Can't connect to ManiaPlanet forums via home Internet

[ToaOfJustice]

What is the bug? I can't connect to the ManiaPlanet forum or blog via my home Internet connection (wired or wireless). However, I can connect if I tether to my smartphone's data connection.

How can I reproduce it? Try to connect to the ManiaPlanet forum or blog using an Internet connection that can't seem to access those sites. Then try using your smartphone (or another Internet connection) to access those sites.

This may not be so easy to reproduce, since I think it's related to my home ISP. My smartphone can connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or its data connection. My IP address and DNS server change when I use my smartphone's connection.

What is my expectation of this bug? I should be able to connect to the ManiaPlanet forum or blog via my home Internet connection.

My System Specs

-Hardware: GeForce GTS 250, Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, 4 GB of RAM (3.25 GB usable), 802.11n USB Wireless LAN Card, Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
-System: Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center x64, single user with admin rights.
-Network: When tethered to my smartphone, I have a 5.7 Mbps download speed, and a 14.91 Mbps upload speed. When using my home Internet connection, my download speed has been as high as 46.74 Mbps, but my upload speed only reaches a peak of 3.03 Mbps.
-Default browser: Firefox 38.0.6
-Antivirus and firewall: Kaspersky Internet Security

My Smartphone Specs
Nokia Lumia 920, Windows Phone 8.1 (Lumia Cyan), AT&T

By the way, I have read the topics titled "WLAN problems [solved - was firmware issue]" and "Return of the infamous [12029] ? [solved]". If it turns out to be an ISP issue, I have tried to report it in the past, but my ISP's tech support blamed it on my home router. I updated my router's firmware recently, but that didn't help.

Any advice would be welcome.

EDIT: I have no trouble connecting to the ManiaPlanet forum or blog when I connect to my home Wi-Fi using my Windows Phone. I also have no trouble connecting to the ManiaPlanet game server using my home wired Internet connection (I used to need Wi-Fi prior to the firmware update).

[TMarc]

Do you have a static IP (please indicate it to me in MP, I'll check with the admin tools if it is banned).
Or is that also changing all the time?

The connection settings might be bugged. You can also try to remove the current connection and create a new local one, which has "home connection" settings.

[ToaOfJustice]

I don't have a static IP address. I am assigned one by my ISP. Therefore, I don't believe your advice would apply in my case. Thanks anyway!

[TMarc]

I meant the network connection in Windows
Each connection gets an entry here with individual settings.
Delete this "Network" and create a new connection again.
This should get new Windows Firewall settings.

Another issue could be that maniaplanet or the forum base URL are blocked in the antivirus, some plugins for your browser, or by unknown case, it is entered in your hosts file.
In worst case the IP of the pages are invalid either in DNS or Address resolution cache, and this could also be a (hopefully only temporary) issue with your ISP.

[ToaOfJustice]

I tried deleting the network, disabling Kaspersky, disabling my browser plugins, checking my hosts file, and flushing my DNS and ARP caches. None of those solutions worked.

I'll PM you the IP addresses I have today for my home connection and my Windows Phone. Both IP addresses show up on several blacklists, but each one shows up on different blacklists. According to the link I just gave in this post, at least one of those blacklists includes a range of IP addresses.It's possible that mine has been caught in one of those ranges.

[TMarc]

Thanks for your message.
Not any of your IPs is in the range of those in the banlist, at least of the list I can see.

Anyways, I just read your edit of the first post, if you can use your phone using your wifi, then it has the same IP to the outside, and then it is clearly a problem of your PC. Unless it chose the mobile internet connection, because it has a totally different IP.

Can you browse to any other website from your PC? I would think that not only maniaplanet is affected.
Did you try another browser? reason: to know if the blocking is on deeper level and not on browser level.

[ToaOfJustice]

I just turned off the cellular data connection on my phone, and tried connecting to this site using only Wi-Fi. I couldn't connect to this site on my phone until I turned on the cellular data connection again.

I can browse to other sites on my PC. I have tried Internet Explorer, but it can't connect to this site either unless I tether to my phone.

[TMarc]

Ok, then it is somewhere at the ISP and/or your router.

What about other websites?
Are those accessible from your PC?

Could you try a tracert to http://www.maniaplanet.com [178.33.248.129] and one to forum.live.maniaplanet.com [54.229.77.255] to check if you see the same IPs here?

Edit: perhaps your your router is blocking HTTPS connections (port 443).
You might check this especially.

[wooloo]

Spontaneous idea: some time ago I had trouble connecting to a phpBB board too, it was after we switched our internet to ipv6. After some time it worked again because the administration of the forum changed something, don't remember what it was.
Maybe this is completely unrelated, it just was a thought.

[ToaOfJustice]

@TMarc: I sent you a PM with my tracerts.

@wooloo: I tried another phpBB board (http://www.tm-forum.com/), and that worked just fine with my home Internet connection, which uses IPV4. Good thought though!