perstant problems accessing kubuntu forums

[bobbicat]

I am an ancient [in my seventies] and thoroughly decrepit computer user. I thought I'd post a little of my experiences in the computer world.

I've been having a problem accessing Kubuntu Forums. This has been happening on and off for more than a year. More recently even the warning script stopped displaying.

I went on IRC a few weeks ago and was lead to believe I had been banned here, though I've no idea why this should be.
This year I couldn't get anything at all when trying to access the Forum and before that access had been intermittant.

I tried yet again today [Christmas eve 2020] and I got this error message page saying:

STOP! READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING! STOP!

This website runs a protection script to keep spammers, bots, and other unwanted connections away ... and the protection script found a problem with your connection.

This time this message was included:

The reason(s) your connection was interrupted are:
Please upgrade your browser, as yours is severely out of date (EOLB-1/C).

I am using Falkon browser from the Kubuntu repositories. My installation is up to date. I thought Falkon was KDE based, do I have to stop using it?

Originally I was having some problems installing Gorilla and had hoped to get advice here on the Forum. I went back to the LTS version after not being able to get support. To be honest I've forgotten what the issue was now and am thoroughly discouraged. I've been using Kubuntu for many years, right from the second or third release, in fact. Kubuntu has given good reliable service and I have always in the past been able to get support and assistance when needed.

I didn't change browser [from Falkon], by the way, just switched it to private mode and connection occurred without a problem. I wish I'd discovered this workaround at the beginning.

I am 'a problem'? I represent an unwanted connection, to be 'kept away'?

So, there is a problem. Is it the wording, is it me, is it the browser Falkon, is it my operating system Kubuntu or is it something elsewhere?

Will I be able to access these forums in the future? Or will I be blocked again? Should I start looking around for an alternative O.S.?
I don't often need support but it is reassuring if you know that there is somewhere to go if there is a problem.

[Snowhog]

I really wish you would follow through when you receive the blocking screen (the 403 screen). There is a link you click on to generate an email to us (me actually; I'm the one who works these issues). The generated email gives you the option to add additional information, which is HIGHLY recommended; tells us what you were doing, where you were doing it, that sort of thing. It helps me to better isolate the cause and work on a permanent solution.

The issue with Falkon is the Chromium browser core it uses; it isn't up to date, and it's this older/out of date Chromium browser core that our protection script isn't happy with. Anyone, not just you, who uses Falkon and tries to reach KFN is going to have this issue. I'll look in to this and see if I can get a bypass rule put together so that Falkon users (at least, recent versions of Falkon) won't get blocked.

[TWPonKubuntu]

@Snowhog, thanks for the info about the Falkon browser using the Chromium core code. I flushed Falkon from my system because of that. I now have an additional element to my personal firewall (not the Linux firewall, just my own warning system for which software to allow on my systems).

[GreyGeek]

I've switched to Waterfox G3.0.2 and it is working great for me on 99% of all sites.
My /etc/hosts file is 2,456,149 bytes and contains most of Google's, FB's, Twitter's, Instagram's and some other sites URL, sending them to 127.0.0.1. You'd be surprised how fast your browsing speeds up when their tracking bots are NOT draining your bandwidth. Just checking, I see two M$ bots knocking on my back door. They are in the range:
40.120.0.0/14, 40.125.0.0/17, 40.80.0.0/12, 40.124.0.0/16, 40.96.0.0/12, 40.74.0.0/15, 40.112.0.0/13, 40.76.0.0/14

[Snowhog]

I've disabled one of the rules. Try using Falkon again to reach us, but 'normally'; don't switch it to private mode.

[bobbicat]

I've disabled one of the rules. Try using Falkon again to reach us, but 'normally'; don't switch it to private mode.

Unfortunately I was unable to see this, your post, as I could not access the site, getting a short message something like 'site not available at this time', in Falkon and also Firefox, in the browser window.
I did not get the standard warning screen.

Since this time and since exchanging emails I now appear to have full access to kubuntu forums again. This is at 29th Dec 2020. Falkon and Firefox will display KFN on my PC.

@greygeek thanks for your info, I will take a look at Waterfox.

[bobbicat]

*addition*

I've browsed around amongst the forum threads and it seems that what I was getting was a '503 screen' which is apparently a hard block and the reason I could find no way to resolve my problem.

[Worzel]

I've had the 503 error for some three weeks until today when everything came up as normal - using Firefox without problem for some years
I managed to log on recently via android mobile but small screen and dodgy eyesight made searching for a solution almost impossible!

Now must catch up on reading...

[bobbicat]

I've had the 503 error for some three weeks until today when everything came up as normal - using Firefox without problem for some years
I managed to log on recently via android mobile but small screen and dodgy eyesight made searching for a solution almost impossible!

Now must catch up on reading...

I am pleased for you and hope the problem is sorted for good.

[DoYouKubuntu]

I know this is late, but I only recently had the OP's problem, and since my solution solved it I thought I'd post. I had JUST upgraded SeaMonkey. On my first attempt to visit here, I got the infamous:

STOP! READ THIS BEFORE CONTINUING! STOP!

This website runs a protection script to keep spammers, bots, and other unwanted connections away ... and the protection script found a problem with your connection.

I went into SM's settings and changed its User Agent String to identify as SeaMonkey and advertise Firefox compatibility. I closed and reopened SM and, voila!, success.

The moral of the story, in my case, was simply feeding KFN a user agent string it liked. YMMV.