question

Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image

Issues with Victron Community

Hello Community,


Apologies but we are currently having some issues with the site.

Specifically, when trying to upload images it gives an error message "Parsing response failed", and some 504 and 403 errors when loading pages. It would appear that this is due to a persistent denial of service attack from a botnet. The immediate remedy is more aggressive captcha bot protection, sorry about that, I know they are annoying.


It is now strongly recommended to use new community site that is currently being tested at https://victron.discourse.group


The modifications section of the community has been using it for little while now, and their feedback has been invaluable. So now seems like good time to expand the test.


Please try using the new site here: https://victron.discourse.group


Also have a look here for more details: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/315968/announcing-the-new-community-starting-with-modific.html

victron community
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marekp avatar image marekp commented ·

"Unfortunately, your browser is unsupported. Please switch to a supported browser to view rich content, log in and reply."

I cannot use any new browsers because my computer is to old.

It is a pity I will not be able to participate in this new community. :(

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ marekp commented ·
Which browser is that?
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marekp avatar image marekp Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented ·

Firefox 78.15.0esr

It is the latest version for my computer.

The interesting thing is that my browser is acceptable for all (4) banks that holds my money (not only mine :) )

Who if not the bank should be vigilant about security and yet they have no problem with my browser.

Strange.

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ marekp commented ·

I just did a bit of digging on that, and found this that covers the situation - https://meta.discourse.org/t/backwards-compatibility-with-older-browsers/255820

Discourse seems to be quite aggressive with their minimum version requirements.

There are 3rd party apps that allow you to continue to use the site (via an API), but they are not official, and the team explicitly says they are closed source and have their own privacy policies and data collection - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hachther.discourse&hl=en_AU

The short explanation is that they view older browsers as more likely to have security issues, so officially only support the latest version of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Edge.

There was another post that said some browsers allow you to fake your User Agent > Other to make the browser “lie” about its version but that strategy may or may not work depending on why the browser was deemed too old.

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marekp avatar image marekp Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented ·

Your post only confirmed it to me that, if Victron Community moves to this Discourse thing, I will not be taking part in this community discussions any longer.

I will not be spending thousands of dollars for a new computer (Now I have 3GHz/8-core MacPro) only to find out couple years later that I have to do it again because some websites require the latest browser on my computer that I cannot use on it.

I already lost the ability to view VRM on my iPad2.

This iPad is more or less useless now since websites like Discourse make it obsolete. Battery in it is still 95% good. What a waste.

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ marekp commented ·
Can you try the discourse hub app? Unfortunately both manufacturers like Apple and Google, retire development and support on devices and then app developers do the same.

Ipad2 is 13+ years old now on IOS4 (we are on 18 soon). No developer supports that far back. The frameworks they use do not exist on those versions.

Victron's backward support is quite good, but you simply can't have a modern app/site and also support all legacy operating systems and apps.

While discourse support the latest versions, the site should still be usable for many prior versions.


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marekp avatar image marekp nickdb ♦♦ commented ·

What it the "discourse hub app"?

Is it a phone app?

I know that my iPad2 is old, but why all banks have no problem with the browser on it?

Is security for Discourse more important then for a bank?

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ marekp commented ·
It is a mobile device app (so tablets, phones etc).

My newer mac can run mobile apps as well.

Respectfully, banks often aren't a good reference for web security, some have really backwards legacy IT. If they are supporting 13 year old browsers that isn't a good thing.

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marekp avatar image marekp nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
So you suggest that I buy a newer Mac and in couple years again and again in couple years later.

I am using iPhone 3G and there are no apps for it available, but I do not care since it is a phone to make and take a phone calls, not a computer.

I think it is very good thing that banks accept my browser, because the security problems are delt by them in house. They do not rely on third party on security.


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edvanz avatar image
edvanz answered ·

I get site under attack while editing my post with the latest Chrome on win11 machine



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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented ·

You mean on this community.victronenergy.com site right?

Yes, I get that too.

I would suggest moving over to https://victron.discourse.group

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marekp avatar image marekp commented ·
Can you explain how this attack looks like, and what "site" is "under attack"?
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maa avatar image
maa answered ·

Hi @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager)

Is it possible for you to transfer all our history to this new site?

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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Unfortunately not. Some of this was addressed in the announcement referred to above.

There will be an archive at some point of the current forum data, but from a user perspective, it is a new account with no previous history.

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