Summary
If you see these or similar messages, then ask your network administrator to whitelist the following domains on any firewall or web application security device your machine is connected to:
If you click this link, you should see something similar to the following:
{"query":{"name":"version"},"response":{"name":"api-radiantdrift-com","version":"0.16.3","author":{"name":"Crookneck Consulting LLC","email":"support@radiantdrift.com","url":"https://radiantdrift.com"},"description":"radiantdrift.com - a commercial astronomy web service API. Use by third parties requires a valid licensing agreement with the publisher. All rights reserved. © Crookneck Consulting LLC, 2023."}}
If you see an error message, the site is likely blocked by your firewall. If you’re unsure how to unblock the site, drop us an email or open a ticket via the Help button and we’ll be happy to assist.
Background
Photo Ephemeris Web uses a web service API to look up time zone, elevation, and other required data on demand. If you are seeing incorrect data displayed in red text, that indicates a problem connecting to the API server:
Checking for connectivity problems
It is possible to be able to connect to the internet and load Photo Ephemeris Web, but still be unable to connect to the API server. The most common reason you may see this is due to firewall and network security rules restricting access to the required servers – this is particularly true in enterprise network environments where your IT department likely limits what sites can be reached.
The easiest way to check for this is to inspect your browser’s console output (instructions here: How to view web console output in your browser). You should check for errors displayed in the console. The following are examples of messages that indicate something is blocking access to a required API:
- Network Error – “ ”
- Failed to load resource: Could not connect to the server.
Testing
To check whether you can access api.radiantdrift.com successfully, you can simply move the map pin – each move requests the time zone and elevation afresh at the new position.
If you are able to connect your machine to a different network (e.g., a mobile hotspot via your phone), this can be a quick way to check whether it is a firewall issue on the original network or something else.
If you continue to see any of the error messages listed above after changing networks, then this would suggest a firewall or other network security software installed on your local machine that might be causing the problem. (For example, the screenshots above showing the error condition were obtained when I manually blocked api.radiantdrift.com using Little Snitch.)
Checking service status
You can check whether the service itself is operating normally by visiting our status page at http://status.crookneckapps.com. api.radiantdrift.com is very rarely down, so this is unlikely to be the issue.
Other causes
If you believe there is a different issue causing the problem, please contact us with details, including full screenshots and your browser console output.
