Computer Issues

Rezz said:

Shot in the dark, but can you log into the comcast router? If it has persistent logging enabled(since you rebooted it) and see if there was an update pushed by Comcast to it between when you could access the sites and when you couldn't. Or if it rebooted during that same period before you manually rebooted and see if some update that was pushed to it previously was applied.

It's not exactly a common thing to happen, but I've seen similar issues with feature enhancing updates from ISPs that have default settings that don't line up exactly with the client's security layout. Especially at smaller companies that don't have a dedicated IT team so the update may just sit in the queue for months+ before a power blip gets it applied unknowingly to the company itself.

If anything that could help narrow your search. I'm with Neranja tho; it's unlikely that your server settings changed randomly without manual intervention (and especially with you being the only 'computer guy' at the company) it sounds like Comcast is doing something on their end. If you haven't, I would reach out and just explain the problems to them. While I always promote people trying to learn more about computers in this age where everything is becoming a FRU, like you said it isn't your job. Part of your bill from Comcast is going to their support team - it's definitely worth reaching out to them.

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Rezz said:

If it's got multiple ports or you don't mind having the network disconnected, you could rule out the router mostly completely by just plugging in a laptop to the router and updating it in the whitelist to get through, and see if it's having the same issues. No issues - if you don't have a bunch of custom rules set up would rule out the router completely and the ISP as well; if you do have custom rules then it could be those rules that are F'n things up (goes back to my idea about an update or something being pushed). If you have the same issue, then you can remove the server from the equation at least to narrow down what you're focusing on leaving router/settings/ISP.

Every router is a little different and I'm not really familiar with the comcast specific ones (been using Netgear and D-Link routers for decades; never do the provided method) but typically you could look at the version and if there's no specific log data about it (usually there's an advanced admin tab and then administrative logs. Usually~) you could see if that update coincides with when you noticed the changes. Many routers when you look at the version will tell you what the date it was updated to was, but yeah not sure if it would be easily viewable.

You should see power events either directly or by inference in the logs (ie, if it doesn't have power/status events enabled/visible, you can look for gaps in traffic that match the time frame in which you rebooted it manually, and see if those gaps line up with the change in accessibility you're noticing).

Also, just look at the logs and see if any admins logged in aside from times you know you were in there. Not everyone at your place may be a computer guy but maybe someone who would know the password/login might have logged in to fix a problem they thought they had and inadvertently pressed the wrong button. Happens a little more than most people think.

As for any specific changes - if you weren't actively administrating it before it's probably pretty hard to determine if anything specifically changed, aside from going through any firewall settings and see if there are some custom rules being applied that might be restricting traffic and then mapping them to the pages you're not able to load on the network. Stuff like "unallow x.x.x.x" etc. in the ACL if it's not setup as a whitelist

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