What has happened to the unblinkingeye site?

[chuckroast]

Worst case, use a free VPN like Proton that will make it look like you originate from one of their countries of choice.

 

[npl]

Thanks npl and snusmumriken

npl it just seems strange a configuration on the server side would be the cause when not one person so far has reported an issue Are you able to access it yourself?

My impression but I may easily be wrong is that on a relatively static site like unblinkingeye which has remained the same for many years in a form of stasis so to speak, would be having any work done to it

Does Geopeeker give a real time view of the situation in each of the countries shown? So if I link to it right now it shows me any problems with unblinkingeye right now? I can see no change from about 4 hours ago

snusmumriken Your suggestion is one that may hold out the best hope but as things stand the Firefox solution, if that is the solution, only lasts another 6 weeks

I looked but could not find any assurance from Firefox that it is likely to extend its support for Win 7 beyond another 6 weeks but it is something to consider as it may be the only way

I'll sleep on it

pentaxuser

I can access the unblikingeyes website from France. You can try the Proton VPN as suggested by @chuckroast ; I have it, the free version doesn't allows you to chose from which country your IP will be, on my device it's a Netherland IP, not sure how it will behave on your computer in the UK.

Yes if you refresh the geokeeper page or open it again if you closed the tab it will re-run the test.

It's unlikely to be a browser issue but there's no harm in trying Firefox. Like others have said in earlier posts, it's likely that a whole bunch of IP's has been wrongly blacklisted, including legitimate one like yours. The content of the site itself may not be updated often but the server configuration is a separate issue often run by different people, and it's very very common to fuck things up and break websites once in a while.

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks npl I have just refreshed and now Singapore now just has the revolving circle so the situation is worse than before but when I tried Photrio all the sites it gives you can now access Photrio with the exception of Virginia which say "render unavailable" and Singapore where the circle is still revolving so that would seem to indicate that maybe unblinkingeye is more difficult to access than Photrio but can take it that there is definitely a problem with unblinkingeye and will it be one that the configurers know about and are working on?

So is it as simple as waiting for a few days for a fix?

pentaxuser

 

[snusmumriken]

Thanks npl I have just refreshed and now Singapore now just has the revolving circle so the situation is worse than before but when I tried Photrio all the sites it gives you can now access Photrio with the exception of Virginia which say "render unavailable" and Singapore where the circle is still revolving so that would seem to indicate that maybe unblinkingeye is more difficult to access than Photrio but can take it that there is definitely a problem with unblinkingeye and will it be one that the configurers know about and are working on?

So is it as simple as waiting for a few days for a fix?

pentaxuser

I’m willing to bet the problem is with your system falling behind current security requirements. The website itself will have needed very little change to remain viable, but browsers have changed a lot. So I don’t think waiting a few days will help you, especially as that website is essentially fossilised, so it probably receives little attention from its owners.

I’m no IT expert, but it seems likely you will have to accept the inevitable and upgrade your system.

 

[Ballinderry-Michael]

On the principle that fooling the system sometimes works, try opening the page by typing just "unblinkingeye" and then Ctrl+Enter.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

It opened for me.

Try going directly: https://www.unblinkingeye.com/

I didn't realize there were so many alternative styles. As someone who has no darkroom and sends my film out for developing, which of these many processes could I experiment with at home, simply?

Edited: I started a new thread: https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/recommend-an-alternative-process-i-have-no-dark-room.214766/

 

[pentaxuser]

On the principle that fooling the system sometimes works, try opening the page by typing just "unblinkingeye" and then Ctrl+Enter.

Thanks for the thought.A novel approach as well but unfortunately it still produced the 403 Forbidden

pentaxuser

 

[Sirius Glass]

It opened for me.

Try going directly: https://www.unblinkingeye.com/

Same for me.

 

[pschwart]

I can report that the site is accessible using the Opera browser Version:95.0.4635.90 running on 64-bit Windows 7. It's terrible that the back-end server is not reporting a more useful error message as to why it's refusing to service the access request, but launching another browser works for me.

