‘Webfinger end point not accessible’ but no explainer

Hey @neville, I have bad news for you: You seem to host on siteground and they block WebFinger completely, so ActivityPub will not work there at all ??

I tried to contact their support and talked to them on WordCamps, but without luck… Here you can find some more context: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/not-working-on-siteground-servers/

Hi Matthias @pfefferle, thanks so much for your reply, even with bad news! At least I know the reason. It’s extremely disappointing to hear this is because of Siteground – that’s the last thing I would have thought of. I’ve taken a look through the thread you linked to, what a sorry state of affairs. But I will contact Siteground and add my 0.02 to the discussion on this topic.

Thanks @neville, I think it helps a lot, if it will be reported by a critical mass of people!

I also host my site at Siteground. I investigated this item further with them and this was the response they provided.

I referenced this link to them which is where they drew the quote/reference noted in their response below. https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/not-working-on-siteground-servers/

@pfefferle is there any chance that a different folder name or option could be used as suggested below

Thank you for reaching out to us with your concerns. I’d like to clarify that we did not make any modifications to the setup of the .well-known folder within our hosting environment. This folder is specifically used for custom verification purposes related to our Let’s Encrypt integration, and unfortunately, we do not permit the execution of custom code from it. The issue you’re encountering with the plugin has been acknowledged by the developer, Matthias Pfefferle, as noted in his response:

The plugin generates a rewrite rule for .well-known/webfinger and .well-known/nodeinfo , so there is no “physical” folder, it simply rewrites the requests of these endpoints to the index.php file

It appears that the necessity to add these references and rewrite rules to the .well-known folder could be avoided by choosing an alternative folder name, which would ensure compatibility with our hosting platform. Additionally, it has been mentioned in the support thread that the plugin faces similar issues with other hosting providers as well. It would be beneficial for the developers to reconsider their approach and rename the virtual folder “.well-known” to a different name. By doing so, the custom “webfinger” and “nodeinfo” webhooks should function correctly, allowing the Webfinger plugin to operate seamlessly across various web hosting environments.

SiteGround Customer Support

Thanks

Stephen

hey @sgclark thanks for contacting the support.

The problem is, that ActivityPub, WebFinger and NodeInfo are defined specifications and it is not up to me, to simply change specified/required folder names. If the spec requires the .well-known path, the complete plugin wouldn’t work if I simply would use something different.

I also already told their support about that problem. I am very sorry, but at this point it simply will not work on Siteground ??

@sgclark I tried to explain the importance of having the ability to add custom .well-known pathes here https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/not-working-on-siteground-servers/#post-17121731

Got it. I understand now. Oh well. Hopefully something will change amongst all these different pieces of the puzzle and one day it will work as intended!

@sgclark this is not a general problem, Siteground is the only hoster that blocks the usage of all .well-known subfolders, that I know for now.

So normally the plugin simply works, which does not mean that there are no other problems/issues ??

Glad to see this topic is still live although it would be nicer to see a great conclusion! I heard from Siteground on Threads who said if I call Support they’ll help set things up manually. I’ve heard that before, but I called just now. The guy I spoke to had not heard of ActivityPub. Note this is Suppprt in a hosting company who say they know WordPress inside out and back to front. He asked me to email him a screenshot of the Site Status screen in WP admin that shows the ‘Webfinger end point not accessible’ error… to a ‘sales’ email address.

I despair, frankly, now asking myself why I use Siteground for my WordPress hosting.

https://www.threads.net/@nevillehobson/post/C8UtMyACV34

And btw, Siteground’s support chatbot does know about ActivityPub and has a rather bland help answer on setting it up:

To set up ActivityPub on your WordPress site, you’ll need to use a plugin since WordPress does not support ActivityPub natively. Here’s how you can do it:

1.?Install an ActivityPub Plugin:?You?can?search?for?an?ActivityPub?plugin?directly?from?your?WordPress?dashboard.?Go?to?your?WordPress?admin?area,?then?navigate?to?Plugins?>?Add?New.?In?the?search?bar,?type?“ActivityPub”?to?find?available?plugins?that?support?this?protocol.

2. Install and Activate the Plugin: Choose a plugin that best fits your needs and click “Install Now,” then activate the plugin once the installation is complete.

3. Configure the Plugin Settings: After activation, you usually need to configure the plugin. This can typically be done from the Settings menu in your WordPress dashboard. Each plugin may have different settings, so follow the instructions provided by the plugin to configure ActivityPub interactions as needed.

4. Test the Configuration: Once configured, it’s a good idea to test the setup to ensure that your site can communicate with other ActivityPub platforms.

If you encounter any issues during the setup or need further assistance, feel free to reach out to our support team. We’re here to help!

Siteground chatbot

It knows more than the Support humans!

I probably have the exact same problem.?Site Health shows ‘Webfinger endpoint not accessible’ error message. There’s a dropdown link with that message that, when clicked on, should show some kind of explainer as to why. It does drop down but it’s blank, no text of any type displaying.

I can’t see the /.well-known folder via FTP and webfinger says 404.

18:39:43 Looking up WebFinger data for acct:[email protected]
18:39:43 GET https://tatageek.blog/.well-known/webfinger?resource=acct%3Aadmin%40tatageek.blog
18:39:44 Error getting JRD: 404 Not Found

I am not with Siteground, but with some Czech hosting. Is it possible that I have the same problem?Thanks a lot.