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Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:33 pm
by MorkTheFiddle
t123 wrote: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


I established a connection via Foxpro so I can (obviously) read this post. Prior to this, I uninstalled Chrome and Opera. I also used the 30-30-30 rule to flush my router. I can also connect via Safari on the iPod.

There was no \hosts subdirectory at c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts

I am going to reinstall Chrome now, but first I will post this, just in case. If Chrome won't connect to LLORG, I'll paste the traceroute.

Thanks a bunch for your help. :!:

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 9:51 pm
by MorkTheFiddle
rdearman wrote: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.


I just did this, and they do match.
Per my previous post about reinstalling Chrome, I have done so, and I can now access LLORG through it. Opera will have to wait for another day, if ever.
Earlier, by the way, on my iPod I typed just language-learners.org, not forum.language-learners.org. Could that have been the issue with Chrome, though I can't remember what I typed? Should have documented all my steps, but did not. :oops:

Two positives come from this for me. One, everything here works again. Two, I found out the iPod makes for a decent platform for LLORG.
Thanks for your help. :D

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2017 11:22 pm
by jeff_lindqvist
I had problems the first day (the browser probably pointed to the old DNS), but one hour later everything worked fine.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 11:58 am
by t123
Hosts is a file without an extension, not a subdirectory. What you should be able to do is run notepad as an administrator, and then open the location:
c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.

Note the . on the end otherwise it won't work.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 12:37 pm
by Brun Ugle
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.

I had something similar happen on Sunday (or was it Monday?) using Chrome. It was after you'd taken the site down the first time and put it back, and I couldn't access it from Safari (iPad) or Firefox (PC). I just got your message about DNS-whatever-it-was. When I tried accessing the site from Chrome, which I don't think I'd ever done before, I was redirected to something weird and fishy-looking about how Facebook wanted to pay me lots of money or something. However, after you took the site down the second time and put it up again, everything has been fine and I can access the site from all the devices and browsers I've tried.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 3:10 pm
by emk
Brun Ugle wrote:I had something similar happen on Sunday (or was it Monday?) using Chrome. It was after you'd taken the site down the first time and put it back, and I couldn't access it from Safari (iPad) or Firefox (PC). I just got your message about DNS-whatever-it-was. When I tried accessing the site from Chrome, which I don't think I'd ever done before, I was redirected to something weird and fishy-looking about how Facebook wanted to pay me lots of money or something. However, after you took the site down the second time and put it up again, everything has been fine and I can access the site from all the devices and browsers I've tried.

That was the clue I needed to solve this mystery!

For a brief while during the migration, we used the original DNS servers from when the forum was first set up. These were configured to point language-learners.org and www.language-learners.org (but not forum.language-learners.org) to a temporary DNS name that rdearman used when he set up the forum in an emergency a couple of years ago. But since then, the registration on those domains had lapsed and they'd been bought up by a "domain squatter", who filled the page with sketchy advertisements (as they do).

When we finished migrating to the new server and fixed the blog, we sorted out all the domain names, fixing the problem.

So nobody's computer or server was hacked, but there were sketchy advertisers involved anyway due to an error on our part and to people typing just the bare domain name without the "forum".

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 3:10 am
by galaxyrocker
So, after some checking: this only happens when I try to access the forum directly (via forum.language-learners.org), and not when I access it through the main site. I can access it through the main site, directly copy and paste the link, and it blocks it again, even though direct copy and paste. Makes me suspect something is up with my settings. I'll tinker around when I have some more time.

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 3:57 pm
by jeff_lindqvist
Another Chrome-related issue: I can't view embedded Youtube videos after the update. Any ideas?

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 4:53 pm
by zenmonkey
jeff_lindqvist wrote:Another Chrome-related issue: I can't view embedded Youtube videos after the update. Any ideas?


Are these old youtube video embeds or recent embeds?

Can you try with this one: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5825&p=73365
For me, it works fine on Chrome (Mac) or Firefox (Mac) but the thumbprint image is quite small on Safari (Mac).

Re: Can't access forum from Chrome

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 5:31 pm
by jeff_lindqvist
Recent embeds don't work (probably not old either). Posted URLs remain in plain text only (but at least I can click those).