Support

Hello. I am trying to use an extension known as Joomdle on my site that utilizes XML-RPC, a bridge component that connects my main site to a subdomain. When I run a system health check from that component, I get the following error message: Joomla URL seems to be misconfigured in Joomdle auth plugin.

According to their documentation, this seemingly straightforward error message can actually be caused by several different things, as follows:

• Re-check your Joomla URL in Joomdle auth plugin configuration.
  Make sure you include http://
  Check Joomla multi-language configuration and enter appropriate parameters in Moodle side if necessary
  Check any mod_security rules that may deny XMLRPC traffic
  Disable any Joomla security extensions you may have installed

Their documentation also says to visit: http::/yoursite.com/index.php?option=com_joomdle&task=ws.server&format=xmlrpc
and If everything is working fine, you should see something like: XML-RPC Error (1): Access Denied. However, if you get a different message or a blank page, there is some problem with your server configuration. I get the access denied message that indicates everything is fine.

I have a VPS, so I've been able to check that no security settings at that level are blocking it. I've checked everything else they recommend and I can't find any issues except that if I turn off Admin Tools, the connection works. Which leads me to believe that it is some type of misconfigured setting within Admin Tools. Didn't there used to be an option in Admin Tools for XML-RPC? I've looked through the forums on your site and I can't seem to locate any recent forum postings for Admin Tools that deal with this issue. Do you have any suggestions?

Thank You
Angela

Alright, well I have "Log Security Exceptions = Yes" and I went through and recreated the issue. However, there is no record of an exception in the log, so unfortunately I can't give a reason or target URL. Which would imply it's not the firewall that's the problem, I guess? And that's not the easy answer I know I was hoping for :)

Okay, just to clarify some of the other stuff I checked before I posted my original topic:

• I made sure that I wasn't getting any of the error messages one gets when the htaccess is blocking part of an extension.
  I checked to see that I'm not catching any JS, other script, and/or database error when I try and debug.
  Turning off the AdminTools system plugin is the only thing that has made the connection work so far.

If you want me to check anything else, just let me know.

Thank you!
Angela

Nicholas,

This was very helpful and with your assistance I have managed to track down the issue. I found that the "Disallow site access to IPs in Blacklist = Yes" setting was causing the problem because one of the shared IPs on our ISP had been blocked at some point. I did check the IPs back when this problem first started, but I only checked the main IP connections we use on our VPS and didn't realize that this other IP was there too.

So thank you very much for the guidance and if it happens again I know where to begin looking :)

Angela