Redirected to other countries
iamwhoiam1
Enthusiast - Level 1

I have been having some problems with internet connections where I am redirected to other countries.  When using eBay, I am sometimes redirected to eBay China and when using Wayfair.com am redirected to Wayfair in Australia.  In addition I will get a "bad address" error when connecting to certain websites such as Staples.com even though there is no problem with the website.  I have scanned my computer for viruses and malware and everything is fine.  In order to stop the redirection I need to turn off the modem and the computer and reboot everything.  I also clear the cache and erase all cookies. Once I reboot everything will be OK for a few minutes and I have no problem connecting to the correct site but then it will start again and I have to go through the process of clearing cache and cookies and rebooting everything again. Sometimes the problem does not reoccur for several hours or days.   I have read about others having similar problems being redirected to eBay China and all of them use Verizon DSL.  Is this a problem with the router?  A problem with Verizon?  It is very frustrating when it happens especially when you are trying to purchase something within a timeframe and you get redirected to another country or can't access a site which is working.

Thanks for any information regarding this problem.

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Re: Redirected to other countries
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Check your PC's DNS settings and make sure you are not using outside DNS when you have not configured it. If you're using a DNS server or two in another country rather than public AnyCasted DNS which uses the closest server to you, it can cause this to happen. In addition, in some cases these redirections you're getting may be due to the fact that Websites believe that you have an IP address that is still allocated somewhere else, and this can happen if Verizon purchased some additional IP Address space from another provider.

Also, check your PC Locale settings. There have been times where sites believe you're in another country or from another country simply by what your browser is reporting back. One time I had a computer that kept directing www.msn.com to uk.msn.com and I found out that it was because the computer had it's locale set to "English (Great Britain)." I don't think this would apply here, but it doesn't hurt to point it out.

Re: Redirected to other countries
iamwhoiam1
Enthusiast - Level 1

Thanks for your reply, but no problem with locale settings.  No outside DNS.  The redirection problem has been posted by several people on eBay forum and all who have posted use Verizon DSL. 

The Staples error is not "bad address" (my mistake) but "Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)" but there is no problem with the Staples' website just that when I try to use it I get that error.

I had the problems with Staples today but have also had this happen a few times in the past.  Just turned off the router and turned it back on again and am able to access Staples website again. I never had the problem with being redirected to eBay China until about 2 wks ago. 

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Re: Redirected to other countries
iamwhoiam1
Enthusiast - Level 1

This is definitely not my computer causing the problem.  I tried to logon to wayfair.com website and was rerouted to Australia again.  I switched internet browsers and attempted to logon with Chrome instead of Firefox and this time I wound up on a website indicating that the website I was trying to access did not exist.  I decided to attempt to access Wayfair with another computer which has not been used to go online for several months.  I have never used it to access wayfair.com. However as soon as I attempted to do so via Firefox I got that same web page indicating that the website did not exist. I turned the modem/router off for about a minute and then back on and I was then able to access the website.  I called Verizon the other day when I kept being rerouted to Australia.  I was told that they would check into this. I was also told that there were no records of reports of people getting rerouted which I know is untrue because of the posts that I have read elsewhere about rerouting to ebay.cn as well as other websites.  In fact, several people called Verizon to report this problem. I believe that the problem may be within the router and am going to try to see if I can get a replacement.  This is very frustrating and I am very dissatisfied with the response from the tech support agent with whom I spoke. Smiley FrustratedSmiley Mad

Want to add that after turning the modem/router off and on again I was able to access wayfair.com on my main computer again via both Firefox and Chrome.  The problem is not being caused by my computer and its settings.

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