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[mp107]

I see. Thank you for a clarification of the official forum's stance regarding this matter.

Nevertheless it wasn't my typing mistake. I mentioned about it due to the reason that I came across indexed results returned by search engines with domain saved as "forums.thinkpads.com" (for example first returned result for query https://www.google.pl/search?q=NHC+Script+for+N500) and - after further investigation - also "de.thinkpads.com", "ebay.thinkpads.com", "foum.thinkpads.com" (https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... t+connects), "su.thinkpads.com" (https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... roblem+T23).

After deeper investigation I noticed that it looks like it is related due to the reason that any link containing "https://<whatever>.thinkpads.com" in fact does open forum's website keeping the domain (keeping - as opposed to, for example, redirecting it to a correct domain). So - as a result - if someone made a mistake in the forum's domain name when linking to it then - after detecting such a link by search engine - the search engine starts indexing it (and possibly whole forum on a "new" domain as well). This in turn may cause excessive traffic from search engines' web spiders/robots indexing a "new" domain. And for the user clicking a search engine result pointing to "unofficial" domain - due to the reason that the browsers use HTTPS as default nowadays - the user gets a certificate error. So the mystery seems to be finally solved.

By the way, Happy New Year!

[RealBlackStuff]

Some halfway decent explanation of the A in AI (Artificial Intelligence).
Then again, you can't really trust Google either...
Maybe time for you to switch over to DuckDuckGo?

[nik33134]

Hi,
I registered in this forum a couple of days ago from Greece. All went well, and I posted my question which got queued for approval. Since then I am not able to visit the forum without the use of a VPN. I tried both firefox and edge, many times, turning the VPN on and off, and it"s just not possible. On firefox I get "Secure Connection Failed" and "PR_CONNECT_RESET_ERROR". Is that a bug or a feature?

[dr_st]

Unfortunately, from time to time the forum becomes the target of various DoS and DDoS attacks, which, when successful, can make it very slow or inaccessible.
It is possible that some of the mitigations applied by our hosting administrators can accidentally block / filter out legitimate users or IP ranges.

I have unlocked your ability to send private messages. Please send me a PM with your original IP (not working) and VPN IP (working) and I can check with them to see if they understand what might be causing this.

[nik33134]

Please send me a PM with your original IP (not working) and VPN IP (working) and I can check with them to see if they understand what might be causing this.

Thanks, I just pmed you

[mstar]

Hello, i cannot access the site, it seems to be working before. I am not sure if the forum doesn't like my old W540, T470 but strangely using the work network i can access the website.
How is this happening? it used to work before but for 1 week now its been timing out.

[RealBlackStuff]

Since mid-July the website has been under an extremely severe DDoS attack and apparently for some areas the website has been down or very slow for days.
Should be well fixed by now.

[mstar]

Thanks. Weird thing is if i use cellular data it works. But if i use my ISP internet the site doesn;t load. Weird i know.

[rumbero]

Since more than at least a week, it is almost impossible to connect to the forum from Barcelona/Spain.
Usually there is a timeout, stating "This site can’t be reached forum.thinkpads.com refused to connect".

This happens regardless of the browser used (trying with brave, firefox, palemoon, vivaldi), with the rare exception of it working.
Depending on the randomly assigned IP address by my ISP to my Debian/Linux system, it sometimes appears to be working.
Nonetheless, this is rarely happening under current circumstances and i found no way to reliably produce working connections.

No other website is affected by the same connection issues, only forum.thinkpads.com is failing.

The only browser that mostly allows me to access the forum is the Tor browser. In fact, this message has been written during a Tor browser session.

