Afrihost Problem?? Cannot get into website -REGION DOES NOT ALLOW YOU ACCESS

Twista

Twista

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Hi Guys,

Anyone having problems getting into certain websites.

I cannot land onto www.onlinecarparts.co.za and a few other websites.

It sates the region I am in does not allow me access.

The minute I switch from ADSL wireless to Vodacom 3G, I get normal access into the site (s).

Is afrihost having problems with websites too.

@AFRIMAN, could you please assist me.
 
Thats not really afrihosts fault, they are using a new ip range that hasnt been updated to all of the geoip databases yet- if a site uses an outdated geoip database then you need to contact the owner of the site
 
Are u serious?

So if there are 50 websites that I cannot get into, I must email the 50 webmasters of all these websites or i can just switch to another ADSL provider who can email them on my behalf.

Thats really very difficult to impose on an end user.

Maybe one should take a closer look at the Afrihost situation in abt a week.
 
Twista said:
Are u serious?

So if there are 50 websites that I cannot get into, I must email the 50 webmasters of all these websites or i can just switch to another ADSL provider who can email them on my behalf.

Thats really very difficult to impose on an end user.

Maybe one should take a closer look at the Afrihost situation in abt a week.
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Unfortunately those site owners have not kept up with the times, so sadly yes.
 
Websites rely on places like maxmind.com for geoip data and these geoip lookups are not real time calls to a central db (that would severely lag most websites), it is a local db that can be routinely downloaded from the likes of maxmind and if the developers lack the know how on automating this or the site owners didnt have the budget to pay for this to be implemented sites can be sitting with geoip databases that are years old. www.geoiptool.com says my mtn ip is in south africa so it definitely has been updated. Unfortunately it is the fault of the website owners and not afrihost or axxess
 
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blunt said:
Websites rely on places like maxmind.com for geoip data and these geoip lookups are not real time calls to a central db (that would severely lag most websites), it is a local db that can be routinely downloaded from the likes of maxmind and if the developers lack the know how on automating this or the site owners didnt have the budget to pay for this to be implemented sites can be sitting with geoip databases that are years old. Geoiptools.com says my mtn ip is in soutn africa so it definitely has been updated. Unfortunately it is the fault of the website owners and not afrihost or axxess
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Thanks.
 
http://www.iplocation.net/

looks like ip2location is not updated yet.. i popped their support an email to let them know and told them to contact Afrihost.. will see if that helps - but it looks like maxmind and ipligence are up to date.
 
Not the case - none of the GeoIP sites recognise those new IP ranges - this is a big mess for any website using GeoIP checks as part of fraud detection. Look up IPs such as 105.237.21.6 or 105.237.22.99.

No comment from Afrihost? One would think that an ADSL move to MTN should have been better planned and a whole IP block should have been submitted to location service providers in time - quite puzzling that one of the most basic things can be overlooked (and now being blamed on GeoIP companies update schedule)
 
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MagicDude4Eva said:
Not the case - none of the GeoIP sites recognise those new IP ranges - this is a big mess for any website using GeoIP checks as part of fraud detection. Look up IPs such as 105.237.21.6 or 105.237.22.99.

No comment from Afrihost?
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We have submitted the ranges to all the major services, we are still waiting for them to confirm that they have updated their information. Some have done so, others only run updates periodically like once a month or every two months.

We have definitely followed all the steps, we are waiting for the info to be updated :(
 
AfriMan said:
We have submitted the ranges to all the major services, we are still waiting for them to confirm that they have updated their information. Some have done so, others only run updates periodically like once a month or every two months.

We have definitely followed all the steps, we are waiting for the info to be updated :(
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So considering that all location services pull data for example from AfriNIC (and then refresh GeoIP ISP data monthly), this makes me wonder, when MTN actually submitted the range to AfriNIC. @AfriMan - could you perhaps shed some light on this? Plenty of frustrated customers out there and businesses like ours are now jumping through hoops to overcome MTN's oversight.

I am saying oversight, since the Afrihost/MTN ADSL move was known for the better part of the last 6 months, so it is in my opinion pure lack of planning - not necessarily Afrihost's fault, since AfriNIC lists MTN as the owner of the range. Also CISCO does not know about that range - so really a bigger problem: http://www.senderbase.org/senderbase_queries/detailip?search_string=105.237.21.6)
 
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MagicDude4Eva said:
So considering that all location services pull data for example from AfriNIC (and then refresh GeoIP ISP data monthly), this makes me wonder, when MTN actually submitted the range to AfriNIC. @AfriMan - could you perhaps shed some light on this? Plenty of frustrated customers out there and businesses like ours are now jumping through hoops to overcome MTN's oversight.

