FAO: Super Geeks. I can't access google?

[Barry Scott]

Cheers for the ideas Jay, but just solved it, well, solved is a touch of an overstatement. It's the cunting firewall.

It was blocking inbound packets to certain ports that were all from Google. I'm not too familiar with Network traffic and ports, but it seems strange why Google seems to be sending traffic to random ports all over the place. I'll have to work out how to allow these packets, because the Firewall is great, just a touch intrusive it would seem.

Also, why does it allow this traffic when cabled? And why has this problem only just occured?

Anyone know anything about this inbound traffic malarkey, because i wasn't aware the internet used a massive range of ports?

Thanks for everybody's help.

[Batch]

Different applications use different ports, think of it as a kind of  'address' so the computer knows which application to send the inbound packets (data) to. For example, port 80 is HTML so it can direct it to the web browser "listening" on port 80, pop3 is port 110 so it can direct  email stuff to teh application "listening" on port 110.

The firewall probably works per interface, so LAN has different settings (rules) to the WLAN, etc, etc.

If the firewall has previously worked and now doesn't, something has changes (dum dum dummmmm). Either you have inadvertently changed a rule or firewall security setting (low->High), or your PC has picked up something nasty

One thing you could look at is comparing the setup for the cabled interface v wlan interface and not the differences. Assuming rules work per interface and are not global to all interfaces of course.

Before opening up all the ports, I'd suggest posting some of them on here. It's probably OK and legit , but you don't want to open up ports necessarily as this is how malicious programs get access to the PC and what the firewall stops.

[Don Rogers Shop]

Could possibly be irael's fault

[BANGKOK RED]

Fuckin' Jews again then.

[Barry Scott]

Before opening up all the ports, I'd suggest posting some of them on here. It's probably OK and legit , but you don't want to open up ports necessarily as this is how malicious programs get access to the PC and what the firewall stops.

There's no consistency, they range from 3000 odd right through to 57,000, that i've just checked anyway. They're all incoming tcp packets.

I've attached an excel spreadsheetl of all the info, but as this doesn't appear to show the ports that i get when i right click the blocked packets, i've attched a screenshot of a few.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Samdy Gray]

Tried uninstalling Google toolbar?

[Barry Scott]

I don't have it Sam, i think it's the domain the firewall associates with some of the Google queries. What i mean by that is, the Firewall actually only receives an IP (216.239.59.103), but it then queries the ip for a domain to place within the firewall for the users convenience, or something like that. I think.

I actually think it associates the vast majority of 216.239.59.XXX with that Google sub-domain.   

[Samdy Gray]

Actually, looking at your screenshot again, your firewall isn't recognising Google as normal HTTP traffic. I'd say it could be something to do with your wireless settings in the laptop, but no idea what

[land_of_bo]

Have you tried removing your wireless card in device manager and rebooting so it redetects and defaults the settings?

[Barry Scott]

I haven't. And i'm almost scared to in case after all i've been through it works!

Oh, and thanks for that Sam.

I should just get another Firewall, because with it off, Google works.

Here's another screenshot, which probably serves no purpose, but seemed to say something of sorts.

[Barry Scott]

I just unchecked a box and bingo... Hmmm... So simple. 

Although the firewall has an exclamation mark through it's icon now, which might mean i may as well have it turned off!

[Samdy Gray]

Packet filtering is basically how your firewall works, so without it the firewall is disabled.

It's IP based, so like you said in an earlier post, all Google pages get resolved as the same IP and hence get filtered. Try setting a rule in the firewall to allow the Google IP range and then see if you still get the same problem.

[Batch]

Did this used to work over wireless Barry?

Anyway I assume all of those requests are from port 80 to port X? Hard to tell from the screenshot/spreadsheet. If so it's probably OK. Your browser will use different port nums when it creates a new TCP connection, but the other end will always be ports 80 for http.

Not sure why things would suddenly change if it used to work and why the LAN works but the WLAN doesn't. Nor why Google would be filtered out by default!

[Barry Scott]

Yeah, it's crazy and yes, until yesterday it worked without any issues wirelessly. Nothing at all had changed apart from a few firefox plugins, now gone. I have tracked all traffic and you're right it seems to be port 80 or 100, and those other ports are clearly related to something beyond my understanding.

Thinking about it, it's possible the firewall updated and caused a problem, because i think it does it silently.

I think i'll see if i can do what Sam says, or just right click through all the Google blocked packets and add them as a rule or whatever it is that makes it go through.

Thanks again.

[Simon Pieman]

You need to make the wireless network part of the trusted zone. Try it and see if that works.