can't access forums

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I've not been able to access wrong planet for a few days now, I just get a forbidden notice but I thought I would try the mobile site today and that worked but I still can't access the site on my main computers. The mobile site seems fine but I've only just realised today that I can use it. Is anyone else having problems.

No problems here, on any of my devices.

If you've been trying to access it via a 'bookmarked' or similar link, delete this and try just typing 'www.wrongplanet.net' into your address bar. It's possible that such a bookmark can only access the https version of the site, which is in fact no longer accessible (hence the 'forbidden' notice).

Every time I type it in, it just reloads the page to the https, I don't know what I'm doing wrong

I can only think that maybe you're using a security feature which enforces the https protocol, like 'https everywhere', for example. Or maybe such a feature is built into your browser? Or maybe it's a feature of your Antivirus system?

What browser, Antivirus and extensions are you using, if you don't mind me asking?

I don't use anti virus. I use Firefox extensions no script, adblock plus and ghostery. I have ublock origin too but currently turned off.

I'd be inclined to install Google Chrome or another browser, if you haven't already, then give that a try without any extensions. Can't think of any reason why that would block WP.

It's working fine for me in Firefox. I wouldn't suggest installing Chrome.

Have you tried disabling Ghostery?

Slight possibility it might be a DNS thing. Could try an alternate DNS or something.

Otherwise I have no clue.

I just tried getting WP on Firefox, which I usually only use as a backup browser. Was able to access it after deleting all bookmarked versions and selecting http mode with the 'Smart https' extension.

It still wasn't satisfactory though, as it came with that very dodgy 'malware' ad that's usually obscured by the 'Russian' YouTube link.

I then disabled all my Firefox extensions (Smart HTTPS, uBlock Origin and uMatrix) - this gave instant access to WP, though with ads on the pages.

Hope this might be of help as well.

I've finally solved it. The duck duck go extension was causing the browser to force https. Thanks anyway

Pleased to hear that!


By the way, it might not be such a good idea after all to run WP in Firefox without any protective extensions. After just a few minutes of doing so, I got two very strange pop ups, accompanied by a recommendation (supposedly from Mozilla) to update the browser. I bailed out of Firefox via Task Manager and checked its 'Help' page, which stated that it was fully up to date, then immediately reinstated the uMatrix extension, since when there has been no recurrence.

Here are the two pop ups. They may of course be legit, but I have grave doubts about that ('freerealapp.cool'?). Can anyone confirm one way or the other whether this is so?

I keep NoScript running, so I never get popups here (unless it's a PM notification).

That pop up definitely looks dodgey. I'm protected from things like that with no script. No script is the best thing I ever used on the net, much more useful than an anti virus and anti spy ware. It stops the threat right from the source. Anyway everything's running fine now, thanks for the help

I like it, but I hate when I'm at a somewhat dodgy site, and there are maybe 100 different scripts being blocked, and I can't figure out what I'm supposed to enable just to get some stupid "news" video to load

Then I decide I don't care and I close the window. Which is probably the best decision anyway =)