Can't connect to server in the UAE

[9a3eedi]

Hi,

I was staying in Canada for a bit and I decided to get into folding, so I downloading the client and it was working fine there. At the same time, I had some friends in the UAE who were trying to join the team, but they were saying that the client can't connect to the server for some reason. I thought maybe it was their router, because I remember a long time ago, the client was working fine in the UAE. Anyway, I just came back, and I tried using the client, but it seems to be having issues connecting to the server. Since we use different routers, I'm doubting that the router is the actual problem.. perhaps there's something in the ISP end?

Here's the last couple of lines from the log:

Code: Select all

[12:22:06] + Attempting to get work packet
[12:22:06] - Connecting to assignment server
[12:22:27] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[12:22:27] + Could not connect to Assignment Server
[12:22:29] - Successful: assigned to (171.67.108.59).
[12:22:29] + News From Folding@Home: Welcome to Folding@Home
[12:22:29] Loaded queue successfully.
[12:22:29] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[12:22:29]   (Got status 501)
[12:22:29] + Could not connect to Work Server
[12:22:29] - Attempt #9  to get work failed, and no other work to do.
Waiting before retry.
[12:43:53] + Attempting to get work packet
[12:43:53] - Connecting to assignment server
[12:44:15] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[12:44:15] + Could not connect to Assignment Server
[12:44:16] - Successful: assigned to (171.67.108.59).
[12:44:16] + News From Folding@Home: Welcome to Folding@Home
[12:44:16] Loaded queue successfully.
[12:44:17] - Couldn't send HTTP request to server
[12:44:17]   (Got status 501)
[12:44:17] + Could not connect to Work Server
[12:44:17] - Attempt #10  to get work failed, and no other work to do. Waiting before retry.

And it continues like that, it keeps attempting.

Has anybody living in the UAE encountered this problem? And is there any workaround or a fix? Keep in mind that the UAE has some moderate internet censorship, but f@h does not fall into any of the sort of categories that the UAE censors, and there shouldn't be a problem at all. I can browse the website just fine without any issues.

Thanks,

[bruce]

From UAE, are you able to open http://171.67.108.59 in your browser? I get a blank page, which is correct. I expect you'll get an error message, and if so, it's highly likely that it's the censors.

The results of tracert 171.67.108.59 (or traceroute) might shed some additional light on the problem.

You'll probably get the same results to any server that's listed with a 1 in the column with the title "80" here: http://fah-web.stanford.edu/serverstat.html.

[9a3eedi]

Ah, I see the problem. For some reason, the ISP doesn't like it when someone opens an ip address (as opposed to a hostname) via http. It's retarded, not sure why they even do that.

hmm.. I'll see what I can do to work around it, unless there's another workaround? like using a different protocol?

EDIT: the hostname for that IP is vsp12b.Standford.edu , and if I open that in my browser, it works fine.. I get a blank page though. Also, a tracert completes properly too. The problem is that the ISP doesn't like people opening IP addresses with HTTP. any other protocol should be fine. HTTPS would work too, but that server doesn't seem to support it.

[bruce]

Does tracert work?

Data connections to the servers all use http. All servers will accept connections on port 8080 and most will accept connections on port 80 (those with the "1"). FAH was designed to work in the typical home or office environment where port 8080 might be blocked but where the browser should always be able to use http on port 80. There's not much we can do if you live in a country that has decided to censor the internet. There probably are ways to bypass the censors, but even if I knew how (which I don't) I wouldn't want to advise you and end up getting you into legal trouble with your government.

You can try http://http://171.67.108.59:8080/ but I don't expect it to help.

[9a3eedi]

I know of ways to bypass the censors, and they won't land me into legal trouble at all lol unless I do something wrong, but I'm not really looking for those as they're kinda complicated.. The censorship here isn't exactly intentional though, I think they do it in order to prevent botnets from spreading or something. If you think about it, F@H is like a botnet ... a nice botnet that asks for permission and cures cancer.