 

[pentaxuser]

Worst case, use a free VPN like Proton that will make it look like you originate from one of their countries of choice.

Thanks I realise that when I said to boringoldman that I had no VPN this was not accurate I do have it but did not use it or know how to but I have since taken the bull by the horns and tried it without success

pentaxuser

 

[pentaxuser]

Thanks for the advice on trying other browsers. snusmumriken's suggestion on Firefox may prove to be the best browser in it still provides support for Win7 and may do so post August this year but it has not declared its hand on this yet

However the pessimist in me says that my original thought that older unchanging sites should be more likely to work on former Windows may be naive. Indeed it may be that due to its age and its not generating any revenue that I can see, makes it less likely to change its configuration to accommodate users of older Windows

It may be simpler and thus cheaper to just exclude users of older Windows. It's annoying not to be able to access it but it is far from disastrous

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

Thanks for the advice on trying other browsers. snusmumriken's suggestion on Firefox may prove to be the best browser in it still provides support for Win7 and may do so post August this year but it has not declared its hand on this yet

However the pessimist in me says that my original thought that older unchanging sites should be more likely to work on former Windows may be naive. Indeed it may be that due to its age and its not generating any revenue that I can see, makes it less likely to change its configuration to accommodate users of older Windows

It may be simpler and thus cheaper to just exclude users of older Windows. It's annoying not to be able to access it but it is far from disastrous

pentaxuser

It is much more likely that your browser - which stands between Win7 and the site - is no longer letting the two work with each other, because the combination of both the security vulnerabilities of Win7 and the security vulnerabilities of the old site is just too much!

 

[pentaxuser]

It is much more likely that your browser - which stands between Win7 and the site - is no longer letting the two work with each other, because the combination of both the security vulnerabilities of Win7 and the security vulnerabilities of the old site is just too much!

Yes I fear you are likely to be right

pentaxuser

 

[pentaxuser]

I suppose the crucial question which I should have posed is : If there is still anyone on Photrio still using Win7 can they please try to access unblinkingeye and let me know if they had any success?

Thanks

pentaxuser

 

[chuckroast]

I suppose the crucial question which I should have posed is : If there is still anyone on Photrio still using Win7 can they please try to access unblinkingeye and let me know if they had any success?

Thanks

pentaxuser

Win7 is a deprecated OS and no longer receives security updates. Any carefully run website will reject connection attempts from these old systems and browsers.


You will need to upgrade to a more current OS or use something like a Chromebook.

Alternatively, you could switch your machine to something like Linux Mint depending on the hardware of your system.

 

[john_s]

I don't use such an old version of Windows, but my bank's site wouldn't let me access one part (only) of it with Firefox, but I tried Chrome and it worked. An earlier post suggested Opera. I'd give that a try.

Also, is it possible that a cookie has been lodged in your system that identifies you in some category? Can you delete all cookies except for a few recent ones that facilitate logging into a few favorite sites?

 

[pentaxuser]

"I can report that the site is accessible using the Opera browser Version:95.0.4635.90 running on 64-bit Windows 7".

It's time I started to read posts more carefully, Philip. The part of your post 34 which I quote above clearly says Windows 7 64-bit ( (my version also) works fine with Opera despite it no longer supporting Windows 7

john_s Your post has reminded me of that very important statement by Philip which flies in the face of most of what has been said and what I had concluded as well

I'll try your suggestion as well but not sure how I only delete all cookies except those that facilitate loggíng into a few recent favourite sites?

pentaxuser

 

[Don_ih]

@pentaxuser -- install Firefox.

The site in question uses a google search api that will probably block what it considers unsupported browsers.

 

[Galen Tieszen]

I have had similar problems with some websites. My solution is to remove the security tag from the https: address. This is how I handle it: Click the link so it populates the address bar, then go up to the "https://***" part of the address ad edit out the "s"-- that is -- change it to "http://***" and hit the enter key. That will usually process the URL and the site will open. As near as I can tell, there are no visible side effects to doing this if you are just browsing. I'm not sure how this will affect the security if you are ordering items, or exchanging emails, etc.

