Hi,

1. I cannot access www.inkscapeforum.com without turning off my router's firewall. This is the only site I have ever encountered with such a weird problem.

2. Whether or not I turn on the firewall, I cannot access inkscape via an IP address, unlike every other site I have tried. I believe this is the root cause. Here is the message I get when I try connecting to 208.113.135.0:



My router is a Belkin N F5D8236-4 v2.

Thanks for the info, Agamemnus.
MicroUgly is the one who needs to reply, and I'm sure will be along before too long. But I just wanted to say thanks!

It is correct that you cannot access this forum via an IP. The site is hosted by a "shared-host" which means there are lots of sites on that IP and the only way it knows which site to load is via the domain name that was requested. This process is called "virtual-hosting"

This is a cheaper form of hosting and is not unusual. Normally only businesses are prepared to pay for a hosting plan that includes a dedicated IP, but even then, they'll use virtual-hosting so they can have multiple sub-domains.

microUgly wrote:It is correct that you cannot access this forum via an IP. The site is hosted by a "shared-host" which means there are lots of sites on that IP and the only way it knows which site to load is via the domain name that was requested. This process is called "virtual-hosting"

This is a cheaper form of hosting and is not unusual. Normally only businesses are prepared to pay for a hosting plan that includes a dedicated IP, but even then, they'll use virtual-hosting so they can have multiple sub-domains.

1) Oh, yeah. Well, it shouldn't give a misconfiguration error anyway..
2) Do you think (1) related to my router being unable to load the site with its firewall on? If not, any ideas then?

agamemnus wrote:1) Oh, yeah. Well, it shouldn't give a misconfiguration error anyway..

What ever content you would like to see at that IP is beyond my control.

2) Do you think (1) related to my router being unable to load the site with its firewall on? If not, any ideas then?

I don't know why your routers firewall would block this site. This is not an unusual or uniquely configured site. It obviously uses the standard HTTP ports. Maybe you've inadvertently blocked it if you've manually chosen to block another site that is using the same host as me. I would ask your question on a networking forum.

The firewall bans list is empty.
It's really odd.
What other sites use this IP so I can try?

agamemnus wrote:What other sites use this IP so I can try?

My personal site http://www.microugly.com is also at this IP. There would be hundreds of others made by other people, but that's not information I have access to.

I really would ask about this on a networking forum. I'm sure that people who know more about networking than me could help you identify why it's blocked. With the little amount of knowledge I have, I know I would be checking your routers logs.

It's been almost 4 months now and I still can't access this website from germany without a proxy or activated router firewall. Is this a problem with ISPs in germany or are there similar problems in other countries?

JohnJ wrote:It's been almost 4 months now and I still can't access this website from germany without a proxy or activated router firewall. Is this a problem with ISPs in germany or are there similar problems in other countries?

I doubt all of Germany shares a common mechanism that would interfere with your access to this site. I recommend you report the issue to your ISP and see what they say.

microUgly wrote:I doubt all of Germany shares a common mechanism that would interfere with your access to this site. I recommend you report the issue to your ISP and see what they say.

This affects more users (with different ISPs afaict): I got questions/reports from 3 users - all from Germany - who can't connect to InkscapeForum.com unless using a web proxy or turning off the router firewall. I never had these issues myself though (connecting from Switzerland) ...

Related topic in the German Inkscape user forum:
OFF-Topic: Inkscapeforum.com nicht zu erreichen?

Additional info: My router listed an access on this site as "Smurf attack" and according to Wikipedia, this is due to an increased rate of pings from this website. But I'm really no expert in these things...

I'm far from an expert myself.

My router listed an access on this site as "Smurf attack"

"...an access on this site..." I'm not sure what that means.

But being we're talking about a router with a firewall, and it mentions a security breach, I would be concerned about security. If I recall, in your original message, you said you had to turn off the firewall to access the site. It may be that during the moment your firewall was down, this "smurf attack" was attempted.

It may have nothing to do with your problem, but you might want to run your malware scans, just to be safe.

No, no...you probably misunderstood me.

If I disable the internal firewall on the router, there is no problem to open InkscapeForum.com. If I enable it, every attempt to access this website is listed as "Smurf attack" from 208.113.135.0:HTTP port (80) to port 2549 on my pc.

I'm checking with my host support to see if they have some insight. I'll post if I found anything out.

Any news so far? Unfortunately, my problem isn't solved...

JohnJ wrote:Any news so far? Unfortunately, my problem isn't solved...

