microcenter.com website blocking me?

Maxxell

Hiya!
I am worried microcenter.com thinks my computer is a bot because I was habitually checking the availability of video cards at my local store.  Now my computer cant visit the microcenter.com website unless another pc that's on my home network is also visiting the website.  This is a reliably-repeatable phenomenon - my new computer cannot resolve microcenter.com until my other computer is also visiting microcenter.com at the same time.  It's a very prompt reaction.

Did I break a rule?  How can I fix this so the site works on my new computer.  I just built an i7-10700 pc and i'm still reusing my videocard from last generation.  Dont be mad at me, microcenter!

Ian

Maxxell said:

Hiya!
I am worried microcenter.com thinks my computer is a bot because I was habitually checking the availability of video cards at my local store.  Now my computer cant visit the microcenter.com website unless another pc that's on my home network is also visiting the website.  This is a reliably-repeatable phenomenon - my new computer cannot resolve microcenter.com until my other computer is also visiting microcenter.com at the same time.  It's a very prompt reaction.

Did I break a rule?  How can I fix this so the site works on my new computer.  I just built an i7-10700 pc and i'm still reusing my videocard from last generation.  Dont be mad at me, microcenter!

Greetings. I will look into this here and be sending you an email for more information. Thank you! 

Maxxell

Hiya Ian,
Thank you for reaching out.  I reliably get "ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT" regardless of which browser I use (tested on Edge and Chrome) on my new computer.  I can hit refresh all I want - nothing happens.
The only way to visit the website on my new computer is to open it up on my old computer which happens to be sitting here next to me.  When I do that, my new computer can visit the page just fine.  But only for a few minutes unless I actively browse the microcenter webpage with the old computer.
Thoughts?

Maxxell

OK, well at least they were able to confirm that microcenter.com does use anti-bot tech which is apparently to blame for my inability to visit the website with my new computer.
It would be good to have some kind of "no, i'm a real person you stupid anti-bot bot" captcha or something.  I cant believe I'm the only user to F5 the page that shows what video cards are available to see when I should show up to the store and have a good chance of finding what I am looking for.  
Is there really no way for microcenter to override the antibot and restore my access?

TSTDavey

Hello @Maxxell sorry you are having this issue with our website. Just to troubleshoot, lets first change your DNS. Follow this Microcenter Community Forum post to change your Preferred DNS Server to 8.8.8.8 and Alternate to 8.8.4.4. Then try our website again. It could possibly be an issue with DNS.

Manually Change DNS Link: https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/2849/how-to-manually-set-your-dns-server-in-windows-10#latest 

Hyratel

I'm having a similar problem. ISUP says the site is up, and I can clearly reach here. any device on my LAN can't reach the main website at all. I confirmed it's my house's external IP that's blocked by testing a phone using cell data instead of house wifi, and was able to reach the site, but anything behind my router is hard-blocked. This is not a good look, especially since I was intending to make a trip up to the one in Fairfax (a 3 hour drive) for some 3D printer filament, to avoid having to wait for shipping.

moonthink

I also have this problem. I come to microcenter.com pretty much once a day to check stock on graphics cards. I live an hour away from the nearest store, so this is really the only way I can do it. I am NOT a BOT. I am NOT going to resell it. I'm simply looking to finish my build with a current generation card (ideally 3060ti or 3070). Frankly, I have no issues getting to any other website on all of the internets, only microcenter.com. And I shouldn't have to change my dns for one site. I am able to access numerous other computer parts retailers with no issues, so the problem is with you. I understand the need to protect yourself from bots, but the methods you are using now are blocking actual customers as well. Lately, I only seem to be able to actually get to the website 1-2 days a week, though I try every single day.

Hyratel

Changing dns won't help either @TSTDavey because dns isn't the issue, it's the website blacklisting the visitors ip address, not preventing the visitor from getting the public ip address of the website

Ian

moonthink said:

I also have this problem. I come to microcenter.com pretty much once a day to check stock on graphics cards. I live an hour away from the nearest store, so this is really the only way I can do it. I am NOT a BOT. I am NOT going to resell it. I'm simply looking to finish my build with a current generation card (ideally 3060ti or 3070). Frankly, I have no issues getting to any other website on all of the internets, only microcenter.com. And I shouldn't have to change my dns for one site. I am able to access numerous other computer parts retailers with no issues, so the problem is with you. I understand the need to protect yourself from bots, but the methods you are using now are blocking actual customers as well. Lately, I only seem to be able to actually get to the website 1-2 days a week, though I try every single day.

