Getting google_api_connection_fail when setting up Site Kit

Hi @prelite84,

Thanks for reaching out. We are aware that some users are reporting the same error when trying to connect Site Kit at present. We’ve been doing testing on this, where we were able to recreate the same error but only in cases whereby hosting providers resolve the the Site Kit service domain (sitekit.withgoogle.com) using the services IPv6 address.

From our testing these blocks occur also without using the plugin, when performing ping or cURL checks, again only arising if resolving the domain using IPv6.

As it sounds like you’re comfortable with cURL commands can you check both the below:
curl -6 -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com
I suspect this check, which ensures IPv6 is used, will result in the same 403 error.

curl -4 -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com
This check may allow you to connect, with a successful 200 error.

Let me know how you get on with the above commands. If you are able to communicate with the second command, an IPv4 check, please share your Site Health information and I can inspect your environment. Please include your hosting provider where requested.

Is there a way to contact Google Site Kit Support and ask them to verify the IP address of that machine (VPS).

We have checked for any blocks on the Google side for impacted users similar to your own, checking their host IPv6 address. There were no blocks from the IP addressed we checked. In addition, the IPv6 address for the Site Kit service may change, which is why it’s more suitable to perform a check with sitekit.withgoogle.com rather than the IP address. If you wish to include your own server IPv6 address I can also see if we can perform another check on our side.

Note also that for users like you, who were previously impacted, from those who were able to temporarily deactivate IPv6 at host level, they confirmed that after doing so they were able to complete set up. If you have the ability to do so, you may wish to check the same, before then enabling IPv6 once more after set up. This isn’t ideal of course, in particular as you have hundreds of sites, but it may be useful to help determine a more underlying issue.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Let me know if you have any questions with the above.

Good morning @jamesosborne ,
I launched the 2 commands you suggested, and it happened as you described.

So when I launched the command with -6 I got error 403 and when I launched the Curl with -4 I got status 200.

Now I have a small issue, because I cannot permanently disable the IPV6 on that machine.

I investigated a little bit and found 2 solutions:

• I can temporarely disable IPV6, configure Site Kit (hoping that after the configuration Site Kit won’t have to use Curl call anymore) and then re-enable IPV6. In this case I would have to do the same procedure for every new website I’ll install on that machine (kinda frustrating).
• If your plugin user php-curl command you could add the following code to set the the preferred IP protocol on each curl call (also adding a dropdown option in the configuration page)

if (defined('CURLOPT_IPRESOLVE') && defined('CURL_IPRESOLVE_V4')){
   curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_IPRESOLVE, CURL_IPRESOLVE_V4);
}

Please let me know what you think.

Many thanks for the insights @prelite84, much appreciated.

Another possible workaround that may be worth considering, is ensuring that when communicating with sitekit.withgoogle.com only, IPv4 is always used, but at host level as opposed to within Site Kit as you proposed. I would have to check for such as configuration, and how to best apply between those impacted on either Nginx and Apache servers.

While I’m checking this I’ll also passing on your suggestions to the team regarding your configuration within Site Kit. We did discuss various workarounds although a protocol selection wasn’t mention. For other Site Kit configurations the plugin must first be connected.

If you want to also share your Site Health information for one impacted site, along with the IPv6 address on the host server I’ll use this to highlight your case.

Thank you so much @jamesosborne for your prompt replies.

Actually I did not think about forcing IPV4 on connections to sitekit.withgoogle.com.

I’ll try this one, anyway if you have any kind of developments on this matter please keep me posted.

Hope you’ll have a great day.

No problem at all @prelite84, thank you for your willingness to share your own findings, given this has also occurred for other users and we remain investigating a possible wider cause.

Do let me know if you manage to apply a working solution for your own impacted sites through forcing any communication with the Site Kit service over IPv4 only. I’ll also keep you updates should we have any further insights into this.

@prelite84 Just to update you here that we are still actively looking at this and plan to reach out to hosting providers to try and reach a solution to this. Any updates we have we will share here.

@prelite84 We have been seeing some users report this issue as being resolved. Could you please check on your side and let us know if you are still facing the issue?

I’m having similar issues.

Our hosting partner has performed a config modification that causes the server to take connections ipv4 over ipv6 but that’s not ideal…

Any updates coming soon resolving this?

@stijndemulder PLease can I ask that you open your own support topic for this. We can then assist your case individually there. Please can you share your Site Health information when opening the topic. You can?use this form?to share privately if preferred. Please also include your hosting provider and IPv6 address so that we can run checks on our side on your IP.