Interrupted Service but Steam Works?!

[LoveBearGRRR]

Okay, I'm writing this on my phone as you'll see why later. Sorry if this appears sloppy.

So my ISP is Charter Communications (don't murder me it's the only thing available) we didn't pay our bill today. So our service as it states on the login page that opens up in my web browser when attempting to load any website. But anything that has to do with a form of Steam authentication works?!

I'm still online on Steam, I can play any games that are ran with source but I can't do anything else. This is extremely weird for me and I can't seem to wrap my head around it.

What makes it even weirder is that community servers on CS:GO (privately ran servers) still work? I can even go on my own dedicated source servers.

I don't care because I'll pay my bill tomorrow but I'd love to know why this is! Thank you.

[brwainer]

33 minutes ago, LoveBearGRRR said:

Okay, I'm writing this on my phone as you'll see why later. Sorry if this appears sloppy.

So my ISP is Charter Communications (don't murder me it's the only thing available) we didn't pay our bill today. So our service as it states on the login page that opens up in my web browser when attempting to load any website. But anything that has to do with a form of Steam authentication works?!

I'm still online on Steam, I can play any games that are ran with source but I can't do anything else. This is extremely weird for me and I can't seem to wrap my head around it.

What makes it even weirder is that community servers on CS:GO (privately ran servers) still work? I can even go on my own dedicated source servers.

I don't care because I'll pay my bill tomorrow but I'd love to know why this is! Thank you.

My best guess, from a standpoint of knowing how the internet / networks / computers work but without any knowledge of the actual workings of your ISP, is that they are "blocking your internet" purely via redirecting DNS and HTTP requests so that everything shows you that login page. So Steam, which AFAIK does have a builtin list of IP addresses to try if DNS fails and uses HTTPS almost exclusively, would possibly continue to work. Just my 2c.

[noisebomb44]

3 minutes ago, brwainer said:

My best guess, from a standpoint of knowing how the internet / networks / computers work but without any knowledge of the actual workings of your ISP, is that they are "blocking your internet" purely via redirecting DNS and HTTP requests so that everything shows you that login page. So Steam, which AFAIK does have a builtin list of IP addresses to try if DNS fails and uses HTTPS almost exclusively, would possibly continue to work. Just my 2c.

couldnt you just force change the DNS server to 8.8.8.8?

That would mean you get the same internet connection for free if your theory is correct

[brwainer]

14 minutes ago, noisebomb44 said:

couldnt you just force change the DNS server to 8.8.8.8?

That would mean you get the same internet connection for free if your theory is correct

that is true if they are only using DNS to redirect him to the login page. And either way it's a good thing to do. But ISPs can also redirect (actually replace) HTTP requests. That's how the login page at any hotel, airport, cafe, etc works.

[LoveBearGRRR]

1 hour ago, brwainer said:

that is true if they are only using DNS to redirect him to the login page. And either way it's a good thing to do. But ISPs can also redirect (actually replace) HTTP requests. That's how the login page at any hotel, airport, cafe, etc works.

Thank you so much! I've learned something new! I'm glad this was my first post on LTT! 

 

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by LoveBearGRRR
I'm dumb and didn't read first response.