Geeks and boffins to the rescue!

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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Please help a damsel in great distress! For some reason I can't access sites like Gmail, hotmail, yahoo and flickr. Since yesterday, I've been redirected to the OpenDNS site with the following message:

"Site blocked by Melmac Networks. mail.google.com is not allowed on this network. This site was categorized as: Webmail"

or "this site was categorized as Photo Sharing" in the case of flickr (but it has let me go to other photosharing and webmail sites).

It also says "expired server certificate". I've looked on a whole bunch of tecchie forums and the advice is to change settings on Firefox (always with instructions that only apply to older versions of FF) but the same problem occurs in Safari and IE. Others advised making sure the clock isn't set into the future, but mine has the correct date and time.

It's not the ISP because the other computers using this connection are not affected, so it has to be something in my settings.

I tried accessing Gmail using a proxy but that gets blocked as well.

Any ideas?
 
Mar 2, 2008
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Where is the computer located? Is it a company or organization computer? If so, the IT department of that organization might have blocked certain sites.
 

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
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www.caribbetech.com
Weird that the proxy gets blocked as well. Makes me think it is a local computer problem and it can really only be in your firewall (if you have one), operating system security setting or browser settings.

As a first step, take your browser settings and compare with Mr Chirimoya?s ..
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
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I'm going to do that, Chris, thanks for the tip. I've just installed a security update FWIW.

This is another error message I get when I try to open Gmail:

Secure Connection Failed

mail.google.com uses an invalid security certificate.

The certificate is only valid for OpenDNS | Providing A Safer And Faster Internet
The certificate expired on 9/12/08 6:59 PM.

(Error code: ssl_error_bad_cert_domain)

* This could be a problem with the server's configuration, or it could be someone trying to impersonate the server.

* If you have connected to this server successfully in the past, the error may be temporary, and you can try again later.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
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Chris, the other laptop has the same system preference settings.

Robert, I tried those urls and installed the extension but still no joy. Note that it's not just gmail - it also affects hotmail, yahoo, flickr.
 

Chip

Platinum
Jul 25, 2007
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Santiago
The comment "Site blocked by Melmac Networks" sounds kind of fishy to me.

I did a web search for Melmac Networks and nothing comes up. You could have some type of virus.
 

Robert

Stay Frosty!
Jan 2, 1999
20,574
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dr1.com
Chris, the other laptop has the same system preference settings.

Robert, I tried those urls and installed the extension but still no joy. Note that it's not just gmail - it also affects hotmail, yahoo, flickr.

Did you restart Firefox after installing the plugin?
Do you get the same error with Safari?
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
The comment "Site blocked by Melmac Networks" sounds kind of fishy to me.

I did a web search for Melmac Networks and nothing comes up. You could have some type of virus.
That's one of the first things I did and I had the same thought. Could I be one of the few unlucky Mac users to get a virus???
 

NYerinDR

Member
Jan 9, 2004
134
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Hi,

Every time my computer acts funny, I would do a system restore to the day before the trouble began, and it always work for me. I don?t know if the Mac has this function.
 

margaret

Bronze
Aug 9, 2006
1,222
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48
Here's another one to try. Scroll down to the last Q/A for the Mac solution.

Why Your Router May Be Blocking Web Sites

To configure TCP/IP from your Mac just follow these steps:

From the Apple Menu click on System Preferences.
Under System Preferences, click on the Network icon.
Verify that the Show field in Network is set to Built-In Ethernet. If it is not, click on the drop-down menu and select Built-In Ethernet.
Now click on the TCP/IP tab. You should note that if you have a DSL connection using PPPoE you may first have to click on the PPPoE tab and uncheck Connect Using PPPoE before going to the TCP/IP tab.
Now click the drop-down menu in the Configure field and select Using DHCP. Leave the DHCP Client ID, Domain Name Servers, and Search Domains all blank.
Finally click on Apply Now.