Key user Can't get onto my VBulletin Site?

[TOMC28]

One of my important bloggers can't access my vBulletin site. I checked my BANNED IP address list, and his IP is not listed, therefore I don't know how to help him? Can you folks take a look at this and give your advise? THANKS AGAIN!


When he types in "www.name of site.com" in the address bar, a page pops up saying "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" he has 2 choices after that either "diagnose connection problems" or "close the window"

After he clicks on diagnose connection problems a error message appears.::

"Cannot communicate with www.nameofsite.com (67.15.xxx.xx)
Network Diagnostics pinged the remote host but didn't recieve a response"

[Lynne]

Can he do a trace to your site and see where he is getting blocked or do you already know it is at your actual server? Do you ever block ips via htaccess or iptables? Have you checked those? Can he get to the site using another browser, like firefox?

[TOMC28]

Hi can you tell me how he would do a trace to my site and see where he is getting blocked?

[Lynne]

I can tell you how to do it on a Mac - open Network Utility, click on traceroute and enter the site name. I'm sure there is something similar on a PC. Or google it.

[Delilahs]

Lynne, I've got several people who can't get onto my site using IE either, It was a choice of what programmes were stopping it since I upgraded both VBSEO and Vb to the latest versions, I turned VBSEO off, and they still couldn't get on, so I can only assume it is the latest VB update causing the problems

[Marco van Herwaarden]

To troubleshoot this, please create a new Style with no Parent set. Now browse the forum using this new style, do you still have the same problems? If you are troubleshooting login or guest issues, you will need to set this style as board default in the vBulletin Options.

[Brother Malachi]

E-mail your host and have them check mod_security logs. Look up the IP of the guys that can't get on and send them to your host's techs.
There is a rule in there that gets triggered and bans a user from the site on a hacking suspicion when they utilize the POST function in certain situations. A lot of our users got blacklisted this way and we had to manually unban/unblock them and remove the mod_security rule. Have your host's tech look up the rule number and remove it.
Google "mod_security vbulletin" for more info on this.

[Delilahs]

The issue is only with people who use internet explorer, when they have tried to acces the site using Opera,Safari or firefox, they get on with no problems.

as far as i am aware, changing your browser does not change your IP

[kevcj]

Originally Posted by Delilahs

The issue is only with people who use internet explorer, when they have tried to acces the site using Opera,Safari or firefox, they get on with no problems.

Tell them to scan their system for malware / browser highjackers and redirectors. Go to download.com, download and install a program called malwarebytes and do a full system scan.

Those people might have a program installed on internet explorer that is stopping the page from loading. One example of this is "alexa" - which is a spyware program. If alexa can not communicate to its master server, sometimes your webpages will not load.

Internet explorer is famous for how easy malware can get installed on it. Switching to Firefox might be the best thing for them.

Not being able to connect to the site is most probably an internet explorer issue, and not an issue with the site. Make sure their system is clean and go from there.

[Delilahs]

The problem was the cyb. flash banner rotator for those who may have a similar problem. I've turned that off, and people can now view the forum.