I'm (sort of) blocked from FimFiction for some reason [UPDATE] · 9:28pm Dec 16th, 2013
Check the update down below.
Hi all.
I woke up this morning unable to load FimFiction on my laptop. I thought the site was down, but obviously it's not. All of my computers on this landline internet connection at my house are unable to load the website. The server doesn't respond at all and eventually times out, like the site's firewall simply doesn't respond to the packets.
My phone is able to access it on it's LTE connection. Common issues like DNS problems have been ruled out. All other websites work fine on the landline connection. However, no machine on the landline connection can access FimFic. I've tried with FIVE different devices over the landline, and none of them worked. Not even the phone over wifi. The phone did work but only over the LTE connection. But, my data on the LTE connection is highly limited. Unless this is resolved, I will no longer be able to be on FimFic as I once was.
Obviously, since I'm posting this, I'm not under a traditional ban.
One thing I can think of — and I admit that this is a huge long shot and and is likely not to be the case for a variety of reasons — is that my "refresh FimFic" addiction bit me in the butt and the site thinks I'm using some kind of script and has blocked my IP range. A member of my team has contacted the admins but it may be a while before we hear back. It may not even be on their end for all we know, or it may be and it's something completely different from what I'm thinking. But, no matter what is actually going on, we do want them to know that there's something wrong and, if they are able, to work with them to resolve it. Please do NOT go pester them with "why did you ban Cv!?!?!?!!1one11?". It's not going to help anything.
Another possibility that crossed my mind is that Shaw (ISP) is blocking it for some reason. On a trace route, the packets get lost after hitting a particular Shaw server. I've emailed them as well. They'll likely take even longer to get a response from, though, and probably much longer after that to get anything useful done. ISPs aren't known for their customer service. The router also isn't at fault — I've already checked it.
Since I can only access the site on my phone, I'm going to be around a lot less until this is fixed, or at least a lot less vocal via blogs/comments. I'll still be in the Rites IRC a lot, and I'll put the joining info in this blog again for you all, and I will continue to make efforts each available day to fix this. Fimfiction is my favorite, most visited website, after all. But, until I succeed... Well, best place to get a hold of me is in the Rites IRC.
Thanks everyone for your patience.
Joining Info:
Go here: http://webchat.irchighway.net/?channels=fimfiction-rites All you need to do is enter a nickname and hit "connect". That's it! Super-simple!! No intimidating port numbers or anything.
Or, the old way: Hit the "Chat" button on your Dashboard, then hit "Connect", then type in "/join #fimfiction-rites".
-Cv
UPDATE: I've been able to get the laptop to at least connect by using a private VPN. While this is a slow, "free" VPN and using it means using software I don't like and is a pain the arse, at least it works. So, crisis averted for now, I have "a" solution. It just isn't an optimal one, which I will be pursing still. There's no good reason for the site to just not work while all the others do.
Check your host file, and check for viruses.
Edit: I would also try using a proxy on your computer and see if that works.
*goes to complain to admins*
Maybe your ISP thought that Fimfiction was some shady CP site hidden under ponies and happy
Try accessing it using HTTPS instead of HTTP.
Try taking your laptop to someplace with free wifi and see if that helps (because this could be something specific to the computers...)
Lastly, try using a different set of DNS servers if you haven't already... 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 belong to Google, this should at least rule out ISP routing issues (Though I get the impression you might have tried this)
I know you said it's not DNS, but I'd be curious to know what you get from visiting/tracerouting poni.0au.de.
In any case, I hope you get it resolved
As long as it's not FimFiction blocking you, you should always be able to set up a proxy to get around it as a last resort, I suppose.
1615513
It still forwards to the current server in some manner, at least for me.
1615513 Not on the landline, nope.
1615531
I've contacted the ISP as well. Hopefully they'll figure something out. The trace route dies after six hops. Just timeouts.
1615531
I'm not really privy to the backend details, so I'm not sure what the actual configuration is. I'm more a front-end developer, so my experience with such things is tangential at best. Regardless, something on the 0au.de server is still configured such that visiting the poni subdomain results in the user being sent (to) fimfiction.net. I can confirm this on multiple devices.
That would be intensely horrible if you couldn't be on. You have one of my favorite stories on the entire site.
This sounds like basically the exact problem that I'm having, except for me it's been an on and off thing for a couple weeks now.
Sometimes, days at a time even, FIMFiction just doesn't load. It doesn't even time out, it's like my browser thinks it's loading and it just never goes anywhere.
Maybe not exactly the same, but I'll be interested to see if you find a solution.
Have you tried opening FIMFiction in a different browser? Chromed worked for me when Firefox didn't.
1615671
I agree.
1616172
I've experienced this myself. I've found that closing the browser only works sometimes, but for some reason closing all the FimFic tabs and opening up a 'fresh' one (by making a new tab and entering FimFic's url) usually works. I can even open up the closed tabs after and they load just fine.
Not sure where you are in the world, but there was a major carrier datacenter outage in L.A. today which affected my company's customers all over the US. That was probably not your problem, though...
By the way, you hit 500 followers, in case you missed it.
Have you got a response back from Knighty yet or even another one of the admins?
User Problems like usually tend to take a Long Time to fix.
I don't really know much about technical problems but I will do what I can to assist and help.
I've had a similar issue with another website. Though I suspect the source of the problem is different, a similar solution might work. Try using a free proxy website… HideMyAss is my personal favorite, though there are plenty others. I've only seen a slight drop in speed using it (though it's a bit hit-or-miss when it comes to images and anything with scripting).
1617063 Ok sorry about that, I misunderstood what he and you meant exactly, thanks for the reply
So what internet provider does CV have exactly?
He needs to contact them as soon as possible.
By the way can he still use the internet fine and access any other site than this one ok?, If he can it may be a bit more complicated.
Also if he forgets, remind him to ask his internet provider if they had any outages, Did Maintenance recently, etc