Apologies if this is the wrong place to raise this.
The issue is, I can’t access the forum on my PC. However, I can still fire it up on my 'phone, and my wife can get the forum up on her computer. I have the blogs etc pages, but can’t see the fora.
Simple question: as I can see that the forum is working, but I can’t access it on my regular computer, is this likely to be a problem at my end ( although I can access the rest of the Internet) or is it simply that I have had my BP account frozen over Christmas? I’m not trying to put anyone on the spot, just asking ahead of returning to work tomorrow… Mods feels free to answer via PM if you would rather.
Have you tried disabling your firewall, if any? Also disable any anti-virus software. It could be a DNS issue, meaning you’d need to change the DNS server address in your network properties (control panel) to an address other than your ISP’s. I think there is an app called OpenDNS that you can use for it.
Try it on another browser that you haven’t used before eg chrome, Firefox and opera. If you have rapport (anti virus) you may have accidentally blocked that section although i suspect that’s highly unlikely. If that doesn’t work, it’s most likely something more technical as highlighted by PureMuscle
Crikey. Thanks very much for the responses, guys - unfortunately the solutions look like exceeding my computer talent.
If I can trouble you with another question: the BP forum is literally the only area of the Internet I have found so far which is giving me this problem. I can even get on other fora - including a boxing one that must surely give my security software more pause than BP?! That said, at midnight New Year’s Eve I did change security providers (although I did not change computer). But my question is, can it really be my firewall if it is only affecting his portion of this site? I can access the blogs and school fine.
Just to follow up, I tried disabling my firewall and it made no difference. I can access the entire Internet except for the BP fora. I feel as though I have been banned but missed the memo lol.
I’m posting now on my 'phone which is not great. Any thoughts or ideas enormously welcome!
That’s very kind, thank you. I use IE9 but will look at trying an alternative and see whether that fixes it. I will also go through your kindly linked thread - although will wait to borrow my wife’s iPad later on, I think, as we’re stretching my iPhone talents somewhat.
I logged out of BP an now it won’t let me sign back in - I simply get 404 page not found’ so I’m a bit stuck. The forum on BP remains the only thing I can’t get to.
It’s very suspicious that when you changed anti virus provider, your access to the fora stopped. Try stopping the anti virus service and seeing if that lets you in. If it does, that’s the cause. I can feel your frustration but don’t smash your PC!!
If you’d rather not fiddle with the DNS settings, then I can understand, but I’m virtually certain that would be the problem, especially if it’s just one website.
Sorry you’re having these issues. Definitely not how we want you starting the new year. The Forums is a special place, technically-speaking, compared to the other areas of our website (School, Blogs, Tools). It’s the only section connected as a sub-domain and not a subdirectory (forums.babypips.com versus babypips.com/forums), and incidentally the section people have the most problem connecting to when there is a connection issue.
Here’s a general list of things to try whenever you have connection issues to any areas of the website, or any other websites for that matter:
-Clear your web browser’s temporary Internet cache/history. This varies by browser but usually entails accessing your browser settings or options and clearing/deleting the files. A web search for “IE9 clear cache” should get you specific instructions.
-Reboot your computer. You won’t believe how many problems this simple task can help fix or prevent.
-Flush your DNS. I’ll leave you with that phrase and instructions. The instructions cover most operating systems.
-Disable antivirus/firewall. As others have mentioned, firewall is often a culprit in preventing access to websites. Security suites often require you to dig deep into the settings to find out how to disable the firewall.
-Confirm your browser security settings. 3rd party software can make changes to your browser security settings in some instances, limited access to some websites that haven’t been manually approved.
-If all else fails, reboot your home Internet/Broadband router.
-If your device with the connection issue is mobile, trying connecting to another Internet source, like a neighbor’s network, your office, or a hotspot. See if the connection problem follows you (device issue), or if it goes away (location issue).
Please let us know if any of this helps. Good luck!
The headline is that I am now back on BabyPips on my main PC - in the end I could not make IE9 play ball, but have downloaded Google Chrome and that seems to be running the fora fine. So I guess I will run the two in tandem from now on, using Chrome simply as a BP interface.
Good morning you three. I did not quote each of your replies here verbatim - this would risk turning out even longer than one of my regular posts! - but I want to thank each of you for taking the time to post some thoughts on this issue. I tried all of the various things you suggested - with help from Mrs Templar, I’m ashamed to admit - and am appreciative of all of it. Although I’m relatively young and an avid gamer, and a heavy internet user, I am disappointingly mystified as soon as Windows stops doing what I want it to. So thank you for the various suggestions, you kept me focussed on moving forwards trying practical solutions rather than throwing the PC in the bin and sobbing gently into a cushion.
Good morning Pipstradamus,
Thank you for the various ideas in there. As you asked for feedback on what worked, I thought I’d respond to your post in detail.
I tried each of the things you suggest - it was a very helpful checklist, I just followed it in order (with a little help from Claire (Mrs Templar)). In my defence I’ll say that our home Internet system, wireless network router etc are supplied by her employer (Thomson-Reuters) so I really shouldn’t fiddle around with settings without her present. Of course, I could also simply confess that even rebooting the router causes me to pause for a moment’s thought, but let’s move on…
The device giving me the issue is not mobile - it’s a (less than a year old) PC hooked up to two monitors at our kitchen table, it’s my regular trading desktop, not shared with any other users. BP is one of my regular homepages, so fires up with me already logged in to my account and on the ‘forum’ page as soon as I boot up the PC. The vast majority of my BP use is on this computer, although I also use the App on iPhone and, recently, iPad. The App browsing has still been working fine (although means no charts, no ‘like’ button etc), but it is the main PC that dropped BP. It fired up your green header, but gave me a ‘page not found’ prompt followed by the number ‘404’. I logged out of SimonTemplar and it would not let me log back in (same prompt). So I could access the blogs as a guest, but not get into the fora.
I was on a free trial of a a bundled security package (Bullguard, new one on me) for 2012, but this expired at midnight on 31st December. I did not want to renew, so subscribed to the full package from McAfee, whom I had used before. Everything worked normally except for the BP forum. Following the various responses to this thread, I went through every setting, both in IE9 and in McAfee (although not with much optimism as McAfee give you and your sister sites a green flag, plus McAfee worked fine with BP in 2010-11), I also flushed my DNS, rebooted everything and generally tried to go back to a clean system. At each turn, everything worked except my BP login/forum. I even began to wonder whether I had been banned for some unknown transgression!
Anyway, I noticed that on the ‘flush DNS’ link you helpfully provided (that in itself was a brave new world for me, I previously would have guessed simply that ‘DNS’ follows shortly on from ‘DNR’, which was how I felt about my PC at that point…) there was an ad for a free download of Google Chrome. I downloaded that, and suddenly the BP forum is running normally. So I guess I will stick with this setup, giving BP its own browser. Mrs T can advise me on toggling between the two.
So I still don’t really know what the underlying issue was - it seems, as others said, certain that it was the switch to McAfee that did it, but the only issue with that theory is that I went through all the settings in both browser and McAfee and could find nothing unusual. However to be honest as long as it is resolved, I am happy, so I won’t lose any sleep over it.
I went into all of this detail here simply as I thought you might find it helpful to understand what the symptoms and background were, and what fixed it, as this knowledge might prove useful to you in future should you encounter other IE9/McAfee/BP issues.
Thanks again for the detailed response and very glad that I am back on the forum in time for returning to work on Monday!