Access problems

[Brian]

During the last few days, since approximately 8 October, there have been some reports of users being unable to reach our site. People have been getting an error message that their IP address is blocked by the firewall. Another separate complaint is that the site has not been loading in its proper format and that the html has been appearing as text on the screen.

We are working on the problem as a matter of urgency, but we would like to know how widespread the problem is.

Have you had problems getting to the site since about the start of the second week in October? If so, could you let us know here in this thread? What problems have you been getting, and how often have they been occurring (nearly always, half the time, etc)? Thanks in advance for the co-operation!

[googlism2008]

Yes for me. I was about to report this problem as well.

Tried using Firefox, Chrome, and Edge, all with the same effect. The web site looks like text 100% of the time, making site navigation difficult. Occasionally I get blocked as well, and the unblocking might involve a captcha and doesn't always work.

All HTTP requests to the .css and .js files on this site returned 403 Forbidden. The failure to load the .css files is why the web site looks like text.

[Brian]

Thanks Googlism2008 for this valuable feedback.
Are there others who have had problems getting to the site too?

[Lee]

No problems for me!

[quilsq]

The site just appears as text on my phone. On my laptop I get the error message that my IP address is blocked by the firewall

[Brian]

The site just appears as text on my phone. On my laptop I get the error message that my IP address is blocked by the firewall

Thank you too for this information.

As we speak, the problem may have been solved just now. Tytn has persuaded the site hosts to unblock something in the firewall and we're hoping it will take effect very soon.

Huge thanks to Tytn for what we hope might be an end to the problems.

[Tytn]

Please continue to let us know if you can't access the site.

Tytntwo at G mail dot c o m

You'll need to put a human on that, I don't think the computers are that bright yet but please make a note of that email address and you can email me on that of you cant get in. If you could let me know your IP address, the date and time/time zone you're in so I can poke the hosting to find out what happened.

However, if you have one of the free vpn services out there you could also try getting in using that. We all try and be careful about our own information, including IP addresses.

[googlism2008]

Still no improvement on my side. Sometimes blocked, no better than text. Applies to both Firefox and Chrome.

When blocked, among other things, I see the following message:

This server's hostname is: rsserver3.hosting.co.uk

After solving the captcha, this message appears:

There has been a problem: Failed, [ladspissing.com (104.31.89.143)] does not appear to be hosted on this server.

[Brian]

Thanks for reporting that Googlism. We are hoping that the requested firewall alterations are just taking some time to take effect, but we will keep monitoring the situation until this annoying problem has been removed.

[googlism2008]

This website is finally back to normal.