Fictionmania?

A word from our sponsor:

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Has anyone else had difficulties getting into Fictionmania? Are they gone?

Comments

Ooops

It was my computer. I don't know why. Hmmm.

Red MacDonald

If it makes you feel better,

If it makes you feel better, my Firefox refuses to contact fictionmania in HTTP mode, then throws a hissy fit that https isn't working.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

https

I get the https not available from Firefox usually when I connect to Big Closet, though this evening I didn't. And I got it for the first time earlier today with Fictionmania.When I tell Firefox to connect to Big Closet anyway, the address bar says https:// and it says Verified by: Cloudflare, Inc. I think Firefox is not waiting long enough to get the response from the digital certificate. It's not due to the Internet connection speed: I get ~350 - 360 mbps download and ~360 - 370 mbps upload speeds on my AT&T fiber connection.

Fictionmania

It wasn't just you, I was trying to see what was new earlier and I couldn't get in either. It was working now though.

Time is the longest distance to your destination.

More data ...

Sara Selvig's picture

Attempts using fictionmania.tv:

I'm running Firefox on Vista. Still can't load https:, but http: loads okay. Cleared cache and ditto. Tried Chrome and ditto. Tried Win 10 and M'soft Edge and ditto.

Access attempt using fiction-mania.org/:

Neither http: nor https: work, probably because the website forces into https:.

(All access via Comcast broadband.)

rapidsslonline.com offers these causes:

  • The SSL/TLS protocol being requested is not supported by the server
  • The cipher suite being requested is not supported by the server
  • The hostname in the URL doesn’t match what’s on the certificate
  • The certificate chain is invalid or incomplete
  • The certificate has expired and or is no longer valid
  • The client or server cannot communicate with the SNI servers

Sara


Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.

Fictionmania

Hi all
I am using android and cannot log in to fictionmania keep getting the message the connection was reset even though fictionmania is on my home page never had any problems until the last 2 days any help or advice would be appreciated.

Hugs to you all

Try it this way

Sara Selvig's picture

http://fictionmania.tv/enter.html

Fictionmania has at least eight potentially distinct "doorways". The results you get can depend upon the doorway that you choose.

The variables are:
1. which domain? fictionmania.tv or fiction-mania.org
2. with or without "www." in front?
3. do you ask for authentication? http: or https:

So you could get different results depending upon which combination you use. In the present case, the inclusion of "www." doesn't matter. If you use the "fiction-mania.org" name, it doesn't matter because you get authentication whether you ask for it or not.

If you use the "fictionmania.tv" name, it does matter whether you ask for authentication (https://) or not (http://).

Sara


Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.

From other Fictionmania message board postings ...

Sara Selvig's picture

It appears that it was intended for fictionmania.tv to force SSL effective 1 July. That is, even if one requests http://fictionmania.tv, it would get rerouted to https://fictionmania.tv and resultant authentication. It appears that this did not all happen as planned. At http://fictionmania.tv/webmessage/read.html?uniqueID=13038310, the webmeister notes that http://fictionmania.biz was to be the only non-encrypted access.

The situation will probably be in flux as the webmeister tries to resolve the issues (e.g. find the missing comma in the specification for fictionmania) and complete the transition of fictionmania.tv to 100% SSL.

My heart goes out to Talea as he/she battles this bug. Been there, done that, got the scars. :(

Sara


Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.

My optimum plan re Fictionmania

Sara Selvig's picture

Given Talea's "battle plan", my optimum usage seems to me to access Fictionmania with http://fictionmania.tv/searchdisplay/new2.html. Until fixed, this URL gets in WITHOUT authentication and encryption. When Talea finishes the fix, it gets in WITH encryption.

But, if you need to log in, e.g. to post in the message board, then you should probably wait until the fix is complete lest your password get compromised.

Sara


Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.

Firefox notice

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to www.fictionmania.tv. PR_CONNECT_RESET_ERROR

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt

Interesting

I used Firefox to access fictionmania.tv. No https but everything else worked.
As you said that you were using Vista which is positively ancient (and was a real dog of an operating system even on day of release).
What version of Firefox are you using? I'm on V88.0.1
If the problem is the age of the software that you are using, it will only get worse I'm afraid and you may have to consider that it is time to upgrade your computer.
Samantha

Results invariant ...

Sara Selvig's picture

Results invariant over change in OS (Vista vs Win 10) and browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge). Relevant variable: choice to request authentication and domain name which forces authentication.

So I'll keep my old Vista installation (along with Win 7 and Win 10 installations) as a check on the "progress" of Windows. :)

My first thought was that Fictionmania's server might have gotten a bad time for some reason. Off by seconds doesn't seem to matter, but off by days certainly does result in authentication failure. Then seeing the note above about a reboot on 7/3 suggests a variety of failure sources, including a bad clock (or calendar) or bad connection to the certificate authority. Lots of ways it can fail! :(

So long as you aren't passing along critical info (passwords, credit card keys, etc.) go with the unauthenticated entry: http://fictionmania.tv/enter.html. Even my android likes that one!

Sara


Between the wrinkles, the orthopedic shoes, and nine decades of gravity, it is really hard to be alluring. My icon, you ask? It is the last picture I allowed to escape the camera ... back before most BC authors were born.

At Fictionmania's end.

I took a look at Fictionmania's message board (first time I have ever done that), and there is a thread that starts with someone asking if there is a problem and an administrator responding that since a reboot on the 3rd that https does not work. Unfortunately, "All tests say everything is OK, but it doesn't work."

If all tests say it is OK, then obviously its OK, right? :) The most frustrating sort of computer problem.

At Fictionmania's end.

Oops. Should have read down to your comment before I posted my own comment below. It's something to do with the way firefox & FM are interacting. Chrome seems to have no issue with FM as is.

Heisenbug?

Daphne Xu's picture

"If all tests say it is OK, then obviously its OK, right? :)" Usually means the tests don't catch everything.

But there's the occasional Heisenbug -- one that goes away when one tries to find it, and reappears in ordinary usage. Timing might be off when debugging, or optimization might be turned off.

-- Daphne Xu

Fictionmania

This may be a clue, but my Kaspersky says 'Not Secure' next to the URL. Site works fine though.

Fictionmania not loading in FF.

I've looked for Fictionmania on my firefox & it seems that the newer version of ff at least won't load FM due to either certificate problem or FM not being HTTPS. I have switched over to Chrome & FM comes right in so I don't think it's the website.

It is the website. In

It is the website. In firefox, even if you give it the http:// address, it will automatically change it to https:// - and then, of course, fails.

Chrome honors the manual http:// setting. Firefox does not. If it sees there's anything ON the https:// port, it automatically switches to that, broken or not.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.

I can not access fictionmania at all,

sissymissyct's picture

on my 'puter or phone. I tried http and https and am a bit annoyed about not getting in. Tried all the normal tricks and dif browsers too
Brenda

I found that by opening a new

I found that by opening a new "private" window, I could force firefox to accept http.

Apparently the autoforwarding to https has something to do with visiting the site before.


I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.