Festool USA Website

[sw1211]

I sent Festool an email this afternoon asking about the link, they say allow 2 days for a response.

 

[Daviddubya]

Matthew, don't you think this matter should be handled privately?....

Brice - I certainly agree with you!  But I think this matter should have been handled privately.  Unfortunately, it's too late now.

Matthew - I can access the new Festool USA site using IE.

 

[pmkierst]

In other words, my IP address seems to be blocked from accessing the Festool USA site.

Getting re-routed to the international site is not at all the same thing as being blocked. Sounds much more like some kind of GeoIP thing where they are trying to be "helpful" but are getting it drastically wrong, though I tried coming from the UK and it worked, so it can't be a simple GeoIP thing. Still, "banning" your IP would server no purpose unless your IP was associated (incorrectly) with something like scraping the site, etc.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Good Morning,
This morning, I still am not able to access the Festool USA Web site.  Last night, I went to my local library and was able to view the site.  I went to a local college and viewed the site using a computer in their computer lab.  I went to a neighbor's computer, and viewed the site just fine.  Then I came home to my computer, and was unable to view the site.

I heard back from Christian, and he does not know why this is happening and said he will look into it.  Shane was traveling, so I have to wait to hear a response from him.

Regarding the link to the FOG, Christian said Festool no longer wants links to any forums on the Festool Web site.  That seems like a fair decision, and as I have said the FOG is independent of the company so this makes sense.

To those who think this should be private, I disagree.  This discussion is about the Festool USA Web site.  If some people are unable to access it, that's part of the discussion.  Why would we have a discussion about the new site, but ask anyone with access problems to discuss it privately?  Assuming I have not been specifically blocked, it's even more important to discuss it publicly, because maybe it's a general problem with the site that would be in Festool's interest to fix.  I'm sure they would not want potential customers getting routed away from their Web site!  Reporting it here, rather than privately, would help the company see if there's a bigger issue with the site.

Getting re-routed to the international site is not at all the same thing as being blocked. Sounds much more like some kind of GeoIP thing where they are trying to be "helpful" but are getting it drastically wrong, though I tried coming from the UK and it worked, so it can't be a simple GeoIP thing. Still, "banning" your IP would server no purpose unless your IP was associated (incorrectly) with something like scraping the site, etc.

We're talking about the same thing, really.  For me to get routed away from the Festool USA site -- and only from the Festool USA site -- my IP address would somehow have to have been placed in a special category.  Also, I was able to access the Festool USA site just fine until the update occurred.  In other words, something had to be changed very recently.  If it has happened to me, it might have also happened to others.

Has anyone else had problems accessing the Festool USA site?  Or am I the only one?

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[Daviddubya]

...I heard back from Christian, and he does not know why this is happening and said he will look into it.  Shane was traveling, so I have to wait to hear a response from him....

Has anyone else had problems accessing the Festool USA site?  Or am I the only one?

Thanks,
Matthew

After all of the speculation in this thread, we now understand that Christian "does not know why this is happening".  It seems it would be reasonable to give him and his crew a chance to figure it out.  The weekend has arrived.  There won't be an answer until next week.  Patience is a virtue.

Matthew - you seem to be the only one having the problem.

 

[CharlesWilson]

Has anyone else had problems accessing the Festool USA site?  Or am I the only one?

Matthew,

I thought most machines didn't have fixed IP addresses, nowadays, unless it was specifically requested (for domain serving, etc). Does your machine always start up with the same fixed address?

Of course, now that I am getting into the internet with an ATT gateway, I suspect that all of the machines on my house network may indicate the address of the gateway.

Charles

 

[Len Coleman]

As someone who works with IP all day long, I would suspect this is a simple DNS issue with whatever ISP you have and that if you check your IP  configuration you will see that the "alternate IP" you are using is also using a different DNS server.  The new Fetoolusa web site is on  a new IP as compared to the old one. Your ISP's DNS server likely had a redirect to the international site and was not updated on Festoolusa's new IP.

I would contact your ISP for a solution. Hope this helps.

 

[graphex]

Yeah, probably either a DNS issue or a cookie issue. Clearing your browser's cache is different from removing cookies, and it could easily be a cookie that is causing the site to redirect you.

I'm guessing you're on a Mac, since you said you tried Safari, so try opening a terminal window (Applications->Terminal) and type:
dig www.festoolusa.com

your answer should have something like this in it:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.festoolusa.com. 1800 IN A 207.71.245.55

If that IP address doesn't come up, it is a DNS issue.

If that address does resolve properly for you, you're probably being redirected based either on a cookie or, in the extreme case, on bad Karma alone.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

graphex and Len,
It's not a cache, cookie, or DNS issue.  As I said, I am able to access the site from the same exact computer, under exactly the same conditions (same cache and same cookies), with the same browsers (Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer), as long as I am not using my "native" IP address.

I have always been able to access the Festool USA site -- until yesterday.

My ISP has nothing to do with this.  For whatever reason (and again, I'm not going to speculate on what it is) my IP address is being rerouted away from the Festool USA site by something taking place on Festool's side.

By the way, I am not using a Mac, but I do run Safari (I have to test all changes to this site on various browsers to make sure they work right).

I thought most machines didn't have fixed IP addresses, nowadays, unless it was specifically requested (for domain serving, etc). Does your machine always start up with the same fixed address?

Most of the time, people have fixed IP addresses.  For example, I can look through the membership here and see your IP address.  Almost all members have one, constant IP address.

