Jim Perrin wrote:
On 8/7/06, John Hinton webmaster@ew3d.com wrote:
Yeah, maybe this is a bit on the edge....
I am discovering several issues with users on satellite internet connections not being able to authenticate via a htaccess/htpasswd system. Some users cannot connect at all, some can connect reliably.. and some are hit and miss.. works one day and not the next. Yet those same users can log in fine if they switch back to their dialup system.
htaccess/htpasswd should have nothing to do with satellite internet. Either they can get there or not. They may be having timeout issues which sould be due to the latency of satellite internet, but not an issue with authentication itself.
This is what is confusing. We are on fiber here at our hosting facility.
Case 1 A hosting client with satellite ISP can on our server POP for mail, Authenticate SMTP, and fully access their website. On the same server one day they can gain access to a protected directory via htaccess, the next day they can't.
Case 2 Another hosting client can POP and Authenticate the same as above, but cannot gain access to said directory via htaccess while using their satellite connection, but can when using their dialup connection.
Case 3 Hosting client could not gain access for a few days via their satellite connection, but then suddenly it started working and has worked for them from that point forward.
Case 4 Another client has had no problems with their satellite connection with any htaccess to our system.
Multiple Cases. Clients not on satellite have reported 0 problems with connecting via htaccess to this system.
So, something is going on with what satellite providers are doing. I understand that some non-standard methods for access have been created to speed up satellite handshakes. It seems to me that the defacto standard was 7 communications per file transferred. But since this would take about 7 seconds via satellite, I think they have somehow cut this number back. Oddly, I can't seem to find a thing about his issue when googling. But I do know that dnsreport.com does not work from at least one directway satellite connection, which happens to be the one that can always login via htaccess to our systems.
Yes, their appears to be a latency problem. Or perhaps the web browser just isn't waiting long enough for a proper return, as the login box reappears immediately, not a few seconds later.. which should be proper as it has to take at least two seconds for the transmissions. I don't even see the incoming request for the connection. The user just keeps getting the htaccess popup from their windows machine.. unless they hit cancel.. to which the get the authorization error message as they are not htaccess authenticated.
Best, John Hinton