I'm afraid not.

I don't have enough knowledge in the area to understand what the problem could be. My next point of call, if I were you, would be to ask people who are familiar with your modem--that might be the modem manufacturer, or a networking forum. I find this forum to be pretty good - http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewforum. ... 4747d55e4a

If it's an issue with this site, I don't believe I'll have direct access to fix it. Most likely I'll need to approach my host to fix it. But my host didn't have any insight when I raised the issue with them.

I cannot directly access inkscapeforum.com either (coming through webproxy.ca to write this). I am based in Brisbane, Australia.

I was able to access it some months ago and I have changed router following storm damage in that time (from netgear to a new belkin - both pretty much default setups).

I cannot access microugly.com either but I have not noticed any problems with other sites/forums.

dig returns the IP address fine so I don't think this is a DNS issue.

I suspect this may be a far more common problem than you think - 99% of people will just move on and not take the effort to get past the problem so for every one reporting it here there will be at least 99 others who have not reported it.

Because I'm not able to reproduce this myself, there is nothing I can do to begin debugging. When someone users can access the site, and some can't, then it must be something to do with either the users equipment or the users ISP. But I couldn't begin to guess what.

You would be doing me a big favour if you started a thread on whirlpool.net.au about this and sought suggestions on how to identify what the issue is. It's pointless myself doing this when I can't replicate the issue.

If you post a link to the topic here, I'll definitely join in to provide additional information about the hosting.

I'm also in Brisbane--you're ISP doesn't happen to be TPG? I know they use a proxy for all traffic which can cause problems.

I've done as you suggest and posted the topic here - http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-re ... 74&#bottom

My ISP is iinet although I am about to switch back to the dreaded Telstra in the (probably futile) hope that they can help me get a better line speed.

You'll have to give us some more information, before it can be investigated.

Same problem for me, I had to turn off my router's firewall. I'm in Belgium and my ISP is Belgacom.

Not sure any of these problems is ISP related if you can fix them by disabling the local firewall, unless of course your router is specific to the ISP (aka "box" is some parts of Europe), but then you can ask the ISP support.

Hi,

My router had a problem last monday, so I had to change it. With the new one, I can't turn the firewall off, so I can't access InkscapeForum.com anymore… The router is the new «box» from my ISP (Belgacom). Just like the old one, but the new version.

I just called the tech service and they told me that it must be a bad configuration from me because they could access this website. I told them that it was not possible that the misconfiguration was on my computer as long as the only way for me to access the website is to turn of the firewall on the router, not on the computer.

But as long as he was on a Belgacom line and he could access the site (I know he did because he described it to me «it's a discussion board about something related to graphism») he told me the problem was not on their side.

So now my only option is to use a proxy, but it quite sucks, I'd like to be able to browse the site normally.

Why are there so many problems accessing this site?

Couldn't you buy your own router? There are bazillions of routers out there. Of course you have to buy it, and your ISP's router is probably free with the service. I'm in the US, and chose to buy my own, rather than use the free one, because I knew I could get a better product. On the other hand, my firewall is on, and I can access InkscapeForum without any problems.

I haven't looked at mine, in a while, but I know with my software firewall, I can make exceptions, and allow certain sites directly in, if I want to. Does your router allow you to do that? Actually I don't know if the user controls the router firewall, or if the ISP does. If the ISP does, then maybe their settings are too high?

Actually, I don't understand these things very well. But somehow the proxy lets InkscapeForum through, even with the firewall turned on. Maybe it's your ISP rather than your router? I know that some internet freedom has been lost in Europe, and other parts of the world. (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201112 ... ting.shtml) And that it's threatened all over the world (http://forums.voiceofthepublic.com/smf2 ... opic=939.0). I don't know if this is a symptom of that?

I guess a lot of people like using a proxy because they are hidden behind it. I've even heard of one person who says they don't use any internet security because of their.....what did they call it....proxy chain or link, or something? I certainly would not advise anyone access the internet without proper security though, lol.

Anyway, I guess my main point is that if you can access this forum through a proxy, without turning off the firewall, you should be able to access it directly, without turning off the firewall

Mathieu147 wrote:Why are there so many problems accessing this site?

Why are there so many problems with belgacom?

What's your box model/firmware ? Is there any "official" forum ? http://community.belgacom.be ?

C'est quoi ta box/firmware ? Y a pas un forum "officiel" ou poser la question ? http://community.belgacom.be ?