Page loading issues from Russia

[W1zzard]

If you're visiting from Russia, you might have noticed that images load very slowly, but the text appears quickly.

The reason for this is that we use a content delivery network called "Cloudflare" to transfer images faster. Cloudflare has servers around the world that store copies of our images so that they can load faster for you, and this has been working well in most places.

Unfortunately, at this time, there are issues in Russia, because data going through Cloudflare is delayed for some reason.

One solution is to either use TOR / TOR Browser or a VPN.

If you know of other ways to speed up loading or have any suggestions on how we can address this, please let us know here.

For non-Russian visitors: I added a notice on all pages of our main site, to inform visitors with IPs from .ru about this issue, and this notice leads them to this thread

 

[Macro Device]

I was the one who brought this problem up and no, I am not a network specialist so I have no idea how to actually address it.

Перевод: я как раз тот, кто поднял эту тему, и нет, я не сетевой специалист, так что я не знаю, как этот вопрос решить.

Если вам очень тяжело выразить свою мысль по-английски или вы что-то не понимаете, вы можете запросить меня в качестве переводчика. Однако я не панацея, я доступен далеко не круглые сутки.

 

[Onasi]

Proooooobably has to with cloudflare-ech blocking attempts? Might try this tool with the general bat. Was initially made for YT and Discord, but the author did include cloudflare bypass.

 

[arduum]

 

[GerKNG]

Just to add something else about loading issues. Loading specifically the Forum through iOS (anything else on TPU loads just fine!) takes ages for some reason. i can side by side use my linux laptop, Android Smartphone and two windows PCs and the Forum loads within two seconds. My iPhone takes 20-30 Seconds no matter if it's Firefox, Chrome, Brave or Safari.

 

[lexluthermiester]

because data going through Cloudflare

Cloudflare has proven to be a real pain in the bum in the last 24 months. They have been causing problems for legitimate users and operations everywhere. Have grown to passionately loath them. Quit a partnership of over 7 years because they choose to utilize them against advice and not just mine. Found out recently it ended poorly, which was not surprising. My advice is to avoid Cloudflare where-ever possible. There are better options out there.

 

[W1zzard]

Just to add something else about loading issues. Loading specifically the Forum through iOS (anything else on TPU loads just fine!) takes ages for some reason. i can side by side use my linux laptop, Android Smartphone and two windows PCs and the Forum loads within two seconds. My iPhone takes 20-30 Seconds no matter if it's Firefox, Chrome, Brave or Safari.

Are you in Russia?

 

[Onasi]

@W1zzard
Talked to a couple of Russian acquaintances who utilize CF in their work and apparently for now the workaround is dropping to TLS 1.2. From my understanding, with TLS 1.3 CF forces ECH On. No idea how helpful that is for you, but there you have it. Or just manually disabling ECH is an option too. There’s a RU language Habr article on this. Probably can be page translated to be readable.

Как отключить ECH для вашего домена на Cloudflare / Habr

No idea how much point there is to futz around with this just to fix the loading for Russian users though.

 

[GerKNG]

Are you in Russia?

No, in Germany.

 

[Frick]

I've had a ton of loading issues on this and the Arstechnica forums the last week or so. Sometimes the sites don't load at all.

 

[SL2]

Cloudflare has proven to be a real pain in the bum in the last 24 months.

Are you in Russia? Looking at your avatar.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Are you in Russia? Looking at your avatar.

No, but I have friends there and part of my family tree is Russian.

 

[Dristun]

Our dear internet censorship organization watchdog (Roskomnadzor) last week advised everyone to drop Cloudflare altogether and switch to Russian alternatives, so probably they have started to selectively test slowing down/blocking everything that's using it. It's the same pattern as with other services before: Make a threatening press-release => start slowing down quietly => announce the block and try to enforce it entirely. Most likely eventually every website that uses it will only be available with VPNs, so no surprises here. I don't think it's worth trying to do anything on TPU side for the long-term.

 

[lexluthermiester]

advised everyone to drop Cloudflare altogether

While I hate to agree with the hardliners of the Russian gov, Cloudflare is the cause of a lot of problems everywhere.

 

[Macro Device]

Proooooobably has to with cloudflare-ech blocking attempts? Might try this tool with the general bat. Was initially made for YT and Discord, but the author did include cloudflare bypass.

I initially thought about this this morning but I never added "cloudflare-ech.com" in the mix. Now it seems to work. Will leave it enabled for the whole evening, we'll see how it goes.

and switch to Russian alternatives

Excuse me but aren't these poor even by our so-called standards?

