Can't access the forum

It does sound like some sort of software is blocking the connections to the forum. Perhaps parts of it are still active/installed somehow? I’m not familiar with McAfee, sorry.

I can’t recommend you to disable your security software or anti-virus — those are important to have around. But perhaps you can check if there’s a way to whitelist community.postcrossing.com if that’s indeed what’s messing up things?

Paulo, I tried everything from deactivating firewalls, uninstalling antivirus, reinstalling browsers and cleaning the computer, resetting network settings, allowed website settings, etc, etc. Nothing worked. Even if I could momentarily enter the website, it didn’t show any updates - it’s like it was stuck in the last time I replied.

Almost quitting when I decided to follow one last step: Changing Proxy Settings via Registry Editor.

Ah now I can enter, the website is updated, I can enter the message box and apparently I can reply. So it seems it worked? Let’s hope so! I don’t understand why this specific website - everything else is working fine - but hopefully it’s solved now. Thank you!

Have you de-installed it with the McAfee Removal Tool? Else it might be that it’s not fully removed and still blocking somehow.

Oh no, I didn’t. I will try it now because apparently the proxy thing didn’t work either. :pensive:

Nope. It didn’t work either. I did that and then restarted the computer and the issue is still there. Thank you anyway, @Cassiopheia!

Honestly I don’t know what more can I do. :pensive:

I searched for “the issue + discourse” and I found out a page where someone describes exactly my situation. The problem is I can’t understand the solution. Can someone explain it to me what and where is this, please? :thinking:

This is the original post if you want to read and understand what is going on.

I’m afraid that solution doesn’t apply here (they had that forum wrongly set up).

:thinking: Does your internet connection require a proxy? If you don’t know, it probably doesn’t. And if one is set up, you may need to remove it from the settings? Long shot, but maybe?

Also: do you use a VPN? If so, can you turn it off while debugging this so that there’s one less thing that gets on the way (at least until we figure this out).

I use VPN, but it was one of the first things I took out of the way when starting to understand what was going on: first by turning it off, then by uninstalling it completely. It didn’t work out.

I did few more things after the last message but the issue was still there, so ultimately I did a reset to factory settings last night.
I just came up to the website and it seems to be working fine. I will test around this weekend if it does or doesn’t work and I will give you feedback next week so we can either close this thread or tackle a new strategy. Thank you! :slightly_smiling_face:

Yay!

I thought this was a computer (eg: not a tablet). Do you mean you had to reinstall everything from scratch to get it to work? :anguished:

It’s happening again. Last time I had these issues and I solved it by resetting my computer to factory settings. Don’t feel like doing it again… :sweat_smile:

The process is the same (forum starts loading) but the message now is this one:

I don’t know what to do. Every other website works perfectly and I can access thr forum in other devices (unfortunately not the computer which is what I need). :pensive:

Oh my, a “protocol violation that cannot be repaired” sounds as serious as it is mysterious. :worried:

Googling that message got me these tips. My guess is that you have tried them already, but can you double check?

If that doesn’t do it, can you try starting Firefox in Safe Mode?

I tried those tips again + your safe mode suggestion + deactivating the antivirus (not using vpn at the moment either). It doesn’t work. Now the message is:

Do you think it might be something like this or not at all? :thinking:

Edited to add: tried in different browsers and it keeps happening.

My guess is that it’s unrelated, but let’s give it a try: if you message me your IP address, I’ll have a look.

Also, can check if https://amibehindaproxy.com/ tells you if you are using a proxy?

No proxyserver detected. that was the results. Is that the issue? :thinking:

I will message you my IP now.

Nop, that is fine and the IP didn’t solve it either.

Let’s try a different approach.

When you say computer, do you mean laptop or a desktop? If it is a laptop, do you have an easy way to connect it to a different internet connection (eg: at work/school, coffeeshop, etc) to experiment if it works there? My thinking here is that perhaps something in your internet connection is interfering with the connection of that specific device (odd, but not impossible).

And speaking of devices, on the same internet connection that that computer using (I assume home wifi?), are you able to connect to the forum using another device, say, a smartphone? I deduce that’s probably how you have been working around this issue? Does that work fine?

Maybe it’s javascript or something?

I don’t think so as @alter3ch0 can’t even connect to the forum to load any Javascript from what I can understand, and that happens with multiple browsers. The errors are quite unusual and seem to be at the connection level: either in her computer, or the connection (home router, internet provider, …)

Weeks later…

I believe it was the anti-virus/web protection thingy. I believe the reason it didn’t work out the first time I removed it and used the cleaning app to erase any signs of it was the fact that… it didn’t clean that well. :joy: Reason why it only worked when I reset the laptop to factory settings.

From what I’ve read online, this anti-virus is super ultra mega… intense. Super aggressive and intense. Which is fine to protect the computer, but it’s not cool when it assumes that certain websites are going to bring the apocalypse to the system - and not assuming my orders to put the website as an exception.

I managed to uninstall and really clean it this time. I’m using another one and I haven’t had any issues accessing the website since then.

Good to go. This was getting weird. :sweat_smile: Thank you for patience! We can close this thread now. :slightly_smiling_face:

Thank you for sharing what you found and I’m glad it got sorted in the end.

Any chance you can share the name of that anti-virus? Just because if something similar happens, that will be a helpful clue. If you prefer, send it via PM.

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