Where/how to report general routing problem?

[#1]

Hi @Greg60 

did you get anywhere with this? This command might help

sudo traceroute -T www.colorline.com

traceroute to www.colorline.com (195.225.31.64), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 _gateway (192.168.10.1) 4.242 ms 4.112 ms 4.065 ms
2 195.166.130.249 (195.166.130.249) 12.774 ms 12.715 ms 12.557 ms
3 gi2-1-444.ptn-gw01.plus.net (84.93.253.79) 12.493 ms 12.321 ms gi2-23-442.ptn-gw02.plus.net (84.93.253.75) 12.191 ms
4 195.99.125.144 (195.99.125.144) 11.752 ms 13.232 ms core1-BE1.colindale.ukcore.bt.net (195.99.125.132) 13.121 ms
5 core5-hu0-7-0-15.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (195.99.127.36) 14.898 ms peer7-et-4-1-4.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (194.72.16.140) 39.940 ms peer7-et-3-1-7.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.252.172) 12.663 ms
6 166-49-214-194.gia.bt.net (166.49.214.194) 12.621 ms 11.837 ms 166-49-209-132.gia.bt.net (166.49.209.132) 11.720 ms
7 ldn-b3-link.ip.twelve99.net (213.248.71.146) 13.114 ms 16.962 ms 16.910 ms
8 ldn-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.120.74) 28.382 ms 28.687 ms 28.654 ms
9 hbg-bb3-link.ip.twelve99.net (80.91.249.11) 43.268 ms 48.148 ms 47.653 ms
10 oso-b1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.112.85) 59.612 ms 59.463 ms 59.336 ms
11 basefarm-ic-306597.ip.twelve99-cust.net (62.115.45.130) 59.299 ms 54.248 ms 54.084 ms
12 * web.colorline.basefarm.net (195.225.31.64) 53.968 ms *

[#2]

Thanks for your concern, but no, the problem remains.

root@shadowII:~# traceroute -T www.colorline.com
traceroute to www.colorline.com (195.225.31.64), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 1.069 ms * *
2 * * *
3 * * *
4 136.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk (195.166.143.136) 18.855 ms 18.820 ms 18.777 ms
5 core5-hu0-7-0-26.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (195.99.127.32) 18.823 ms peer7-et-7-0-2.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.252.88) 18.788 ms core5-hu0-4-0-26.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.252.144) 18.942 ms
6 166-49-214-194.gia.bt.net (166.49.214.194) 19.281 ms 24.668 ms 166-49-209-132.gia.bt.net (166.49.209.132) 20.265 ms
7 ldn-b3-link.ip.twelve99.net (213.248.71.146) 20.276 ms 8.101 ms 8.115 ms
8 ldn-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.127.100) 8.294 ms ldn-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.120.74) 14.899 ms 14.940 ms
9 hbg-bb3-link.ip.twelve99.net (80.91.249.11) 23.880 ms * *
10 oso-b1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.112.85) 33.460 ms 33.870 ms 36.501 ms
11 basefarm-ic-306597.ip.twelve99-cust.net (62.115.45.130) 36.444 ms 36.459 ms 33.791 ms
12 * * *
13 * * *
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *
28 * * *
29 * * *
30 * * *
root@shadowII:~#

My mobile phone can act as a WiFi hotspot, so I can rig a backup connection from my main machine via mobile data; as expected, this works.