It's a shame though because it used to work fine a while back.

tracert definately works. It's just the HTTP that doesn't work with IP addresses (instead of hostnames). I've sent an email to the ISP to see if they can add an exception or something.

EDIT: I just thought of a workaround I can try out now.. basically it involves modifying the hosts file so that all requests to an IP gets resolved to a hostname instead. Not sure if this'll work though.

[toTOW]

This is a problem that has already been reported by users in UAE ... try to search for these threads.

Anyway, a VPN or a proxy (warning : FAH doesn't support all kind of proxies) accessible with an URL should bypass this limitation.

[9a3eedi]

Actually I tried googling for this issue but I couldn't find anything, so I posted here.

A VPN is too "complicated" and too "global" for my needs. I'll find a way somehow.. still haven't tried the hosts stuff.

[MtM]

I know there should be a guide/thread on overclock.net where a folder from UAE used TOR to get around the block I just can't find it. I can't find the how to's on this forum as well.

So, since people got pointed to tor I'm pretty sure this won't work but maybe it's a try: if it's a dns block ( which it sounds like, your isp's dns server doesn't resolve ip's to host addresses ) wouldn't using an open/free dns like google fix your problem?

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as dns server in either your router or computer settings.

Your isp will probably override the dns settings though, so even if you configure google dns or opendns you would likely still be using your isp's dns servers.

If not, adding each server ip and actual host name to the host file might work ( as I think you we're going to try already ).

I wouldn't want to use tor, it's slow and I think the servers will time out often

Good luck!

[9a3eedi]

tor would work, but as you said it's too slow and another problem is that it also "Takes over" the entire computer's internet connection, which is a pain. I'm not sure about using openDNS or whatever, but I don't think that'll work, but I could try at least. Thanks for the suggestion though.

still haven't tried the host file yet. very busy these days lol

[jrweiss]

Actually I tried googling for this issue but I couldn't find anything, so I posted here.

A VPN is too "complicated" and too "global" for my needs. I'll find a way somehow.. still haven't tried the hosts stuff.

A VPN need not be complicated; I use one from Witopia (https://www.witopia.net/welcome.php) routinely from my laptop. I travel extensively and have found their personal SSL VPN to be easy to use and extremely valuable, especially in the UAE and China. Their customer support is also among the best I've had from any on-line-only entity.

Once you install the client, all you do is click on the system tray icon and choose a server after your basic Internet connection is established. The rest is automatic. If the VPN connection fails for any reason, your Internet connection is blocked completely and the icon turns yellow, preventing any open connections. The VPN bypasses the censors, since your connection to the Internet appears to be a single connection to the Witopia server. They have a multitude of servers to choose from, around the world.

[9a3eedi]

Huh... it's working, and I know why.

My ISP is Etisalat, it's always been Etisalat, and etisalat has always had this stupid IP HTTP filter. There's another ISP called "du", and it's pretty new to the market (like 5-6 years now?). I took my laptop to another guy's house who has an internet connection by du, and it turns out that F@H was connecting just fine on his connection, so I guess that means that du's internet does not have that stupid IP filter. Etisalat has always had this IP filter since god knows when, and they probably forgot about it by now lol (and they probably stopped caring too). Just to restate, F@H is not illegal here in any way, this censorship is purely an unintentional sideeffect of filtering out HTTP requests to IP addresses, so it's not like I'll be getting into any trouble or anything lol.

So I guess F@H would work on an internet connection that is managed by du. Interesting, but I doubt I'll be switching anytime soon. But it's good information for anyone who runs into this thread in the future, so I decided to post this as a headsup.


Also, I realize how VPN's work, but I really don't want to pay a yearly fee for them as I really don't need them. The censorship here isn't that bad and so I feel that VPN's aren't what I'm looking for. I'm looking for an easy way to bypass, perhaps like an option switch in F@H or something to use hostnames rather than IP's.. but whatever.