[Support request] cURL error 28: Connection timed out (no plugin updates)

[Richard]

Hi,

I’m having this issue of plugin updates not working because of the dreaded error:

cURL error 28: Connection timed out

I’ve read heaps of other posts about it in this forum and elsewhere, so I have a bit of an idea.

I have confirmed:

cURL is enabled – GOOD
PHP Version 7.3.11 – GOOD
cURL version 7.45.0 – GOOD
memory limit 512M – GOOD

Using a terminal program (Putty), I connected to my web host via SSH. By the way, a good guide is here. I confirmed that the InMotion server connects quickly to most sites (e.g. google.com took 0.07 seconds) but not generatepress.com. It hangs forever. Same problem when I use 35.193.232.176.

I then had a LONG chat with my web host InMotion who, after doing some testing, said:

“The only thing that I see that could have possible been blocking it would have been ModSec, which has been disabled in order to test the plugin. As for any limitations with wp-cron, there are none that I am aware of, as the wp-cron service is working as it should.”

“I would reach out to GeneratePress to inquire with them, as they would know the specifics if they are blocking access to our end, and for specifics to get the plugin working with their backend.”

So I guess my question is:
Is it possible that the GeneratePress server is blocking InMotion?

Thanks,
Richard

[Tom]

Hi there,

Our server (Kinsta) will only automatically block IP addresses if it detects abuse. It happens sometimes where a lot of login attempts come from a server and the IP is blocked, so we’re always happy to check with them to make sure the IP isn’t blocked on our end. If you can let us know which IP to check, I’ll do that right away.

Thanks!

[Richard]

Hi Tom,

It is:

23.235.208.68

Thanks,
Richard

[Tom]

Hi there,

I got in touch with them and they confirmed that IP is not blocked on our end.

I linked them to your initial post (which is great), and they said this:

Thanks for the thread.

I’ve checked the access logs for the generatepress site and could find no indication of that IP address having made a connection.

Since they seem to have SSH access to their server, in addition to the cURL request they’ve tried to made, they could do a traceroute.

That will show where the connection is being dropped or blocked.

Might be worth trying.

Let me know 🙂

[Richard]

Hi Tom,

Below is the TRACEROUTE from the InMotion server.
InMotion actually did this for me because TRACEROUTE functionality is not available on my plan.
They said it shows that the blockage is definitely happening outside their server.
Any chance your server people could have a look at this?

Thanks,
Richard.

traceroute to generatepress.com (35.193.232.176), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 csw1.lax1.inmotionhosting.com (198.46.92.26) 0.156 ms 0.124 ms 0.129 ms
2 10.10.0.1 (10.10.0.1) 0.354 ms 0.411 ms 0.333 ms
3 66.117.1.85 (66.117.1.85) 0.213 ms 0.218 ms 0.263 ms
4 po1-dc1-edgebgp-1.corporatecolo.com (74.124.220.130) 0.235 ms 0.270 ms 0.269 ms
5 * * *
6 ae-2-52.ear2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.69.207.45) 0.685 ms ae-1-51.ear2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.69.206.221) 0.426 ms ae-2-52.ear2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.69.207.45) 0.385 ms
7 Google-level3-100G.LosAngeles1.Level3.net (4.68.72.82) 0.416 ms 0.529 ms 0.508 ms
8 108.170.247.147 (108.170.247.147) 0.628 ms 0.601 ms 108.170.247.243 (108.170.247.243) 1.103 ms
9 108.170.230.131 (108.170.230.131) 1.236 ms 108.170.234.27 (108.170.234.27) 1.049 ms 108.170.234.15 (108.170.234.15) 1.175 ms
10 172.253.72.122 (172.253.72.122) 7.369 ms 172.253.71.50 (172.253.71.50) 8.983 ms 216.239.49.106 (216.239.49.106) 12.269 ms
11 172.253.71.252 (172.253.71.252) 28.663 ms 29.032 ms 172.253.72.100 (172.253.72.100) 29.160 ms
12 216.239.48.163 (216.239.48.163) 30.875 ms 209.85.251.138 (209.85.251.138) 51.533 ms 52.551 ms
13 209.85.251.138 (209.85.251.138) 51.585 ms 172.253.79.7 (172.253.79.7) 49.967 ms 216.239.48.243 (216.239.48.243) 52.572 ms
14 142.250.56.135 (142.250.56.135) 50.804 ms 209.85.142.117 (209.85.142.117) 51.453 ms 216.239.48.165 (216.239.48.165) 51.411 ms
15 * * *
16 * * *
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
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25 * * *
26 * * *

[Tom]

Hi there,

I just had a long chat with Kinsta regarding this. Here’s the summary of what they said:

I’ve had our Admins check the firewall on the load balancer and they have confirmed that there are no blocks for the IP provided (23.235.208.68).

Then I gave them the endpoint we use to check license keys/get plugin updates, and they said this:

If I just check that endpoint, I can see successful queries from other sites based on their referers. When we check the IP address you’ve given us for that customer though, I do not see them hitting the server at all.

I then gave them the URL you provided in your original post so they could look for anything coming from that URL, and they said:

I went back 3 days and I can’t see them as a referer either. I had our sysops team check the load balancer for any blocks as well and there’s nothing there.

I’m sorry I can’t be more help here! I’m not much of a server guy, but I do trust the team at Kinsta – they’re super thorough. It seems like there might be something else going on with the InMotion server. Perhaps some of the above info will be useful to them?

[Richard]

Hi Tom,

Thanks.

Since both ends are saying that the problem is outside their network, there’s not a lot I can think of. I do have some ideas though:

1. Assuming I’ll have to update manually, how often would you recommend this? In other words, how often are new updates available?

2. InMotion reportedly have 1.5% market share. I could be wrong but this would suggest that there could be about 1.5/100×60000 = 900 GeneratePress customers using InMotion. It seems they would all have this same issue based on the fact that even the InMotion techs can’t ping generatepress.com. I would love to know how the other InMotion users are dealing with this issue. Perhaps most would just put up with it or not notice it.

3. If it really is affecting this many people, it might be worth you guys looking in to a work-around perhaps? Either tracking down the root cause or providing an alternative system for automatic updates?

Cheers,
Richard

[Tom]

Hey Richard,

Sorry about that – Kinsta is quite thorough, and I was on chat with them for a good 30 mins while they looked through this topic.

Some hosts just don’t like communicating with other servers – it happens. In those cases, manual updating is the way to go, and it’s not so bad: https://docs.generatepress.com/article/updating-gp-premium/#manually-updating

We try not to release updates too often, so it shouldn’t be too much of a burden.

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for other inMotion users when it comes to this – I can’t think of another case from inMotion as of right now.

[Richard]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply.
I’ll report if anything changes, but for now I’ll use the manual method.

Richard

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