Need English-speaking PC fix-it Person

[lometogo]

I"ve installed a new program which must access a web-based database and it's not able to do so. The vendor's helpdesk said it's probably either a firewall (ruled out) or my ISP is running a proxy server (is this likely in Thailand?).

Bottom line, I need a pro who can troubleshoot this for me. If I don't get to the database, I stand to lose untold trillions of income!

thanks,
TC

[lometogo]

I"ve installed a new program which must access a web-based database and it's not able to do so. The vendor's helpdesk said it's probably either a firewall (ruled out) or my ISP is running a proxy server (is this likely in Thailand?).

Bottom line, I need a pro who can troubleshoot this for me. If I don't get to the database, I stand to lose untold trillions of income!

thanks,
TC

OH, BTW, I am actually in Bangkok, but can't seem to get my user bio to accept that; it wants me to live in Pattaya, I guess.

[Fondles]

The Pattaya beach part under your username will change to other location around Thailand once you make more posts.

You location is set to BKK.

[baldrick]

can you use a SSL ( HTTPS ) web site address for this database ?

[harrybarracuda]

Download HotSpot Shield, connect, and see if you can get to it that way.

Do you know if the application uses non-standard ports to access the database?

There have been occasions when I've had to ask ISPs to open ports because their default action is to block anything they don't know about. The more stupid the ISP, the more ports they block.

[hazz]

Here is some diy advice.

First verify that your internet link is working by browsing the internet

get in touch with the software vender and ask them to tell you the DNS name and ports that you will use to connect to the database.

Ask them if their database needs to be able to connect to your PC; if so what ports. If this is the case and you connect to your internet box without using a USB cable this is probably the root of the problem. open a web connection to your internet box and tell it send all internet traffic to your PC. This will fix you connection but open you for all kinds of security risks so a software firewall is essential.

Install a free software package called wireshark read the manual and use this to capture the internet traffic between your PC and the database. you can then send this to your vender and ask them to check it to see whats not happening.

[Dreadlord]

Do you know the IP to the database ? If you do, click START- RUN- type in CMD and hit enter

Once you have a command prompt- type in TRACERT xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ( this is the IP address) you can see where it fails when it says Timed Out.

If everything is ok there....

I would recommend finding out which port your database uses. Once you know this you can see if you can get to that port by using Telnet.

This an easy way to see if the port is open or not.

[Butterfly]

a web-based database ? shouldn't need any port. Sounds like a bad connection. Or did you mean Internet based database ?

[mc2]

access it over a VPN service. You will have full access to all ports even if your ISP or firewall is blocking them.

[harrybarracuda]

a web-based database ? shouldn't need any port. Sounds like a bad connection. Or did you mean Internet based database ?

Butters, virtually all Websites use either port 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS). Block these and see what you can do on the Web.

You can redirect these protocols to other ports if you wish to apply extra layers of protection.

Hence my statement that it might be worth contacting the vendor.

[dirtydog]

Butterfly, port 80 is standard for viewing websites, other ports of which there thousands are for different things.

[Butterfly]

Butters, virtually all Websites use either port 80 (HTTP) or 443 (HTTPS). Block these and see what you can do on the Web.

are you saying that ISP are blocking the port 80 and 443 ?

are you really that thick barra ?

[dirtydog]

harry is saying that there is a good chance the isp could be blocking or throttling the port that is needed, even my webmail had to have the ports changed due to my isp.

[Butterfly]

wtf are you talking about ?

do you understand how TCP connection works ? no, it's not related to SEO

The OP is saying web-based but I think he meant "Internet" based, quite a difference

web-based as "http", that is port 80 protocol for those who are a bit slow or working for a Thai ISP

[dirtydog]

Butterfly, if I use a proxy server, I will most likely connect through port 25, if I wanted to access an admin panel I will go through a port in the 2,000s, do you understand yet?

