FreeForums website is 100% entirely blank page only.

[caroasi]

Hello. My newly created caroasi.freeforums.net forum now pulls up as a blank page only in all but one browser. I tried to go to two random forums and both pull up as entirely blank pages with zero bytes size. Does anyone else have that issue?

Forum URL: caroasi.freeforums.net

[Craig]

Hi

It appears to be loading ok for me in chrome.  What browsers are you trying in, and did you make any changes to the forum that would coincide with this issue appearing? 

Craig

[caroasi]

Jul 20, 2024 7:08:14 GMT -8 Craig said:

Hi

It appears to be loading ok for me in chrome.  What browsers are you trying in, and did you make any changes to the forum that would coincide with this issue appearing? 

Craig

Thanks for sharing that important info, if anyone else is reading this who does get a blank page please let me know. Mozilla Firefox version 126 is showing up as only a blank page for me. Refreshing doesn't help like it did for the other browser. I think it may be because the browser is older, which isn't that great of a reason. I should note that I can't load ANY Proboards forum on that browser. It makes me think that Proboards forums miserably fail on many old browsers, which is a little uncommon but not that rare.

[Craig]

Thanks for that feedbank

There shouldn't be issues. There haven't been any real significant changes to the forums since that version of firefox. Could i ask, have you tried it in an incognito browser window, and with all addons/extensions disabled.

Also, if you ctrl+a on the blank page, does it highlight any content?

[Scott]

caroasi - are you using any ad-block extensions/software?

[caroasi]

Jul 22, 2024 7:09:44 GMT -8 Scott said:

caroasi - are you using any ad-block extensions/software?

After extensive trouble-shooting the problem appears to be that Proboards is stonewalling VPN-based traffic. That is quite concerning because up to 15% of internet browsing people are using a VPN to browse the internet. It appears Proboards has taken steps to mass ban VPN IP addresses?

[Craig]

Jul 24, 2024 3:59:37 GMT -8 caroasi said:

Jul 22, 2024 7:09:44 GMT -8 Scott said:

caroasi - are you using any ad-block extensions/software?

After extensive trouble-shooting the problem appears to be that Proboards is stonewalling VPN-based traffic. That is quite concerning because up to 15% of internet browsing people are using a VPN to browse the internet. It appears Proboards has taken steps to mass ban VPN IP addresses?

I don't believe it is so much that VPNs have been banned or are proactively blocked.  But unfortunately, people using certain VPNs have caused issues in the past and have had to be blocked.  It is the same as other sites

A VPN that i have installed allows me to use ProBoards without any issues, but a number of other sites i find that the VPN has been banned.

One of the admins will hopefully be able to help you further with this problem when they get online today.

[Scott]

Jul 24, 2024 3:59:37 GMT -8 caroasi said:

Jul 22, 2024 7:09:44 GMT -8 Scott said:

caroasi - are you using any ad-block extensions/software?

After extensive trouble-shooting the problem appears to be that Proboards is stonewalling VPN-based traffic. That is quite concerning because up to 15% of internet browsing people are using a VPN to browse the internet. It appears Proboards has taken steps to mass ban VPN IP addresses?

This is not true.

We will ban IP addresses system wide if they are used for malicious activity. More often than not these tend to be VPN IPs because of course those are the what the bad guys use.   However we do not 'stonewall' all VPN-based traffic.

If the issue you're encountering is due to an IP ban we've put in place, then you would not even be able to access the forum with any browser; and you would receive a message that you were banned.

The fact you have not received a banned message, and it does not affect all browsers, would indicate it's something in your computing environment.

There was a similar issue in the last week or so which was the result of the member using an ad-blocker - which is why I asked if this was the case for you.

Additionally some VPNs also bundle in other features/options beyond basic VPN-IP which could be causing the issue as well.

[caroasi]

Jul 24, 2024 8:07:18 GMT -8 Scott said:

Jul 24, 2024 3:59:37 GMT -8 caroasi said:

After extensive trouble-shooting the problem appears to be that Proboards is stonewalling VPN-based traffic. That is quite concerning because up to 15% of internet browsing people are using a VPN to browse the internet. It appears Proboards has taken steps to mass ban VPN IP addresses?

This is not true.

We will ban IP addresses system wide if they are used for malicious activity. More often than not these tend to be VPN IPs because of course those are the what the bad guys use.   However we do not 'stonewall' all VPN-based traffic.

If the issue you're encountering is due to an IP ban we've put in place, then you would not even be able to access the forum with any browser; and you would receive a message that you were banned.

The fact you have not received a banned message, and it does not affect all browsers, would indicate it's something in your computing environment.

There was a similar issue in the last week or so which was the result of the member using an ad-blocker - which is why I asked if this was the case for you.

Additionally some VPNs also bundle in other features/options beyond basic VPN-IP which could be causing the issue as well.

In my case I was not using ad blockers. However, disabling my VPN immediately fixed the problem on two different test browsers so that test browsers I used were able to access it. So, I don't think it was any sort of technical issue with my computer. I do suppose the IP block has been banned but most servers produce a message indicating a ban has occurred. Thanks for your continued support on this issue.

[Scott]

caroasi -

From what you stated above, one browser worked fine with the VPN and 2 others didn't. May I ask which did, and which 2 didn't?

Also, may I please ask what VPN service you are using? (You may PM me this if you don't want to post this info.) Thanks. I'll check with our systems team to see if they have any insight regarding this.