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Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:07 pm
by galaxyrocker
So, i can't access the forum from Chrome. This occurs on both my home computers (one running Arch, the other Windows 10) as well as my phone. I can, however, access it from the stock phone browser and will test Firefox when I get home. Is there anything that can be done about this?

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:13 pm
by emk
galaxyrocker wrote:So, i can't access the forum from Chrome. This occurs on both my home computers (one running Arch, the other Windows 10) as well as my phone. I can, however, access it from the stock phone browser and will test Firefox when I get home. Is there anything that can be done about this?

Hmm, that's really weird! I can access the forum just fine from Chrome on my laptop and mobile Chrome on my phone.

Have you tried quitting and restarting Chrome to make sure your DNS cache is cleared? Chrome has its own internal DNS cache that will sometimes ignore TTL values until you restart it.

Other than that, I dont know. Does anybody else see this problem?

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:21 pm
by Arnaud
emk wrote: Does anybody else see this problem?
No, Chrome is working well for me too.
This morning I had to type the IP in the adress bar, the domain name was not working even after a reboot, but this evening all is ok.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 4:25 pm
by aokoye
It's also working fine for me other using Chrome on my phone and on my laptop. I did have a small hiccup earlier this mkrning, but it resolved itself.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 5:09 pm
by blaurebell
It's working fine for me on Chrome, but I actually had to restart my mac to make the DNS issues disappear. Could have probably sorted it without the restart, but didn't want to mess about with command line stuff first thing in the morning. Early morning command line rarely ends well for me ;)

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:10 pm
by MorkTheFiddle
Foxpro 53.0 (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows 10 connects to LLORG without a problem.

On the same machine, Chrome and Opera get hijacked to https://www.yourcareevery!!!!!!!!!!!where.com/. I put in the exclamation points in case anyone clicks accidentally on this link. It is almost certainly a bad neighborhood.

On my iPod iOs version 10.2.1, the Safari browser is also hijacked to the site just given above.

To the best of my memory, I have never used Safari or the iPod to access LLORG. I doubt I ever used Chrome, either, but I won't swear to it.

All the browsers do connect correctly to other sites.

Edit to add: Firefox with Linux Mint 18.1 also gets hijacked to the site given above.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 6:56 pm
by emk
MorkTheFiddle wrote:Foxpro 53.0 (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows 10 connects to LLORG without a problem.

On the same machine, Chrome and Opera get hijacked to https://www.yourcareevery!!!!!!!!!!!where.com/. I put in the exclamation points in case anyone clicks accidentally on this link. It is almost certainly a bad neighborhood.

On my iPod iOs version 10.2.1, the Safari browser is also hijacked to the site just given above.

Hmm, is it possible that your DNS was still pointing at the old, hacked site from last week, or something strange like that? I swear, our DNS cache timeouts are set to only 5 minutes, and I'm still seeing cases where people are getting the old DNS data several days after the fact. (This is not new. There are a lot of ISPs with broken DNS servers.)

I looked at all the source code for the new site, and there's no obvious reference to the site you mention. We rebuilt the site from known-clean source code, and we didn't take any code from the hacked machine at all. The new machine has all OS security patches applied daily, and I can literally destroy the server, replace it with a fresh one, and have the site back up in under 5 minutes. This doesn't mean that nobody compromised the new server in the last 24 hours, but it's probably unlikely.

One other possibility is that your ISP (or somebody else in charge of your Internet connection) is injecting advertising into the sites you browse. And some advertising networks will serve up ads that redirect you away from the site you're browsing. This is an evil possibility, but it actually happens on occasion. The only solution for it is for us to use HTTPS and encrypt this website, which is on our TODO list.

Can anybody else confirm what MorkTheFiddle is seeing? If we can figure who's infected, it might help narrow down what's causing it.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 7:48 pm
by MorkTheFiddle
emk wrote:
MorkTheFiddle wrote:Foxpro 53.0 (32-bit) on 64-bit Windows 10 connects to LLORG without a problem.

On the same machine, Chrome and Opera get hijacked to https://www.yourcareevery!!!!!!!!!!!where.com/. I put in the exclamation points in case anyone clicks accidentally on this link. It is almost certainly a bad neighborhood.

On my iPod iOs version 10.2.1, the Safari browser is also hijacked to the site just given above.

Hmm, is it possible that your DNS was still pointing at the old, hacked site from last week, or something strange like that? I swear, our DNS cache timeouts are set to only 5 minutes, and I'm still seeing cases where people are getting the old DNS data several days after the fact. (This is not new. There are a lot of ISPs with broken DNS servers.)

I looked at all the source code for the new site, and there's no obvious reference to the site you mention. We rebuilt the site from known-clean source code, and we didn't take any code from the hacked machine at all. The new machine has all OS security patches applied daily, and I can literally destroy the server, replace it with a fresh one, and have the site back up in under 5 minutes. This doesn't mean that nobody compromised the new server in the last 24 hours, but it's probably unlikely.

One other possibility is that your ISP (or somebody else in charge of your Internet connection) is injecting advertising into the sites you browse. And some advertising networks will serve up ads that redirect you away from the site you're browsing. This is an evil possibility, but it actually happens on occasion. The only solution for it is for us to use HTTPS and encrypt this website, which is on our TODO list.

Can anybody else confirm what MorkTheFiddle is seeing? If we can figure who's infected, it might help narrow down what's causing it.


This may help some. I received an email from noreply@xgipublishing.com advising me of a reply in LLORG and a link to the reply. Clicking on that link brought me straight to LLORG.

More investigation on my end is necessary, I think. I'm beginning to suspect I've got a virus. I'm going to sign off until I work it out.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 8:13 pm
by t123
Try running a traceroute and paste the results here.

  • In Win 10, type in cmd, click the match for Command Prompt window.
  • Alternatively, push Win+R and type cmd in the prompt to run.
  • Type tracert forum.language-learners.org
  • Copy and paste the results, it'll tell us how your PC is trying to connect.

I've had issues with Chrome caching DNS entries, but it usually only lasts an hour or so. You can also try flush your DNS cache, type ipconfig /flushdns in the command window.

And finally, check your hosts file. Possibly at some point you pointed it to an IP when the forum was launched? If so, remove the entry.

Edit: The tracert result will tell everyone what your IP address is, which you probably don't want to do. You can google "What is my IP" and replace your IP in the results with 127.0.0.1

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:21 pm
by rdearman
If you are on windows, go to a command prompt and type:

Code: Select all

nslookup forum.language-learners.org


then type

Code: Select all

nslookup forum.language-learners.org 8.8.8.8


they should match. The first command checks the DNS server your machine is set to, and the second checks the google DNS server.