webswitch 1216H malfunktion

[dk3pz]

Vers. 2.8 was working fine since Sept., 19th as Remote Control for Power Supply and Antenna Selection of the Remote Station of mine.
Since today I have the following malfunktion: After Login I choose "Set Relays" and appox. 2 sec later I was routed to "http://www.webswitch.se/wp/?page_id=477" same happens at all other positions.....always routing to webswitch.se; that makes operating nearly impossible.
I tryed Reset of the Webswitch as well as Reset of the Router (FritzBox) without any success
I am operating via internet; I did not examine the Webswitch in LAN because it is too far away ;-)
Any idea ? TNX Hans, DK3PZ

[g4swx]

Exactly the same problem. See http://www.remoterig.com/forum/index.php?topic=1548.0

I suspect that it is the way that Microsoft's IE8 interprets the Javascript from the webswitch

73
John

[Jan (Microbit)]

The problem is now solved. It was a very very strange effect from me enabling a WordPress plugin called GTranslate on www.webswitch.se!!! That plugin interfered with the help page system in the Webswitch so that it unconditionally redirected to the help page! One never can stop getting amazed what a simple action in its turn might lead to!

[g4swx]

Thank you Jan,

control of the Webswitch is restored!
73
John G4SWX

[dk3pz]

Thank you for quick replay.....no it is solved and working fine....73, Hans

[g4swx]

Jan,

I consider that this has revealed a serious longer term issue that I think that you need to address.

It is clear that the Javascript downloaded from the Webswitch to the browser contains more than just a simple script invoking the help button. From the observed behaviour during the problem I am presuming that when each a new Webswitch page is loaded that the browser checks whether the help file for that page is available from your server. Hence when a translation capability was put on the web site the interaction generated a problem with that script.

Although I understand that such a feature can make the help function very user friendly, I view it as a serious security/reliability issue which can hamper the ability of any user to exercise complete control over their own Webswitch. I want the Webswitch to work as a stand alone system and not depend upon what you do with your website. I have performed a simple test by blocking Internet access to the browser and observing a slower response when changing Webswitch pages when it could not reach the server on 213.180.92.20.

Therefore I am asking you to revise the Javascript in the next code update to only communicate with your site when the help button is invoked.

73
John G4SWX

[Jan (Microbit)]

In your opinion I take it the Webswitch should not be allowed to access a single thing outside the local network in order to be considered "secure/reliable"?

Have you tried disabling the "Enable external help pages" setting under "Advanced settings"? That should stop the external help page access.

[g4swx]

> In your opinion I take it the Webswitch should not be allowed to access a single thing outside
> the local network in order to be considered "secure/reliable"?

Yes that is correct - dependancy on an external service outside the control of the user reduces the overall availability/reliability of the device. However I certainly accept that you might have to allow DNS to enable effective communications with the user!


> Have you tried disabling the "Enable external help pages" setting under "Advanced settings"?
> That should stop the external help page access.

Thank you - I had not because I was not previously aware that this was available and enabled. I have now disabled it and indeed would recomend that after initial testing/set-up that everybody else does so.

However, as somebody with very considerable experience in information security I still consider that as a matter of overall system availability/reliability that the Javascript should not contact your server at all, until the user invokes the help function.

73
John G4SWX

[Jan (Microbit)]

The help page is not entirely outside the control of the user since it is possible to disable it, but I see your point.

When the system was designed I could not imaging such a strange behavior ever to happen from a simple Javascript used to load the content of two frames simultaneously when clicking on one link. In fact I can not understand it yet either, not without finding a way to debug the issue in a safe way. What I could imaging happen was for the help page frame not to load properly and so show "page not available", not starting to do some strange "ping-pong" game forcing the help page to overtake the Webswitch page.

Changing the way the help system works like you describe could be a good thing to do knowing what now is known.

It is a shame that programmers have to be human and so they are prone to error/fail.