Thanks Sebastian,
First, I tried 107.161.23.120 - Safari took 2m26s to download the template and WITST, along with a message saying that DSO has been ported across to Telescopius. So although the site did load eventually, that IP address is also being redirected.
Do you want me to run MTR on that IP address ?
I’ll have to install XTools and MacPorts first - which I’m not sure I can do on my workstation because it’s running OS 10.14.6, so I can keep using my 32-bit apps.
Also, I was out this morning and away from my WiFi when I used Telescopius to start planning what to observe tonight. The site downloaded WITST OK, but gave this error message every time I tried to use the DSO filter …
My cellular data (Optus, not Telstra) was OK with other sites, and I had very good bandwidth - is it possible there is something else going on that we haven’t thought of ?
OK - I’ve installed XTools and MacPorts.
Running the script ‘port install mtr’ gives the error message ‘Insufficient privileges to write to MacPorts install prefix’ - I have no idea what that means /:o.
Sebastian, if you can provide some guidance, I’d be happy to run further tests for you.
By the way - are there many other users experiencing these issues ?
Italy, ISP Vodafone.
I used tracert but at some point it gives me an expired request.
I went to change the firewall settings of the wifi modem and the site is now able to open.
then restoring the original settings the site continues to open, it was likely that the problem was due to some settings lost from the modem.
Now that Giafol fixed this issue for him (firewall), unfortunately you are the only user reporting this problem so I don’t have much to go on.
The “Insufficient privileges to write to MacPorts install prefix” could be caused by your Mac user lacking a password according to a quick search I made. Could that be the problem? Or have you tried running that command with the “sudo” prefix to run as root/administrator?
Thanks Sebastian,
OK - I ran with sudo and that worked - can’t believe I didn’t think of that before
Attached is the MTR to 107.161.23.120 - are you sure that is the address you want, because its also being redirected to DSO-browser.com, but the server isn’t responding ?
I also ran MTR on several other websites …
ALL of them have the same line #2 → (waiting for reply); and
MOST of them end with the last line referring to an IP address or URL.
Telescopius always ends with line #16 → (waiting for reply), but so do lots of other websites that work perfectly OK.
I also ran MTR with my Mac tethered to the 4G cellular network (Optus) via iPhone.
Here is the MTR log :-
Its interesting that both logs end with → (waiting for reply).
I tried accessing https://Telescopius.com again earlier - it loaded WITST in about 1 second.
I tried https://Telescopius.com again just now - it loaded WITST after several minutes, and then loaded Deep Sky Objects after another 2 or 3 minutes, so the problem seems to be intermittent.
It’s good that Giafol74 seems to have fixed his problem …
I suppose it’s possible that other users have experienced something similar but just haven’t reported it.
I’m sure the issue here is not related to a firewall because I don’t have one, and the Telescopius site usually behaves the same when accessed from a cellphone via a different ISP.
Sebastian, I’m really grateful for your help, please let me know if there’s anything else I can do
Thanks Sebastian …
It would be great to solve this - I’ve been using Telescopius for almost 2 years now - its definitely the best tool for planning observing sessions, so I really miss being able to use it.
As I mentioned earlier, the site always worked perfectly until about 2 weeks ago, so I’m at a loss to explain what might be causing this issue, particularly as it behaves the same way when using different platforms, and different ISPs.
I do hope your hosts can work out what’s causing the problem
I tested Telescopius using my iPhone this morning (4G Optus), and it loaded WITST and DSOs in just a few seconds.
Then I tried again when I got home and connected via WiFi to my cable service (Telstra), and got the same result - WITST and DOS loaded in just a few seconds.
Then I did an MTR - the results are almost identical to previous tests, except the packet loss is a bit lower.
Then I tried again with a Private window in Safari on my Mac (WiFi > Telstra) - after 1 minute Telescopius had not responded. It then displayed a ‘Connection Error’ message.
I tried again a few hours later on my Mac and my iPhone - after several minutes the website had not responded.
Neither MTR looks bad at all. As far as it being a DDoS Filtered IP, that wouldn’t typically play into just connecting to a website
I’m still talking with them to see if they could have some extra ideas, but at this point I’m quite clueless. Right now I can suggest maybe two things:
If you know someone with the same ISP as you, ask them to open Telescopius and check if they also experience this delay.
Open a support ticket with your ISP to see if they can identify what’s causing this issue.
I’ll keep an eye open on Telescopius server but so far I haven’t been able to see anything that could indicate an issue this end. And since you are the only user reporting this error, it’s proving really difficult to understand what’s going on. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give you a definite solution so far
Hi Sebastian,
A quick update for you on this issue …
I’ve just spent an hour on the phone with my ISP (Telstra).
They did all sorts of tests, including a factory reset on the cable modem, speed tests etc, and they say everything checks out OK.
I tried accessing Telescopius again using a private browser - WITST did load eventually after 5:30 minutes. Then I logged in, and WITST loaded in about 2 seconds. When I refreshed the page, it took 3:30 minutes to display ‘Connection error, please refresh the page or try again later’. It displayed that message again about a minute later - after 10 minutes the website still hadn’t responded.
Also - when I try to log in using a Private page, Telescopius usually responds with the message ‘Unknown Error’ - but does log me in sometimes.
Trying again just now with the Telescopius app on my cellphone (Optus), WITST loaded in a few seconds, and so did DSO. But then, using a Private page in Safari on my cellphone, WITST timed out with the message ‘The Server Stopped Responding’.
And using a private page in Safari on my a Mac repeatedly gave this message :-
Moving forward, I suggest all tests to be done without logging in, to discard any kind of issue with your profile. I couldn’t find anything wrong with it, but just in case I missed something… Just visiting the site on a private/incognito window should work in under ~10s (just took 8s for me), then clicking on different targets and opening the Telescope Simulator should work just fine as well.
The strange thing is nobody else reported this issue so far, but it’s happening for you in different devices and different ISPs. If it were just one devices/one ISP that would give us a hint, but multiple devices and ISPs failing without other people reporting the issue drives me crazy. I would totally expect a lot of people reporting this if it was a problem in Telescopius server. Over 20,000 users visit Telescopius monthly, about 5,000 of them logging in.
Let me ask you something: when you spoke with Telstra support, did they have the same issue as you or could they open the site normally? Did they try opening the site or di they just test your connection to them? If it worked fine for them, that would help us narrow down the issue to somewhere between them and your devices. Maybe some kind of cache issue on your devices - but I think we already tried that, didn’t we? At any rate, private/incognito windows should override all caches.
Hi Sebastian,
Many thanks for persisting with this issue - yes it has been a tricky one.
I’ve still be experiencing the same thing here - even after a factory reset of the modem and everything else I could think of.
I asked a friend who uses Telstra to test the website - he consistently achieved 4-6 seconds for a download of WITST - suggesting the problem might be caused by something between me and the network backbone.
So - I installed a new modem that has 4G backup - if the cable service goes offline, it switches to the Telstra 4G mobile network.
I set the modem to 4G only mode so it would bypass the cable network → although bandwidth was really poor (< 10 mbs), it consistently loaded WITST in 6-10 seconds, tested using 3 different browsers, and even with private pages !
Then I switched the modem to cable only mode (110 mbps) - expecting the problem to come back again … but it worked !
Now WITST loads consistently in < 8s in Private mode - that is great !!
So - it looks like the problem has gone away - even though I’m not 100% certain from a technical point of view what caused it in the first place.
Sebastian, I have to thank you again for persisting with this issue - one of the many great things about Telescopius is the fantastic customer support.
