Everything was working normally until my router disconnected for about two minutes around midnight, apparently because my ISP pushed an update. Since then, several services I need for work have stopped working correctly. Paychex Flex will not connect to the time clock, and RingCentral/RingCX Agent lets me sign in but will not connect me to a phone session. Facebook's GIF search also only loads a few results, while the rest show broken images and alt text. A few weeks ago, I also had trouble signing in to myEquifax; support said my connection appeared to be coming through a VPN. I do not use a VPN, and disabling browser extensions and the Windows Firewall did not help. The Equifax site works over mobile data but not through my home router. Other services, including Google Sheets, Gmail, Google Chat, patient portals, Amazon, and Facebook itself, work normally. I have contacted both my ISP and RingCentral, but I am still waiting for help. Could the router or ISP connection be using a different public IP, proxy, CGNAT setup, or DNS configuration that is breaking only certain services?
3 Answers
First, verify what changed rather than assuming it was a normal ISP upgrade. Visit an IP-checking site and note the public IPv4 address, ISP name, and approximate location. Then compare that with the WAN/public address shown in your router. The IPv4 address shown in Windows network settings is usually a private local address such as 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x, so it will not match the public address shown by a website. That difference is normal. If the router’s WAN address also differs from the website’s address, your ISP may be using carrier-grade NAT, which could explain why some services think the connection belongs to a VPN or another location.
The pattern suggests a network-level issue rather than a Windows or browser problem: several unrelated services fail, they work over mobile data, and other sites are fine. Restart the modem/router once, check its DNS and WAN settings, and temporarily test with a different DNS provider if your ISP allows it. Also try the affected services from another device connected to the same router. If every device has the same problem, provide the ISP with the exact domains that fail and ask whether your public IP, IPv6 route, DNS filtering, or CGNAT assignment changed. They may need to refresh the address or assign a different public IPv4 address.
The midnight restart by itself does not prove the ISP installed an update. It could simply have been a lease renewal, maintenance event, or router reboot. Since the issue began afterward, ask the ISP what happened at that time and whether your connection was moved to a new IP range or network configuration. Mention that the affected services work over cellular data but fail through the home connection; that detail should help them investigate routing, reputation, or geolocation problems instead of treating it as an application issue.
The ISP name looks correct, but I noticed the IPv4 address in Windows is different from the address shown by the IP-checking site. I was not sure whether that was expected.