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Some users unable to connect


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Over on ARC there is a thread started by an number of people that have been unable to connect to Britmodeler.com, some since mid-March. They have tried on numerous different devices, i.e. PC, phone, ipads. One user even went to a FedEx store and tried connecting using their computers. Each time they get an error indicating that the site either cannot be found or the name cannot be resolved. I know that there were server moves here lately. Don't know if that has anything to do with the issues. I personally, along with many others have had no problems connecting. I suggested that it might be a DNS issue and one of the people having problems changed their DNS servers and still cannot access Britmodeler.

Anyone here have any ideas what is going on? Has anyone reported such problems lately that you are aware of? These poor people are really frustrated.

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From what I've read on those various forums, the ones not being able to get on here are all from the US. There may be some from elsewhere, but I haven't noticed. I'm way up here, in The Butt-crack Of Western Civilization, but I'm not having any issues.

 

 

Chris

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2 hours ago, dogsbody said:

From what I've read on those various forums, the ones not being able to get on here are all from the US. There may be some from elsewhere, but I haven't noticed. I'm way up here, in The Butt-crack Of Western Civilization, but I'm not having any issues.

 

 

Chris

 

Yes, it seems mainly US users, though one user in France reported some issues too. It is all very strange. I hope one of the admins can chime in with some insight to what may be going on. Sometimes ISPs will block various IP address ranges if they are reported as being used by spammers or the like. I find it hard to believe this is the case as the users reporting the problem are in widely separated locations. I suppose it is possible that they are all using the same ISP like AT&T or Time Warner. I'll have to do so more research.

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Some people on the other forums state that Britmodeller has "blacklisted" ISP like Verizon in the past. This doesn't seem to make sense to me, but could one of the admins please confirm or deny that this is occurring?

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I knew that "blacklisting" rumor didn't sound right. It is usually the other way around when ISP block IP address suspected of being spammers or the like. Ilias over at The48ers has had problems with Earthlink, the provider of my e-mail. Earthlink would block all of the e-mails coming from Ilias's servers. Usually would take Ilias contacting Earthlink to get their servers unblocked. Sounds like something like this is what is happening with Britmodeler and some US ISPs. At least, that's my guess.

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For what it's worth: I live in the southeastern US. I can (obviously!) connect from some computers. But both my home Wi-Fi system (AT&T) and my iPhone when working from AT&T data, refuse to acknowledge that Britmodeller exists.

 

Enjoying the site from work is probably not a wise option in the long term!

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I have had to go to a free VPN service to connect to BM. I have AT&T and when I try to get on normally it times out after getting the DNS address from Sbcglobal.net. I wasn't sure if posting the name of the free VPN was ok so LEt me know if anyone could use it. I've been having this issue for 2 weeks now.

 

 

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It's beginning to sound like AT&T may be the culprit. Too early to say definitively. Anyone else using AT&T services and not able to connect?

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I've just put on my tinfoil hat and a thought occurred.

 

Could it be that the inclusion of modelling subjects/dioramas etc that are not-necessarily-US-friendly has triggered some kind of automatic blocking with some US based ISPs?

 

I'll take the hat off now. I always seem to get strange ideas when I wear it...

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Hey all, or should I say y'all as this is an issue that seems to be affecting our American friends.  North American only, although I don't know for sure.

 

We need the help of one of you that's affected, as Support have asked us for a route trace, which will show where the request is being blocked, so they can take it further.  If any of you can help, open up a Command window/DOS Prompt (type cmd <ENTER> from your start menu's run) and type the following:

 

tracert britmodeller.com

 

The screen will scroll along for a bit as the data hops between router after router, and will either end in a failure with some timeouts or get to the britmodeller.com server as below:

 

mike-tracert.jpg

 

If you can copy and paste the info and send it to me either by PM or email, I'd be very very grateful and Support will be better able to get it resolved for us :)

 

I would stress that we're only really interested in results from people who are with Swbell/AT&T and can't get onto the site.  Please don't muddy the waters if you're unaffected :yes:

 

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As a post-script, if you're Mac or Linux user, you just open a terminal window and type traceroute britmodeller.com - for once Windows has the less verbose command line! :shocked:

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56 minutes ago, Mike said:

If you can copy and paste the info and send it to me either by PM or email, I'd be very very grateful and Support will be better able to get it resolved for us :)

 

 

One quick hint. Windows users will not be able to use the right-click to select "Copy" in the command window unless they click in the Title bar at the top of the window and then select "Edit". Alternately, once they have highlighted the text they want to copy, they can hold down the CTRL key and press the "C" key. This will copy the highlighted text too. Then it can be pasted into a PM or email.