I am saying oversight, since the Afrihost/MTN ADSL move was known for the better part of the last 6 months, so it is in my opinion pure lack of planning - not necessarily Afrihost's fault, since AfriNIC lists MTN as the owner of the range. Also CISCO does not know about that range - so really a bigger problem: http://www.senderbase.org/senderbase_queries/detailip?search_string=105.237.21.6)
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I don't know all those specifics, and to my knowledge all the known services were sent the required info before we went live. I think some smaller services were alerted as issues arose or were reported by clients.

I don't know specifics though, so that's just from my general info :(
 
AfriMan said:
I don't know all those specifics, and to my knowledge all the known services were sent the required info before we went live. I think some smaller services were alerted as issues arose or were reported by clients.

I don't know specifics though, so that's just from my general info :(
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So on FB your team announced that a workaround has been implemented - any update on what exactly the workaround is? Phoning your customer care is useless - anyone else who can be contacted?
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
So on FB your team announced that a workaround has been implemented - any update on what exactly the workaround is? Phoning your customer care is useless - anyone else who can be contacted?
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Try to do the Windows 8 update! The workaround works so far, the setup file has managed to by-pass the spot where it had an issue about the location. Although I had already managed to get Windows 8 installed with my own workaround, you do not need to do anything. Just download and run the update assistant and it works! I am currently re-running the setup file with no issues and the download is running perfectly so far.
 
It's not about the Windows 8 installation or updates - it's about Afrihost's & MTN's shoddy ADSL migration and complete lack of transparency regarding the location based IP range issue. For any website relying on location based information (and IP address is one of them) this is a major inconvenience to the user base as services are not offered.

In less than 5 months this is the 2nd incident where Afrihost managed to cut off a large amount of users from online services - this does not speak well with regards to due-diligence and basic aspects of ITIL (which I hope an ISP such as Afrihost would apply). Uh well, never good to send emails to our customer base "If you can not log in, please use someone else other than Afrihost or phone our customer care division".
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
It's not about the Windows 8 installation or updates - it's about Afrihost's & MTN's shoddy ADSL migration and complete lack of transparency regarding the location based IP range issue. For any website relying on location based information (and IP address is one of them) this is a major inconvenience to the user base as services are not offered.

In less than 5 months this is the 2nd incident where Afrihost managed to cut off a large amount of users from online services - this does not speak well with regards to due-diligence and basic aspects of ITIL (which I hope an ISP such as Afrihost would apply). Uh well, never good to send emails to our customer base "If you can not log in, please use someone else other than Afrihost or phone our customer care division".
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oh kee doh kee..... I have had no issues with the MTN service so far, except for the Windows 8 download incident. The network is 2 weeks young and improving every day. If I run into issues I try my best to give Afrihost as much data to work with to get the network working for myself, knowing that other users will benefit.
Just my opinion. :)
 
MagicDude4Eva said:
It's not about the Windows 8 installation or updates - it's about Afrihost's & MTN's shoddy ADSL migration and complete lack of transparency regarding the location based IP range issue. For any website relying on location based information (and IP address is one of them) this is a major inconvenience to the user base as services are not offered.

In less than 5 months this is the 2nd incident where Afrihost managed to cut off a large amount of users from online services - this does not speak well with regards to due-diligence and basic aspects of ITIL (which I hope an ISP such as Afrihost would apply). Uh well, never good to send emails to our customer base "If you can not log in, please use someone else other than Afrihost or phone our customer care division".
Click to expand...

So why dont you just move to another ISP, then you do not need to complain about afrihost anymore.
 
I am with MWeb and have no issue - I am just raising a point which is completely ignored by Afrihost (or at least they choose not to communicate this properly) and affecting many of their users. At least for what it's worth, Maxmind is refreshing and updating the GeoIP DB based on a ticket we logged this morning. Can't really be that difficult - or?

I would be as simple as: "Hey, we screwed up, didn't check and confirm with GeoIP service providers that they refresh their location data - sorry about it, but we will do X, Y and Z to resolve it by XXXX". Since Saturday the lack of any response just leaves a very unprofessional impression (and yes, this issue might not affect some of you on this forum, but it certainly affects a large enough user base on my part to raise the issue).
 
MagicDude - Maxmind is paid service right? So is it not their job to make sure the data they supply is accurate ? Some of my clients is also affected by it, but they understand that it is the company that supply them the GeoIp service that have outdated information.

We also have services that use GeoIP services for the visitors and just fixed most of it ourselves.
 
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