Unable to access ShieldsUP! port scanner

[Raj293]

Hi, I am unable to access the following port scanner via my android phone and desktop pc while connected to Xfinity.

I was able to access this page 1pm CT on 8/17/2024.

If I connect to VPN I am able to access the page and run the port scanner, but this defeats the purpose as I am trying to test for security issues from the WAN side coming into my router via my ISP, not using VPN.

I omitted the IP address in the error message for security reasons. Here is a snippet of the error message below:

The IP address in the error message is not even the IP address that my ISP gives me.

The IP address we have found for your machine (<b>ip.add.ress.omitted</b>) resides within the network belonging to <b>Google Web Accelerator</b>. The administrators of this network detected the scans and probings of this ShieldsUP! site and have asked us to please desist from any future contact with systems within their network.

Troubleshooting steps:

1. cleared cache and cookies on android phone in chrome
2. tried another browser liked Edge and Firefox ( page does not even load)
3. disabled android security software and tried again
4. Tried another android phone that does not have android security software installed.
5. Tried to access from my pc.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[DanR]

Hi, I am unable to access the following port scanner via my android phone and desktop pc while connected to Xfinity.

I was able to access this page 1pm CT on 8/17/2024.

If I connect to VPN I am able to access the page and run the port scanner, but this defeats the purpose as I am trying to test for security issues from the WAN side coming into my router via my ISP, not using VPN.

I omitted the IP address in the error message for security reasons. Here is a snippet of the error message below:

The IP address in the error message is not even the IP address that my ISP gives me.


Troubleshooting steps:

1. cleared cache and cookies on android phone in chrome
2. tried another browser liked Edge and Firefox ( page does not even load)
3. disabled android security software and tried again
4. Tried another android phone that does not have android security software installed.
5. Tried to access from my pc.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I am on Xfinity internet. I have never had a problem accessing GRC's Shields Up page and scanning my ports.

Grasping at straws here . . . Perhaps something to do with your Android phone? Or perhaps too many repetitive tests triggering something? (I not know how many you may have done)

 

[Raj293]

I am on Xfinity internet. I have never had a problem accessing GRC's Shields Up page and scanning my ports.

Grasping at straws here . . . Perhaps something to do with your Android phone? Or perhaps too many repetitive tests triggering something? (I not know how many you may have done)

Thanks for the quick reply.

I attempted to refresh the page like 25 times in the past 48 hours.

I did attempt to click the proceed button at least 10 times (when I would get that far).

I am going to call Xfinity and see if they blocked the port scan or something.

I do have ESET Internet Security installed on my PC but since I cannot load the web page below. Not sure what to do.

https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Would there be anything in GRC's log that will ban my IP address?

The fact that I am able to load the page on VPN means that it has something to do with my public IP address.

 

[PHolder]

Sounds like @Steve got some nasty email from Google a long time ago (because Google Web Accelerator hasn't been a thing in over a decade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Web_Accelerator) and he added a blanket ban for a block of IP addresses which you are somehow being assigned into. This is a change Steve would need to make on his end I guess. You probably can't control which IP address your ISP gives you.

 

[Raj293]

Sounds like @Steve got some nasty email from Google a long time ago (because Google Web Accelerator hasn't been a thing in over a decade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Web_Accelerator) and he added a blanket ban for a block of IP addresses which you are somehow being assigned into. This is a change Steve would need to make on his end I guess. You probably can't control which IP address your ISP gives you.

Thank you for the insight.

I was Googling this error message and I came across something similar yesterday about Google Web Accelerator but , you are correct, it not been used for a while.

Yeah, I cannot control what IP address they give me as it is dynamically assigned.

I can attempt to call them and ask them to change it but that will take some convincing and time to do.

 

[Raj293]

@Steve Would you like me to privately message you my public IP Address from Xfinity and from the error?

 

[Raj293]

Do you know if this ip.address.omitted.v4.fetch.tunnel.googlezip.net, from the screen shot below means anything?
I was getting this message as well Saturday evening.

 

[PHolder]

v4.fetch.tunnel.googlezip.net

Well we need to start with whether the IP address you're eliding is the same one you're getting from your ISP or if somehow you're being proxied through Google for some purpose. If I had to guess, I'm thinking your phone might be getting assigned an IPv6 address and you're using some sort of IPv6-to-IPv4 gateway, which is the source of the issue(s) you're experiencing.

I also found this

 

[Tazz]

Using an older version of Chrome by any chance?

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1adw7zp/v4fetchtunnelgooglezipnet

 

[Raj293]

Using an older version of Chrome by any chance?

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/1adw7zp/v4fetchtunnelgooglezipnet

I am using a Samsung S22 with chrome version 127.0.6533.103.

Already cleared cookies and cache and tried to uninstall and re-install chrome.

 

[Raj293]

Well we need to start with whether the IP address you're eliding is the same one you're getting from your ISP or if somehow you're being proxied through Google for some purpose. If I had to guess, I'm thinking your phone might be getting assigned an IPv6 address and you're using some sort of IPv6-to-IPv4 gateway, which is the source of the issue(s) you're experiencing.

I also found this

Thank you for digging deeper into the issue.

My Xfinity ISP IP address is not the same as what is in the error messages.

My Samsung phone is assigned an IPv4 and IPv6 address. See attached image. Not sure how to completely disable IPv6.

However, I did disable IPv6 on my OpenWrt router a year ago, so clients should not be getting any IPv6 addresses assigned from my router unless I made a mistake in not fully disabling IPv6 in my OpenWrt router.

I am using Unifi access points and may need to double check to see if IPv6 is disabled.

I have Bitdefender Security on my phone and it did not find any malware on my phone. Unless there is malware on my openwrt router, not sure how to troubleshoot that, but I can ask in the OpenWrt forums for that.