 

P.S. Mike you should post your request over on ARC and Hyperscale. Those effected won't be able to read this post.

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15 minutes ago, mstorin said:

 

One quick hint. Windows users will not be able to use the right-click to select "Copy" in the command window unless they click in the Title bar at the top of the window and then select "Edit". Alternately, once they have highlighted the text they want to copy, they can hold down the CTRL key and press the "C" key. This will copy the highlighted text too. Then it can be pasted into a PM or email.

You're not wrong - although a screendump would get round all that :)  IIRC the way you're suggesting goes:

 

  • Click the top left of the Command window:
  • Edit > Mark
  • Draw out the block of text you want to copy
  • Click the top left of the Command window:
  • Edit >Copy
  • Then you paste it into whatever means you're sending it to me by CTRL+V or right-click > Paste. 

 

You're on your own with Macs and Linux, as I don't have the former (although OSX is Linux based), and the latter is switched off at present :)

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I'll run a tracert tonight, but I suspect AT&T has something to do with it, as I'm a subscriber. I can still access BM via my phone (Verizon) and at work.

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1 minute ago, Supertom said:

I'll run a tracert tonight, but I suspect AT&T has something to do with it, as I'm a subscriber. I can still access BM via my phone (Verizon) and at work.

I'd personally appreciate it Tom :yes:  I'm convinced it's them now, as all of the people I've spoken to on here and Facebook have US addresses at the very least, and are SWBELL/AT&T customers at worst.  I've done some double-checking with all the various anti-spam/malware providers that I know of, and every single one says we're ok.  Even McAfee says we're "minimal risk", which is their lowest rating.  I'm wondering whether something's gone awry on one or more of their routers/servers and they're using very out-of-date definitions for their protection software.  That or they're too cheap to pay for the latest definitions. :fraidnot:

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1 hour ago, Mike said:

You're not wrong - although a screendump would get round all that :)  IIRC the way you're suggesting goes:

 

  • Click the top left of the Command window:
  • Edit > Mark
  • Draw out the block of text you want to copy
  • Click the top left of the Command window:
  • Edit >Copy
  • Then you paste it into whatever means you're sending it to me by CTRL+V or right-click > Paste. 

 

You're on your own with Macs and Linux, as I don't have the former (although OSX is Linux based), and the latter is switched off at present :)

 

Yep, that will work just fine, though one can highlight the text without using the Mark function by just clicking and holding down the left mouse button like you would do in any editor. Then click in the Title bar at the top of the window, select Edit and then select Copy. Or one can highlight the test and then  use CTRL+C to copy the text.

That's Windows for you. There is always three of four ways to do anything. ;)

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3 hours ago, mstorin said:

There is always three of four ways to do anything. ;)

That's DEFINITELY true :lol:

 

Just had our first tracert back from a helpful member Ridinshotgun, so big thanks to him.  It has also confirmed that it's 100% AT&T or SWBell (I have no idea how they're related), as the first IP to fail was one of AT&T's, and it just kept failing from there.  If you're able to get on from other sources and these jokers are your ISP, we'd be very grateful if you'd give them an earful and tell them that their blocking of our IP address is unwarranted and is causing you some major inconvenience (cos it's so awesome here ;) ).  The more people have a moan at them the better, as they might actually do something about it.

 

I've spoken with our Support now and given them the evidence, so we'll hopefully get somewhere soon :yes:

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8 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

Do you want me to do it to or y'all ok now with those of you doing the trace thing? A bit confusing.

 

Mike only needs the tracert data from those users unable to access Britmodeller. Since you appear to be able to do that, I don't think he needs your data :fraidnot::thumbsup:

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8 hours ago, busnproplinerfan said:

Do you want me to do it to or y'all ok now with those of you doing the trace thing? A bit confusing.

If you're an AT&T/SWBELL user, and can't get on from somewhere then yes please.  We've had two replies from folks that have given us the ammo we need (as far as we know), but we're now waiting for them to get back in touch.

 

Thanks to both the people so far that took the time out of their day to run the tracert - it's much appreciated and we'd have been stuffed without you :thumbsup:

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I use Bell/MTS, Bell took over a couple years ago without even asking. Not sure if it's the same Bell as SWBell. I'll leave it with what you have unless you need me to send something.

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