need help with ping problems wordsearchbible.com

[ejseibert]

I am a pastor and use bible study software WORDSEARCH 11. The software requires that I log on to upgrade my books and other things. However with the new router, (just purchased and installed yesterday), I can not ping www.wordsearchbible.com (required for the software to be able to logon). I can ping speedtest.net or google but not microsoft or wordsearchbible. The settings seem rather simplistic in the router and I can find no link to more advanced settings. The old router allowed me to ping wordsearchbible.com so why not PCWRT? Is there a setting for this anywhere? Did I do something wrong? Is it a firewall issue? Is a software upgrade required?

Thank You
Eric

• This topic was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by ejseibert.

[pcwrt]

Eric, I gather that you were not able to log in WORDSEARCH 11. Was that the case? Did you get an error like “you must be connected to the Internet…”? If so, please consider upgrading your WORDSEARCH 11 application. There’s a link at the bottom of the splash screen for you to upgrade to the latest version of WORDSEARCH 11. Please let us know if that works.

P.S. it seems that www.wordsearchbible.com does not answer ping. But if you enter the URL in a web browser, you’ll be able to load the page.

[ejseibert]

I already have the latest version of the WordSearch software. The actual site that has to be pinged has a longer name than www.wordsearch.com. When I bypass the router entirely my computer connects… Therefore it must be the router that is preventing me from connecting. If I connect my computer directly to our providers box I can successfully log in that way, or I can use our old router and successfully connect that way. There is no doubt that something about the router is preventing me from longing in.

[support]

@ejseibert Please give us the steps to recreate the problem (no real username/password needed). A screenshot might help. It might be easier to email a screenshot to [email protected].

[ejseibert]

When opening WordSearch 11 the software automatically logs me in. Once opened — I click on “Help” and then “Unlock Purchased Books.”

According to the WordSearch Technician: [ “The software attempts to download two files from their update server which the software should use to authorize, download, and unlock the purchased books. At the beginning of that process it pings the update server.” ]

Instead what I receive is a message that says: “You must have an internet connection to use this feature.” Clearly I have an internet connection as I am writing this to you. I have also accessed the WordSearchBible.com website and made the purchase of the books online there. All this while using the new PCWRT router. I have tried updating the books with the parental controls on and with the parental controls off. Either way it did not work.

I have to add that I really like the router. I like the parental controls and how you have them set up. The interface is easy to manage and work with. So far this is the only problem I have had with the router. I really appreciate all the hard work put into this router and would love to recommend it to my congregation. Except for this one problem… I really appreciate it and think this is perhaps one of the best solutions to filtering X-rated content from the internet.

I am hopeful we can find a solution.

Another question I have is: Is there a more advanced interface that allows more robust control of the router? If so, maybe there are other settings I can tweak?

Thank You,
Eric

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by ejseibert.

[support]

@ejseibert This is a puzzling problem indeed. I tried to reproduce on my desktop but wasn’t able to. When you “Unlock Purchased Books”, the app connects to www.wordsearchbible.com, update.wordsearchbible.com and crossbooks.s3.amazonaws.com. There’s no special handling for any of these. And, when you turn off parental control, the router functions as an ordinary router just like any other.

So that I can imitate your environment, can I ask what is the operating system and browser you are using?

[support]

@ejseibert To help us troubleshoot, can you do one more test?
1. Log on the management interface, go to the Parental Control page.
2. Click the “Disable” button at the top of the page.
3. Try to “Unlock Purchased Books.”

Do you still see “You must have an internet connection to use this feature.”?

Please note that there are two ways to turn of Parental Control: turn off for a profile, and turn off completely for the router. I just want to see if the problem is related to Parental Control.

[ejseibert]

I was looking at the settings again today and trying to change them but one of the settings: Internet-> Custom DNS Servers would not accept my changes. I reset the router to factory defaults and this solved that problem.

I then began at the beginning and set the router up all over again. This time at each change I verified whether or not I could update WordSearch. What I found was curious.

(First) I found that when I changed the routers network IP address from the default 192.168.10.1 to the one for our old router 192.168.1.1 that this affected WordSearch’s ability to update. I changed it back to the default and it began working again. Not sure why this would be the case… Hmmmm?

(Second) I then set parental controls. Again Wordsearch failed to update. Then I tried deselecting the options on the right of the default profile under parental controls and found that it was the setting “Block proxy, VPN, TOR” that was the culprit. It must be deselected to allow WordSearch to update. Not sure which of these three services Wordsearch is using or if maybe putting an exception in Allowed URLs would work but for now it will have to remain unchecked.

So now I just need to update my devices that use static addresses (Printer, Network drive, etal) with new network addresses and we should be up and running.

Are there any planned firmware updates? I see pcWRT TORONTO-N v1.06 on the bottom of the router page. I assume that is the firmware version? Would it be possible to split the Proxy, VPN, TOR settings into separate settings in future revisions?

Thank You,
Eric

• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by ejseibert.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 7 months ago by ejseibert.

[support]

@ejseibert Thank you very much! This is very helpful. We’ll get this resolved in the next firmware update…coming some time next week. FYI, automatic firmware updates will be available in the near future.

[support]

@ejseibert Did you receive our firmware update?

[ejseibert]

Sorry I am so late in getting back with you.

I applied the update to the firmware as you described in your email. The system accepted and installed the update successfully.

The results met with partial success.

With the update WordSearch can contact the server now and it will initiate the update process.
However WordSearch still fails to complete the update when unlocking purchased books, but only when filtering Proxy, VPN, TOR in the parental controls section.

When updating the error message reads as follows: “Unexpected Value There was a problem communicating with the server. HTTP Status 200.”

For now I will have to leave proxy, VPN, TOR as unfiltered.

Once again I would ask if Proxy, VPN, and TOR could be setup as separate items in the parental controls section. Maybe it cant… if so OK.

Thank You,
Eric

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