This is getting a bit ridiculous. When accessing more and more sites (macys.com, homedepot.com, etc., I am receiving an Access denied message from the site web service - presumably from the firewall.

The error message is:

Access Denied

You don't have permission to access "http://www.homedepot.com/" on this server.

Reference #18.d8d7ce17.1714968918.87431d78

https://errors.edgesuite.net/18.d8d7ce17.1714968918.87431d78

I have contacted some of the site IT departments and they claim that my IP address is being blocked by their firewall software.

The fun part is that the IP address comes from Xfinity.

Meanwhile, I have scanned all of the machines and none show any signs of malware. As a former network engineer and cybersecurity specialist this looks like someone is abusing the Xfinity IP addresses and customers are getting stuck with marked IP addresses that they can't release/renew on the modems.

If I use my Android as a hotspot, or enable a VPN, every machine connects seamlessly, so I know it is not an issue on the endpoints or the browsers.

The Xfinity XB7 modem does not allow me to request a new IP. Shutting down the modem for an hour merely renews the same IP address when it reboots.

At this point my choice is either switching to another provider or shelling out a few hundred dollars to buy my own modem and separate router, which would allow to have more control over the Xfinity IP address allocated when needed.

Seriously, this is a serious issue and I have seen multiple reports from others on the Xfinity forums without any clear resolution.