[Foist]

For a few days now, all photos on this site have been coming up as broken for me. Is it just me?

[Tom]

I use a vpn (surfshark) and sometimes the photos break for certain IPs (due to the photo server rejecting that IP). Not sure why it does that, but not something we blacklist or control. I am guessing there are malicous bots or users that have used those IPs under cover of VPN and those IPs at some point were blacklisted by the host. I find it's very easy to fix the problem by getting selecting another VPN location (or the same location, just another IP). If it arises again you can PM me the IP your VPN is using and I can submit a ticket asking why the host is blocking the IP as they really shouldn't be doing that for popular VPNs.

[zimmertr]

I use a suite of privacy-oriented browser extensions (Ublock Origin, Privacy Badger, Adnauseum, Decentraleyes) and sometimes they cause similar issues. One of them was making images not load on this website a few months ago but I can't remember which. Looking at your browser's Network information in the developer console will probably indicate the reason they're failing to load. Firefox: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Network_Monitor Chrome: https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/network/

[Tom]

The photos are hosted on a different domain so over zealous and ill behaved ad blocking or privacy extensions might also opt to block them, thinking they are ads or trackers. Not much we can do about that either, other than put the photos on the same domain which isn't possible due the sheer amount of photos (over a half million and growing) which is why we put them on a separate host.

[Foist]

I tried pausing my ad blocker, and that did not work. I use my firm's VPN. I can't shop around. I'll PM you the ip address.

[Tom]

To rule out anything else, can you go to nwhikers.org and see if you're blocked from accessing the photo server? It should give you the current time if not blocked. Since it's a work computer I suppose it could be possible your employer is blocking nwhikers.org so see what message you get.

[zimmertr]

It wouldn't be unheard of for a corporate VPN to block mixed-content webpages.

[Foist]

Ah bingo, they are suddenly blocking nwhikers.org. What is the .org as opposed to the .net? Is the .org used to host the photos? Anyway, it's weird, it's not like I switched companies. I'll ask them to unblock it.

[Tom]

I think mixed content arises when a secure https page requests http content. The photo server is https so I don't think that would be an issue.

[Tom]

Foist, what message did you get? Are you sure it's your employer blocking it as opposed to the nwhikers.org server blocking your IP? Yes, nwhilkers.org is the domain where we host the photos (different server and host than nwhikers.net).

[Foist]

Yes, I got a message that said so explicitly. "Access to nwhikers.org has been restricted by [the Firm's] IT security systems because it may contain a risk to your computer and the Firm's IT security."

[Tom]

That's strange they would have blocked it. I'm guessing because the photos are in a folder under forums, and some IT policies will block forums. Good luck. We haven't enabled non-image attachments for security reasons, so pretty much only photos on that server (as extra precaution against rogue uploads, if a photo won't thumbnail it won't get uploaded, and we also give it a new file name with an image extension). The only other thing I can think of is the old forum attachments are also on there, including a handful of xls files, so maybe one of those triggered something.

[Foist]

They already unblocked it. They trust me. Who knows why it got blocked, I didn't ask. would you like me to ask? I have a good relationship with the head IT guy. I could tell them him the head of the board is a friend of mine and is curious how the photo domain got blocked so he can avoid it in the future.

[captain jack]

IT guy will just tell you to unplug your client, wait 30, then plug it in again.

[Fletcher]

All photo thumbnails on posts more than a year or so old are broken for me. Tom, how can I fix this? I am not at all knowledgeable with computer stuff..