This is weird. I logged into Blocs forum this morning on Safari and got some error msgs from Safari about connecting to an improper web site. I didn’t think there was any problem with Blocs web site, so I accepted making the connection. Well, I got to the forum web site, but the web site address is not the usual Blocs forum address. It shows as blocsforum . discoursehosting . net (see screenshot below). Also notice broken forum image in top left.
If I try to enter the proper forum.blocsapp.com address in the Safari URL window, it now forwards to the improper address. It doesn’t make a difference if I shut down and start up Safari again. It always forwards to the improper address.
I then logged into my Blocs account on Firefox and the forum page is showing the proper web address (https://forum.blocsapp.com/l) and view. I’m sending this forum msg using Firefox.
Has my Safari browser been hacked (I’m thinking so)? My access to Blocs forum was working fine until this morning. I’m wondering if I should perhaps change my forum password. If my Safari has been hacked, how do I remove this web site from it’s settings? I think I’ll look around on internet for ways to clean up my Safari settings.
Blocs forum is using Discourse, also I believe Norm uses managed hosting. Which might explain in general the reference to the Discourse Hosting reference, if thats being used as they do use .net hostname. Perhaps something with the DNS server got flaky or something occurred during changes or updates. I would assume thats all it is and is only temporary.
But only @norm could conclude why people might be encountering that.
As @Blocs_User pointed out, we do indeed use Discourse Hosting for the forum. It is likely that they pushed some updates to the software and it may have required a re-login/odd URL.
But Discourse web site I’m being redirected to has .net in domain, not .org. Is this kosher? Every time I try to go to forum.blocsapp.com in Safari, it goes to that .net address. Seems fishy.
See below about the presence of .net from their faqs page:
Do I need a DNS server or an own domain?
No. We provide you with a free hostname (e.g. yourforum.discoursehosting .net ). If you want to use a hostname you own (e.g. forum.yourdomain .com), you can point it to your DiscourseHosting instance from the DNS settings of your provider and make the necessary change in our control panel. The control panel provides instructions on how to configure your DNS server.
You may have just caught it during changes before the changes were (re)propagated.
Well, I restarted my Mac, but the auto forwarding to the .net site is still occurring on Safari. Thanks for your responses, I’m now thinking there’s no hack. I’ll try doing some different things with Safari to see if I can remove this anomaly. I’ll report back here if I find a solution.
You’re welcome @pruthe, sorry it has been worrisome and frustrating for you as that is never fun.
It’s hard to say why Safari would still be holding onto the other address. Have you tried clearing your browser cache in Safari? Also does the saved bookmark for the forum point to the correct address? You can go to “bookmarks > edit bookmarks” to see and edit it.
I reset Safari using the procedure listed here (remove spaces in URL) and the forwarding problem went away. Now able to access regular Blocs Forum URL.
Well, I had lunch and when coming back looks like the problem has returned. It’s doing the same forwarding to the .net URL on my desktop Safari. And on my desktop Firefox it gave the below warning.
I’m having similar certificate problems with browsers on my other Mac (laptop). I see @Creative is also having a similar access problem in another post. Anyone else having this problem?
So far I don’t notice any major problems with 3.2.1, but right now, I’m doing a very simple web site and not the big one you’re doing. Maybe you should revert back to an earlier Blocs version. Hang in there!
Every time I’ve checked since the beginning of this thread its been out sporadically somewhere across the globe. I’ve had no issue all day, but full propagation can take time.
Things cleared up here about an hour ago. I had to clear today’s History on my desktop Safari, but after that, everything working normally with accessing the Blocs forum. All other browsers now working with forum too. I understand that a DNS propagation issue probably caused this. A learning day for me.
