Anybody else having a problem reaching (what appears to be) the sole Microsoft Product Activation server (wpa.one.microsoft.com)?
$ ping wpa.one.microsoft.com
PING wpa.one.microsoft.com (94.245.126.107): 56 data bytes
36 bytes from 213.199.189.41: Communication prohibited by filter
I get this sourcing from our network, from AT&T 3G, and from ye residential DSL connection located in the greater Seattle area. They aren't simply source-filtering. Either that or they are source-filtering for 0.0.0.0/0.
This is apparently the only server/IP they have set up to respond to these requests. wpa.one.microsoft.com resolves to that IP via every DNS server I've tried (so no round-robin A records), Microsoft products that need to activate over the internet only try to resolve that FQDN, and I've looked for others without success (wpa.two.microsoft.com isn't valid, for example).
I have just tested from Singapore
[root@trinity ~]# ping wpa.one.microsoft.com
PING wpa.one.microsoft.com (94.245.126.107) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 213.199.189.37 icmp_seq=1 Packet filtered
From 213.199.189.37 icmp_seq=6 Packet filtered
[root@trinity ~]# telnet wpa.one.microsoft.com 443
Trying 94.245.126.107...
[root@trinity ~]# telnet wpa.one.microsoft.com 80
Trying 94.245.126.107...
From: "Nathan Anderson" <nathana@fsr.com>
To: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2013 11:24:16 PM
Subject: Microsoft Product Activation server reachability
Anybody else having a problem reaching (what appears to be) the sole
Microsoft Product Activation server (wpa.one.microsoft.com)?
$ ping wpa.one.microsoft.com
PING wpa.one.microsoft.com (94.245.126.107): 56 data bytes
36 bytes from 213.199.189.41: Communication prohibited by filter
I get this sourcing from our network, from AT&T 3G, and from ye residential
DSL connection located in the greater Seattle area. They aren't simply
source-filtering. Either that or they are source-filtering for 0.0.0.0/0.
This is apparently the only server/IP they have set up to respond to these
requests. wpa.one.microsoft.com resolves to that IP via every DNS server
I've tried (so no round-robin A records), Microsoft products that need to
activate over the internet only try to resolve that FQDN, and I've looked
for others without success (wpa.two.microsoft.com isn't valid, for example).
--
Nathan Anderson
First Step Internet, LLC
nathana@fsr.com
I am seeing the same from NYC metro. According to MS (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457159.aspx#ECAA), access to that host on 80 and 443 is all that should be required to activate. (and wpa.one.microsoft.com has no AAAA, go figure)
[ben@razor ~]$ ping wpa.one.microsoft.com
PING wpa.one.microsoft.com (94.245.126.107) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 213.199.189.41 icmp_seq=2 Packet filtered
^C
--- wpa.one.microsoft.com ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 0 received, +1 errors, 100% packet loss, time 5260ms
[ben@razor ~]$ telnet wpa.one.microsoft.com 80
Trying 94.245.126.107...
^C
[ben@razor ~]$ telnet wpa.one.microsoft.com 443
Trying 94.245.126.107...
^C
-- Ben
Working now, tested from 3 hosts on different networks on both 80 and 443 :
$ telnet wpa.one.microsoft.com 443
Trying 94.245.126.107...
Connected to wpa.one.microsoft.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
Scott
So the ICMP message "communication prohibited by filter" must be a normal response to ICMP ping through that gateway.
Unfortunately, it's not completely fixed yet, but I'm guessing by this measure of progress that they must be working on it. I now get HTTP 403 in response to any request I send to it. Tried to reactive this copy of Windows Server once more anyway, and now get "Online activation cannot be completed at this time." (Message number: 24579) Before, it simply claimed I must not have working internet connectivity.
-- Nathan
communication prohibited by filter is just an ICMP response code,
sadly Windows does not under it......
Type 3 (Destination unreachable)
Code 13 (Communication Administratively Prohibited - generated if a
router cannot forward a packet due to administrative filtering;)
ICMP echo request for this ip seems to be filtered by Microsoft. TCP
connection to port 80 is working fine.
tcping wpa.one.microsoft.com
Probing 94.245.126.107:80/tcp - Port is open - time=98.491ms
Yang
TCP 80 is working fine now; wasn't last night, though. In the past, my recollection is that ICMP ping to actual Microsoft IP space (not simply Akamai) would have simply been blackholed/dropped with no response, so seeing "packet filtered" come back + no response on any TCP ports made it seem like it could be an issue upstream of the actual server itself.
But I can now activate/reactivate products today, so all[1] is right with the world.
-- Nathan
[1] It's Friday and we are only a few days into 2013, so I'm trying to remain upbeat.