Google Earth (Web or Pro) Blue Globe / Empty Galaxy

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mobiusnz

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#296266 3-Jun-2022 10:57

Hi Folks - Here's a weird one.

This morning I have a site that on any version of Google Earth they either get a blue globe with no details or no globe at all.

Its not vodafone as a whole as from another Vodafone client (Also Fibre / Static IP) it works fine.

I've checked DNS is correct and also changed to 8.8.8.8 but no go. Everywhere else it works.

There is no fancy firewall blocking traffic - Its run of the mill NAT.

I suspect its a weird network routing issue at Vodafone that isn't affecting everyone as I've seen similar before with strange semi isolated network issues on Vodafone's network.

Is / Has anyone else seen this issue - It may be the routing issues are wider but this is the only symptom they are seeing.

I'm at a bit of a loss - Its the Web version and Google Earth pro and its everyone on this network??

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

Lias

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#2922213 3-Jun-2022 11:55

I agree it's weird but seems.. unlikely... to be at the Vodafone side.

Try troubleshooting with these tools?

Browser Developer Tools
Fiddler
Wireshark

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mobiusnz

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#2922218 3-Jun-2022 12:11

I really haven't - I'm not onsite so wireshark is a little out right now without causing further disruption to a user.

I'm not sure what to do in the developer console of the browser - I can see lots of references to earth.google.com and that pings, responds and traceroutes ok.

Bit of a loss really but while pointing at Vodafone might seem odd I've seen it too many times on VF with very specific issues with Some or all Vodafone customers having issues with Office 365 that initially there is no acknowledgement of and then suddenly later its escalated and resolved as an issue somewhere in their network.

I've had some VERY specific weird issues over time with Vodafone and I can't see much else - I'm going to restart their router but at present if offers site to site VPN that is working and we have remote VPN users working from home etc that the disruption would be worse than not having Google earth although it is an important tool to one of their teams.

They literally have a run of the mill network - A router that has ONE filtering rule that is outbound SMTP blocking and otherwise a bulk standard setup and its everyone across the board is having the same issue.

I'd like to do an outbound VPN or route all traffic for a user via another branch to confirm it then works but again - I need to kick someone off, disrupt their flow so I'll do something after hours if it hasn't resolved and a router restart / connection drop and reconnect doesn't resolve it.

Really for me its an issue with the router or nothing onsite - There just isn't anything else that would cause this issue on their LAN.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

mobiusnz

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Ultimate Geek
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#2922222 3-Jun-2022 12:25

I'm going to take this convo to IT Pro and developers.

On your advice I was looking at dev tools - I notice on the console screen I'm getting this error about 8 times. I don't get it at all elsewhere

'https://kh.google.com/rt/earth/PlanetoidMetadata' from origin 'https://earth.google.com' has been blocked by CORS policy: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header is present on the requested resource.
Access to XMLHttpRequest at 'https://kh.google.com/rt/earth/PlanetoidMetadata' from origin

I'm beginning to wonder if Google have blocked their IP address - Perhaps their usage has been so high Google have blocked them on suspicious of miss use or over use??

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

yitz

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#2922236 3-Jun-2022 12:45

What response do you get if you browse directly to that PlanetoidMetadata API endpoint? That is the kind of response you might get if your request is going to the wrong server or virtual server/load balancer is down.

Vodafone have had weird stuff in the past with Google services... e.g.
https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumId=50&topicId=290068

mobiusnz

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#2922240 3-Jun-2022 12:54

Yup - I think they have exceeded 24 hour requests.

If I browse to

https://kh.google.com/rt/earth/PlanetoidMetadata

I get a small txt file.

If I browse there from their system I get

We're sorry...

... but your computer or network may be sending automated queries. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

See Google Help for more information.

So I think one way or another they have made too many google earth requests for the day - I guess I'll know when the 24 hours period in the US rolls over.

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions

Lias

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#2922339 3-Jun-2022 17:24

mobiusnz:

So I think one way or another they have made too many google earth requests for the day - I guess I'll know when the 24 hours period in the US rolls over.

That seems highly probable from what you'd posted.

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yitz

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#2922463 3-Jun-2022 20:17

It's a little bizarre Google would serve captcha on an API endpoint though, would make more sense for it to be on the web user interface (did they not notice the search engine was not working either?).

Static IP ranges from ISPs can also have poor reputation from time to time due to other users on the same range causing issues.

mobiusnz

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#2923313 6-Jun-2022 19:20

yitz:

It's a little bizarre Google would serve captcha on an API endpoint though, would make more sense for it to be on the web user interface (did they not notice the search engine was not working either?).

Static IP ranges from ISPs can also have poor reputation from time to time due to other users on the same range causing issues.

all other google services were fine. It started working again the next morning. They make some quite large maps with hires drone photo overlays etc so might have somehow pulled a little too much data?

Matt Beechey Mobius Network Solutions