Why Does This Home Router Block The Bank Of America Website?

This is on a traditional PC tower with Windows 7 64-bit and Spectrum cable internet service with a cable modem. I have an ASUS RT-ACRH13 router that I got a few weeks ago. The router is WiFi and also has 4 LAN plug connections. Everything on the internet and e-mails works great, except for one weird problem. If I try to go to any of Bank Of America's web pages such as https://www.bankofamerica.com/, the page tries to load for a while and then times out and never loads. I have the same problem on Firefox and Internet Explorer. All other websites and e-mail work fine.

I tried removing the router altogether and connecting the cable modem LAN directly to the PC. Then I can access Bank Of America, no problem. But for some reason, if I'm going through the router, Bank Of America won't work. Same problem on WiFi with a cell phone. For some reason, this router blocks Bank Of America's website. Here's a screenshot of what Firefox shows on the PC:



Any idea what could be causing something like this? I have unplugged and re-booted everything from scratch a couple times and no luck.

 

What happens if you ping the site?
Ping 171.159.228.150?
Type that IP into your browser?

****Warning: While I am not trying to hack you, take precautions when some one posts an IP that goes to a page like a bank, they could be spoofing you. FYI.
If you were able to ping the site, use that ip in your browser..

But does any of that work?

 

That IP doesn't load. I get the same error in Firefox.

 

I can connect to the website from South Africa.
I suggest you contact Bank of America.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/contactus/contactus.go?request_locale=en_US

 

Could you ping the site or IP?

 

You might trying to power cycle the router and see what happens.

 

It loads for me on a 32 bit Win 7 computer in the US but my address shows
https://www.bankofamerica.com/
while the address in your browser bar shows
https://www.bankofamerica.com/index.jsp
I don't know if that is added after it times out.

Connect the computer directly to your cable modem. (Power off the modem before you remove the router's ethernet and attach it to the computer).
Can you get to the site just using the modem?
If yes, then router settings need to be looked at.
If not, your ISP might have a problem with DNS for that site.

 

Well, I'm not sure what ping means. How/what do I do?

 

Yeap, tried that and still have the same problem. In fact I rebooted everything. The computer and cable modem as well.

 

Pretty much any Bank Of America link I've tried won't work. I did already try removing the router altogether and use just the cable modem & PC. That worked and allowed Bank Of America to load. Put the router back in between the PC and cable modem and then it blocks Bank Of America again.

This is weird. I can't think of why a router would do something like this.

 

I tried something else. There's a menu in the router settings called Administration via http://router.asus.com/Main_Login.asp in a web browser. When I get to the Administration menu, there's 2 radio buttons:

Wireless router mode (Default)
Access Point(AP) mode.

The radio button was selected on Wireless router mode (Default), so I tried changing it to Access Point(AP) mode and clicked Save. After that, Bank Of America worked fine on the PC. But then WiFi no longer worked at all and the router settings could no longer be accessed via http://router.asus.com/Main_Login.asp (the browser would just display an error and not you login to the router).

So maybe there's something about changing this setting that has an effect? To get WiFi working again, I ended up having to poke the little reset button on the back of the router to get it back to all the defaults. Then WiFi worked again, but it also blocks Bank Of America again now.

 

Please disregard now. I searched online and found a solution that worked at the bottom of this thread: https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/can-t-access-a-specific-website-going-thru-my-router-274637/

Now Bank Of America loads just fine.

 

Did you access the MAC address settings and add your computer to the list?

I do that with every router I get and I also limit the number of addresses from over 200 to under 15.

 

No I sure didn't. What's the benefit of that? Routers seem to have a lot of settings that are awfully technical and hard to understand.

 

The benefits of reducing the number of addresses?
If someone manages to guess my wireless password, and tries to hop on my router for a "free" hotspot, they'll get a message " no working leases". That means all my devices are using the IPs and none are left for strangers to use.

Older routers never gave up an IP when it was finished being used. I used to use free wifi at a chain grocery store and I'd see that message so I'd not be able to use the free wifi unless the router was rebooted.
Fortunately, newer routers seem to give up the IP once a device is turned off or gets off the internet.

 

That is an excellent option for restricting the number of devices allowed to connect to the router to only those you have entered the MAC addresses for. That feature is called "MAC Filtering".

But that does nothing for the user's problem of not gaining access to one specific website.

It has actually always been that way. That is one reason for DHCP (dynamically assigned IP addresses). It allows administrators to restrict the number of IP addresses while at the same time, allow more devices to connect as long as they don't at the same time.

Give it a try. If you disconnect your computer tonight, then tomorrow morning start your computer, you likely will get the same IP address UNLESS you allowed other devices to connect after you disconnected your computer. Then your computer might get a different address.

MAC addresses can be spoofed so MAC filtering is not really an efficient security measure. Having a very strong passphrase that cannot be guessed and the highest security protocols supported works best.

And what I do is limit the number of IP addresses that can be issued. Different routers do this in different ways. My old Netgear let me choose a range of IP addresses allowed. So, for example, if I said 192.168. 1.25 through 192.168.1.34, a maximum of 10 devices could connect to my network at a time and they would only get one of those IP addresses.

My current Linksys router lets me select how many devices and the starting IP address. At the same time, I can assign (reserve) "static" IP addresses to specific devices. So, for example, I can assign 192.168.1.54 to my networked printer even if 1.34 was the highest designated allowed. Then if I lose power to my house and all IP assignments are lost, 1.54 will only be assigned to my printer next time it powers up.

The problem with older routers was usually just the default setting for the "client lease time" was set too high and users did not know they could, or how to change them. Many today default to 1440. That's normally in minutes and equals 24 hours. But I have seen 4320 and 10080 which equals 3 and 7 days respectfully.

 

Hold the windows key and hit r. In the run dialog type cmd and hit enter. In the black window (console) type ping bankofamerica.com & enter. It will tell you if it can reach the site or not. If not you'll get something like host unreachable. Same if you use the IP address in the other post. Try both, it might help troubleshoot if it is a DNS issue..

 

I might suggest you kill two birds with one stone. Dump your ISP provided DNS Service and check out https://1.1.1.1/ for their DNS service. I've been using it for a couple years now (previously used OpenDNS) with no problems. It is very fast and private. In fact, their motto is "Privacy First: Guaranteed".

If you want to check it out, I recommend setting the DNS server addresses in your router. In this way, you only have to modify one device (the router) instead of every computer and other "smart" device in your home.

BTW, I didn't stop using OpenDNS because I stopped liking it. I stopped OpenDNS because 1.1.1.1 was faster. So if not happy with 1.1.1.1 (but I bet you will be), and you still want to use something other than your ISP's DNS servers (and you should!), try OpenDNS.