topic Re: "Forbidden A1" error seems extremely and unreasonably uninformative in Get Support

"Forbidden A1" error seems extremely and unreasonably uninformative

CharlesHenry — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:16:45 GMT

During evening logins, users encounter a "Forbidden A1" error with no further warning or explanation.

It turns out (though it's vague and opaque) that this message is being shown because of mundane Public Mobile's website or database maintenance.

But the error is incredibly terse and uninformative. It made me originally think there was a security issue.

Note that this is incredibly easy to improve; even a simple message like 'Site is under maintenance' would help, this doesn't even require HTML.

A junior engineer could easily implement a basic system to indicate downtime.

Re: "Forbidden A1" error seems extremely and unreasonably uninformative

Hollister — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:42:29 GMT

@CharlesHenry

Mote often than not there is maintenance going on at night and that is a common message yiu would get.

Re: "Forbidden A1" error seems extremely and unreasonably uninformative

hTideGnow — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:48:34 GMT

HI @CharlesHenry PM site has many unscheduled maintenance in the late hour. So, avoid logging in those time and don't leave important thing till last moment to login and do

Re: "Forbidden A1" error seems extremely and unreasonably uninformative

bagel — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:48:56 GMT

It's most likely not a security issue. Hopefully your suggestion is taken into account.

Re: "Forbidden A1" error seems extremely and unreasonably uninformative

CharlesHenry — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:15:41 GMT

Just to be clear, I understand there is no specific security issue, now.

I understand it's probably a maintenance message, though a bizarre and confusing one.

But originally seeing it make me worried there was a security issue at the time, and also separately worried that PM can't lock down its site, so things are risky.

This message is not hard to deal with.

Like, it honestly seems whoever manages PM's user experience is kind of actively neglecting this or has not been given resources to deal with user experience in any sensible way.