Ares in Mexico

[Brunocerous]

@faraday or anyone else who can help.

Hi! I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum for this question, but I arrived in Mexico today and I cannot connect to Ares central or any Ares central games or websites. I have no difficulty connecting to other websites, or to other games via my muclient. At first, I thought Ares was down, but connecting to mudstats showed me that 31 people were connected to Gray Harbor.

Is there a workaround or explanation for this connection issue?

[Derp]

I mean, it sounds like it's a product of the network that you're on. Possible firewall activity blocking some ports? I'm really not sure how to diagnose that without detailed network stats, and even then I'm not sure what could be done about it.

Can you connect from your phone without wifi?

[Brunocerous]

@Derp Yes. No issues at all via phone with international cell service, so it must have something to do with the network at the house. Just so weird that it isn't blocking other telnet addresses or websites.

[Derp]

Yeah, I'm really not sure. I'm not sure where the block is coming from, just based on that. If it's at your home device, for some reason, you would need administrator access to configure access, and if it's somewhere between you and the server you're connecting to, you're kind of screwed.

I really wish that there was more than that to offer, but that's the long and short of it. If something is playing goalie, you need the power to make it play nice, and that doesn't come easy.

[Derp]

Double-post: Can you tether in from your phone? That might be a way to bypass the network and still have some convenience like a keyboard and bigger screen.

[Brunocerous]

@Derp Starting to wade into super unfamiliar territory for me (in no way a tech-savvy person). By tether, do you mean like setting up a wireless hotspot via my phone and connecting that way?

[Derp]

@Brunocerous

Yes, that's exactly what I mean! That or through a usb cable. Some phones offer that functionality, too.

[Brunocerous]

@Derp Good suggestion. I'm going to try that out tomorrow after doing a little more research on my international plan, just to make sure I'm not asking for a massive bill. Thanks for the help!

[Derp]

@Brunocerous

No worries! Sorry that I don't have more to offer you on this one.

[SixRegrets]

Just so we're on the same page, you're unable to connect to:

1. https://arescentral.aresmush.com/ via a web browser

2. https://gray-harbor.com/ via a web browser

3. grey-harbor.com port 4201 via telnet/MU* client

Do you get an Ares-y looking loading screen on the GH website, by chance? If you're getting blocked by AresCentral for some reason, that can cause some issues loading the GH website.. I'm wondering if you might be running into an IP block that may have been put into place some time ago to combat a persistent troll.

[Brunocerous]

@SixRegrets You are correct in all three things.

When I try to connect to the first two, I get a message that the website is not responding.

When I try to connect via muclient (potato) it just hangs on the "Connecting to..." text. And then eventually: "Unable to connect to host gray-harbor.com:4201: connection timed out
Connection attempt cancelled. - 26/11/2020 - 21:59:26
Auto-reconnect in 5 minutes 30 seconds..." etc.

[SixRegrets]

Please post your public IP address from the computer you're trying to access from, or at least the first three sections of it. You can PM it to me if you wish. If you're not sure how to get that, you can find it here: https://whatismyipaddress.com/

[Brunocerous]

@SixRegrets Pv6: 2806:102e:18:204f:3180:e9fe:7e69:a41e

[SixRegrets]

@Brunocerous Is there an IPv4 address shown? If not, that could be a problem as well.

[Brunocerous]

@SixRegrets No, It says IPv4: Not detected.

[SixRegrets]

@Brunocerous That's a rather unusual configuration, but it makes sense that you wouldn't be able to connect if you only have an IPv6 address. Both AresCentral and Gray Harbor are hosted on Digital Ocean, and they do not enable IPv6 by default.

I'd suggest asking the person who controls the network at the house you're staying up how you can get an IPv4 address. You can also double check that you don't have an IPv4 address at: https://test-ipv6.com/ The first line SHOULD read: Your IPv4 address on the public Internet appears to be ###.###.###.###.

[Brunocerous]

@SixRegrets Thank you. I'll look into it. Even with the new site for the check you sent, I get:

" Your IPv6 address on the public Internet appears to be 2806:102e:18:204f:3180:e9fe:7e69:a41e

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) appears to be Uninet S.A. de C.V.

Since you have IPv6, we are including a tab that shows how well you can reach other IPv6 sites. [more info]

No IPv4 address detected

You appear to be able to browse the IPv6 Internet only. You have no access to IPv4. That's pretty bold!

HTTPS support on this web site is in beta. [more info]

Your DNS server (possibly run by your ISP) appears to have IPv6 Internet access."

I will see what I can do about IPv4, though I doubt anyone here is tech savvy enough to know how to even go about something like that. I may just have to suck it up for a week.

[Auspice]

That is a very strange to have only IPv6 setup.
When they got the internet installed, the installer must not have configured the v4 also.

They could prob call the ISP and see if it can be enabled (some ISPs can remotely pop into the router and adjust things for you if it's a router provided by them!).

[faraday]

@Brunocerous said in Ares in Mexico:

You appear to be able to browse the IPv6 Internet only. You have no access to IPv4. That's pretty bold!

Yeah, as others have said, that's very uncommon and undoubtedly the root of the issue. Many websites support v4 only. (hence the "pretty bold" comment above). Ares can support either v4 or v6, but not both due to a limitation in the underlying telnet library it's using. So Ares games run on v4 for maximal compatibility.

[Ghost]

I could never connect to MUs at my favorite coffee house because disabling incoming telnet connections on port 22 is standard firewall security these days. Telnet is a massive security risk.

The IPv6 thing is weird. I'd suspect that first and if it still fails I would suspect a telnet block.