GitHub Pages site times out on Econet Zimbabwe mobile network but works through WARP

[emergingpointconstruction]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Pages

Body

Hello,

I am having a connectivity problem with my GitHub Pages website:

https://emergingpointconstruction.github.io/EmergingPoint-Construction/

The site consistently returns:

ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

when I access it using Econet Zimbabwe mobile data on a Samsung Galaxy M13.

Important details:

• github.com opens normally on the same phone and mobile connection.
• emergingpointconstruction.github.io times out.
• The project Pages URL also times out.
• The website loads immediately when I enable Cloudflare WARP/VPN.
• With WARP/VPN disabled, it consistently times out.
• DNS resolution for the Pages domain works correctly.
• I reset the phone's mobile network settings and checked the APN.
• The GitHub Pages deployment has completed successfully.
• Econet Zimbabwe has checked their side and says there is no issue on their network.

Could someone please advise whether there is a GitHub Pages routing or connectivity issue affecting this Pages site or its edge path?

Thank you.

[iplanwebsites]

Hey there! The detail that github.com works but your github.io site doesn't is a big clue: they're served from different networks. Pages sits on its own CDN IP ranges, so a carrier can reach github.com just fine and still have a broken route to Pages. WARP working fits that too, since it tunnels around Econet's path.

A few quick tests that make this much easier to prove:

1. IPv4 vs IPv6. Mobile networks are often IPv6-first. From a terminal app like Termux:

   curl -4 -I https://emergingpointconstruction.github.io/
   curl -6 -I https://emergingpointconstruction.github.io/

If only one of them hangs, that's your culprit.
2. Traceroute to a Pages IP (185.199.108.153) on Econet data, then on Wi-Fi. If it dies inside Econet's network, send them that output. "No issue on our side" tends to change once they see a specific hop.
3. Try any other *.github.io site on the same connection. If they all time out, it's the route, not your site.

Since this is a business site and your customers may be on Econet too, a practical workaround is a custom domain proxied through Cloudflare. Visitors then connect to Cloudflare instead of Pages directly, which is basically what WARP is doing for you today.

Hope that helps narrow it down!

[emergingpointconstruction]

Yes thank you i will get back here once i finish those tests

[emergingpointconstruction]

Hi, I completed the tests you asked me to run. With Econet and VPN OFF, emergingpointconstruction.github.io resolves correctly to GitHub Pages IPs (185.199.108.153, 109.153, 110.153 and 111.153), but all four connections time out on port 443. However, github.com, api.github.com, and raw.githubusercontent.com all work normally on Econet. When I turn the VPN ON, the EmergingPoint site responds successfully and GitHub returns HTTP headers, including x-github-edge-region: southafricanorth. So it appears to be a routing/connectivity issue between Econet (or its upstream) and the GitHub Pages IP range, rather than a DNS or general GitHub connectivity problem.Please let me know what you think the next test should be. I haven't changed any GitHub Pages settings yet.

[emergingpointconstruction]

Hi, I completed the additional IPv4 and IPv6 tests. With VPN OFF, IPv4 (curl -4) cannot connect to emergingpointconstruction.github.io on port 443 and eventually returns “Could not connect to server.” IPv6 (curl -6) also fails to connect. Earlier tests showed that the domain resolves to all four GitHub Pages IPs (185.199.108.153–111.153), but all four time out. GitHub.com, api.github.com and raw.githubusercontent.com work normally on Econet. With VPN ON, the website responds successfully. This appears to be a connectivity/routing issue affecting access from Econet to GitHub Pages rather than DNS or general GitHub access.

[emergingpointconstruction]

Update: The connectivity issue appears to be related to the network route between Econet Zimbabwe and GitHub Pages. The site works normally through Cloudflare WARP/VPN. Further testing is being done.