Website for non-profit Americares doesn't seem to work using Linux

[david.kit.friedman]

Perhaps people could quickly check, and see if they are seeing the same thing.

When using my Android phone I can access the website for the large non-profit Americares with both Firefox and Chrome:

https://www.americares.org

But it doesn't work here on my laptop which is running Debian GNU/Linux (using Firefox).

I get:

404 Not Found

openresty

Now I had seen this before some weeks ago, and I thought it was just a temporary issue, but seeing it again suggests to me that it's not.

So do other people get the same thing? Does it work on Android, Windows, etc. but not with GNU/Linux?

David

 

[Alexzee]

That link works fine for me with Firefox.
I'm running Manjaro 20 Gnome:-

 

[david.kit.friedman]

Well, that's weird. But I guess it's actually good news because I thought it was down for everybody using Linux.

 

[Condobloke]

do your android phone and laptop share the same router/modem/wifi ?

Works here..Australia using Firefox 86

DNS: 1.1.1.1 & 9.9.9.9

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day David and welcome to weird, also welcome to linux.org

Input from DownUnder

I've checked the site through Firefox, Waterfox, Chrome, Chromium, Vivaldi, Slimjet and Brave across half a dozen distros (I run 67 ... today), and it works fine.

Had it worked in your Debian previously, or is that new?

BTW - me to blame for the delay - when a new Member posts a Thread with a URL in it, our site software sends it across my desk for approval in case of Spam, but me being in Oz there is a timezone delay and I had to take my wife for medical appointments this morning, so only signed in at "The Office" my Wednesday afternoon. I deleted the duplicate. The veto disappears after maybe 20 - 25 posts.

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[wizardfromoz]

We almost crossed beams Brian (@Condobloke ) dangerous so they say

 

[Condobloke]

WE keep doing that....I think we have the powers that be, bluffed....or maybe mesmerized

 

[david.kit.friedman]

do your android phone and laptop share the same router/modem/wifi ?

Works here..Australia using Firefox 86

Yes, the phone and laptop share the same wifi.

G'day David and welcome to weird, also welcome to linux.org

Thanks for the welcome

I've checked the site through Firefox, Waterfox, Chrome, Chromium, Vivaldi, Slimjet and Brave across half a dozen distros (I run 67 ... today), and it works fine.

Okay.

Maybe my location of Raleigh, North Carolina, United States is a factor.

Had it worked in your Debian previously, or is that new?

I'm not sure exactly when it stopped working, but at some point it did. There are no other websites that aren't working though.

BTW - me to blame for the delay - when a new Member posts a Thread with a URL in it, our site software sends it across my desk for approval in case of Spam, but me being in Oz there is a timezone delay and I had to take my wife for medical appointments this morning, so only signed in at "The Office" my Wednesday afternoon. I deleted the duplicate. The veto disappears after maybe 20 - 25 posts.

No problem...

I think it's kind of very weird, but maybe it's some kind of false positive from a system to prevent distributed denial of service.

That's one theory.

David

 

[wizardfromoz]

When using my Android phone I can access the website for the large non-profit Americares with both Firefox and Chrome:

Have you tried it with Chrome or another Browser on your lappie?

Maybe my location of Raleigh, North Carolina, United States is a factor.

I'd be surprised - Brian and I, at a previous Forum, used to work with a guy (Cat, Brian) who was from Raleigh, and his internet was OK. He used to get his downloads mirror set up as one of the universities not too far away, I'd remember it if you mentioned it.

Out for my evening

Wiz

 

[f33dm3bits]

I have the same problem tried it on my main machine with Firefox(even with all my add-ons disabled) but with Chromium the website loads with no problem. See attachment. When I try it on my vm running Mint with Firefox I am able to load the website without getting a 404, both my main machine and my vm use Firefox 86.

I also just tried it on my other vm running Debian, with the default Firefox version(78, firefox-esr) I am unable to load the website and when I download Firefox 86 and try to load it there I am able to load it. Quite a strange problem!

 

[jglen490]

Kubuntu 20.04.2 LTS Firefox. Pops right up. Alabama, USA.

 

[70 Tango Charlie]

Perhaps people could quickly check, and see if they are seeing the same thing.

When using my Android phone I can access the website for the large non-profit Americares with both Firefox and Chrome:

https://www.americares.org

But it doesn't work here on my laptop which is running Debian Linux (using Firefox).

I get:

404 Not Found

openresty

Now I had seen this before some weeks ago, and I thought it was just a temporary issue, but seeing it again suggests to me that it's not.

