Workaround to access MFC for Cox Customers

[LaceyRoyce]

Hi guys, about an hour ago we noticed cox customers were suddenly unable to access myfreecams.com. There were also reports that a few other adult sites were also unable to be accessed. Obviously this is a big issue if it isn’t resolved quickly. Hopefully it’s something as simple as a server change and DNS propogation. Either way changing your DNS settings is a quick and free way to get you back onto MFC right now.

This is only for windows, if anyone wants to post the equivilent for a mac that would be great!

Here’s a short video Moros quickly made to walk you through the process. If you have questions, you can tweet us @CamgirlToolkit!

https://www.camgirltoolkit.com/workaround-for-cox-customers-who-cant-access-mfc/

 

[Kradek]

The question came up (and was deleted, oddly) on Twitter, whether using Google DNS was "safe".

Essentially DNS is how you figure out the IP address from a domain name. In your browser URL, for example, you put www.myfreecams.com, or myfreecams.com. But a computer needs an IP address in order to make a connection to that site so it has to look up what IP address is associated with that domain. That's essentially what DNS is all about.

Any DNS server will be able to know that you looked up the IP address for any particular URL.Its highly unlikely they are using that information for anything other than the sorts of things Google typically uses information for (ie better advertisements). Moreover, it's not any more unsafe than using the DNS you were previously using from your ISP.

But specifically, here is what Google tracks when you use their DNS services.

 

[Mira_xo]

Thank you so much, this worked for me, but I am honestly tempted to switch to CenturyLink or something because I don't exactly want to endorse a company that censors the internet against the will of it's customers.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

https://developers.google.com/speed...our_network_settings_to_use_google_public_dns

This page has instructions if you're using Mac or Linux. We added it to the bottom of the blog post also

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Thank you so much, this worked for me, but I am honestly tempted to switch to CenturyLink or something because I don't exactly want to endorse a company that censors the internet against the will of it's customers.

It's possible that it could be MFC moving their server’s IP address, and cox’s DNS servers simply haven’t grabbed the new IP yet. In this case, it will sort itself out in a few hrs ... something called DNS propogation. So it's possibly not cox's intentional fault at all.. so don't change just yet.

 

[Lintilla]

Apparently much of the northeast is completely without internet service, so this is almost certainly nothing specifically to do with MFC or any other sites that are down, and maybe not even Cox's fault (for once).

That said, I recommend changing your DNS settings and keeping them that way if you're on Cox. I had frequent issues until I did so months ago.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Apparently much of the northeast is completely without internet service, so this is almost certainly nothing specifically to do with MFC or any other sites that are down, and maybe not even Cox's fault (for once).

That said, I recommend changing your DNS settings and keeping them that way if you're on Cox. I had frequent issues until I did so months ago.

This isn't jsut affecting northeast customers though, and I have full internet access... just not able to access MFC. Would this outage be affecting *just* one site in this way?

I'm in New Orleans LA..

 

[weirdbr]

It's possible that it could be MFC moving their server’s IP address, and cox’s DNS servers simply haven’t grabbed the new IP yet.

They dont even need to change their IP address for this to happen - if you just booted up your computer it won't have any cached results for what the IP address for any sites are so it will have to ask the ISP's DNS server for an answer... And given that Cox's DNS server seems to be either broken or overloaded (or both), you get the issue that everyone is having.

This isn't jsut affecting northeast customers though, and I have full internet access... just not able to access MFC. Would this outage be affecting *just* one site in this way?

It depends on what the outage is. From the tweets I had seen initially, it's primarily DNS issues.. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's routing issues as well (which means that trying to reach MFC would be problematic) - at least the comments on http://downdetector.com/status/cox-communications seem to indicate a lot of other issues going on now.

 

[mynameisbob84]

Is it affecting other porn sites, or just MFC? If it's some silly ethical crusade, then presumably they wouldn't just block access to one cam site.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

They dont even need to change their IP address for this to happen - if you just booted up your computer it won't have any cached results for what the IP address for any sites are so it will have to ask the ISP's DNS server for an answer... And given that Cox's DNS server seems to be either broken or overloaded (or both), you get the issue that everyone is having.

It depends on what the outage is. From the tweets I had seen initially, it's primarily DNS issues.. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's routing issues as well (which means that trying to reach MFC would be problematic) - at least the comments on http://downdetector.com/status/cox-communications seem to indicate a lot of other issues going on now.

Thank you! I was posting an explanation someone had sent to me so I appreciate the clarification.


BTW mfc support responded to my email with this: We're aware of the issue and we're looking into it, but it does seem to be an issue with Cox Communication. We do not know how long it will be until it's resolved but our network operations center is on it. Thanks!

 

[LaceyRoyce]

Is it affecting other porn sites, or just MFC? If it's some silly ethical crusade, then presumably they wouldn't just block access to one cam site.

SO far the only other site people are reporting problems with is modelcentro

 

[mynameisbob84]

SO far the only other site people are reporting problems with is modelcentro

I guess it could just be a coincidence. Does seem strange though. I'll never understand why businesses voluntarily piss money up the wall in service of a broken moral compass.

 

[weirdbr]

To add more details - it looks like this is correlated with one of the big transit providers (AKA the companies that actually keep the internet connected) is having issues, which could explain difficulties leaving cox's network and reaching elsewhere: http://downdetector.com/status/level3 .

 

[unflinching]

There is a way to bypass your provider's DNS, and you don't have to modify any network settings... two thirds of the way down under "Edit your hosts file", gives a nice rundown of how to edit your host file to bypass the need for the DNS. There is one caveat - if the website changes their IP (change website hosts, etc.) you'll need to comment the line out (using #) which will revert that perticular website to use the provider DNS, or update it to the new IP address of the site.

http://en.flossmanuals.net/bypassing-censorship/ch033_playing-with-dns/

 

[weirdbr]

And it was a cable cut (or several): http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/09/news/companies/time-warner-cable-cox-outages/index.html . The fact that the impact was this large makes it clear that they need to add more redundancy in that region...

 

[DFT]

My ISP has horribly slow DNS servers which would go down so I put OpenDNS in my router, with a fallback to Google. Yeah, not too concerned who logs my lookups.

I doubt Cox is doing anything moral - not like PayPal bought them: they're fucking up again. Much appreciated for guides that include Windows, Mac and Linux.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

My cox stuff seems to be working again. Is anyone else better?

 

[MDouble00]

My cox stuff seems to be working again. Is anyone else better?

I have Cox and I didn't do any of the DNS stuff. But only had MFC that I couldn't access until like 930 PM and then everything was moving along. A couple of rooms I visited seem choppy but improved as the time went on.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Seems Charter customers were having the same problem tonight. This came in handy again.

 

[ComicOzzie]

My Cox was on the fritz most of Monday, but now my Cox works just fine. (Yes, I am 12.)