hmmm... MaxPreps.com is a service provided under the umbrella of CBS/CBS Interactive. I wonder if you have, somehow, violated one of their access controls, or inadvertantly violated any of CBS Acceptable Use policies. (Just a thought...)
Other than rarely reading a news article on CBS, I cannot think of how Iw ould ever even interact with them...
Probably over-simplifying here, but your iPhone would be used as a router (that's basically what a hotspot is), with an IP address for the source, and would assign IP addresses to each device that would use that source connection. So, ultimately, each separate device would have an individual IP address. And, I am pretty sure that when you browse directly on your iPhone, the iPhone is also using a different IP address (it would not be using the same IP address range that the hotspot provides, because your iPhone doesn't use the "hotspot" for internet. It does not need that, because it already has a connection to the internet.
If I tether my old MBP and my two rMBP's to my iPhone, I thought that the iPhone serves as the "point-of-contact" with websites, and so, for example, MacRumors would the same IP address for all 3 of my Macs (i.e. the iPhone/"router's" IP address)?
And then like most networks, my 3 Macs would be assigned "internal" IP addresses so my iPhone/router could keep them straight.
But to the outside world, websites should only be seeing ONE IP address which would be that of my iPhone/router.
(I'm 95% certain that is how a traditional home network with a router would work, but again, I'm nt a networking guru!)
So, bottom line, I suspect that the IP range that your hotspot provides seems to be geo-blocked by at least two different web sites.
Well, it just occurred to me that my old MBP has one VPN provider, and my two rMBPs use another VPN provider. Although, as I recall, I was being blocked by MaxPreps one both my old MBP and new one rMPB yesterday or the day before, so that wouldn't explain the IP range and/or the VPN provider. (Also, I switched to a couple of different cities on my old MBP and that didn't help.)
And, that might lead you in another direction entirely. Contact tech support at your cell phone provider. Ask them about hotspot use, and ask if the cell phone provider might block certain kinds of hotspot connections. It seems possible that you may be (location) blocked by your cell phone provider, maybe some kind of restriction on hotspot use.
Why would AT&T block me from accessing a website (i.e. the high school) which is in the same state that I am in now?
(It's not like I'm in the UK trying to access an American site.)
I don't know where MaxPreps is located, but the high school I was being blcoked from is like 50 miles from where I am typing right now...
And, the website works when browsing from your iPhone, simply because you are not using the hotspot when browsing directly on your iPhone.
Does any of that make sense?
So if the site works while browsing on my iPhone, but now while using my hotspot then it could be blocked from AT&T's side, possibly?
Or, is AT&T's mobile IP considered "cleaner" to websites than my AT&T personal hotspot - if you follow me?
Since I missed the last football games of the year, and I won't be here anymore by basketball season, i guess none of this matters anymore. However, I would like to understand WHY all of this happened, and WHAT I could have done to get around it!
