, with no failed payments. Our expenditure on Google was normal. This puzzled us somewhat, as this suggested more than the o2 problem.

Today 13 July we could not get on to the Royal Mail's despatch manager online to book our despatches. We contacted Royal Mail and they said it was us not them - they could log into my account ok - and suggested it was our isp. Our IT guys spent several hours trying to sort the problem, and finally found that our isp had changed something that prevented us from going on the Royal Mail despatch manager site.

Now this has got me wandering, putting 2 and 2 together. So perhaps the isp had done something preventing our customers coming onto our site, explaining the lack of orders. Has anybody come across this before?

Our isp is Eclipse, who use BT.

Sarah

[jont]

This is unfortunately going to get worse. With ever more complexity in the systems and more and more steps between the server and the user. It only take one link in the chain to be out and the whole thing stops.

[leehack]

Are you talking about your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or your hosting company, they're very different things.

[saucysal]

ISP, not host

I am talking about the isp - Eclipse.

According to the Royal Mail, we were their only customer reporting the problem this morning. We could log into the RMDMO from other locations, such as a mobile phone and a neighbouring business, but not in our office, where we have Eclipse. Our website host is not connected with this issue.

Sarah

[jont]

The link between the users screen and the website is horrific .... eg;

User > Antivirus / Firewall > Data line (ISP) > DNS Service > Data Line > Server Host > Data Line > Web Browser Settings

.. that is a simplified version. Any part of the chain can stop the web page being served ... let alone the nutter operating the PC in the first place.

It wouldn't be your ISP causing the issues (lack of orders) unless the customer uses the same one (unless you host the site internally)

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Sarah,

It's unlikely to be your ISP.

Your ISP will connect you to the internet, but is unlikely to be anywhere in the link betwen the internet and your web server.

Looking around your site it all looks OK. Although all the text on the checkout pages was a chore and a half to wade through. It was certainly putting me off but then I'm not a real customer.

I tried a search for 'Atkins cereals' and see that Amazon are the only other real adwords user and come above you. This wouldn't be a recent aggressive move by amazon into this space would it? I can imagine them hoovering up most customers in the market if they're serious.

Mike

PS. Sorry about the test order.

[saucysal]

Sorry I'm slow

Thanks Mike for checking my site. I have only got around to reading your posting. No problem about test order, though I thought at the time that it was some prat (I was wrong!).

Yes, there are too many words. They have increased over time in reaction to people doing things wrong, and were in attempt to be more helpful and to avoid problems. I have since deleted some.

About 6 weeks ago I launched another website (www.avidknit.co.uk) which is much simpler in the appearance of the general design, though some of the development behind the scenes was complicated. I am planning to do a clone of this, edit it, import the content etc from www.avidlite.co.uk to launch an improved site, when I get time.

Back to the isp/Eclipse problem with Royal Mail Despatch Manager Online - our IT guys spoke to Eclipse and got the problem corrected by them, so it was definately them who had stopped us getting on the RM site.

Sarah

[cbarling]

There are lot's of "routing tables" in the Internet which basically tell network providers how to route traffic. From time to time someone makes a mistake and traffic can't get from A to B.

Invariably, the person you contact says that the problem is with the service, and of course while that is usually the case it isn't when the tables have been messed up.

It happened a few months ago when lot's of BT broadband customers couldn't access huge swathes of the Internet, including Actinic hosted sites. We got lots of calls, but the problem was with BT.

I had something similar when I was in the US once, and couldn't access my email back home.

If you go to Command Prompt and type in "tracert www.sellerdeck.co.uk" you will see a trace of the route. Anyone can use this when trying to view any site. When I had a problem, it was looping in the middle, so that's the information you can supply to your ISP.

Chris