 

[W1zzard]

No, in Germany.

Please start a separate thread. This thread is specifically for Russian users who are affected by a specific CDN issue

@W1zzard
Talked to a couple of Russian acquaintances who utilize CF in their work and apparently for now the workaround is dropping to TLS 1.2. From my understanding, with TLS 1.3 CF forces ECH On. No idea how helpful that is for you, but there you have it. Or just manually disabling ECH is an option too. There’s a RU language Habr article on this. Probably can be page translated to be readable.

Как отключить ECH для вашего домена на Cloudflare / Habr

No idea how much point there is to futz around with this just to fix the loading for Russian users though.

Done

@Beginner Macro Device: Any improvement?

 

[Macro Device]

Any improvement?

Pictures take longer than BEFORE to load but it's much snappier than yesterday. Will place additional reports later tonight so you'll know if I faced any issue.

Update: tested a different ISP. Also works as intended, albeit a smidge slowly. Perhaps caused by the ISP limitations (cell phone connected as a USB modem aka tethering) rather than the Cloudflare config.

Update 2: yes, it definitely works fine now. Congratulations, @W1zzard, you did it!

 

[rusTORK]

Done

@Beginner Macro Device: Any improvement?

Now it as fast as before. I press F5 and boom - everything is on page almost instantly (text, pictures, other site things).

As was mentioned - RosKomNadzor will not stop. They violently cut things. YouTube barely opens, Discord blocked completely. Twitter, X, Instagram, Facebook - pretty much gone.

Some companies disagree and don't follow RKN guidlines - it's their choise to be blocked. Maybe market is too small or they don't really care - i don't know.

I agree that some resources must be blocked, but i am not sure that selected way is optimal. Instead blocking everything, i think selective block might be more usefull. For example - i can't even access my personal page to edit it, change passwork e.t.c. without special tools.

When i got small... let's call it dispute... with my ISP i have to use my very old router for other ISP. I didn't used it several years, but still a formal user. They offer slowest speed 64kbps for free. TPU was oly site which open very fast. Really great optimization.

 

[W1zzard]

you did it!

Actually you did it. Without you I'd never know about this issue, without permission to remotely login access to your system I'd never know how it's related to Cloudflare, and without @Onasi we wouldn't know that disabling ECH does the trick

i think selective block might be more useful

This is exactly what they are doing. When you are requesting a site, without ECH, they can look inside the first packet and see that you're connecting to "tpucdn.com", which isn't blacklisted, so it's allowed. When ECH is disabled, this first packet is encrypted, too, so they can't know to which domain you are connecting, so they are blocking it. Just to clarify, they cannot look at the rest of the data, which is securely encrypted by HTTPS

 

[Macro Device]

I'm really glad to be a part of it. Fuck unnecessary lockdowns!

 

[Onasi]

RKN are assholes to be sure, but I also have no idea why CF just decided to enable an optional feature for everyone using it without, to my knowledge, actually asking or notifying the users? May be wrong on this one, but if so, it seems like a bit of poor customer interaction on their part.

But hey, that’s what makes TPU an actual good community to be a part of - people care and try to help and communicate, especially the site admin. A lot of other “communities” just are a place for people to bicker and nobody gives a damn about anyone else. Not to say we aren’t bickering here on TPU from time to time, but it’s mostly in good fun.

 

[lexluthermiester]

RKN guidlines

Regardless of why, the way they seem to be doing it is completely "мусора".

 

[Macro Device]

мусора

This is a noun. The adjective you've been looking for is «мусорской». (for those who has no clue about Russian: «мусора» is our strong derogatory for the police; «мусора, сосать!» (literally: "cops must suck") means something very similar to ACAB)

 

[lexluthermiester]

This is a noun. The adjective you've been looking for is «мусорской».

Oops. Sorry. I admit that my Russian is terrible. You got the idea though.

 

[Macro Device]

I admit that my Russian is terrible

You don't reside here and don't Karen about stuff so it's a non-issue.

What boggles me is how many immigrant workers give zilch shit about the language and you literally are unable to communicate with them since they ONLY speak their mother tongue. Their Russian skills are limited to 30...100 basic words and their English is non-existent. I speak almost perfect Russian, very formidable English, can somewhat explain my intentions to a Spanish/Portuguese speaker and I don't even intend to leave the country! Sorry for derailing, they just really arsed me lately. At least I got paid for my troubles...