scala-lang.org and its sub-hosts are not accessible via VPN

[odd]

scala-lang.org and its sub-hosts (i.e. contributors.scala-lang.org) are unreachable using both Mullvad and OVPN (both are Swedish VPN-providers). It seems that the target server (canonical name icvm0035.epfl.ch at 128.178.218.46) is not accepting traffic from certain VPN-associated addresses.

[SethTisue]

@fsalvi any insight here?

note that @odd isn't the only person experiencing this. a second person asked about it on Discord, wrt Mullvad specifically

[fsalvi]

Hello,
The scala-lang websites are hosted at EPFL.
Unfortunately, EPFL decided a few months ago to block all connection attempts from AnonVPN services because they just get too many attacks from these networks.
So, for now, there are no solution except using a direct connection instead of VPN to access the scala-lang websites (or other EPFL hosted services).
I will ask them again if there's any plan to relax this rule.

[fsalvi]

And the answer is: not for now. Blocking anonVPN has reduced significantly the number of attacks and phishing attempts...

[SethTisue]

@odd perhaps VPN can be configured to access some websites directly and go through the VPN for others? feel free to use the ticket to share workarounds if any exist

[odd]

Thanks @SethTisue and @fsalvi
For me personally it is not a problem to disable VPN when I need to access scala-lang.org, but I fear that others might not be so fortunate.

[staffanu]

I'm in Sweden and apparently our ISP is blocked so at our office we cannot access scala-lang.org. A bit contrary to the intention of the rule, we use a VPN in order to access the site:) So it seems the rule that blocks certain traffic doesn't always work as intended.

[fsalvi]

I'm in Sweden and apparently our ISP is blocked so at our office we cannot access scala-lang.org. A bit contrary to the intention of the rule, we use a VPN in order to access the site:) So it seems the rule that blocks certain traffic doesn't always work as intended.

Could you give me the IP ranger of your ISP provider and the name of the VPN you are using ? I will investigate further...

[staffanu]

Hi our subnet is 151.236.202.0 - 151.236.202.255, but the provider might of course have more IP ranges. I'm using ExpressVPN and selecting some countries work, some don't (for example, Norway works).

[fsalvi]

Your ISP network should now be allowed. Could you check if you can access scala-lang.org without VPN?

[staffanu]

We can! :) Thank you!

[ckipp01]

Just saw this on Discord this morning

lol, I was on a US VPN for some reason and the official website didn't open for me at all

Just a reminder that this seems to still be consistently biting people when trying to access the site.

[kraktus]

Hello, I'm affected by this issue too.

This is very unfortunate for a language documentation which should be as open and accessible as possible.

[fsalvi]

We'll address this issue soon.

Hi there! My colleagues and I are facing the same issue in the office in Brussels. Our WAN IP is 85.119.217.122
Thank you in advanced

[fsalvi]

Hello,
As a first step, I started to experimentally host outside of EPFL network the www.scala-lang.org and docs.scala-lang.org websites at these URLs:
https://www3.scala-lang.org
https://docs3.scala-lang.org
You may have a look...