So do other people get the same thing? Does it work on Android, Windows, etc. but not with Linux?

David

Good morning from Michigan @david.kit.friedman ,
and Welcome to this forum!
I'm using Linux Mint 20.1, with stock Firefox that comes with LM.
Just clicked on your link, and it came right up very quickly.
Old Geezer, Tango Charlie

 

[stan]

Works fine near Chicago with Zorin Lite Linux and Firefox + Vivaldi browsers.

 

[wizardfromoz]

OK Gang - NEWS FLASH

This from my Debian 'Buster' KDE, using Firefox.

... so the OP is not going crazy (kidding David, my quirky Aussie sense of humour ) and it is a legitimate fault of some type.

I can try it with my 'Buster' Xfce but expect to find the same thing.

Why?

Because Debian uses Firefox ESR, not regular Firefox.

Mine in this distro is on 78.7.0esr

Jas uses predominantly Debian Testing but he also uses Firefox ESR.

@JasKinasis - mate if you get a chance can you take a look at this and come back to us with any ideas? Ta.

Cheers

Wizard

 

[wizardfromoz]

Further to my above, I have just checked in my antiX 19.2 (Debian-based) which also runs Firefox ESR 78.7.0

Same result as the screenshot above.

Sorry @f33dm3bits , just read your Post above more carefully, and see you have found the same . Great minds think alike?

I'll be interested to hear what Jas thinks.

Wiz

BTW @david.kit.friedman - David, this appears to be an issue with FF ESR only, you could confirm for us that that is what you are using (if Menu bar enabled - Help - About. If not then at Terminal

apt-cache policy firefox-esr

)

 

[stan]

Hmmm, that is interesting. Same as you, Wizard... 404 Error with antiX (19.3) and Debian (10.8) using Firefox ESR, both running in VirtualBox.

 

[KGIII]

I'll build ESR on my Manjaro VM. It's in the user repo at 78.8.0-1.

Hmm... I'll type this all at once, rather than keeping a running tally.

Yup...

Alas, I am actually not a Firefox user. I haven't been a Firefox user in a long time.

This is "regular" Firefox:

It works just fine with that one.

 

[KGIII]

Alright, I've got it.

It blocks Firefox ESR at the server level.

Grab one of the many user-agent spoofing extensions, set it to a different browser (I picked Chrome on Windows 10) and it works like a champ.

There's no other real choice, except to use a different browser. It's done on the server side.

 

[KGIII]

By the way, that's a security 'feature'. The server doesn't recognize the user agent (sent when you request a web page from the server) and so it throws back a 404. This is because of bots sending non-standard user agents (though they can as easily spoof them as you can - but most bot users are script kiddies) and this being one way to distinguish between them and legitimate traffic.

They obviously have it poorly configured, though Firefox ESR isn't really all that popular. It's also often a few numbers behind the real release, meaning it's unusual looking to the server. Being unusual looking, and bot traffic being as bad as it is, the server sends you to a simple 404 page that doesn't take much bandwidth and isn't able to be interacted with in any way.

OP could contact them and let them know, but many charitable organizations have a shoestring budget and aren't spending a great deal on IT staff. So, getting it fixed is not impossible but I'd not hold your breath for it.

Human traffic accounts for only about 5% of the overall bandwidth on the 'net. It's computers talking to computers and many of them are malicious bots. Welcome to the modern internet. I fight with this quite frequently, as it's an ongoing battle. I've got a number of sites and servers that get hammered on just because an automated tool (it's no longer a dedicated hacker pounding away on their keyboard) thinks they may find an exploit. Again, that's about 95% of my bandwidth costs unless I take steps (similar to this) to reduce the load.

Also, it may not be at the server level. It could be at the router level, actually. It'll route to the 404 as a part of the IPS and DDOS prevention strategies. Where it is isn't really all that important. The end result is that the user can't do anything about it except for inform the site operators who probably can't do anything about it themselves.

 

[david.kit.friedman]

Yes, so I am using Firefox ESR 78.8.0esr (64-bit).

So this seems to be the problem. It doesn't work with Firefox ESR.

I see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Firefox_usage_share a value of 0.17% for the percentage of browsers on the web that are running Firefox ESR.

And see here https://www.rankranger.com/top-websites?domain=americares.org a value of 8.86K for monthly number of visits to the site.

So I'd estimate the number of people that it effects to be about 15 people per month.

I could send them an email but with that number of people being effected per month it's not clear to me that it's worth it.