Now what is happening, is when I try to go to the ShieldsUP! page, it just does not load.

See attached images. GRC Default page loads just fine.

 

[PHolder]

Okay, well I guess I need to be clear on what you're doing. You said phone in your OP so I assumed you were using some sort of Xfinity mobile service and not a router. (i.e. using mobile data) A lot of mobile carriers do IPv6, or so I'm told... not an expert there. It does generally seem uncommon for residential ISPs to give out IPv6 [only] unless you explicitly request it, and even then not every ISP is capable. So I guess probably the IPv6 thinking is not relevant.

If you have a PC (maybe a laptop) that you could quickly replace your router with and do the test, that could potentially eliminate anything from the router.... but don't leave it set up for very long without the router protecting it. (That also assumes your ISP would give the PC an IP address over DHCP and that it doesn't in any way tie specifically to your router. (That would be weird, but some ISP's do weird stuff.) My ISP has occasionally blamed stuff on my router and made me do this test.

 

[ObiWan]

The key here is "android phone", the browser (Chrome) is most probably configured to "preload pages", that means that the browser will ask the "Google Accelerator" to either fetch the pages (either from cache or on the fly), so "ShieldsUp!" sees the IP of the google servers used by the accelerator and, the message which appears explain that Steve was asked by Google to not scan those IP addresses

To solve the issue, open the browser, go to "settings" and "privacy and security", then click on "preload pages" and select "no preloading", confirm and retry the scan through "ShieldsUp!", this time it should work and show you your real IP address

 

[EdwinG]

Thank you for digging deeper into the issue.

My Samsung phone is assigned an IPv4 and IPv6 address. See attached image. Not sure how to completely disable IPv6.

The IPv6 address you see on there is a link-local address (starts with fe80::).

While usually but not always is, that indicates that the network doesn’t have an active IPv6 deployment. You’re likely using IPv4 to access the Internet

That’s all I can say.

 

[Raj293]

The IPv6 address you see on there is a link-local address (starts with fe80::).

While usually but not always is, that indicates that the network doesn’t have an active IPv6 deployment. You’re likely using IPv4 to access the Internet

That’s all I can say.

Thank you for confirming.

 

[Raj293]

Okay, well I guess I need to be clear on what you're doing. You said phone in your OP so I assumed you were using some sort of Xfinity mobile service and not a router. (i.e. using mobile data) A lot of mobile carriers do IPv6, or so I'm told... not an expert there. It does generally seem uncommon for residential ISPs to give out IPv6 [only] unless you explicitly request it, and even then not every ISP is capable. So I guess probably the IPv6 thinking is not relevant.

If you have a PC (maybe a laptop) that you could quickly replace your router with and do the test, that could potentially eliminate anything from the router.... but don't leave it set up for very long without the router protecting it. (That also assumes your ISP would give the PC an IP address over DHCP and that it doesn't in any way tie specifically to your router. (That would be weird, but some ISP's do weird stuff.) My ISP has occasionally blamed stuff on my router and made me do this test.

I apologize for not providing clarification.

Thank you for the insight.

The android phone and laptop are connected to my home network and are using the wifi / router.

I can try this weekend or sometime this week to plug in my laptop directly to my modem to see if I get the same error.

 

[Raj293]

The key here is "android phone", the browser (Chrome) is most probably configured to "preload pages", that means that the browser will ask the "Google Accelerator" to either fetch the pages (either from cache or on the fly), so "ShieldsUp!" sees the IP of the google servers used by the accelerator and, the message which appears explain that Steve was asked by Google to not scan those IP addresses

To solve the issue, open the browser, go to "settings" and "privacy and security", then click on "preload pages" and select "no preloading", confirm and retry the scan through "ShieldsUp!", this time it should work and show you your real IP address

Thank you for the instructions.

I tried to do that but I cannot load the ShieldsUP! Scanning page even with preloading off. Unless there is another setting I need to turn off, like safe browsing.

See attached images from my S22 android phone.

 

[AlanD]

I tried to do that but I cannot load the ShieldsUP! Scanning page even with preloading off. Unless there is another setting I need to turn off, like safe browsing.

Safe browsing might also redirect your traffic via Google's servers. Something has to do the filtering of content, and if it is an android device, that will probably be Google. Try turning that off as well and see if Shields Up works.

 

[Raj293]

@AlanD

I turned off Safe Browsing and pre-loading on my S22 and I got the same result, a blank page, Shields UP while connected to my router and Xfinity Internet.

If I use my T-Mobile data on my S22, I am able to access the ShieldsUP scanner, and SheildsUP does accurately state the T-Mobile IP address. So turning off preloading and safe browsing did help to accurately display the IP address of my T-Mobile data connection.

I am leaning towards and issue with my IP address from Xfinity.

I plan to connect my laptop directly into my modem on the weekend and test.

I can also buy another router and set up a different wifi connection and test that way as well, but that will have to wait until the weekend. (this theory would test if there was malware on my router causing this, as a new router like Eero should not have any malware).

Is it possible for @Steve to see if my IP from Xfinity is blocked on his end?

See attached images

All other websites on my router and Xfinity internet work except this scanner. Yahoo.com, slickdeals.net, target.com, etc.

 

[ObiWan]

@AlanD

I turned off Safe Browsing and pre-loading on my S22 and I got the same result, a blank page, Shields UP while connected to my router and Xfinity Internet.

Tried it right now from my phone, connected using 4G, and the scan completed w/o problems; maybe there's some caching or something "misbehaving" on your side; notice that I went all the way from www.grc.com frontpage to ShieldUp! using the links, didn't go straight to the scanner page