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I have a website I'm working on that is being hosted on host-ed.net, (a free web hosting provider). I've been sending people to my site to see how it looks, and I'm having a lot of mobile users with T-Mobile data plans unable to access my site. All my other mobile visitors have no problem, and desktop browsers don't have this problem either. I tested this on my cousin's android and what I saw was a 504 timeout error message. This actually also happened months ago when I tried testing it from his phone, but at the time I thought it was a temporary problem... but now I know this wasn't just a temporary issue. I have a basic understanding of what this error message means ...but I don't exactly know why this is happening. It is also interesting to note that I also couldn't access the host-ed's company website 'host-ed.net' from my cousin's android; also received the 504 timeout error. So basically anything on hosted on host-ed.net can't be accessed from my cousin's android under a T-mobile data plan. I tried doing a test with host-ed.net from WatchMouse and host-tracker, and I did notice a problem when trying to be accessed from a server in Austin, TX and one in Ukraine...but I didn't see anything else.

I tried looking at the support forum under T-Mobile and noticed others complaining about a similar problem with not being able to access Earthlink.net on their mobile devices. They recommended turning the phone on and off and checking webguard. The problem is, I don't think has to do with webguard anti-virus filtering, since it doesn't appear to be blocked or filtered. This is clearly some kind of a server issue. I can't really contact T-Mobile since I myself am not a customer.

Where should I go from here? I would hate to be possibly missing out on all T-Mobile users.

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    If you do not want to miss out on users I recommend 'paying' for some decent hosting... Its pretty obvious that T-Mobile have blocked access to the subnet that host-ed operate on. Free hosting attracts sites that are not completely legit (Not all but it happens more often) and its easier to block a subnet that it is a single IP.
    – Simon Hayter
    Jul 5, 2013 at 20:14
  • That's true. I have considered paying for a decent host because in the back of my mind I thought it could be Tmobile is blocking a subnet. I'm just concerned in the long run, how do I know that the host I pay for isn't blocked by Tmobile or Verizon? Other sites have been having issues with Tmobile and they aren't under a free host. would it be better, or even worth, creating my own dedicated server from a computer at home if I wasn't expecting huge amounts of traffic?
    – user1066524
    Jul 5, 2013 at 20:20
  • you were right. it definitely is because T-Mobile is blocking the subnet that host-ed.net has. Their systems have not been updated to properly handle IPv4 traffic originating in 5.0.0.0/8
    – user1066524
    Jul 5, 2013 at 21:13

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An issue such as this occurs either when the network has bee blocked by the mobile internet company or when their proxy server is having problems connecting to the network. Now you mention in comments that it was an issue in the end with T-Mobile blocking the host-ed.com subnet as their systems have not been updated properly to handle ipv4 traffic from 5.0.0.0/8 however to keep this question away from being specific to a single product or service...

IP Block Banned By Network
In this instance the only way to fix it is to speak to the network in question and ask them to unblock access to the netblock in question.

Proxy Server Unable to Access Website
In this instance once again only the network provider can fix this issue.

basically whatever the root cause of this issue the only way to fix it is to either change hosting providers to another provider that isn't blocked or doesn't have issues being accessed from that network or speak to the network provider and see if they can restore access to the netblock but if it has been blocked for a specific reason it is unlikely that they will unblock it simply because one website wants it unblocked.

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