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[bruegf]

I thought most machines didn't have fixed IP addresses, nowadays, unless it was specifically requested (for domain serving, etc). Charles

Charles,

You are correct.  Most machines will dynamically obtain an IP address from the network DHCP server.  With dynamic allocation, in most cases the same IP address will be reassigned to you the next time you connect.  It is possible, however, that it may change, even though in most cases you may get the same IP address for months. 

You should be able to force a new IP address by running ipconfig /renew from a windows command line.

Fred

 

[graphex]

It would be interesting to see what sort of redirect you're getting. You could see the TCP/IP traffic directly and look at the headers if you used one of those traffic monitor applications. This sort of thing can be done at the dns level, the web server level or the web application level. My guess is that the web application level has a bug in it that is doing a 403 redirect based on a combination cookie+ip token.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

...
your answer should have something like this in it:
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.festoolusa.com. 1800 IN A 207.71.245.55

If that IP address doesn't come up, it is a DNS issue.

If that address does resolve properly for you, you're probably being redirected based either on a cookie or, in the extreme case, on bad Karma alone.

I used the NSLOOKUP command, which is the equivalent of DIG in Windows.  The results I got are as follows:
Name: www.festoolusa.com
Address: 207.71.245.55

From this, I can say it is NOT a DNS issue, and it is not a problem with my computer.

In your opinion, what do you think this means?

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[graphex]

Just means that the issue isn't with DNS. Still could be webserver (IIS) or application level issue. There are quite a few places in each where a redirect to the national site would be the default, and it can be a tough issue to track down. I remember one project where i had users that had logged in before and stored data in cookies couldn't get to the updated site, but everyone else could. The resolution required that the users delete their existing cookies, and they could get back in. It is pretty common for cookies to be combined with IP addresses and/or geolocation being done with IP addresses when bouncing people between national/international versions of a large corporation's site.

Usually the more 'legacy' the data, the more difficult it is to catch the location of the redirect. With the .net setup that FestoolUSA has, there are a number of places to look for the problem, depending upon its architecture. Additionally, once the problem is found, there is probably a recompile and QA that has to be done before an update to the live site.

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Graphex,
Well, I clear out my cookies after each session online.  Also, I was able to access the Festool USA site prior to the update of a couple of days ago.  And I have no problem accessing any other Web site I can think of.

I'm still wondering -- has anyone else experienced problems viewing the Festool USA site? 

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[Ron Dunn]

Matthew, when you say you can access the site from the same computer when not using your "native" IP address, does that mean you're using dial-up as an alternative?

Here are another couple of tests:

1. Can you PING the site? (open a command window, type "ping www.festoolusa.com")

2. If you can't PING, try TRACERT (open a command window, type "tracert www.festoolusa.com")

What results do you get?

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Ron,
I tried the tests you mentioned.  Below is a summary of the results.  You will have to help me understand what they mean!

Ping:
PING www.festoolusa.com
pinging.www.festoolusa.com [207.71.245.55] with 32 bytes of data
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 207.71.245.55:
      Packets: sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)

TRACERT:
TRACERT www.festoolusa.com
Tracing route to www.festoolusa.com [207.71.245.55]
Over a maximum of 30 hops
...
I see progress as it routes from Massachusetts to California
At line 20 it says, "Request timed out," which is repeated until line 30.

Trace complete

I don't know what these results tell me, if anything.

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[Matthew Schenker]

Good Morning,
I just tried the Festool USA site again, and suddenly I am able to view it!

I wonder what the problem was?  I wonder how they fixed it?  Why was I apparently the only one unable to view the site?

I've written to Shane and Christian to try and get answers.  Let's see what they say.  Shane has been visiting the FOG frequently over the past couple of days, so I assume I'll get a response soon.

Thanks,
Matthew

 

[Daviddubya]

...I'm still wondering -- has anyone else experienced problems viewing the Festool USA site? 

Thanks,
Matthew

Matthew - You have asked this question numerous times and have received no replies that anyone else is having the problem.

However, I will share with you a strange problem that I have with another site.  I sign on almost every day to a site that allows me to display the information related to an investment account.  On a fairly regular basis, the site gets hung up in the middle of displaying one of the graphics.  It hangs in the same spot every time it hangs, but it does not always hang.  I must terminate IE and start it again to get by the hangup.  Sometimes I must repeat this terminate/restart process two, three or more times.  Eventually the site displays and I can proceed.  I have discussed this behavior with the site technical support folks, and all they can tell me is that it must be something in my computer, because nobody else experiences the problem.  I have checked everything they have suggested and nothing is set incorrectly.  Like you, I feel it cannot be something in my computer, because that one site is the only one I have trouble accessing.  The problem remains unsolved after many months.  Does that information make you feel any better???

Computer experts - please do not try to solve this problem for me.  I have been a computer professional since the 1960's, have lots of troubleshooting expertise, and am stumped.  I don't want any help.  I just want Matthew to see that other people have strange, unexplained computer problems, just like his.  Thankfully Matthew's problem is resolved.  Why might never be known.  It would be nice if this thread now went dark!

 

[waynew]

I had exactly the same Ping and Tracert results as you Matthew however I was able to access the website and have been able to all along.
When I tried the IP address in the browser directly it didn't work though. I'd say it was just a glitch somewhere in the system, one of the more adepth analysis might be able to find an explanation for the problem.

Wayne

 

[Ron Dunn]

Deleted by author, problem already solved.