I am one of the affected. And I gotta tell you that if the big boys are gonna battle I will drop comcast like a hot potato. I can't live without my google.

I'm in the seacoast area of New Hampshire and access to Google is not working here. I'm using a Comcast Cable to access the 'net and the Safari Web browser on my Mac. Google.com, Gmail, Calendar, and Analytics are not available to me. Very frustrating.

eek I'm scared!

This may sound crazy, but I used to live in Cambridge, MA, and recently moved to Minneapolis, MN where Time Warner is being bought out by Comcast. This last weekend I was having difficulty connecting to google but was able to ping other sites with ease like yahoo and msn. Thank god this city is going Wi Fi soon! Comcast is a joke anyway.

I'm in eastern MA on an AT&T T1 at work and having trouble with both google.com and amazon.com through either IE or Firefox. Can't get past the home page on either site.

Who would have imagined that this would be a good time to have dialup? I don't even have phone lines coming into my house....Sucks to be me! I agree with Will about dropping Comcast if it comes down to a war. C'mon Comcast: Don't be Evil.

I am a graphic designer in Salem, MA and I have absolutely no access to Google or any of its services through the Firefox browser. I can however access the Google search engine through I.E., but none of the additional services (Gmail, etc.) I don't know what to think. I've noticed Mozilla.com is having trouble loading in both browsers (missing images, etc). Also, the Mozilla start page (http://en-US.start.mozilla.com/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official)that comes preinstalled with Mozilla, won't load in Firefox, but has no problem in I.E. So, there is definitely a Firefox connection here. Something very bad is going down.

It's said that when two elephnats fight, the grass suffers. We the consumers are now on the receiving end. Can somebody tell me why every "giant" in the communications industry catches cold whenever Google sneezes.

I am having the same problem - But the issue from a couple of years back was not Comcast denying access to Google, but the other way around - Google shut out a block of Comcast customers. Anyway...I called Comcast and after patiently explaining that using a different email program would not enable me to view the main adsense page which I have not been able to see all day, the rep finally looked into it and told me that they have a ticket out on it. It is not browser specific - I tried both Firefox and IE. The google ads on my site do not show up when I look at them - but they are visible for people in other locations - and I can't see certain google-related pages.

I stumbled across this article while on goolge news. I had no Google acess this morning at my work in Forrest Hill, Maryland. While at my house I went to on lunch break, was fine. Both locations have Comcast cable, but are maybe 10 - 12 miles apart.

Here in Stoneham, all Google services are flat on their butt dead. No access to any google.com address through Firefox, IE, or Opera. All other sites seem fine, though I haven't done an exhaustive search. The odd bit is that a traceroute seems to work fine: Tracing route to www.l.google.com [216.239.37.99] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 7 ms 10 ms 8 ms c-3-0-ubr03.woburn.ma.boston.comcast.net [73.163 .140.1] 2 7 ms 8 ms 8 ms 68.87.158.145 3 10 ms 7 ms 10 ms 10g-9-3-ar01.woburn.ma.boston.comcast.net [68.87 .145.173] 4 10 ms 9 ms 11 ms 12.117.239.37 5 18 ms 18 ms 16 ms br2-a350s3.cb1ma.ip.att.net [12.127.5.26] 6 15 ms 16 ms 16 ms tbr2-cl16.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.10.22] 7 15 ms 17 ms 14 ms 12.122.82.157 8 20 ms 15 ms 17 ms 12.118.94.26 9 15 ms 16 ms 16 ms so-5-0-0.cr2.lga1.us.above.net [64.125.27.138] 10 20 ms 21 ms 19 ms so-1-0-0.mpr2.iad1.us.above.net [64.125.28.65] 11 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms so-3-0-0.mpr2.iad5.us.above.net [64.125.28.14] 12 21 ms 22 ms 21 ms 216.200.151.110.available.above.net [216.200.151 .110] 13 23 ms 21 ms 22 ms 64.233.174.132 14 20 ms 22 ms 20 ms 216.239.49.38 15 24 ms 22 ms 35 ms 72.14.232.106 16 21 ms 24 ms 20 ms 72.14.232.108 17 21 ms 24 ms 22 ms 216.239.37.99 Trace complete.

Tracerts work fine, every time. It seems to be back-end Google access that goes flooie, and not just Google. Had problems all day. We're on an AT&T T-3 here, so it's not limited to Comcast, apparently. Look at a higher level.

