Expat.com web page suddenly unreachable

I cant open Expat on my cellphone, but can on my laptop.

Not recently, but once in a while, the same thing happened to me.  I simply went on with other things and came back later.   I figure any website would have to right itself eventually, and there are always on-going projects to occupy my time.

Ciambella wrote:

Not recently, but once in a while, the same thing happened to me.  I simply went on with other things and came back later.   I figure any website would have to right itself eventually, and there are always on-going projects to occupy my time.

I havent been able to logon to Expat blog on my phone for 3 months.

Whoa.  Three months is a long time.  Julien needs better IT staff.

Changed the password, still cant logon.I can read posts on my phone but just cant logon.

Today same. Can't reach Expat.com by my computer (without VPN).
If I can open the Expat.com by another way (phone or computer via VPN), then the web page is generally reachable.

I read in other forums about blocked IP addresses.
Normally I do not believe in such things so quickly.
But it really looks like it. 

colinoscapee wrote:

Changed the password, still cant logon.I can read posts on my phone but just cant logon.

I had a similar case in the past.
The problem was that I set a password with symbol characters by the computer.
But the phone can't handle those characters and sent wrong characters to the login.
Can you set the option "indicate password" at your phone? Maybe you can see witch character is wrong. Or temporary enter a simple password by the computer.

@Andy Passenger

Once it happened to me as well.  I had  the same feeling of 'getting blocked'.
However it got back to normal in a few hours.
At the moment I can access it both on computer and on my cell phone from different locations, no problem.
I think it's a technical issue related to data-traffic, bandwidth etc.

Andy Passenger wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Changed the password, still cant logon.I can read posts on my phone but just cant logon.

I had a similar case in the past.
The problem was that I set a password with symbol characters by the computer.
But the phone can't handle those characters and sent wrong characters to the login.
Can you set the option "indicate password" at your phone? Maybe you can see witch character is wrong. Or temporary enter a simple password by the computer.

I had the password set by the technician at Expat and it still wont work.

colinoscapee wrote:

I had the password set by the technician at Expat and it still wont work.

I think the problem comes from your phone's cache or sync. Did you try "factory reset" (careful: it may delete some user-installed apps) ? 
I let Chrome remember my password on my cell and so far no problem in signing into Expat.com.

senwl wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

I had the password set by the technician at Expat and it still wont work.

I think the problem comes from your phone's cache or sync. Did you try "factory reset" (careful: it may delete some user-installed apps) ? 
I let Chrome remember my password on my cell and so far no problem in signing into Expat.com.

I just did a complete update and its still the same. I login with my details and just keeps going back to the login screen.The 'forgot password" link also doesn't work.

colinoscapee wrote:

I just did a complete update and its still the same. I login with my details and just keeps going back to the login screen.The 'forgot password" link also doesn't work.

Check if 'cookies' are allowed on your browser or not.
Open Chrome --> click on three dots (top right corner) ---> select 'settings' ---> select 'site settings' --- select 'cookies'.
Allow cookies. The 'Javascript' and 'background sync'  options too should stay 'allowed'.
Now go back and try to log into Expat.
Hope it helps.

senwl wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

I just did a complete update and its still the same. I login with my details and just keeps going back to the login screen.The 'forgot password" link also doesn't work.

Check if 'cookies' are allowed on your browser or not.
Open Chrome --> click on three dots (top right corner) ---> select 'settings' ---> select 'site settings' --- select 'cookies'.
Allow cookies. The 'Javascript' and 'background sync'  options too should stay 'allowed'.
Now go back and try to log into Expat.
Hope it helps.

Thanks mate, the cookies tab was not on. As soon as I changed it...bingo.

colinoscapee wrote:

Thanks mate, the cookies tab was not on. As soon as I changed it...bingo.

🍻 Cheers!!

Ciambella wrote:

Whoa.  Three months is a long time.  Julien needs better IT staff.

No other country has a problem, so maybe it's the country you are in's fault?

I'm in the same country as Colin and Andy, and I didn't have any problem accessing the site, so I don't think we can blame the country. 

In this case, we now know Colin forgot to allow cookies in his setting, but most of the time, who knows why things happen the way they do.  That's why it's a joke to blame the computer or the ITs since the computers cannot answer back and the ITs are too busy to defend themselves.

I often said the same thing when any reader of my blog had a complaint, that I needed a better app creator, better IT, and better admin (all of them happened to be the same person: my son-in-law.)  He simply went on rewriting this line or adding that line to fix the problem and never said one word back.  No one actually blames the people who make things work, it's only a passing thing that people say.

Now I can again normal open Expat.com.
I don't know what the reason of the problem was.

Same computer, same place (same apartment router).
But about 1-2 days I can't open Expat.com directly through the apartment router.
Only with the enabled VPN connection (through the same apartment router) it worked always without any problems. The only difference with enabled VPN connection is that my computer is viewed as a computer from another country (with another IP address of course). 

I've always accessed expat.com with the existing IP and VPN both (I use PIA), without difficulty or the need to do anything extra. The ones that require a verification code every time we access the sites -- meaning every day since we moved here -- are Amazon and our banks, and they've been doing that no matter which method we use.

Andy Passenger wrote:

Now I can again normal open Expat.com.
I don't know what the reason of the problem was.

Same computer, same place (same apartment router).
But about 1-2 days I can't open Expat.com directly through the apartment router.
Only with the enabled VPN connection (through the same apartment router) it worked always without any problems. The only difference with enabled VPN connection is that my computer is viewed as a computer from another country (with another IP address of course). 

Here's my suggestion for you...
Next time you've difficulty in accessing Expat.com, just pack your laptop and move to a coffee shop or somewhere else. ... in short, to a different Network.
Try it from several locations (read on different Networks).

The fact that you can access Expat.com through VPN proves there's nothing wrong with the site's server response. The problem is right here inside Vietnam.

Vietnam's internet connectivity, especially bandwidth and data-traffic volume, fluctuates all the time.
Doesn't matter if your ISP says a certain **GB upload/download speed etc. .... it's hardly consistent.

You can check it by 'ping'-ing different websites from your shell (command) prompt. You will see if you keep the pings running for a certain period of time, response times (intervals) from the sites' servers keep fluctuating.
Sometimes pings even fail to get a response and return 'request timed out'.

Why it happens, only FPT, VietTel, VNPT and others can tell.
Even when the undersea cables are broken, not all of us get affected at the same time. Do we?

VPN doesn't necessarily re-route your IP request. For that purpose we use Proxy Server/s.
VPN essentially creates a private, secure (encrypted) and exclusive P2P (point-to-point/port-to-port) IP tunnel for direct communication between your computer and the site's server.
Rather than masquerading as a randomly generated IP, VPN uses encryption and authentication to safeguard its private communication channel.
VPN, usually a paid service, is chiefly used to access corporate Intranets.

In other words, VPN creates a private direct connection between your PC and the site's server while still using the same public network provided by your local ISP.
That's how it can bypass any firewall or filter placed on your ISP's public network.

Sorry for being a bit too technical. Hope it's not totally  on this thread.

senwl wrote:

Here's my suggestion for you...
Next time you've difficulty in accessing Expat.com, just pack your laptop and move to a coffee shop or somewhere else. ... in short, to a different Network.
Try it from several locations (read on different Networks).

Thank you for your suggestion.

Generally I can solve such problems by VPN or by using my mobile phone as hotspot.
Normally such connectivity problems are only short-lived.
I only asked here because I read in another thread about blocked IP addresses.

senwl wrote:

Sorry for being a bit too technical. Hope it's not totally  on this thread.

I thinks nowadays a lot of people have good IT skills.