[Butterfly]

hello ? proxy server on port 25 ? don't think so, it's a reserved port for mail

more likely 8080 or some other combination, regardless no need to open those port as they are outgoing, passive, that is the client initiate the port series, not the server, which would require opening specific ports on the ISP side if the server were to initiate the port series. Some low number ports are also reserved and therefore wouldn't work even if initiated by the client (in theory, if the ISP did a good job, such as port 25). See also FTP active/passive client sofware.

I have yet to see any ISP here, and even a small personal firewall software, blocking outgoing ports and the resulting passive ports threaded from them.

maybe you are confused with something else,

[dirtydog]

hello ? proxy server on port 25 ? don't think so, it's a reserved port for mail

from wiki.

A server that relays all e-mail for all destinations for all clients connecting to port 25 is known as an open relay and is now generally considered a bad practice worthy of blacklisting.

[harrybarracuda]

Butters,

I said to him:

Do you know if the application uses non-standard ports to access the database?

You made the idiotic statement:

a web-based database ? shouldn't need any port.

I explained to you the ports that Web traffic usually NEEDS.

Does that clear it up for you?

Let me say it again for you: A web-based application DOES NOT HAVE TO USE PORT 80 or 443 but that is the norm.

If the database provider has decided to use non-standard ports, and his firewall is not an issue as he says, then there is a good chance that the ISP is blocking them; and as I stated, I've had to contact ISPs to unblock such ports in the past.

Do you have any idea what the fuck you're talking about?

[dirtydog]

Butterfly, if you visit a site you will most likely use port 80, if you wanted to hack that site you would probe all the ports, 1,000's of them and see which ones you get responses from, and you will get 1,000's of responses, and that is where you would start.

[mc2]

the OP needs to describe the problem and provide more details and less fuzzy terms.

[Butterfly]

If the database provider has decided to use non-standard ports, and his firewall is not an issue as he says, then there is a good chance that the ISP is blocking them; and as I stated, I've had to contact ISPs to unblock such ports in the past.

asking an ISP to unblock ports for you, that would be the day ? and how nice of them ?

again you are missing the point, it's a client initiating the outgoing ports, there is no push from the server except the port reply, and that by default doesn't require to open any incoming port FFS. For example, an active FTP client will not work behind a firewall, instead the server will need to open the data stream port, and then the FTP client will communicate with the FTP server on those data port, WITHOUT the need to open additional ports on the ISP firewall. It's called passive port mapping.

If you were right, I wonder if you asked your ISP to unblock those ports to use with your FTP client in active mode when it would have worked perfectly in passive mode

Do you have any idea what the fuck you're talking about?

do you ?

1,000's of them and see which ones you get responses from, and you will get 1,000's of responses, and that is where you would start.

I see that you are confusing listening ports with "data stream" ports. Well done

[Butterfly]

the OP needs to describe the problem and provide more details and less fuzzy terms.

Indeed, I suspect zone alarm or some other buggy firewall misbehaving

[dirtydog]

I see that you are confusing listening ports with "data stream" ports. Well done

1,000s of ports are for transfering data, from torrent downloading to instant messaging.

[Butterfly]

^ TCP 101 ? you do know what it means ? it's the "control port", not the data stream

for example, for FTP, the default is 21 for listening to TCP transaction (FTP commands in short), but the FTP server will additionally open "data stream" ports between 5000 and 6000 to transfer data only

those ports can't be blocked as they are not listening ports, I suppose they are UDP

[harrybarracuda]

If you were right, I wonder if you asked your ISP to unblock those ports to use with your FTP client in active mode when it would have worked perfectly in passive mode

I've never had problems with FTP down to the provider. Have you?

And before you bang on about Zonealarm, please read the OP:

The vendor's helpdesk said it's probably either a firewall (ruled out) or my ISP is running a proxy server (is this likely in Thailand?).

Are you Daffy in disguise? He was a bugger for only reading half of posts as well.

Maybe the OP would like to tell us what this website is. Then Butters can FTP to it.



(Oh and Butters: Two apps I've had to get several ISPs to open: cc:Mail and Altavista VPN. Mind you, in those days the countries around me had one ISP each and that was under duress).