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Old 09-09-2019, 05:09 AM
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Access Problems form Germany...

Hi Folks,


as Johannes mentioned in his introduction here in Germany since friday we have problems with the access to this forum. It seems to be limited to users who are located in Germany - our neighbours in Austria and Switzerland do not suffer from this, making jokes about us poor germans I managed to get through by installing a VPN plugin. I think that I am now simulating to come from another country or something like that but isn`t there an easier way? Although american german relations aren`t so well these days that should not affect cross border papermodeling communication as I think


Does anybody have an idea what could help? There was a notice in the facebook group about a database error a few days ago. Was something changed by fixing it?


With many thanks for helping answers,
Nils
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Old 09-09-2019, 07:03 AM
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In response...but directed at anyone in general...

If you are having any problems accessing any part of the world (from your part of the world)
you should first contact your Internet Service provider and get an answer from them.

In most cases, they will be interested to know if there is an issue.
And may be able to sort it out for you.

Unless they themselves are doing the blocking, which you deserve to know (and why).
Then, you can start using a VPN, or find another solution.

In most cases this is not internet blocking, and just something related to your own system or the routing of your connection.
Have you tried rebooting/resetting your internet connection?
Thats always the first place to start with any internet connection problem.
*this is as simple as disconnecting power from your router/modem/etc.
Give it at least 10 seconds and then power back up.


Have you tried updating, uninstalling or reinstalling your browser?...or a new and different Browser?
Try uninstalling Browser plug-ins/add-ons.
Best way to do this is export your Bookmarks.
Uninstalling your browser completely, dumping any add-ons.
Install a new up-to-date browser from scratch.
Before adding any plugins or making any changes, try the connection to this site.
If it works, add your original add-ons and settings until you lose the connection, and determine what caused it.


Papermodelers.com is not a "secure" site.
Non-secure sites are now blocked by certain browser filters.
I started using the Brave browser a few weeks back which has many safety and security
features to block advertising, trackers and other unsafe and identity thieving mechanisms.
But one of the things it can do is block access to non-secure sites.
Whenever I can't access a site, I have to turn off certain restrictors to gain access.
I still have some sites I cannot access with Brave, and I switch back to much less secure Chrome or Firefox to do so.
There are settings that can be adjusted, and you can set-up the browser for sites you regularly visit.
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Last edited by airdave; 09-09-2019 at 07:19 AM.
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Old 09-09-2019, 07:27 AM
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Nils - I have had exactly the same problem so I was interested to read your post.

I did niot post anything specifically on the Forum as the cause could not be pinpointed and my other thought was anyone with the same issue would be unlikely to be able to report it or see the Forum contents of any post unless they eventually decided to try a VPN!
  • It has now occurred to me twice.
  • The first time I exhausted every approach(PC diagnosis, system diagnosis, router, service provider, setups etc) to try and fix the error, and eventually was able to establish it was not my PC setup or anything on, not the service provider, etc.
  • The service provider investigated and had a similar issue.
  • The error affects only PM.com - no other site.
  • I have never had an error like this before - even with another site.
  • The cause remains unknown.
  • I too was able to get a workaround using a VPN.

The interesting thing is in both cases the error corrected itself. In other words all of a sudden without changing anything, I was suddenly able to log in as per normal without the VPN.

So try to log in from time to time.

The latest issue I had lasted until, about 10 days ago - all is fine now.

Do not waste further trying to troubleshoot anything - I am certain after the exhaustive analysis and work I did it is not your system or set-up or provider.

----------------------

Dave - thanks for your input here. Did everything you mentioned (and more) to no avail!
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Old 09-09-2019, 08:27 AM
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Thank you Dave and Kevin for your quick answers.


Dave you are right that everybody has to look first wether causes lie on his own side and not on the other.



So what you correctly proposed as standard procedure is what was discussed and tried out by members of kartonbau.de forum since saturday. We followed the tips Rickstef gave on facebook, tried different browsers, security functions and hardware using different providers. Nothing was successful except for the use of a VPN.



