BeWildering Website Woes!

[mozart]

I’m bloody seething! Nearly 20 years ago I started my research into the loss of Lancaster ME453 of 467 Squadron RAAF on 3 March 1945, all the crew killed in action over Germany. The results of my research, which included visits to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and even Zimbabwe besides many locations in the UK, especially the National Archives London on numerous occasions have been meticulously detailed in my website www.ordinarycrew.co.uk

 

So a couple of days ago I was contacted by a chap with a very small correction for a serial number of a Lancaster, but when I tried to check then alter this, I couldn’t see or load my website! What’s going on? My domain name is held by eNom, the website is hosted by Wix; have the “wires” got twisted between these two? I spent half an hour talking to eNom…..all apparently ok there, then three discussions lasting a total of two and a half hours with Wix to do a host (sorry about the pun! ) of checks…..all ok there! But they managed to deduce that it must be a “local” problem. If I turned the wifi signal off on my mobile, I could instantly see my site via the 4G signal. Finger pointed directed at the internet provider: British Telecom!

 

An hour and a half tedious call to them revealed that my site had been BLOCKED by BT as a site likely to be harmful or to contain damaging material! What??? A site honouring young men who gave their lives for our world……would they have thought the sacrifice worthwhile? What sort of Big Brother society do we live in, who is making these spurious decisions and on whose authority? 
 

This is not the end of this sorry saga. My “parental controls” have been turned off……we never asked for them to be turned on in the first place….and my site is now thankfully restored to my screens again. But I want to know the What, Who and When and WILL find an answer! 
 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by mozart

[MikeC]

52 minutes ago, mozart said:

...who is making these spurious decisions and on whose authority? 

 

Perhaps in these days of AI that should read "...who or what is making ..."?  Good luck getting an answer. 

[mozart]

So true Mike, and sadly my earlier optimism was ill-founded, the site isn't loading again at my end.  I understand that it's visible to everybody else but not the author/administrator!

[Christa]

Dismal BT blundering Max! Sadly, some overweight corporations are prone to schoolyard bully personality disorders - our infamous Post Office is another such.

 

I have every confidence that your fine and scholarly facilities will be fully restored.

 

Not sure BT will apologise. Bullies' manners are known to be atrocious.

 

Chris

 

[Kagemusha]

Very strange, I visited the website a week or two ago, now I can't get on, with BT, tried on my phone, also with BT, initially couldn't get on, said it was unsafe, not encrypted, turned the screen on again, and there's the site, just reloaded the page on my laptop, and there it is. System probably has Raac in it.

[mozart]

Thanks for the feedback Andy, very useful to know all of that. The issue is far from resolved, but I’ll be back on it this afternoon. The site is secure and encrypted from Wix’s end so I really can’t understand what the “site not secure” message which I’ve seen is about. Weird.

[Archimedes]

Hi Max,

 

I just tried to access your site via my iPad and it came up as ‘not secure’ and I could not access it. As you know I am in the USA. Sorry for your troubles!

 

Kind regards,

Paul 

[Kagemusha]

20 minutes ago, Archimedes said:

Hi Max,

 

I just tried to access your site via my iPad and it came up as ‘not secure’ and I could not access it. As you know I am in the USA. Sorry for your troubles!

 

Kind regards,

Paul 

 

Have you tried refreshing the page? - I tried this morning, and initially it wouldn't load, but after refreshing it did.

[mozart]

Thanks both, I’ve just had a further technical call with Wix prior to contacting BT, Wix have confirmed that all is ok with the site and the DNS, AND the SSL (security certificates) ensuring encryption are all in place. The difficulty is going to be locating somebody within BT who has sufficient understanding to be able to appreciate, investigate and fix the problem. Flushing/refreshing sadly isn’t the answer Andy, if only it was! 

[Kagemusha]

Just out of interest, I tried again, and Kaspersky has blocked access, the message;

 

Visiting an untrustworthy website has been prevented
One or more of this website's certificates are invalid, so we can't guarantee its authenticity. This happens when the website's owner hasn't updated the certificate in time, or if it's a fake site created by scammers. Visiting a website like this makes you more vulnerable to attack.

You were protected from visiting this website by Kaspersky security. You can close this window with no risk.

Hide details

Detected at: 06/09/2023 02:08:52

URL: www.ordinarycrew.co.uk

Reason: One of the certificates has an invalid extension. 

 

I don't know if that helps... good luck!

[mozart]

Thanks Andy, all grist to the mill! 

[thierry laurent]

As soon as browsers detect a certificate that they consider invalid (understand expired or simply unknown as they do not store the root certificate) accessing the site is becoming a pain. Andy explained the reasons: protect non IT-savvy people from scammers. However, I would be interested in knowing how many legit sites were 'banned' because of such technical hassles. Managing certificates is a PITA...

[mozart]

Thanks Thierry. This is from the Wix management site for my website:

 

 

I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to go forward from here, it seems I can’t lay the blame at the doors of BT and it being a “local” issue.  I guess I need somebody who knows what they’re doing to investigate, or I change the domain name! 

[Archimedes]

22 hours ago, Kagemusha said:

 

Have you tried refreshing the page? - I tried this morning, and initially it wouldn't load, but after refreshing it did.

Hi Andy - yes I refreshed the page several times and it comes up blank each time.  I’ve also tried it on PC and a Mac desktop to see if there is anything system related stopping it.  The page does not load on any of those machines.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[denders]

What browsers is everyone using?