Problems Accessing a ProcessWire CMS via a BT Connection

[GOTK]

Hi All,

Newbie here with a very frustrating issue that I'm hoping someone can give me some direction on.  Our website designers built our website using a ProcessWire CMS so that us non-technical types could make changes going forward.  When this was first installed, everything worked perfectly, as I tested it extensively both in the office and at home. 

The ProcessWire page is accessible via the website, so www.ourwebsite.com/processwire. 

4 or 5 months ago, I tried to access the CMS and was unable to do so.  Every other page on our site was displaying correctly.  I immediately contacted our web designer and checked this site for any reported faults, but couldn't find anything.  The web designer confirmed that he was able to access the CMS perfectly easily and that everything was in working order.  Web designer suggested rebooting our BT Hub etc, all of which we did, no improvement.  That evening, I tried to access the page at home and was immediately able to see/access/amend as necessary. 

We called our IT guy in to the office and he looked at the problem.  He connected (via one of our computers) to his own computer at home and from that computer was able to access the CMS area fine as well.  That seemed to eliminate the possibility that it was a computer specific problem.  His solution was to set us up with a "ProXPN Connection", which he explained as a connection that allowed the computer to access the web from a different location/IP, which allows us to bypass the BT Broadband connection/IP.  When I connect via this ProXPN thing, I can immediately see/access/amend the CMS.  He said that, by process of elimination, the problem lies with our specific BT Connection (which makes sense to me). 

I have spoken with BT and they have basically fobbed me off, even after I got them to log into our system and I demonstrated the issue.  Has anyone experienced similar with a BT Connection?  Or any other connection?  Any thoughts/advice?

If I haven't been clear anywhere, please let me know and I will try to rephrase - I have just spent 1 1/2hrs on the phone to BT and my brain is fried!

Many thanks in advance

[apeisa]

Not sure I understand much of that, but try editing /site/config.php and setting: $config->sessionFingerprint = false;

[GOTK]

So go to www.oursite.com/processwire/site/config.php?

Sorry, as I say, I am not very technically minded!

ETA: As I say, if I haven't been clear, let me know and I will try to rephrase.

[netcarver]

When you type in the URL of your site into your browser, what do you see? Do you see the homepage of your website or something else? If something else, please describe what it is you see.

[GOTK]

I see the homepage!

[diogo]

/site/config.php has to be accessed via ftp, or even from the administration panel from the hosting company. Just login there and look for something like "file manager" or "online ftp". Probably they will have cPanel, and if so, you can follow these instructions http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/cpanel/file_manager.htm. There you will be able to make the change that apeisa proposed.

[GOTK]

Ah hah, thank you Diogo. 

I was indeed able to make the change that apeisa proposed via the hosting admin panel.  Unfortunately, that has made no difference to whether I can access the CMS on the BT connection, I have just tried and failed again ("connection to server was reset" was the message I received on this occasion, after the processwire page started to come up but didn't completely load).  

I double checked and logged on via the "Pro XPN" and was able to access the CMS immediately as usual. 

[DaveP]

I'm beginning to suspect your hosting company's firewall. Try http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ - enter your url (eg www.oursite.com/processwire/) and see if it can be seen from elsewhere. If it can (and I'm sure it will be), then it is just your own IP through your BT connection that appears to be blocked. If it is, then raise a support ticket with the hosting company, asking them to unblock you.

(We had the same thing this afternoon...   )

[GOTK]

Hi DaveP,  thank you, the BT guys did mention the hosting company firewall.  I have just followed your link and entered the URL as suggested and got an interesting result (I think):

• When doing this through my BT connection, it says "It's not just you, the site is down". 
•  
• When doing this through the ProXPN connection, it says "It's just you, the site is fine". 

Surely this points again in the direction of a problem with BT?

[Pete]

I'm going to be semi-helpful and suggest moving away from BT.

That said, you will have a harder time getting away from BT than you would have done signing up with them.

My last dealings with them.were six months after cancelling a line and having calls since asking us to pay bills even though the line was cancelled was them.saying they'd cut off our broadband - I exasperatedly said "please do, we've cancelled it three times already".

Truly shocking company sadly as they could and should be so much better.

But yes, this sounds like some sort of firewall block on the server except in that case I would say you shouldn't be able to see the site at all.

Type "what is my IP" in Google and it will display your BT IP address, then pass this on to your web host and see if it's blocked. If it is they can unblock it.

Either way, ditch BT if possible

[GOTK]

Hi Pete,

Thanks, I have suggested that to my boss - he refuses to move (despite the numerous BT-related issues we regularly have to deal with). 

At the end of last week I wrote up the whole problem and expressed my disappointment (polite phrasing )with the BT Broadband people in a 2.5 page letter to the Chairman's office. It is now being looked into by the proper IT people at BT and, more importantly, one who was willing to see the problem by connecting remotely to my PC whilst also running our site on his own PC and realising that the problem is indeed completely localised to our connection (finally!). 
 

I will report back on here for good order when (if?!) they have fixed it, so at least if this happens to someone else, this post will possibly help to point them in the right direction!

[netcarver]

Glad you finally got some movement on this GOTK.

We are with BT at work but over the past 3 years we have had several problems with the BT-supplied ADSL router kit though what you've posted about the line makes me wonder if part of the following might be down to our BT line too.

With regard to the BT kit: Our first ADSL router developed a fault which only occurred when connecting to FTP servers (everything else was fine) and once we found this we had to spend several hours getting through to their engineers and demonstrating the problem. Once convinced, they quickly sent a replacement unit (credit to them) and that worked well for over a year before giving up the electronic ghost. So we temporarily switched to a budget end Netgear 4-port ADSL router we pulled out of a skip (en_us: dumpster) and this got us back online.

In the meantime we bought and tested a £200+ Draytek unit which was very nice and had some features we needed. The Draytek ran rock solid for over a week on a non-BT test line so we switched it for the budget Netgear unit on the BT line. The Draytek died within 8 hours and we had to re-flash the unit to bring it back to life. Back in went the cheapo Netgear rescue unit whilst we tested the Draytek on the non-BT line. It ran fine for a number of weeks so we decided it was "fixed" and put it back on the BT line. Dead again within 8 hours and sent back for a full refund (great service from our supplier).

Since then we've upgraded (again from the waste stream) the free budget netgear to a not-so-low-end Linksys box with a few more features. Both the Netgear and the Linksys units have done well for us on this line when compared to BTs own kit and the expensive DrayTek. Anyway, I'm now beginning to wonder if the Draytek unit's failures were a unit + line combo as it worked brilliantly on another supplier's wire.

[GOTK]

That is interesting (and well timed) Netcarver.  Just this morning BT called me to ask if we were able to access the website via an FTP server.  I told them I had no clue what that meant (which I don't) but that we had sent FTP details to our web designer when he was building the website, so I assumed that FTP was relevant to us somehow.  Perhaps they are learning from previous experience like yours?!

We too have had router problems in the past (along with every other sort of BT problem) and currently cannot access our VOIP since they performed a reset on the system last week (whilst investigating this fault).  It never ends...