Infinityfree blocking watchful.net?

Username (e.g. epiz_XXX) or Website URL

epiz_29549734

Error Message

The site dashboard control panel at watchful.net is unable to connect to my domain - verified that the secret key within the Joomla extension/plugin on my site is the same as the key displayed in the site dashboard (and I used the button within the client to connect to the site dashboard - this worked going from my site to watchful, but watchful is unable to connect back to my site).

So, my question is, is there any blocking configured for sites like this? The watchful dashboard is able to get my site title, and other meta data, but it is unable to connect to it’s plugin that is installed on my site. One of the options in their FAQ in the knowledgebase says to whitelist their IPs (or ask your hosting admin to do so):

  • 34.250.7.114
  • 34.250.132.64
  • 34.250.203.214

I suspect the answer to this will be no - I just get that feeling, it’s quite strict around here. You get a lot of idiots, like the blockchain guy who says his crypto site isn’t a crypto site when clearly it was a crypto site (oh yes, that thread is entertaining…)

https://watchful.net/faqs/technical-support/how-do-i-whitelist-the-watchful-ip-address

Can someone either explain why their SaaS doesn’t seem to be connecting to my site, or why infinity is blocking it in the first place? Is it to force users onto a paid plan in order to automate backups :smiley: - I’m considering upgrading in any case once my business starts generating a profit, however I will actively resist doing so if it feels like I’m being forced to do so for no other reason than marketing-disguised-excuses!

Thanks for the responses in advance

Likely due to this

As for…

Will not work on free hosting due to hosting limits (file size, CPU etc.) You have to do it manually

2 Likes

Thanks for the reply! I don’t want to move my site, just download my files that I generate manually (or within my browser at a set time) at a set time - its not an automated backup as such, its just automating the download of the backup I have generated and keeping it in a central off-site location.

Now I know that if it doesn’t originate within the brower, that is a techincal enough explanation that I can live with. As long as I understand things, I can work with (not around :smiley: ) - its the not understanding that sets of my autistic ways - I have to know why :smiley: and citing T&Cs is not a why.

Thanks

The T&Cs about file sharing, whilst ultimately the reason why you’ve chosen to limit access to the browser, isn’t the reason why the extension doesn’t work. It’s because such extension won’t be connecting via a browser (or curl, or wget - actually… would these work?)

Okay, another question - I assume the PHP scripts that watchful and other admin plugins contained outwith my infinity hosting service won’t work, as you eloquently described above, because they are not browser connections.

Would a web request sent via a linux box using curl or wget, which are browsers, work?

Nope, don’t think so. You can give it a try though

The requirements are that the “browser” should be able to run Javascript and accept cookies. If it doesn’t, it can’t access the site.

curl and wget are both basic HTTP clients. They do HTTP, but don’t do cookies or any sort of processing or execution on the page result, including running Javascript.

And it would be strange that cURL from the command line would work but cURL from PHP would not, given that they use the same system under the hood.

So, that’s a no then, they don’t work? (Sorry, I know you provided quite a few details, and thanks, those details do help) But you didn’t actually answer the question :smiley: I’m inferring a no, they don’t work - is my inference correct?

This is helpful because I had been intending to do some sort of script that wraps something like curl - but if it doesn’t work then I can save myself the hassle. And I think I’ve just stated the reason why you would probably not want either of those tools to work for the free hosting package - whilst I am clearly an honorable, hardworking gentleman and businessman, someone else might script something nasty using those “browsers”.

That is correct. Javascript and cookies are required and wget and curl don’t support those. So that doesn’t work.

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