I Cannot Access a Website With the BSNL Internet Connection

I must say that today is one of my bad days because I do not understand the real reasons for blocking (by the BSNL) one of my client's websites in my office.

CoreNetworkZ Tech Solutions developed and hosted a new E-Commerce website for one of our local clients. Everything was fine until this morning.

I could not open this E-Commerce website on my office PC.

I could even ping this e-commerce website successfully but couldn't open it. I tried multiple browsers ( Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and IE), but all failed.

I spent hours troubleshooting this issue without any results. The issue was with just one website via BSNL Internet connection, but all other domains are fine. At first, I thought it was my computer that was blocking the website, and I wasted a lot of time troubleshooting without knowing the actual reason.

The error message we are getting while trying to access this website via BSNL connection is "403 Forbidden -You don't have permission to access / on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an Error Document to handle the request".

I tried to access the website by typing the IP address instead of the domain name without success.

We were facing this issue only on the BSNL connection, and we could access the same site via Tata broadband and Reliance connection. I called some other friends using a BSNL connection to verify it. They all had the same problem, and the culprit was confirmed.

BSNL Technical support explained that their Gateway firewall blacklisted the website for unknown reasons. They removed the domain name from the blacklist, and now the BSNL connection shows this E-Commerce site.

This article explains the steps I have taken to fix the issue of being unable to access my client's website with the BSNL Internet connection.

CoreNetworkZ Tech Solutions recommends this 7-step solution to fix problems with opening a website on a BSNL Internet connection.

1. Change the Default BSNL DNS Address

   The first step I recommend is replacing the default BSNL DNS with Open DNS or Google DNS. It will fix more than 90% of problems, as commented by Narinder Kumar Mehra in the comment section.

   I have published a detailed tutorial on this topic. You can read it by visiting the link below.

   Replace BSNL DNS With Google DNS

   I changed the DNS address configured on my computer. Sometimes, the corrupted ISP DNS server can prevent domains from opening. I changed the default DNS settings to Open DNS address.

   Despite all my expectations, this step failed. However, I strongly suggest you change your default DNS details on your PC if certain domains are blocked on your computer from the ISP side.

2. Turn Off Firewall and Antivirus

   Wrongly configured Internet Security suit can block a website on a laptop. You can check whether the security apps installed block websites on your computer by turning off them.

   Mahendra Singh Rajpoot explained in the comment section that by turning off the firewall, he fixed the problem.

   So, I turned off all security programs on my computer, but the issue persists.

3. Delete all Extra entries in the Windows Local Hosts File

   I recommend you open the Windows Hosts file on your computer and delete all extra entries. If you do not know the steps, visit this link and look for the second solution.

   Rajendra Prasad Chaurasiya confirmed it. You can read his experience in the comment section.

4. Accessing the blocked website via a Proxy Server

   You can unblock the BSNL ban on a website by using a VPN or Proxy service.

   A List of Free Proxy Servers

   Whenever I try to access this site via proxy servers, I can access the website. So, it is clear that something from the BSNL end is wrong, and that is why I am unable to access this site.

5. Results of Ping and Tracert operations

   I can successfully ping the website from the command prompt, but the tracert operation failed at the first hop. It seems very strange to me. The screenshot is below, but I want to remove my client's website name from the picture.

   

   It seems the BSNL modem is blocking the packets (from the tracert test) to the specific website. That is why the website is not opening on the BSNL Internet connection. Then how does the ping operation work? I am very much confused at this point.

6. Reset browser settings and remove all unwanted plugins

   It seems my computer is able to communicate with the website (ping test), but browsers are not. So, I reset the browser settings and removed all unwanted add-ons.

7. Only BSNL is blocking this Domain

   I have double-checked the issue with other ISPs (Reliance and Tata Communication), and there is no issue with accessing this website.

I called BSNL customer service for more assistance, and they agreed the issue seems to be from BSNL. They suggested me to perform the following steps.

1. Reset and Reconfigure BSNL Modem

   BSNL Technical Support suggested I reset and reconfigure the modem, but the issue persists. I cannot open the site even after reconfiguring the modem.

   How to Reset BSNL Modem to Factory Default Settings
   
   
2. Bridge the BSNL Modem

   My BSNL modem is configured in PPPoE mode, and I changed it to bridge mode. Though I bridged the modem, it also failed.

Since both steps failed, they gave me one of their supervisor's email addresses. They suggested sending him an email regarding this issue.

Anyway, I would like to add one point. The BSNL customer care executive was very helpful and kind. Even though she could not fix the problem, I appreciate her efforts.

After two weeks, the BSNL Team informed me of the happy news. They unblocked my client's E-commerce website from the BSNL blocked website list.

1. https://www.systosys.com/viewtopic.php?t=16
2. https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns
3. https://www.opendns.com/setupguide/