Hyratel said:

Changing dns won't help either @TSTDavey because dns isn't the issue, it's the website blacklisting the visitors ip address, not preventing the visitor from getting the public ip address of the website

Hello to both of you. I am sorry to hear of the issues and we would like to investigate this further. What internet service provider/ISP are you on? 

Hyratel

Cox Cable for me. and before you ask, no I can't change DNS in the ISP-provided modem, nor do I know of away to request a new IP address from the ISP. The problem is somewhere in the Sysadmin side on y'all's end. Because I did a tracert and it resolved the IP address, but all web requests to microcenter.com or www.microcenter.com go to a Timeout, while I am able to reach this or any other microcenter subdomain with no problems

This is the only site I'm having any problems with, as are the other posters above. Maxxell got positive confirmation of it being a bot-protection system, please do not give us a user-side run-around when it's y'all's problem

saturnotaku

I'm having this exact problem as well when trying to get on microcenter.com from my home. What's strange is that the site works just fine if I access it on my phone via 4G/LTE or on a desktop/laptop connected via a VPN. You'd think the bot mitigation strategy would be more inclined to flag known VPN IP addresses than one that's coming from a major ISP (Comcast in my case).

moonthink

Oberlin.net is my ISP.
Also, when I first experienced this problem, I looked at several 'is this site down' services. Most of them said it was up but reported regional outages. I'm not sure if that is relevant or not, but I'm going on 2+ weeks now of having this problem ~90% of days.
My guess is that your anti-bot software blacklists blocks of ip addresses, rather than individual addresses?

Tester

I'm having the same problem. My ISP is Optimum. I can access this page but I get "ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT" when trying to reach the main website. Tried everything suggested here. Looks like I'm banned from accessing the website.

PowerSpec_MikeW

Greetings,

We seem to have multiple users here that are able to access it on the same network. If it was an issue with the IP address being blocked then you wouldn't be able to access it on any system inside that network. We will report this to our web team. One thing I would like to try though. Could you try modifying your user agent string? Pretty easily done through Chrome via the Debug Console.

F12 > Network > Network Conditions (bottom, hit the three dots to add it) > Uncheck "Select Automatically". Try changing emulating different platforms and browsers. If that works, please set it back to automatic, verify the issue still exists. If so, please provide us with your User Agent string.

moonthink

TSMikeW said:

Greetings,

We seem to have multiple users here that are able to access it on the same network. If it was an issue with the IP address being blocked then you wouldn't be able to access it on any system inside that network. We will report this to our web team. One thing I would like to try though. Could you try modifying your user agent string? Pretty easily done through Chrome via the Debug Console.

F12 > Network > Network Conditions (bottom, hit the three dots to add it) > Uncheck "Select Automatically". Try changing emulating different platforms and browsers. If that works, please set it back to automatic, verify the issue still exists. If so, please provide us with your User Agent string.

Where in this thread are people able to access it on the same network?? People have said that using cell data they were able to access, but that's typically a separate network. It seems pretty obvious, at least to me, with multiple people having similar issues, is that the problem is on your end. Firstly, I don't use chrome, and secondly, I have zero trouble accessing every other part of the internet. So I am not inclined to tinker any more with settings on my end for one site. Either you want our business or you don't.

PowerSpec_MikeW

The OP stated he could access the site from a second computer, that from the post indicated it was on the same network. And that as long as that computer was connected, he had normal access on the PC. Other users are stating that the issue is on any device behind their router, which sounds much more like an IP ban, rather than something in the user agent string that's flagging the machine as a bot. 

We'll report this to our IT Department and web team. We'll get to the bottom of it.

Korny

I am also blocked from the website, I was also using f5 but I haven't been checking in over a month, as it rarely appears you ever have any stock, so I'm not sure how punitive your bans are  but they should have an expiration date.  Like the others I can reach all websites including this one, and if I turn my cellphones wifi off I can access on my phone just fine.

RoyalFlush

I'm in the same boat. I am unable to access the site on my main desktop, but I used to be able to access the site on my phone on the same network. Currently I am unable to access the site on either device.

jayekaye

experiencing the same problem - three days now that I cannot access MicroCenter . All other sites accessible as normal. I was checking availability of GPU's - i am not a bot or a reseller - need an RTX 3080 or 3090 for my own prefessional use - suddenly no access

moonthink

FWIW, it worked for me today. First time in almost 2 weeks, 2nd time in 3 weeks.