Tracerts work fine, every time. It seems to be back-end Google access that goes flooie, and not just Google. Had problems all day. We're on an AT&T T-3 here, so it's not limited to Comcast, apparently. Look at a higher level.

I tried my Worldnet dialup and that doesn't eliminate the problem.

Raymond, NH: Can't access Google AdSense to log into my account and I need to suspend an ad because a site is down! Yikes! Also can't FTP to some hosting servers, fine with others (you can tell we're a web design/Internet marketing firm, can't you?) Amazon seems fine, but I can't access my control panel for one of my hosting companies. We're a Comcast Business customer.

No access to Google in Somerville, MA. Part of my business depends on Google adsense ads, and my adsense ads are not loading onto my sites. Also, I can not access my Google account. It is happening on Firefox and IE. Comcast better get their act together and follow Google's guidelines, and they better do it quickly.

Lost Google this morning too. But... I switched from FireFox to IE6 (I have both), and Google works fine. I accessed this site via IE. That may work for some folks if they have IE. Comcast claims it is not just them, and that other ISPs are involved. So say the few news items that are starting to come in now... Given the "Net Neutrality" issue in Congress right now, this is pretty odd.

In Concord, NH, we have been able to access Google's search engine via Comcast/Firefox, but we have not been able to access GMail today.

The same thing happened to me - I live in Boxboro, MA. Verizon has been sending me at least 1 flyer per week about FiOS. I guess it's time to switch. I can get the gmail page to come up and enter my username/password but I get a disconnect error (document contains no data). I just tried it a few minutes ago - same thing. This is so stupid; google could buy comcast out - why hassle consumers?

btw, I can send/receive my gmail using my Motorola Q on the Verizon network...

Well, traceroute (via Terminal in OS X) didn't return any problems - mainly because google.com has multiple IP addresses and the IPs, 64.233.167.99 and 64.233.187.99, were used. When I use either IP in a browser, Google comes right up. 64.233.161.99 also worked. Dissecting the results of a tcpdump right now.

I am in Central NJ/Comcast customer...and am not able to get to any Google hosted sites...Have been experiencing this problem from 8am EST.

Check out this post: http://boston.metblogs.com/archives/2006/09/comcast_hates_g.phtml

Since this morning, several of my users who use Comcast at home are unable to access any of the resources on our network. We use a Google search appliance at our domain...could this have something to do with it? I use RCN at home and can access all of our office resources fine. Bizarre and extremely irritating.

big deal this is nothing campared too coming months if net netriality goes bye bye

Here in Cambridge I have access to all Google services w/ Verizon EVDO, but not Comcast. Called and asked for a refund on my monthly bill, but they said no. One of these days they'll have some competition ...

4:23pm, in Somerville, MA I can now access Google sites and adsense ads are loading onto sites as normal.

At 4:26pm EST, after having no access to any Google-related sites via Comcast in Boston all day, my service has now returned to normal. Not sure if this is an area-by-area fix, but the rest of you might want to see if things are now ok with your connections...

The problem seems to have been resolved by 16:00 EDT. The problem was not with any one particular ISP, but rather with google's infratructure (Shocking!) At first, it seemed to be a problem with the Google cookies. Delete the cookies and you were fine. Temporarily at least. Then, through further investigation, the problem did not appear to be with IP connectivity, as an ethereal (wireshark) trace shows that the TCP session gets correctly setup. The problem lies with the HTTP GET not being responded to. For come reason, deleting the google cookies seems to temporarily resolve the issue, but eventually the problem returns. My thoughts is that this may have something to do with a content provider (a company like akamai) providing some type of bad cookie. This would explain why the issue is localized to the North East US. Moral of the story: Do a little investigation before jumping to conclusions.

As of 4:20:00 PM EDT, all of the Google services I could not access earlier today are now working fine for me here in NH. Hoping it stays this way...

Is this even news? Who cares if you cant access a website for one day? I bet you never fucked up at worked and things went crazy for a day. I doubt this is the end of the world, besides google filters their results - not a search engine, but an add engine mostly.

gmail works in ssl lynx now... it didn't earlier today... Things like this should be covered by more news outlets. Denial of Service not the way to run a railroad.

