Problem accessing c.net

[Roger Hare]

Anyone having problems accessing c.net over the last 24 hours or so?

 

It's OK now (obviously), but yesterday, I was intermittently being refused access, and seeing a 'Forbidden, you do not have permission o access this resource' message (not the exact wording, but it was something like that).

 

Nothing has changed on my machine, and I was able to visit all my other usual web-sites...

 

Thanks.

[DaveRo]

See this thread on Mudcat

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=174499

[Roger Hare]

29 minutes ago, DaveRo said:

See this thread on Mudcat

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=174499

Not only me, not only c.net. Thanks - that makes me a little more sure that it's not something daft that I'm doing...

[Roger Hare]

It happened again, but c.net now back again. here's a screenshot of what I was seeing - I should have done this before, but I hadn't put my brains in first time around...🙁

 

Edited November 11 by Roger Hare

[CnetAdmin]

I haven't come across the problem yet, but if it's happening on other sites as well, it's probably part of some sort of wider attack. I have been blocking a number of bots lately who are sucking back all my bandwidth, so maybe there's some connection, who knows.

[Roger Hare]

5 hours ago, CnetAdmin said:

I haven't come across the problem yet, but if it's happening on other sites as well, it's probably part of some sort of wider attack. I have been blocking a number of bots lately who are sucking back all my bandwidth, so maybe there's some connection, who knows.

Thank you very much for that!

I was about to send a PM to CnetAdmin about this but as you've posted in the public forum, I'll respond here:

• it's still happening - 5 minutes ago, I couldn't connect, now I can. It's been happening 'on and off' all day...
• no-one else has reported a problem on concertina.net, so I've been a little bothered that it's me doing something stupid. Maybe (for once) it's not..🙂
• clearly there's some sort of problem here and elsewhere. Hopefully if (as you suggest), it's down to bots which have to be blocked, it will eventually just 'go away'

It's comforting to know that CnetAdmin are beavering away in the background, looking after all our interests - thank you for your efforts - they are much appreciated!!!

[CnetAdmin]

4 hours ago, Roger Hare said:

Thank you very much for that!

I was about to send a PM to CnetAdmin about this but as you've posted in the public forum, I'll respond here:

• it's still happening - 5 minutes ago, I couldn't connect, now I can. It's been happening 'on and off' all day...
• no-one else has reported a problem on concertina.net, so I've been a little bothered that it's me doing something stupid. Maybe (for once) it's not..🙂
• clearly there's some sort of problem here and elsewhere. Hopefully if (as you suggest), it's down to bots which have to be blocked, it will eventually just 'go away'

It's comforting to know that CnetAdmin are beavering away in the background, looking after all our interests - thank you for your efforts - they are much appreciated!!!

 

Hmmm, that is strange. I'll DM you. 

[RAc]

Hi Roger, possibly you have become victim to some kind of attack that redirects your DNS server - have you tried doing an nslookup concertina.net as you run into the problem? What exactly is the URL in the header line showing (it is too blurred to see in your screen shot)?

 

Because you are technically literate, I'd suggest the following (probably gibberish to most users):

 

C:\Users\Rüdiger>nslookup www.concertina.net
Server:  fritz.box
Address:  192.168.178.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    concertina.net
Address:  216.92.15.43
Aliases:  www.concertina.net

C:\Users\Rüdiger>

 

then in the browser address line, type

 

https://216.92.15.43

 

if then you are being redirected to c.net even if you can't reach it with the DNS name, then you may be victim to a DNS spoofing attack.

 

[DaveRo]

I would expect a 'Forbidden' response to include an http response code - either 403 or one of the 1000+ Cloudfare codes mentioned in that Mudcat thread. The screenshot is indistinct: is there one in the tab label? 

 

Firefox has diagnostics (F12, Network tab, refresh the page) which detail the server response. But if it's intermittant it can be tricky to catch. 

[wes williams]

11 hours ago, CnetAdmin said:

I haven't come across the problem yet, but if it's happening on other sites as well, it's probably part of some sort of wider attack. I have been blocking a number of bots lately who are sucking back all my bandwidth, so maybe there's some connection, who knows.

This is also happening on a site I use a lot and moderate on (www.45cat.com for record collectors). The site admin has had to block these USA based bots, which have caused lots of problems for members. 45cat is protected by 'Cloudflare' which is being upset by the actions of these bots.

[RAc]

2 minutes ago, wes williams said:

This is also happening on a site I use a lot and moderate on (www.45cat.com for record collectors). The site admin has had to block these USA based bots, which have caused lots of problems for members. 45cat is protected by 'Cloudflare' which is being upset by the actions of these bots.

But wouldn't that affect all users of that site? Or does Cloudflare block by IP address groups so maybe Roger's provider has fallen out of grace? I have seen something similar in a slightly different context (for a long time I did not receive notifications from this forum because my provider had blacklisted the sender of the notification messages).

[Roger Hare]

8 hours ago, RAc said:

Hi Roger, possibly you have become victim to some kind of attack that redirects your DNS server - have you tried doing an nslookup concertina.net as you run into the problem? What exactly is the URL in the header line showing (it is too blurred to see in your screen shot)?

 

Because you are technically literate, I'd suggest the following (probably gibberish to most users):

 

C:\Users\Rüdiger>nslookup www.concertina.net
Server:  fritz.box
Address:  192.168.178.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    concertina.net
Address:  216.92.15.43
Aliases:  www.concertina.net

C:\Users\Rüdiger>

 

then in the browser address line, type

 

https://216.92.15.43

 

if then you are being redirected to c.net even if you can't reach it with the DNS name, then you may be victim to a DNS spoofing attack.

 

Thank you, but I'm afraid I'm not that technically literate, it doesn't mean much to me. I don't have a clue how to protect myself from such attacks - if that's what they are.

 

R.

[alex_holden]

If you

12 minutes ago, Roger Hare said:

Thank you, but I'm afraid I'm not that technically literate, it doesn't mean much to me. I don't have a clue how to protect myself from such attacks - if that's what they are.

 

If you're sure you've gone to the correct URL ( https://www.concertina.net/ ) and there is a closed padlock icon to the left of the URL, you are probably safe. The padlock means that the site is using a valid SSL certificate that matches the name of the site.

 

 

(Let's Encrypt is one of the organisations that is trusted by the web browser makers to generate SSL certificates.)

[Roger Hare]

1 hour ago, alex_holden said:

If you're sure you've gone to the correct URL ( https://www.concertina.net/ ) and there is a closed padlock icon to the left of the URL, you are probably safe...

Thank you! The padlock is there, so that's encouraging. I'm sorta technically competent with the music stuff, and ABC, and writing my own (modest) programs, and so on, but this internet stuff just leaves me baffled. Back in the day, when I was working for a living, we had a 'gang of men' who looked after this stuff for us, so I never bothered with it - maybe I should have done...🙁

Edited November 13 by Roger Hare

[Roger Hare]

A final remark. CnetAdmin has been able to locate and fix the problem.

 

This is just to record my thanks to CnetAdmin, and all the other folks who responded with such helpful replies!!! concertina.net and melodeon.net are just about the two most civilised places on the internet..🙂