I'm on Comcast, so I can confirm that not even a ping is getting through. And I'm using OpenDNS, so it's not DNS-level blocking. But after the mess Comcast has been in for this stuff before, I kind of can't believe they'd try it again.
I'm in a chat with a Comcast rep now, who claims that if they were blocking the page there would be a branded error message. There's just nothing. Maybe (hopefully!) this isn't what it looks like.
Confirmed no access at 06:51 PDT, but was able to get through via a proxy server.
By the way – the web experience is just that the page hangs. There's no 404, or 'server can't connect' or any other warning message. This type block is indicative of someone throttling the connection to the server. Likely Comcast hasn't outright blocked the site, they've just made the pipe so small that no one can get to it.
"pipe so small" - ironically, the symptom you describe are also indicative of the Path MTU problems. Not that this is necessarily the case, but I could not help but notice the wordplay.
The wireshark would show you the TCP three-way handshake successful, then the GET request would go out, get acknowledged, and then nothing.
thepiratebay.org doesn't respond to pings from any network as far as I can tell, which is a typical firewall configuration.
Judging by the comments on the article it's not Comcast blocking, but some kind of network configuration issue, as multiple ISPs are impacted (though they could in theory be using Comcast as a carrier).
It is comcast/xfinity blocking. Speakeasy is unaffected. I can access the site from speakeasy, no problem. One of the perks of having 2 ISPs. Try checking it through any open wi-fi connections available to you. Many are probably able to access the site.
How would you explain the multiple people in Australia and other countries not able to access it?
Like I said, it's possible these other ISPS are routing via Comcast, but that's pretty unlikely. More likely is someone has made a config change that's broken the connection for some ISPs.
Fascinating. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, but didn't they deny blocking bittorrent in general before they finally admitted it later and stopped? Do you trust them? Do you think customer relations would be let in on what would obviously be a PR nightmare?
I worked for AT&T and was regularly left in the dark, finding out later on that what I was told to say was in fact not the truth. I'm not putting on a tin foil hat just yet, but I'm suspicious.
I'm in a chat with a Comcast rep now, who claims that if they were blocking the page there would be a branded error message. There's just nothing. Maybe (hopefully!) this isn't what it looks like.