ISP Caught Censoring Websites?

At first I though this was merely someone who was having local DNS issues. Then I picked up on a comment made about a specific domain: turnkeyproperties.org . Using the default provided Comcast DNS servers, it turned out that I was not able to connect to this website. Alright, apparently it is down, right? After all, I have run a ping test, traceroute. On Comcast DNS servers, check this out…

Beginning of traceroute for www.turnkeyproperties.org protected for my safety.

11 cr2-loopback.dan.savvis.net (208.172.130.71) 58.943 ms 57.612 ms 57.334 ms
12  hr1-tengig-12-0-0.dallasda1.savvis.net (204.70.203.58) 53.669 ms 54.185 ms 53.038 ms
13 216.39.69.50 (216.39.69.50) 53.000 ms 52.914 ms 53.056 ms
14 * * *
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *

It just keeps going like that. Speaking of ISPs, DSL is looking better and better to me. DLS, here I come!

Now explain this: When pinging turnkeyproperties.org ’s IP address, 209.67.217.198, it is working. Even more interesting, 209.67.217.198’s other domain appears to be netreal.net, which jives with this claim made in the comment found here:

Ben Edsall - January 14, 2008 @ 9:32 am

I get complaints all the time from prospective clients who tell me they are unable to access my site: http://www.turnkeyproperties.org I immediately ask them if they are using Comcast? The answer is always yes, so the question is why the hell does Comcast block my real estate website?

I called them to ask, I spoke with some low level techie who also was unable to access my site. His response was that Comcast does not block any sites.

Odd because I still get complaints all the time that Comcast blocks my site.

I could understand if it were something vile but for Gods sake it’s a real estate site.

Certainly seems to match the Real Estate theme he was explaining in his comment. I too, had a single IP address for multiple domains in the past like this, with typing in http://123.34.567.890 (example ip) taking me to only the one main website, despite myself having more than one listed in the same hosting account. Yet I have never had an issue like this or even heard of anyone else seeing the same problem.

To further test this, the next step is to enable OpenDNS servers. The result? Magically the website www.turnkeyproperties.org is available and the traceroute/domain ping tests work. The logical conclusion? Let’s sum this up before drawing any final thoughts, shall we?

1. IP address and domain belonging on the same server for the problem website work fine on Comcast. It is highly likely that both the problem domain and the working domain are using similar name servers.
2. Evidence has long since existed that Comcast is not being truthful about traffic filtering, is it all that far-fetched to see this happening with a commercial website opting to use a .org designation - turnkeyproperties.org.
3. Comcast users not from my local routing group are finding that this is happening with this website, among others that have been allegedly “blacklisted”.

Using Comcast? Try to connect to the website and see if you are able to get it up? Then implement OpenDNS, report back your findings. Please give State of residency as to see if this is just a regional issue.

Is it time to consider an alternative ISP - DSL perhaps? I think many people will be rethinking their ISP options after reading this. I am not and will not make a blind claim against Comcast on this. But it does raise legitimate questions that I suspect a number of people are going to want answered from this national Internet service provider.