I'm trying to figure out a network issue that has been affecting some customers of a particular company. A few weeks ago, their website suddenly started having problems for certain users. The site is accessible, but it's not loading images or other assets, making it unusable for those clients. Interestingly, the customers having this issue are all using the same Internet Provider (ISP). If they switch to a mobile connection or another ISP, everything works fine. In the browser's developer tools, the missing assets are showing a "status 202". The company claims there's nothing wrong on their end, but that seems strange to me since the issue is isolated to this one ISP. I'm not knowledgeable about networking, so I'm wondering if anyone has theories about what might be causing this and if there's anything the customers or the company can do about it aside from switching connections?
4 Answers
Just a heads up about the status codes: a 202 means the server has acknowledged the request but isn’t ready to give a full response yet. It doesn’t necessarily mean an error; it could be related to long-running tasks.
The website's developer could choose to send a 202 for various reasons, including security features that might be triggering on specific requests. So it’s really not unusual as much as it is a flag for a possibly complex situation happening on the backend.
If the website works with other ISPs, it's likely not an issue with the website itself. The status 202 error means the server received a request for an asset but hasn't been able to respond with it yet. This may suggest that the website's assets are being loaded from a separate data source, and something is preventing them from downloading properly for this particular ISP. It seems like the ISP might have a caching problem or misconfigured network device that’s affecting access to those images. Since switching to a different connection works, the issue is probably on the ISP's side.
Here are a few things the customer could try:
1. Change the DNS settings on their device to Google's DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) to bypass the ISP's DNS server.
2. Use a VPN if possible, which helps in routing around the ISP's issues.
3. Try different browsers or a private browsing mode to rule out any local caching.
4. Right-click on an image to open it in a new tab to see if the image URL is different from the website’s.
Without more info, it's tough to pinpoint, but it sounds like it's more of an ISP issue than a website issue.
Make sure to verify the HTTPS on the site to rule out any SSL issues. Also, doing a DNS check could provide some insights into what's happening.
There's a chance that the ISP has blocked the IP range of the servers hosting those images. This can happen sometimes with free or low-cost hosting, where IPs get blacklisted due to misuse. If that’s the case, the customers might want to reach out to the ISP to see if they can unblock it.
Also, if the site has any code that raises a false alarm with the ISP's security system, it could be getting flagged, causing it to not load properly.
Changing the IP of the server could help, but if the site continues to have issues, the hosting provider may need to address it.
That makes sense! I was confused about why a major ISP would block a legitimate business, but your first point rings true, especially with the context you've given.
Thanks for the detailed answer! In this case, the assets are static, and the company affected is a small French video game studio. Tried changing the DNS, but no luck. VPNs I’ve tested are blocked from accessing the site, which is intended by the company.