I'm ignoring mobile users. What's causing it?

[internetheaven]

I have a website:

removed url

[not spamming a link in here, but anyone willing to help will need to see the problem]

... which if you view through a desktop browser it shows up fine, but if I try to view in on a mobile device, it just comes up with an apache warning page.

I have built a couple of hundred sites. This has never happened before. Any ideas what might be causing it?

Thanks
Mike

[edited by: coopster at 5:27 pm (utc) on Jan 15, 2015]
[edit reason] sorry, had to remove specific site. Thanks for understanding. [/edit]

[penders]

...on a mobile device, it just comes up with an apache warning page.

On my "mobile device" (Nexus 4 phone, using "Next Browser" or "Google Chrome") it displays just fine - no error. It displays the same as the desktop site for me, which isn't "mobile-friendly" but there are no errors.

What "mobile device" and browser are you using and what "apache warning" are you getting?

The mobile browser might be using some kind of proxy to speed things up which might be messing things up, depending on what you are doing server-side. Otherwise, are you doing any "browser sniffing" ie. checking user-agent etc?

[internetheaven]

I'm using a Sony Xperia with Chrome on it.

I get an Apache Test page template which I've never even seen before. Any new domain I put on with a template shows a Plesk template. I've never seen an Apache one before.

I've just tested again, and the Apache page only shows up if a use a mobile broadband connection. If I connect my phone to the work broadband, the site shows up fine.

?

[not2easy]

Google has places to find out what to do to get it up to standards: [google.com...] tests the URL and tells you what it needs.
General mobile friendly info: You will need a viewport setting and avoid using px for sizing elements. Mobile devices do not use traditional pixels, they use device pixels so you should avoid using px in your css and learn to use em which is not a size but a ratio.

Google recommends that render-blocking javascript calls go down to just before the closing </body tag to be requested after the body content has loaded. Additional information can be found here: [developers.google.com...] and overall your site may be quite simple to "fix", with no major issues.

[penders]

...the Apache page only shows up if a use a mobile broadband connection.

FWIW, your website still shows up OK for me on my mobile network (UK O2), using Google Chrome.

This would seem to suggest an issue with your mobile network/DNS ...?

[lucy24]

Never mind what the visitor sees. What do your logs say? What numerical error code, if any, does the request get?

[internetheaven]

FWIW, your website still shows up OK for me on my mobile network (UK O2), using Google Chrome.

Really? I'm on O2, using Chrome. You were definitely connected using the O2 mobile broadband, not wifi or something?

I've accessed the site on my desktop but through the mobile broadband network. It shows up fine. But, when I click view source, a whole bunch of stuff has been added to the code:

e.g. <script src="http://1.2.3.4/bmi-int-js/bmi.js" language="javascript">

in the header. But it does that with all my sites and they show up fine on my phone. I can't work out what is special about this site that makes it deliver an Apache message?!

UPDATE: if you go to any inner pages such as /folder/file.php - you get a "forbidden. you do not have permission to access this file" message.

[internetheaven]

Hold up. Wait a minute. I put this in my .htaccess some months ago when my content was being duplicated everywhere:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} anonymous [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://.*anonymous.*$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://.*hidemyass.*$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:VIA} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:FORWARDED} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:USERAGENT_VIA} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X_FORWARDED_FOR} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:PROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:XPROXY_CONNECTION} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_PC_REMOTE_ADDR} !^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:HTTP_CLIENT_IP} !^$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F]

When I remove it, my site is visible on my phone! Why would this proxy/scraper blocker code stop my site from showing up on ONLY my mobile phone? Like I said, when I connect my desktop to the site through my phone, it shows fine?

Aside from "what the hell is going on?", does anyone know a scraper blocker code that might not block phone access?

[internetheaven]

Google has places to find out what to do to get it up to standards:

You post that in the wrong thread not2easy? Didn't have anything to do with this problem. Still a bit groggy from new year or something? ;)

[lucy24]

Why would this proxy/scraper blocker code stop my site from showing up on ONLY my mobile phone?

Because mobile connections often happen through a proxy even if the user doesn't know it. You may find it useful to log your headers, at least temporarily, to see exactly where the offenders are. Be sure to include the log-headers code on your 403 page, so even denied requests are logged.

[penders]

Really? I'm on O2, using Chrome. You were definitely connected using the O2 mobile broadband, not wifi or something?

Well, actually "Giffgaff", but this runs on the O2 network (and some phones, including mine, report it as O2). I had WiFi switched off. (Although my first test would have indeed used WiFi.)

The mobile browser might be using some kind of proxy to speed things up...

Because mobile connections often happen through a proxy...

In fact, Google Chrome on Android, has this as an option in settings ("On" by default I think). In the form of "Reduce data usage" (On/Off):

When this feature is turned on, Chrome will use Google servers to compress pages that you visit before downloading them.

I recall now that I had to disable this feature as it prevented me from accessing my local development server (since the Google servers obviously couldn't access my local network).