Using traceroute, the hops during connection trials usually stall and terminate on similar endpoints:

Code: Select all

17  * 198-49-72-69.static.hostdime.com (198.49.72.69)  129.489 ms *

or

Code: Select all

15  te0-0-0-8.nr01.b006655-1.mco01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.24.23.202)  135.928 ms * *

Here is the traceroute of one of the rare occasions connection was successful:

Code: Select all

traceroute to 198.136.48.164 (198.136.48.164), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  * * *
 2  10.8.45.130 (10.8.45.130)  60.075 ms  69.999 ms  70.362 ms
 3  10.8.41.129 (10.8.41.129)  70.267 ms  69.405 ms  69.295 ms
 4  10.7.43.46 (10.7.43.46)  69.392 ms 10.7.43.45 (10.7.43.45)  69.039 ms  69.976 ms
 5  10.7.43.46 (10.7.43.46)  69.227 ms 10.7.43.53 (10.7.43.53)  68.800 ms  68.737 ms
 6  * * *
 7  * be5616.rcr21.bcn01.atlas.cogentco.com (149.6.131.177)  48.920 ms  48.718 ms
 8  ae71.edge1.Barcelona2.Level3.net (213.242.109.89)  48.618 ms be6216.rcr21.bcn01.atlas.cogentco.com (149.6.131.225)  45.699 ms b
e2421.ccr31.vlc02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.197)  51.630 ms
 9  be3355.ccr31.mad05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.57.229)  56.202 ms  55.837 ms be2421.ccr31.vlc02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.19
7)  54.153 ms
10  be2325.ccr32.bio02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.133)  61.268 ms  58.053 ms be2324.ccr31.bio02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.12
9)  63.632 ms
11  thinkpads.envesko.com (198.136.48.164)  163.146 ms be2324.ccr31.bio02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.129)  63.532 ms thinkpads.e
nvesko.com (198.136.48.164)  158.690 ms

And here is the typical traceroute output for a failing connection as of the time writing this message:

Code: Select all

traceroute to 198.136.48.164 (198.136.48.164), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.199.209 (192.168.199.209)  2.482 ms  2.589 ms  2.591 ms
 2  * * *
 3  10.7.48.13 (10.7.48.13)  43.171 ms  45.536 ms  44.951 ms
 4  10.7.32.120 (10.7.32.120)  41.745 ms  41.684 ms  41.689 ms
 5  10.7.32.133 (10.7.32.133)  43.914 ms  43.964 ms  43.982 ms
 6  * * *
 7  ae73.bar2.Barcelona1.Level3.net (213.242.109.85)  38.623 ms * *
 8  ae4.4.bar3.Orlando1.net.lumen.tech (4.69.221.210)  149.794 ms  149.600 ms be2421.ccr31.vlc02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.197)  35.667 ms
 9  HOSTDIME.bar3.Orlando1.Level3.net (63.209.125.22)  141.265 ms be3355.ccr31.mad05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.57.229)  37.610 ms HOSTDIME.bar3.Orlando1.Level3.net (63.209.125.22)  140.881 ms
10  be2324.ccr31.bio02.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.61.129)  43.851 ms 198-49-72-69.static.hostdime.com (198.49.72.69)  169.264 ms  142.096 ms
11  * * port-channel2320.ccr92.dca04.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.81.254)  107.969 ms
12  * be3482.ccr41.atl01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.169.178)  120.273 ms *
13  be2450.rcr21.jax01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.46.102)  132.054 ms  124.619 ms  136.117 ms
14  * * be4557.rcr62.mco01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.94.110)  138.164 ms
15  te0-0-0-22.nr01.b006655-1.mco01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.24.25.30)  137.838 ms * *
16  * * *
17  * 198-49-72-69.static.hostdime.com (198.49.72.69)  144.876 ms  144.815 ms
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

Please let me know if you need more technical details for further debugging to provide to your ISP.

[RealBlackStuff]

According to the Forum's hosting company, they have successfully fought off the intense DDoS attack.

Check the DNS settings in your router.
My router is set to use Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
Most people use the (overcrowded) Google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

[rumbero]

According to the Forum's hosting company, they have successfully fought off the intense DDoS attack.