I had trouble at home and we use Comcast Business service. I got on the Business service Tech support (for over an hour) and after the typical reboot your router, etc. they denied any issues, and told me it was my problem, probably my DNS, unplug the service from my network and debug with a local computer. Is this really news? Well, when 30 people come up and say the Internet is slow, and you say, well, really it's google, then I search for solutions. The only interesting nugget here, is that Comcast once again points the finger back to me. Interestingly enough, I can get to google by IP, but if you use gmail (for example), google uses this name to get you to the right place, so the IP only gets you to the main page. From my same location, we can get to it from our T1, but not from Comcast. Wild wacky stuff.

BOOOOOO0.....this is the Ghost of Net Neutrality, urging people to adopt me......BOOOOOOOO.......

Best. Comment. Ever. That one's going in the Google Watch banner.

Service is Back up (NE MA)

I am not a geek so I can't do the trace thing, but it's happening in CT, too.

Topix.net was inacessible too. There might have been thousands of other inacessible sites for all I know, but that's the only one other than Google sites that I noticed.

If you rearrange the letters spelling Comcast and assign numbers to each, then add them up, it proves you're good at math but bad at reality.

Hmm. How interesting -- I was online with a Comcast tech yesterday during the height of this nonsense (Google News and Mail didn't work on either of my two Macintoshes, and Firefox seemed completely dead ... while Safari still worked). The tech indicated to me that everything was fine! When I got home late last night, I discovered everything was fine again. Here is the transcript (names changed) of my conversation with the Comcast tech (note that I thought it was my installation of America Online software that was to blame): ----------- LiveAssist Transcript Problem : Connection/Speed tech > Thank you for contacting Comcast Internet service Customer Support. My name is ____. How may I help you? Al > Hi -- I can access google mail on my cell phone, but not on my two home computers (Mac). tech > Good afternoon, Al. tech > I am sorry for any inconvenience you may be experiencing with accessing Google mail. Al > I think it might be my comcast connection, because i've noticed other websites are loading slowly too. tech > I am sorry to inform you that we can only support Comcast email issues and recommend contacting Google for any assistance with gmail. Al > ARe you sure it isn't my connection to comcast, though? tech > I have tested your modem and it is online, giving me a good response, Al. tech > There is no indication of slow speed or signal issue. tech > I understand that you have 2 computers. Do you have an airport to connect multiple computers to the modem? Al > The problems started when I signed up for America Online's free subscription. And, yes, I do have two computers attached to a wireless router to the modem. Al > I have to go to work right now, but can you email me if you find out any more information? tech > Al, if you have installed a new software, there could be a software corrupted issue. tech > I am sorry, but I am not able to email you. Al > Should I reinstall my browsers? tech > You can contact Customer Support anytime, 24/7 for further assistance, Al. Al > thank you -- have a good day tech > Customer has closed chat and left the room

I experienced this problem exactly as described and like others I contacted Comcast. While their tech support staff was very polite and helpful but she had no clue about this problem at around 2:00 PM (in other words Comcast kept its own staff in the dark). I explained to her the unusual problem (the connection works fine but I can't get to the Google portfolio of websites), but still she made me simply reset the modem and renew my IP address. It took a good half-hour. What a waste!

I posted a more extensive comment in the follow-up post, but I'd like to point out that this really does seem like it was a simple DNS problem (or maybe a complicated one, but in any case an innocent one). As someone who's been working on the anti-regulation side of this issue, I'd just like to remind people that there was a cry of conspiracy theories related to net neutrality earlier this summer around Cox and Craigslist -- but it soon turned out there was no "there" there: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=269

We are blocked in South Florida today on Comcast from Google. Anyone else with this problem down here?

It seems it is up here in Northern Florida but I can't seem to find anything as recent as today to tell me if it has or not? I have Comcast and I can't get on google. I can on my cell phone but not on my computer. ... Does anyone know anything?

HEY just use a proxy from JAPAN then you can see all sorts of cool sites that are blocked

I can access everything bu Google sites via my Comcast connection today (and yesterday). Can anyone tell me what to do to get around this?

DNS Vs. Access -

In almost all cases when you cannot access a specific set of servers it's because the ISP's DNS entries are messed up - intentionally or through stupidity. Comcast seems to have a significant problem with maintaining their DNS servers.

In the past I've just changed my DNS servers from the default Comcast ones to something a little more robust - like those hosted by MIT. Recently I've been using opendns.com.

Visit www.opendns.com to see what's up. While the techies may have some issues with "private" DNS servers - it works well for me. It stays up, resolves fast and offers a little bit of phishing protection for Grandma. And it's free.