briz_dad

@adamdunnage – wonderful news… it looks like the plugin is functioning again!! I checked things two days ago when you posted – Moped Outlaws was functioning, but other sites weren’t. I thought I’d wait a couple of days to see if things came back online – so far, they have!

I just checked https://www.marshallhallridingacademy.com – which is on a different DreamHost account then my own. Everything set-up like a charm…

Thanks again for all your assistance and sticking with this – I am very happy. ??

@adamdunnage – more great news… i see light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for staying on this. fingers remains crossed.

@adamdunnage – any luck working directly with hosts? Has communication directly with DreamHost been able to occur?

@adamdunnage awesome news – thank you

Hello @adamdunnage – I know you are doing what you can… again, as an FYI… another client that uses DreamHost shared hosting – different account than mine – is experiencing the same thing… and we just had to do a workaround for her Google Ads since the Kit plugin is currently broken.

@adamdunnage thank you for the update… fwiw; still getting the connection error google_api_connection_fail

Thank you, @adamdunnage – fingers crossed

Hello @adamdunnage – my IPv6 address is

mopedoutlaws.com : 2607:F298:0005:6000:0000:0000:051A:BE6F

Hello Adam – here is what seems to be DreamHost’s final response… as they say the issue really does reside on Google’s end of things:

 after investigating with the help of our specialized server team we were able to confirm that indeed Google servers are blocking the connection to our shared server environment-infrastructure through that WP plugin, even resetting the connection did not work:

dh_zay5xz@ai-apaec:~/mopedoutlaws.com$ curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 403
alt-svc: h3=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-29=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=”:443″; ma=2592000,quic=”:443″; ma=2592000; v=”46,43″

dh_zay5xz@ai-apaec:~/mopedoutlaws.com$ curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 403
alt-svc: h3=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-29=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=”:443″; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=”:443″; ma=2592000,quic=”:443″; ma=2592000; v=”46,43″

Moving forward, to resolve this since Google does not have any visible method for a host to unlock themselves, and they don’t cover that particular error message in their documentation, for that the best path to follow for you, would be to use the support path laid out in the error message: “ask a question on our support forum and include the text of the original error message: google_api_connection_fail”

Here is new information from DreamHost:

With the help of our server admins team, I was able to confirm the Google Site Kit plugin was not able to connect to from the shared server environment in your Dreamhost account:

dh_zay5xz@ai-apaec:~/mopedoutlaws.com$ curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 403

alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"

dh_zay5xz@ai-apaec:~/mopedoutlaws.com$ curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 403

alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"

I then tested the connection using an alternative server and it worked

correctly:

dh_azhaft@nicholas-gilman:~/andptestdh.dreamhosters.com$ curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 200

content-type: text/html

vary: Accept-Encoding

x-cloud-trace-context: 00994b71c3d80f2d0c7a4df843baa447

date: Tue, 24 Jan 2023 19:47:42 GMT

server: Google Frontend

alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"

So I confirmed this relates to google blocking linodes servers in the past due to linodes server may be sending spam or something else https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/linode-hosts-are-blocked-by-googlesitekit/

I found this report from WordPress, looks like this is an issue on their end https://github.com/google/site-kit-wp/issues/6095

"bethanylang commented 3 weeks ago This is a possible code emergency as we've had other reports recently that we're looking into. Will update soon!" so all evidence points the issue is on Googles end.

Hello Adam,

I did implement for IPv6 for the domain “https://mopedoutlaws.com”. I am still getting the error “google_api_connection_fail”.

Part of what is frustrating is the issue is not just with my account. Other accounts I work with that are utilizing DreamHost are also experiencing the issue.

I am currently waiting for a support phone call that I am paying for – I am invested in this getting resolved.

Sincerely,
Greg

…and now DreamHost has responded with the following:

So sorry for the ongoing trouble with connecting your site to Google Site Kit.

You can add an IPv6 address to your domain if that is what is required:

https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/216510458

I found this thread reporting the same error and when they tested, it looks like google may have blocked access with a '403 - forbidden'

response:

https://github.com/google/site-kit-wp/issues/4569

I ran the curl test from your web server and was able to reproduce the same 403 result:

@ai-apaec:~/mopedoutlaws.com$ curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 403

alt-svc: h3=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"

I tried 'curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com' from other servers and got a 200-okay response:

curl -I https://sitekit.withgoogle.com

HTTP/2 200

date: Mon, 23 Jan 2023 05:49:29 GMT

server: Google Frontend

You can try adding the IPv6 address to see if that will work and/or you may want to inquire with Google Site Kit Support if they're able to check why curl request to 'https://sitekit.withgoogle.com' returns a 403 error and if they can remove any IP block/denials. The domain 'mopedoutlaws.com' is using the IP '67.205.13.133' if Google is able to check if that IP is denied access.

Is the above helpful at all?

It is frustrating that this issue is happening on multiple account with DreamHost and responsibility isn’t being taken for the issue… It seems both plugin developers and hosting IT would want to work together to resolve this.

I responded back with:

Hello Sully,

Doesn’t the fact that this is happening only with my DreamHost sites – and other sites hosted on other server providers using the Google Kit plugin are fine – point to something with the DreamHost environment?

Sincerely,

Greg

I just received this response from DreamHost:

Hello Greg,

Thank you for reaching back out to us. Sorry to hear you’re still having problems. I’ll be happy to assist you further today.

I’ve done extensive research on this subject and because its specific to the plugin and google back end which DreamHost does not have access to.

We unfortunately have reached the end of insights we can provide for why the API will not connect. I spoke with the admin team and their have instructed me that all diagnostics related to this matter outside of resetting it need to go directly through Google’s support forums. 

I’m very sorry but all I can provide at this point is the following article to their support portal.

https://sitekit.withgoogle.com/documentation/using-site-kit/site-kit-support/

If you’re able to find any other information where it indicates the DreamHost server itself is the issue from Google we’ll be more than happy to assist you further but at this time it seems the plugin and its code is the issue.

Thanks again for reaching out to us today. If there’s anything else we can assist you with, please let us know. Please have a good rest of your day.

Sincerely,

Sully

Hello Adam,

I’ve heard back from them – nothing substantial yet. Another clue – a new site I was attempting to set-up the Site Kit by Google plugin on the same hosting gave this error: google_api_connection_fail

On the form I submitted, it asked for the hosting service.

Any chance of working directly with them? I volunteer my sites as guinea pigs if it helps…

Sincerely,
Greg