Check the DNS settings in your router.
My router is set to use Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1
Most people use the (overcrowded) Google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

How could this be a DNS issue if name resolution works just fine in every scenario?
There is no DNS issue. And i actually tried your suggestion despite better knowledge, just to verify i'm not wrong.

Any name lookup gives me "forum.thinkpads.com has address 198.136.48.164", so this is not an issue, at all.
Therefore DNS issues can definitely be safely excluded.

Also, let's not forget that we recently had two forum users in this thread from both the UK and Greece who were reporting similar issues.

As demonstrated by the traceroute outputs i provided, the issue obviously is not on my end but somewhere 'en route' to the target.

It wouldn't surprise me if the forum's hosting company took way too drastic measures to fight off those DDoS attacks and blocks unrelated IP addresses.

This is an issue that needs deeper investigation on behalf of the technical support of the forum's hosting company.

Please let me know if i can be of further assistance debugging this by providing more specific technical details.

[RealBlackStuff]

I never said this was a DNS issue!
I only suggested to check this, as a possible help.

For me (in Ireland) TPF was completely down from 17 - 23 July.
The hosting company has had to do a hell of a lot of mitigation, to fight off one of the worst DDoS attacks the Forum ever had.
Apparently some locations were worse hit than others.
I have no technical knowledge about that, but the hosting company has.

[rumbero]

The hosting company has had to do a hell of a lot of mitigation, to fight off one of the worst DDoS attacks the Forum ever had.
Apparently some locations were worse hit than others.
I have no technical knowledge about that, but the hosting company has.

Please someone open a formal support request with the hosting company to investigate these connection issues.
Feel free to add me in the loop of communications using the mail address used to register my account on the forum.
I'd gladly assist providing any needed technical details, perform network tests, and answer possible questions.

EDIT: Using the forum via Tor is a PITA since i'm regularily kicked out of the sessions and being told my "IP is permanently banned".
Switching the Tor circuit usually fixes this for a short while but this doesn't ever last.

[RealBlackStuff]

I have notified them and also gave them your email address.
Fingers crossed.

[Medessec]

Just as a heads up to everyone- I've been having issues connecting to the forum from here in California, both my home computer and phone just swirl for 15-30 seconds trying to load the site and get no response. I'm still able to connect to the forum with my work computer so I can post this message.

My ISP is Comcast, and my phone provider is Verizon. I'm not using a VPN on either. My work I believe does use a VPN. I can look into testing specifics a little bit more maybe this week, I'll have to bring my work laptop home so I can view the site normally while pinging on my home equipment.

[astral]

Today's been the first day in a good few weeks that I have been able to access the forum. Last time this happened, at least my cellular (T-Mobile) worked to connect, but not for the past couple weeks.

[TPFanatic]

i browsed with a proxy the last week, now it's working normally for me as well.

[rumbero]

I have notified them and also gave them your email address.
Fingers crossed.

Starting yesterday afternoon [European time], without changing the currently assigned IP address, the formerly stuck connection to the forum was cleared.
I was not contacted by them but, assuming you also provided the traceroute ouptputs to them, they appear to have found the blocker.
Forum appears to be working normally since yesterday, regardless of any IP changes on my side.
Thanks a lot!

[BillMorrow]

reading this thread for the first time sept 5 i see complaints can't reach the forum or dead slow or something..
please note:
**BEGIN RANT**
1. forum is staffed, if anyone is staffing besides george or me (i know, bad english) it is someone volunteering time, free..
2. i am old, less inspired to spend my slowly being depleted remaining hours, trying to manage this place..
3. still no income except for a kind user who dropped $40 in the pot recently..
4. whenik i go [censored]-up no one will know, except the hosting company will no longer get paid and shut it down..
5. there are constant attacks..
6. if anyone wants to buy the forum and all related thinkpads dot com properties please raise your hand and contact me..
**END RANT**