Network Error (tcp_error) from work, My IP is 135.245.49.12, club#3260

Dear FreeToastHost support,

Several of our members have been getting the error below when logging into freetoasthost from their work PCs. I was unaffected until recently; one of our members speculated that something with our work VPN is causing your site to block the IP, and from browsing the forums I see this is a common occurrence when freetoasthost is accessed from a work VPN. Could your attack detection be seeing something from these VPNs that looks like an attack?

My IP@ is 135.245.49.12. Our VP of Education is also unable to access, and her IP@ would be in the same domain.

Could you try unblocking all IPs in this domain so we can see if access clears up, and consider checking your attack prevention software to see if it needs to be adjusted so that it does not incorrectly see an attack due to something the VPN may be doing.

Below is the error message, thanks!

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Network Error (tcp_error)


A communication error occurred: "Operation timed out"
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact your network support team.

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Brian Cort, Club #3260

There was over 100 page 403 errors from that IP and it was blocked.

I have removed the block, but it people get a 403 or 404 error retrying it over and over will get them blocked.

Thanks Brian,

I tried again and got the same error. Did it re-block? I had previously cleared all cache and history from both Explorer and Firefox, and I just tried again with both - same error. Thanks again.

Could the issue be that my bookmark is to the agenda page
murrayhill.toastmastersclubs.org/agenda.html

If I have not yet logged in, perhaps this results in a 403 Forbidden error, and a redirect to the main page to request login credentials. If these 403 errors accumulate over time, eventually it may block?

I had tried earlier just going to the main page
murrayhill.toastmastersclubs.org/
but at this point my IP was already blocked.

I removed it from the block list but the Proxy you are using has been labeled as a proxy that has been misused, and is in a global list.

I will open the IP but it may be blocked again at anytime.

Cort wrote: Could the issue be that my bookmark is to the agenda page
murrayhill.toastmastersclubs.org/agenda.html

If I have not yet logged in, perhaps this results in a 403 Forbidden error, and a redirect to the main page to request login credentials. If these 403 errors accumulate over time, eventually it may block?

I had tried earlier just going to the main page
murrayhill.toastmastersclubs.org/
but at this point my IP was already blocked.

Cort,

"If these 403 errors accumulate over time, eventually it may block?" I believe that is the way the server is configured. Brian can confirm/deny that.

For us to help you get to the root of the issue, we need your help. We need more specifics about what you are doing when the issue is triggered: what browser, what web page is showing, who is logging in, etc. etc. Also, screen captures of relevant screens are often helpful.

It may be that you just cannot do the VPN access ... I do not know yet.

Lastly, I may need you or (whoever is getting the error) to do check for a relevant javascript error that would provide more of a clue. (even though it really is a server error)