Site not displaying properly

[transporter]

Yes, there is an abundance of info, only problem is I don’t have admin rights to a lot of things on the system so my hands are tied, it just seems strange to me that one day it works the next it doesn’t, and the fact that I use other watch/clock forums aswell and none of them are displaying as this one does.

[clockboy]

I have been following this for a while with interest. I know little about IT and use a Mac. However I found this vid on YouTube which basically shows the different options to try including trying a different browser.

 

[transporter]

Right gents this is still a problem, I’ve tried everything, and I can only put it down to the way this forum is being coded to different OS across platforms, and to different search engines, I can only run google chrome on windows 7 on my laptop ( works laptop ) on my old home laptop running XP and internet explorer and the wife’s works laptop running windows 10 and internet explorer and google chrome etc. 
so I’ll have to wait until I get a new works laptop to be able to view the forum on a big screen whilst at work etc 

[xyzzy]

On 4/5/2021 at 5:53 AM, jdm said:

That is technically impossible. WRT (just like any other serious website of the world)  uses HTTPS with which all the content exchanged, including which page is being accessed, is encrypted end to end.

It is quite possible.  While https is encrypted end-to-end, one of those ends is the laptop in question.  To which the IT department can do just about anything they want.  It's very possible for a browser extension to block certain websites but not others, or filter certain kinds of content.  While the data is encrypted as it is transported over the Internet, it must be decrypted to be used, and that is the point where things like anti-virus software, porn filters, advertisement injection trojans, and keep-employees-from-browsing-on-the-clock software jumps in to do its thing.

It is also possible to intercept https traffic in the middle by an impostor acting as the other party (i.e. watchrepairtalk), observing the data, and the forwarding it on to the real site.  What is supposed to happen, is that the website's cert is supposed to prevent impostors.  Maybe you've gotten the scary looking warning page about this site's cert is invalid and maybe not who you think it is, etc. etc.?  It's almost always because the site forgot to renew their cert and has let it expire.

So it's not supposed to be possible, but the IT department can configure your computer to make it possible.  Configure a proxy that does this.  Add an authority to the browser's trust store that is used to get it to accept fraudulent certs.  In some countries this is standard practice.  https does not thwart the great firewall of China.

[jdm]

1 hour ago, xyzzy said:

It is quite possible.  While https is encrypted end-to-end, one of those ends is the laptop in question.  To which the IT department can do just about anything they want. 

Technically that is correct, at the same time it doesn't make much sense for an IT dep.t to go to such lengths when they can simply block an entire website that they don't want you to see.

Quote

Maybe you've gotten the scary looking warning page about this site's cert is invalid and maybe not who you think it is, etc. etc.?  It's almost always because the site forgot to renew their cert and has let it expire.

Fortunately WRT security certificate has not expired, neither has in the past. Furthermore, our Host Mark has chosen a platform with some extra features above the standard minumum requirements:

• ECC (elliptical curve cryptography) TLS  certificate 
• QUIC transport, while not specifically a security feature, it provides a faster data delivery.
• AES 128 GCM (Galois Counter Mode)

While these terms are Arabic to the uninitiated, they simply means that  just accessing and posting on this site is secure and private - even if there isn't anything to hide!

[xyzzy]

5 hours ago, jdm said:

Technically that is correct, at the same time it doesn't make much sense for an IT dep.t to go to such lengths when they can simply block an entire website that they don't want you to see.

Unlikely that they are blocking this site specifically.  More likely it is caught by something meant for another purpose as a side effect.  Consider if one takes the phrase, "The pen is mightier," removes the spaces, and then looks for other words that might now appear and why this might get blocked.

The incorrect display looks somewhat like the css style sheet did not load but the rest of the site did.

5 hours ago, jdm said:

Fortunately WRT security certificate has not expired, neither has in the past. 

That was given as an example of the system used to prevent imposters from eavesdropping and manipulating supposedly secure https connections working as intended.  The IT department that controls the laptop can easily circumvent this.

[orhandemir]

Try purging cache and cookies

[transporter]

Well gents I’ll give you an update on my predicament. I now have a new works laptop running windows 10, and guess what……. I still can’t get this site to display correctly, it’s so bad it’s unworkable.

ive tried google chrome, Microsoft edge, and explorer and it will not display on any of these.

So I can only guess that there is a problem with either the script or because of the amount of adverts now in the site the high security I have on my laptop will not allow the site to display.

Every other site from NAWCC to RWG display fine. 
So I’ve given up!!!!

[jdm]

42 minutes ago, transporter said:

 because of the amount of adverts

At this time one can use an ad blocker on WRT.

 

42 minutes ago, transporter said:

now in the site the high security I have on my laptop will not allow the site to display.

I don't know what kind of  "high security" is that, but if it's impeding WRT to display then isn't doing its job correctly, because WRT is secure and passes verification:

[transporter]

Thought I would close this thread down, Just logged onto the forum and its working, the only thing that seems to be different to the when it wasnt working is all the adverts seem to of been removed from the site. 

So I can only assume that it was the adverts that were causing the issue.