Not saying this will work for your problem, but it's a simple process to test and keep in mind for future, similar problems.

GT

 

[qqphot]

Those having trouble may wish to browse the Internet Archive's archive of the site:

Unblinking Eye - photography, darkroom, alternative process, historic photographic processes, travel

 

[Ozxplorer]

OK - from Australia too...

 

[koraks]

It is much more likely that your browser - which stands between Win7 and the site - is no longer letting the two work with each other, because the combination of both the security vulnerabilities of Win7 and the security vulnerabilities of the old site is just too much!

Windows 7 really doesn't have anything to do with this. Websites in general don't care what OS runs on the machine that the client uses. The risks of an outdated OS are on the client's side, not so much the server's side.
@pentaxuser I do not recommend running an outdated version of Windows on a machine that is actively used to surf the web. On the other hand, it does not explain this particular problem.

I have had similar problems with some websites. My solution is to remove the security tag from the https: address.

This can sometimes helps if the problem is specifically related to SSL. There's no indication here that this is the case. However, many browsers are now starting to categorically block non-SSL traffic at least on public networks.

What I find strange is that unblinkingeye is largely a site which has changed little in all the years I have used it. It is an almost a static site where there is little happening and where no financial transactions occur so not a lot for it to worry about in terms of needing to keep it "secure " in the same way as a transactional site such as say Amazon

Coming back to this: this is really a misunderstanding. The 'secure' bit refers to the traffic itself, not so much website content. It's also intended to prevent the situation where e.g. malicious scripts pretend to be the unblinkingeye.com server and try to inject their code to take control of the client machine and/or collect data from it. It doesn't matter what the website is used for originally. Also, the website is not a static page; it's loaded with ads served through Amazon and Google and it features an integrated Google search engine that's actively loaded on every page. There's a number of scripts running on the site and those inherently bring risks of malicious code execution, especially if someone manages to spoof Google or Amazon traffic.

 

[snusmumriken]

Windows 7 really doesn't have anything to do with this. Websites in general don't care what OS runs on the machine that the client uses. The risks of an outdated OS are on the client's side, not so much the server's side.
@pentaxuser I do not recommend running an outdated version of Windows on a machine that is actively used to surf the web. On the other hand, it does not explain this particular problem.


This can sometimes helps if the problem is specifically related to SSL. There's no indication here that this is the case. However, many browsers are now starting to categorically block non-SSL traffic at least on public networks.

Coming back to this: this is really a misunderstanding. The 'secure' bit refers to the traffic itself, not so much website content. It's also intended to prevent the situation where e.g. malicious scripts pretend to be the unblinkingeye.com server and try to inject their code to take control of the client machine and/or collect data from it. It doesn't matter what the website is used for originally. Also, the website is not a static page; it's loaded with ads served through Amazon and Google and it features an integrated Google search engine that's actively loaded on every page. There's a number of scripts running on the site and those inherently bring risks of malicious code execution, especially if someone manages to spoof Google or Amazon traffic.

I looked at the site using Safari's Developer mode. If you scroll down to the bottom of the main HTML page, there are several links to online gambling platforms, including some Russian or Russian-speaking ones. What's all that about? I tend to regard ads for gambling sites as indicative of a dodgy website. There's no sign of such ads actually appearing when I visit UnblinkingEye, though, perhaps because of the adblocker I'm using.

 

[koraks]

What's all that about?

Just normal ads on a website whose owner has a hands-off approach and hasn't indicated they want no gambling ads.

 

[snusmumriken]

Just normal ads on a website whose owner has a hands-off approach and hasn't indicated they want no gambling ads.

Surely it wouldn't normally be written into the HTML? Or is this actually what you normally get if you use a website builder, or get someone else to do it? (My only experience is of coding my own webpages.)