root@shadowII:~# traceroute -T www.colorline.com
traceroute to www.colorline.com (195.225.31.64), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.136.158 (192.168.136.158) 2.440 ms 7.958 ms 8.042 ms
2 10.247.176.102 (10.247.176.102) 27.050 ms 27.191 ms 27.247 ms
3 * * *
4 * * *
5 * * *
6 109.249.132.36 (109.249.132.36) 36.931 ms 26.644 ms 24.391 ms
7 62.6.204.147 (62.6.204.147) 24.736 ms 62.6.204.77 (62.6.204.77) 32.100 ms 62.6.204.23 (62.6.204.23) 32.098 ms
8 166-49-214-194.gia.bt.net (166.49.214.194) 46.890 ms 46.835 ms 46.232 ms
9 ldn-b3-link.ip.twelve99.net (213.248.71.146) 24.199 ms 23.815 ms 24.304 ms
10 ldn-bb1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.120.74) 24.458 ms 36.806 ms 36.708 ms
11 hbg-bb3-link.ip.twelve99.net (80.91.249.11) 43.123 ms 48.535 ms *
12 oso-b1-link.ip.twelve99.net (62.115.112.85) 55.662 ms 55.656 ms 51.849 ms
13 basefarm-ic-306597.ip.twelve99-cust.net (62.115.45.130) 51.535 ms 57.158 ms 58.229 ms
14 web.colorline.basefarm.net (195.225.31.64) 59.427 ms * *
root@shadowII:~# 

My mobile service is also PlusNet, and in both cases the first hop after bt.net is ldn-b3-link.ip.twelve99.net (213.248.71.146); ie, apart from details strictly inside PlusNet/BT, everything is the same, so the only logical conclusion is that the target can't (for whatever reason) route back to my public broadband address.  Since I don't have any kind of relationship with twelve99.net, this is something I need PlusNet  to pick up and resolve.  Hence my question, how/where do I report something like this?

[#3]

Is that the only logical explanation? I'd say it's far more likely that something is happening at the destination that's preventing you access.

[#4]

The only other option would be packet filtering; it's possible, but probably very unlikely.  Either way, this is something that I can't resolve, and I'm looking for answers to how to report this to PlusNet.  I reckon there's no chance of getting past the first line of customer support.

[#5]

@Greg60 On a completely different network - Zen - who have their own connections and do not route via any BT centres, I too cannot get any further than your step 11, so I tend to agree with @bobpullen  - it is colorline themselves who are blocking this.

[#6]

---

@jab1 wrote:

... On a completely different network - Zen ... ... ...  I too cannot get any further than your step 11

---

@jab1  just checking, can you browse to the website though ?  -  www.colorline.com 

.

[#7]

With no problem, @Anonymous .😀

[#8]

That's what I thought,  so the fact that the target website does/doesn't respond to pings has little to do with whether the website can be viewed with a browser.

My guess would be that @Greg60 has got stuck with a Plusnet WAN IP from a reused dynamic address-range that is being (possibly incorrectly) geo-blocked by the website,  an issue which has frequently been a problem reported in this forum in the past.  I wonder to test this theory, a member of staff could temporarily assign a STATIC IP address to @Greg60  and see whether the issue disappears ?

.

[#9]

At a glance (based on the subnet), it looks like the OP may already have a static IP assignment.

[#10]

I've never requested and paid for a static IP address; don't know if it is or isn't.

[#11]

Just an additional observation related to attempting to ping/traceroute the IP address (195.225.31.64) of www.colorline.com

Trying directly to browse using the IP address, I get -

But the same browser does display the desired screen using the URL

So it is likely that the IP address is that of the host of multiple websites, rather than the home address of colorline.com  ?

.

[#12]

@Anonymous Yes, shared by at least multiple colorline domains (.no, .dk, .de), possibly others.  The old HTTP 1.0 "GET /" is a nice visual verification of basic functionality, but you need HTTP 1.1 headers to get to the right website.  Thanks for your help.

[#13]

The destination webserver may not have a website operating on the IP address. The webserver software knows what URL was passed to it (part of the HTTP stuff in the TCP packet IIRC - after the initial TCP handshake).

Ping and tracert on windows is one and the same. Both use ICMP packets. Routers/devices on the path may or not respond to ICMP traffic.

Trace on *ix can use UDP packets.

There are tools out there which use TCP.

SYN SENT (with no response). That's like a cold shoulder.

[#14]

Is there an entry in the host file that excludes the IP address that the domain translates to?

Does your local PC have any proxy server settings in the browser(s)?

[#15]

@greygit1 Thanks for trying to help, but the problem is well defined and fully understood.  What I'm trying to find out is how to report the issue to somebody at PlusNet who will understand it.