Problems with LCR Finance and MLS Transmit

[bsaajm]

Is anyone else having trouble using the LCRF (Finance) site or doing MLS transmit of finance information?

All 3 wards in our building in Salt Lake City have been broken for the last 3 weeks, unable to transmit in MLS. It just hangs. The rest of the internet works fine, it's just the MLS transfer and LCRF sites. Trying to use the LCRF site is unbearable. If you can get logged in at all, every 3rd click breaks and give the message:

Uh oh! We're Sorry ... It looks like something went wrong which prevented the page you requested from displaying. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused!"

I thought it was just the building internet, but I see the same problem at home, with a different computer, on a different internet connection. It's not just my account, because other wards are seeing the same problem. The only common factor is that the building and my home internet both use CenturyLink/Qwest internet.

So I joined the church computer to my phone hotspot instead (T-Mobile), and the problem was immediately fixed - MLS could transmit and LCRF worked great. This is a great workaround in the short term.

If the problem is with CenturyLink/Qwest, then it must be affecting many others. Who else is seeing this?

[jonesrk]

We're having a similar issue with one of our buildings. Last week I took the stake computer to another building and it worked just fine there. This week using my phone as you did it is working fine where it wouldn't work before. It will transmit a few files and then hang or timeout. With one of the wards I got it to work by trying over and over, but it was painful.

The problem isn't globally CenturyLink/Quest because all 4 of our buildings use them for their internet provider and only one building is having troubles.

[russellhltn]

Do you know if the MLS transmission is done via the VPN? Perhaps there's a VPN issue with some buildings.

[drepouille]

I did not think an MLS Send/Receive was possible or even authorized on any networks that did not use the church VPN. Many years ago, we had a few admin computers using a wireless connection, because the FM had not yet run Ethernet to those offices. Unfortunately, the neighborhood Wi-Fi was using the same channel as the meetinghouse Wi-Fi, and the neighbor's signal was stronger. So the clerks decided to connect to the neighbor's open Wi-Fi signal. We received several nasty messages about doing an MLS Send/Receive over an open wireless connection, outside of the meetinghouse VPN.

[russellhltn]

I did not think an MLS Send/Receive was possible or even authorized on any networks that did not use the church VPN. ... We received several nasty messages about doing an MLS Send/Receive over an open wireless connection, outside of the meetinghouse VPN.

As your own experience attests, you can, but it will be noticed. I tend to suspect enforcement isn't terribly consistent, or perhaps only the guilty party sees it.

Anyway, I was trying to figure out why MLS transmission would be an issue in the meetinghouse. The firewall is one of the big differences. It wouldn't hurt to reboot it. I'd also check to see if the DNS the clerk's computer is using is correct.

[drepouille]

Absolutely. Rebooting the firewall is my first choice, especially if the VPN light is off. Oh wait, does the Meraki even have a VPN light?

Checking the DNS on the admin computer is also a good step. There is no telling who has been messing around with that.

[Biggles]

Absolutely. Rebooting the firewall is my first choice, especially if the VPN light is off. Oh wait, does the Meraki even have a VPN light?

The simple answer is No VPN light!

[russellhltn]

The simple answer is No VPN light!

Correct. All you have is one lights that kind of a dim "white" when everything is normal.

[bsaajm]

I investigated this more today. We're seeing this problem from multiple church buildings and from several home internet connections in the area, but only from Centurylink internet connections. If we connect to a non-Centurylink provider, the problem goes away.

The problems are worse than just getting to LCRF. They include several other web sites that we've noticed:

• donations.churchofjesuschrist.org
  lcrf.churchofjesuschrist.org
  k12.com
  americafirst.com
  ksl.com

If I run tracert to any of the problem sites, I see that they are all hosted on level3.net (Comcast). So it looks like a problem between Centurylink and Level3, but maybe only local to this area of Salt Lake City.

Code: Select all

Tracing route to lcrf.churchofjesuschrist.org [216.49.176.123] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.108.1
  2    <1 ms    91 ms    93 ms  slcy-dsl-gw16.slcy.qwest.net [207.108.176.16]
  3    57 ms    63 ms    81 ms  slcy-agw1.inet.qwest.net [207.108.177.121]
  4    98 ms    53 ms    31 ms  4.68.38.161
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6   108 ms   114 ms   117 ms  corporation.bar1.saltlakecity1.level3.net [4.35.168.14]

I called CenturyLInk today and they said there is a similar problem in our local area and that they are working on it, but I'm not confident that it's the same problem, especially since it's been going on for weeks. I'll give them a couple of days and then call back if it's not fixed.

[martybess]

I investigated this more today. We're seeing this problem from multiple church buildings and from several home internet connections in the area, but only from Centurylink internet connections. If we connect to a non-Centurylink provider, the problem goes away.

The problems are worse than just getting to LCRF. They include several other web sites that we've noticed:

• donations.churchofjesuschrist.org
  lcrf.churchofjesuschrist.org
  k12.com
  americafirst.com
  ksl.com

If I run tracert to any of the problem sites, I see that they are all hosted on level3.net (Comcast). So it looks like a problem between Centurylink and Level3, but maybe only local to this area of Salt Lake City.

Code: Select all

Tracing route to lcrf.churchofjesuschrist.org [216.49.176.123] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.108.1
  2    <1 ms    91 ms    93 ms  slcy-dsl-gw16.slcy.qwest.net [207.108.176.16]
  3    57 ms    63 ms    81 ms  slcy-agw1.inet.qwest.net [207.108.177.121]
  4    98 ms    53 ms    31 ms  4.68.38.161
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6   108 ms   114 ms   117 ms  corporation.bar1.saltlakecity1.level3.net [4.35.168.14]

I called CenturyLInk today and they said there is a similar problem in our local area and that they are working on it, but I'm not confident that it's the same problem, especially since it's been going on for weeks. I'll give them a couple of days and then call back if it's not fixed.

Can I ask roughly what area of Salt Lake is your units? I'm pretty much dead in the water here by the salt lake fairgrounds. I do not live in this area but serve there at a branch for a correctional center and I can't submit at all using MLS it just spins. Called helpline and was told after an hour that after restarting the firewall the VPN and things seemed to work slowly. This was when no one was at the branch so on a Sunday I'm pretty sure it grinds to a halt. We have CenturyLink I was informed by the tech from the helpline. A brother serving here at the branch lives in the area and has CenturyLink and is having issues as well.

The stake technology specialist submitted a FIR to the FM group to have them look at the issue but who knows how long that will take and if that's the right route even.


Did your issues get resolved??

Thanks
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