MWEB blocking certain protocols now?

fixx

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2006
Messages
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Location
South Africa
Hey guys

It seems as though MWEB is now filtering my outbound traffic, specifically SSH. :wtf:

Local as well as International. SEACOM still seems broken from the TENET cacti graphs.

http://monitor.net.tenet.ac.za/cacti/graph_view.php?action=tree&tree_id=6&leaf_id=874

Here are some of my tests:
--------------------------------

International http as well as icmp works fine
----------------------------------------------------

[root@firewall ~]# telnet shell.devco.net 80
Trying 193.201.200.143...
Connected to shell.devco.net (193.201.200.143).
Escape character is '^]'.

Local FTP works, but not to SAIX
--------------------------------------

telnet ftp.is.co.za 21
Trying 196.4.160.12...
Connected to ftp.is.co.za (196.4.160.12).
Escape character is '^]'.
220 ProFTPD 1.3.1 Server (Welcome to Internet Solutions FTP service.) [196.4.160.12]

[root@firewall ~]# telnet ftp.saix.net 21
Trying 196.43.2.109...

Local and International SSH does not work! (Come on MWEB ffs)
Give as at least SSH
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[root@firewall ~]# telnet x86.co.za 22
Trying 66.8.50.83...

[root@firewall ~]# telnet shell.devco.net 22
Trying 193.201.200.143...

And from home I use a Telkom SAIX account which obviously works via the SAT3 links
=======================================================
telnet shell.devco.net 22
Trying 193.201.200.143...
Connected to shell.devco.net (193.201.200.143).
Escape character is '^]'.
SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_4.3

Does anyone know anything, when will it be fixed? :cry:
All DNS traffic seems to work fine too.
 
Just tried to SSH to two machines hosted at Hetzner JHB 2 and I could log into both of them.
 
http://www.seacom.mu/news/news_details.asp?iID=143

And the following quote from MWEB Operations:
We’ve managed to find alternative capacity and with immediate effect our customers will be able to connect via the SAIX network. You just need to power down your router, give it a few minutes and then reconnect. In order to properly manage the additional traffic on the SAIX network, we will not be able to accommodate any bandwidth-heavy protocols like P2P until our own international bandwidth is back on stream. Protocols like e-mail, browsing and Internet banking will work as per normal.

Maybe SSH is considered to be a bandwidth-heavy protocol.
 
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imap.googlemail.com on port 993 does not seem to be working either. It works on my Vodacom3G, but not MWEB ADSL.
 
I require SSH for my day to day work. But I rate it could be high bandwidth protocol if people proxy their junk like p2p through it :/
 
smtp.mweb.co.za [196.28.80.20]: 550-Relaying from 41.241.142.114.

So you guys put us on the SAIX backbone but forget to permit relaying via your SMTP servers for these IP blocks. Mad skills :(
 
yup - i noticed this as well. fortunately most of my boxes run non standard ssh ports, but they still seem to be blocking gmail pop access
 
smtp.mweb.co.za [196.28.80.20]: 550-Relaying from 41.241.142.114.

So you guys put us on the SAIX backbone but forget to permit relaying via your SMTP servers for these IP blocks. Mad skills :(

Just had a call from MWEB - you have to use smtp.saix.net for the moment.
 
Seems local imaps (port 993) is also broken on MWeb, so I can't even do email.

I can understand the justification for blocking international ssh, although it prevents legitimate use too, because some folk proxy their p2p via that, but why local? That's just stupid.

Then again, it's possible to proxy the p2p stuff over port 80 too, so what are they really preventing by breaking the legitimate use of ssh? In the mean time, if something breaks on one of my servers hosted abroad, I won't be able to get in to fix it.

I've tried to call MWeb to complain about this, but I just go around in circles listening to automated messages about the international outage. Grrr. :mad:
 
Hi All



The current functionality is limited to browsing and mail. We will keep you posted as things improve.


Regards
MWEB Operations
 
only a problem if you hardcode DNS settings

It's MUCH more complicated than that! Changing your IP address and DNS server has multiple consequences.

Historically MWeb clients all used the SAIX DNS server, and there were numerous teething problems when MWeb set up their own DNS server and mail server. Switching back to an SAIX IP re-creates several of these potential issues.

My mail client (Outlook Express) seems to work on all of the options, including an old smtp.iafrica.com server adress!

Edit: The SAIX proxy server also behaves differently (need to refresh some pages).
 
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How about unblocking WORK protocols like SSH and SSL secured IMAP? Or at least allow SOME bandwidth on it instead of blocking it entirely? Those of us trying to do some work on your uncapped accounts are completely screwed at the moment.
 
How about unblocking WORK protocols like SSH and SSL secured IMAP? Or at least allow SOME bandwidth on it instead of blocking it entirely? Those of us trying to do some work on your uncapped accounts are completely screwed at the moment.

Need SSH for work as well come on mweb!
 
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