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In our organization, when users run up against the firewall in Internet Explorer, this is what they see:

enter image description here

The classic IE "Page Cannot Be Displayed".

Of course, this is also what you see when it's the external site having problems.

Is there any way for the user to determine if it's firewall-related or server-related? Anything in the Dev Tools of IE?

I don't mean any specifics of the firewall, just as simple as finding out "This page cannot be displayed because firewall, or not because firewall". Nothing more than that.

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closed as off-topic by schroeder♦ Oct 15 '18 at 13:16

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:

  • "This question does not appear to be about Information security within the scope defined in the help center." – schroeder
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

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    If the firewall is just killing the connection to the site, then no, there's likely not a way to tell the difference. Some firewalls do have features to show a "blocked" page instead of the requested site, but that may not be feasible for HTTPS websites and additional setup may be required. – Mr. Llama Aug 9 '18 at 15:22
  • @Mr.Llama - We do have another thing that happens when users go to certain types of websites, like sports or gambling. The browser returns a block page with their domain account username, the URL, and the rule category. But other times firewall rules are hit, it returns nothing but the IE Can't Be Displayed page. – WakeDemons3 Aug 9 '18 at 15:29
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There are sites that can help you check if it is a problem with the user connection or the server: https://isup.me
https://downforeveryoneorjustme.com

Other options would involve connecting to a VPN or proxy and checking site availability through it.

Another possibility might be a corrupted hosts file that can block certain sites or redirect user to a website hosted by an adversary.

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