Is there something wrong with Paypal

I've been trying to access my account for the past few days but haven't been successful even once. My browsers (IE & FF) both say they can't find the website. A couple of people have sent me money and they didn't seem to have any problems doing so since I have received emails saying I have cash but I can't even find the website to check my balance. I'm trying to access the account from outside the US but I don't think that should make a difference.

I bet access is blocked, if you are in the Philippines. PayPal isn't allowed in the Philippines. Just ask akula88.

oldgrandpajack

Mine works.

oldgrandpajack,

It's my sister's account. She's in the US. She just allows me access to it so I can check the balance of the account so everything's legal in case you're wondering if I forged my account or something.

Is there a way to block a website from being accessed by a specific country even if it's just the main webpage. I thought only China did that. I can't even find the home page.

If this is true, what happens if you happen to travel here for business or vacation? Does that mean paypal won't allow you to access your account because you're not physically in the US? I thought the internet was supposed to eliminate such restrictions.

I apologize. Didn't mean to infer that you were doing something illegal.

I'm not an expert, when it comes to the internet. But, I bet PayPal can tell what country you are trying to access their webpage from.

oldgrandpajack

PS: If you have a Mutual Fund Account, try accessing it. If anything is blocked, that should be. I think it's illegal to buy US Mutual Funds from other countries.

Don't worry, I didn't get the impression you were inferring anything of the sort. I actually editted my post to ask a question asking exactly about the location issue.

I wonder if you could access your sister's account, if you were in a country that allows PayPal. For example, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, etc..

oldgrandpajack

Billson, a while ago a friend of mine had has ISP's content filter (he has a young sister) go berzerk, and block almost every website on the net. He got around this temporarily whilst his ISP resolved the problem by using some sort of proxy server to surf the web.

This might be the solution to your problem. Let me know if you're intersted, and I'll ask him for details. I'm quite sure it's not illegal or anything like that. In any case I'll clarify this with him just to be sure.

You may want to just clear your cache and cookies. It could be that simple...

Paypal is well and alive. The problem is either in your ISP or your computer.

Your DNS servers or your hosts file could be wrong. Try to access Paypal directly by IP, using one of the following IP Addresses: 216.113.188.35, 216.113.188.66, 216.113.188.67, 64.4.241.32, 64.4.241.33, 216.113.188.32

Try also to access Paypal using a secure connection from the beginning ( https://www.paypal.com ) as that could get past through some kind of filters.

If nothing above works you should contact your ISP.

Using a proxy to access Paypal is a solution but could be risky if you are not 100% sure that the proxy is legit. Normal proxies are configured to give access only to the users of an ISP or some kind of Intranet and they are not accesible to the rest of Internet for economical (bandwith use) and security reasons (a proxy can be used to attack other sites while hidding the origin).

So, most open proxies are either missconfigured or amateur or "owned servers". And you don't want that kind of servers acting as "man in the middle" when using Paypal, right? :sweat:

I would be surprised if Paypal were blocking IPs from your country, because as you said it would mean that travelling users could not access their accounts. They could eventually block a small range of IPs if they were the source of some kind of attack. If using Paypal is illegal in your country, your government could block Paypal or force your ISP to do it.

Thank you all for the suggestions.

I'm starting to think that it may be due to my modem or connection because I just had a friend using the same ISP try the website and he didn't seem to have a problem. Now why didn't I think of that before?

chamenos,

Paypal is the only site I'm having problems with. I can go to any other site without any problems.

This is the message I get when I try paypal's website- "Firefox can't find the server at www.paypal.com"

Sasha,

That was the first thing I thought of when I was still getting the above message after a few days of trying. I've cleared all my cache in both firefox and IE but still no luck.

Luminaria,

I also thought of accessing paypal directly through IP addresses but I didn't know them nor how to get them. I've just attempted all 6 IP addresses you've listed.

I only get to this point "Processing....
Click here if this page appears for more than 5 seconds" before I get the "firefox can't find the server at www.paypal.com" message.

Here's my problem as I see it. I work in a travel agency and our DSL connection is provided by the airline reservation systems so I probably can't call them to complain that I'm unable to surf the internet since the there's nothing wrong with the reservation system or software. I'm thinking that there must be a setting in the modem affecting my paypal access because I only noticed this a few days ago. I last used it less than a month ago so I still have no idea what might have caused it.

If firefox is having problems it might help to try Internet Explorer, but I wouldn't expect that to fix it. I would try "ping www.paypal.com" & see if that works. You can also try "tracert www.paypal.com". Rebooting & clearing your cache might solve the issue. Using the actual IP address is a good idea *IF* you trust the person who gave you the ip address. It could be a bogus web site.

Update:

Go figure. It started working again today. Since it still wasn't working when I last turned it off, I'm pretty sure it was due to my connection but whatever it is, I hope it doesn't happen again.