TSTDavey

Hello @jayekaye just chiming in. The Microcenter.com website should work now. Sorry for the inconvenience. Some of the Internet Service Providers (ex., Verizon Fios, others, etc.) were blocking network traffic to our site. Its now been corrected. Let us know if there are anymore issues.

jayekaye

still having the same problem
i am in South Africa searching for a GPU which i would arrange for some friends (CO, GA, NJ or NY) to purchase for me . I have been doing the same basic search everyday and now cannot access the site at all. I also need some other components but obviously now cannot search even for those

TSTDavey

@jayekaye Yes I tried using a VPN IP for South Africa and the Microcenter.com site does not come up for me as well. It's probably due to security protocols on the website that do not allow website traffic outside the United States. Microcenter does not ship products internationally. The MC network team probably will not open the website outside the US. I'd recommend to either have your friends in the States look for a GPU for you off the site. Or you can try downloading a Virtual Private Network (VPN) program that will assign your IP Address as a U.S. Ip Address. You could choose a Georgia region IP address for your computer in South Africa and it should allow you to see the MC site because your IP per the VPN is a U.S. IP. The VPN will cost you $$ for a subscription BTW.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ 

jayekaye

that's very odd - i was able to use the site for two weeks without any VPN

moonthink

@jayekaye if all you are doing is research, try searching various free web proxies. Just consider them as a security risk, so don't log on anywhere or enter any personal info, but you should be able to anonymously browse at least.
Also, FWIW, the site has been consistently working for me the past few days -- thanks to all who helped!

Jefft41

I'm having issues with images not loading on my work computer. None of the website images load, including the Microcenter logo. They all show a broken picture icon.

The images show up on my phone when I'm using mobile data, but not when I'm using WIFI.

I've tried Chrome, Firefox and Edge with the same results/

In Chrome, if I right click on where the Microcenter logo should be (homepage link) and click "Open image in new tab", I get a new tab named "Privacy error" with the following:

Your connection is not private

Attackers might be trying to steal your information from 60a99bedadae98078522-a9b6cded92292ef3bace063619038eb1.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn moreNET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID

If I then go to "Advanced" then to proceed anyway I get the following:

CenturyLink

Warning!

60a99bedadae98078522-a9b6cded92292ef3bace063619038eb1.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com appears to be risky. This might be because it is new or may not have the latest security.

You can still visit this site but, as a company dedicated to keeping your online experience safe, we thought you should know.

Continue to Site

It seems like multiple agencies believe the images on your site are hosted by a disreputable website.

Do you have any recommendations or plans to fix this?

Jeff Thompson

Nobody73

ISSUE RESOLVED

I had a similar issue for the last two weeks. I believe the issue started after my EERO router was restarted due to a change in my service plan. Prior to this I did not have this issue.

ISSUE:

For the last two weeks using Frontier Fiber for my internet connection from home I could not connect to any Microcenter.com web sites using any device on my local network, on any browser. Connection error using Microsoft Edge was: Err_connection_timed_out

SYMPTOMS:

I found I did not have this connection issue using any of the same devices when connection to the internet using any other network other than my home network.

I suspected the Public IP address on my Router was somehow being blocked by Microcenter.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

I used a CMD prompt tool named TraceRT to verify Public IP address being used by my router provided by a DHCP server at Frontier Communications. The first hop showed it was an IP address in the 47.188.135.X range.

As a test I wanted to get a New IP address for the Public IP on my Router. I probably could have reached out to Frontier support and asked them to force a new IP address for my router, but I decided on a simpler approach and simply powered down (unplugged) my EERO router for about an hour while I ran some errands. When I returned, I plugged the router in allowing time for it to fully boot up and request an IP address from a Frontier DHCP server.

I again used TraceRT to confirm the Public IP address on my router to confirm it was a NEW IP address and found it was a NEW address in the 47.189.50.X range. (Note it could have taken as much as three days of having my EERO router shut down before I was able to get a new IP address assigned but luckily Frontier's DHCP servers have a short lease time for assigned IP addresses. If I had not gotten a new IP address, I would have needed to involve my ISP's support staff at Frontier to force it.

Now that I had a new IP address for the Public side of my router, I tested connecting to Microcenter.com from my home network and IT NOW WORKS from any device on my home network. ISSUE RESOLVED!!!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

So what exactly caused the issue?

I believe Microcenter.com or some service Microcenter was using was blocking traffic coming from the public IP address on my router. This could have been the specific IP address or a number of IP addresses in that range. Resolving the issue by getting a new public IP address proves this.

My experience is that contacting Microcenter support on this issue will not help because they don't have access to this level of information. Someone in their internal IT department probably does, but that is not who would be taking to if you called Microcenter support.