The thing that I am wondering about is that the phenomenon appeared nearly over the hole country by the same time and only for papermodelers. This is an argument for me that there will be no individual solution and the problem is maybe but not necessarily caused by the papermodelers forum or its environment. This is why I mentioned Rickstefs note on facebook where he spoke of access problems after a data base error on friday.



So we will wait and see. If Kevin is right it will disappear within a few days


Best regards
Nils
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Old 09-09-2019, 08:35 AM
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I have sent Jason, the main owner of the site, a message to check to see what he can do on the back end, and with the hosting provider.

I know of one French member, cafe, who has had problems logging in as well, maybe they're related, not sure, but keep the reports coming, the more the better

Rick
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Old 09-09-2019, 08:38 AM
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Thank you Rick!
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Old 09-09-2019, 08:55 AM
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I'm sorry to argue the point, but if there is a problem with this site, it would affect a wider group, and globally.

And it is wrong to assume the problem affects only this site and no other.
How many web sites do you visit in a day, or regularly?
The internet is a big place.

The fact that the problem appears to have affected a small group of Germans
indicates a European internet issue (to me)
and an ISP related issue that may not be openly admitted by your ISP.
My ISP will admit to nothing...ever!

Funny story...I cut a Cable that was buried in my front lawn.
I reported it to my ISP...they showed little interest even after inspecting the cable.
My neighbour later complained that his internet was out for a week.
The ISP told him they didn't know why and blamed it on a local outage.
LOL Bastards.


The fact that Kevin's problem cleared itself, indicates a temporary interruption related to his ISP.
I get them every now and then, where my connection to certain sites slows considerably for a short period of time.
It may be due to traffic, but usually related to service upgrades at the ISP end.
ISPs are constantly fighting to stay up to date and ahead of the competition with service and speed upgrades.
These result in all kinds of service interruptions and slow downs.
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Old 09-09-2019, 11:16 AM
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Yo, I'm having the same problems and tried a VPN. That worked. I switched the VPN to an European region and it still works. When I turn the VPN off and surf with my official German IP address I'm unable to access the site. Very strange but since the VPN works I'm using it.
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Old 09-09-2019, 12:19 PM
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Thanks Dave.

I do not know if it is ISP related. I have no idea.

At the time I spoke to the ISP (our national telecom company) for nearly two hours and they had the same problem when trying to access it with their systems.

The problem is not a slow connection. It is no connection. No data can be recieved or posted.

Yet if I set a VPN to USA no issues.

At the time I also discussed it with Rick and he performed some checks. Again there appeared to be nothing wrong with the site.

---------------------------

Bear in mind that more members may be having issues, but if they do not have personal contact with members outside the forum, or have no VPN access or knowledge (which is the case with many people), then they will have no way of reporting the problem. So the problem may be more widespread.

----------------------------

Also note the same issue is now happening to members in Germany. So, the fact it is occurring in two different countries at least means it is not ISP, the individuals browsers etc.

Note also, I am not saying it is the site either. I can't. I don't know. If I had an idea of what it was I would say so.

But logic does say at this stage it is something more likely to do with the site or the internet/gateway chain at the American side or at some other node.

And note Africa does not route via the same gateways to the States as Germany.

---------------

Nils and Revell-Fan - I am able to log on currently without VPN, and have been able to so for the last 10 odd days. Prior to that I was I was unable to get in for over a month. Prior to I was in only for two weeks, and before that off again for around six weeks.
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Old 09-09-2019, 12:42 PM
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As I mentioned, theres no guaranty your ISP will admit any involvement.

Another thing it could be, is a blanket IP block made by this site.

I block IPs on my site to stop repeat spammers and the like.
Sometimes, someone else comes along and their IP is banned and they get a message saying that.
They get caught up in someone elses ban.

You don't know if your issue, is the same issue as any of the fellows from Germany...or France.
You are assuming you are all experiencing exactly the same issue.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin WS View Post
TBut logic does say at this stage it is something more likely to do with the site or the internet/gateway chain at the American side or at some other node.
haha logic? internet? earthlings?
99.9% of the time, the fault is not with the site I am blocked from reaching.
Its almost always a problem at my end (my system, or related to my internet connection)
So, pretzel-logic tells me where to start looking.
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