Proxy Server IP address is not authenticating properly

Software Support
1

One of our clients is having issues with their proxy server and our journal.

From the client:
Our proxy server’s IP address is included in our authorized ranges but, for some reason, access through our proxy system isn’t authenticating properly.

We updated the IP addresses on our system but the problem continues.

From the client:
I just tried again and it’s still having the same problem. It’s not recognizing our proxy server’s IP address though I’ve successfully logged in.

I did a test login as them and it most likely authenticated through our computer’s own IP instead of the proxy server’s but the “Access provided by” did not show an IP address. So, maybe not?
When I sign in as myself I get the “access provided by” function.

I’m looking for any direction on what I should do, look for, or how I can help them out.
Thanks
Janice

2

Hi @bcstudies,

With IP-based authentication it shouldn’t be necessary to log in.

Depending on your server’s setup, you may need to enable the trust_x_forwarded_for option in your config.inc.php configuration file. I’d suggest trying that next.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

3

Hello Alec,

I’m not finding the solution for our clients issue to gain access to our journal through OJS.

I asked UBC Library to see if they could help and sent them the following information:

One of our clients is having issues accessing our journal through their proxy server. They haven’t had any problems until recently and I’m trying to figure out what we can do on our end to help them out.

I have confirmed their IP addresses and that is fine but the proxy system isn’t authenticating properly. It is not recognizing their proxy server IP address after they successfully log in.

I asked the OJS Forum and got this response.

Hi @bcstudies,

With IP-based authentication it shouldn’t be necessary to log in.

Depending on your server’s setup, you may need to enable the trust_x_forwarded_for option in your config.inc.php configuration file. I’d suggest trying that next.

The response from UBC:

Hello,

I have BC Studies sort of working via EZproxy. I set up this stanza:

Title Open Journal System (OJS)
URL http://ojs.library.ubc.ca
DomainJavascript ojs.library.ubc.ca

…so it is very basic.

A problem I am having with BC Studies is I get an error message when I click on the PDF next to the article title:

…but the PDF will download (if I then click the link to the upper right) and open okay.

So, If you want to pass on the stanza to the folks having problems (I am assuming that they use EZproxy) that might help them. But I would like to know why I get the above error message, if you can find out from OJS folks.

Other than that, seemed to work fine.

I pass this on to the client and here is the response I got today:

Nope. Tested this and it makes no difference. This was basically what we had anyway so it’s not really a meaningful change to our EZproxy config file. OJS will need to look at what IP address the system is seeing when we are logging in. They can use the log in information I provided to you.

I’ve never seen that error message. Our problem is probably unrelated to that but the OJS people should know better.

So, what to do?

Thanks
Janice

4

Hi @bcstudies,

Ah, I didn’t know you were asking about EZProxy.

You’ll likely have to add the “J” flag to your EZProxy configuration to cause EZProxy to rewrite URLs that appear in Javascript; that’s the way we embed PDFs.

I don’t have experience with EZProxy myself, so unfortunately I won’t be able to help much more than that.

You might try following up on this thread to see if there’s something more specific the user can provide:
http://forum.pkp.sfu.ca/t/cannot-view-the-pdf-on-the-browser

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team

5

From: Janice Beley janice@bcstudies.com
Subject: Fwd: [PKP Community Forum] [Questions] Proxy Server IP address is not authenticating properly
Date: April 28, 2016 at 1:30:07 PM PDT
To: pkp@forum.pkp.sfu.ca

I think the client is getting frustrated and I don’t blame them.
What do I need to do on my side.
I have no idea and it hasn’t been made clear.

Thanks
Janice

Begin forwarded message:

No. This is the same thing that UBC suggested and we’ve already done it. The problem is NOT on our side. We are getting through our system with no issues and we are accessing the site through our proxy server as appropriate. The problem is that the code on the journal side that is judging whether I as a user am authorized to view your content or not is either not seeing the proxy server’s IP address OR is ignoring it for some reason.

​

6

Hi,

I am replying on this original thread because the solution to this issue was simply a wrong number in the IP ranges.
We checked the ranges again and by changing the one number, the issue was resolved.

Thanks
Janice

7

Hi @bcstudies,

Thanks for following up, and glad the issue is resolved.

Regards,
Alec Smecher
Public Knowledge Project Team