PRTB Website Down?

duffman13

Is anyone else having issues getting on to the PRTB website? I am trying to get on it to get a sample notice, I have tenants which I need to give notice as I intend to move back in to the house and usually use PRTB templates however the site has been unavailable to me most of the weekend. I am overseas but just want to see if its issue for everyone or just me?

Cathmandooo

It has been renamed

http://www.rtb.ie/

Works fine for me, if you can't get on I'll try to give you a direct link to what you're looking for, that might work.

Try these:
http://www.prtb.ie/dispute-resolution/dispute-resolution/sample-notices-of-termination

http://www.prtb.ie/docs/default-source/notice-of-terminations-landlord-pdf/landlord-requires-dwelling-for-own-or-family-use-2.pdf?sfvrsn=2

duffman13

Cathmandooo wrote: »

It has been renamed

http://www.rtb.ie/

Works fine for me, if you can't get on I'll try to give you a direct link to what you're looking for, that might work

Cheers thanks for the heads up, still having the issue but got a mate to forward it to me, seems to be inaccessible to me overseas. Thanks for the quick response.

Michael D Not Higgins

duffman13 wrote: »

Cheers thanks for the heads up, still having the issue but got a mate to forward it to me, seems to be inaccessible to me overseas. Thanks for the quick response.

I'm in the UK and can access it.

GGTrek

I have the same issue. Trying to access rtb.ie from overseas and it is rejecting access. It was working when I was in Ireland a month ago. I have a suspicion that the dumb .... at (P)RTB have put some kind of IP location blocking which done from a public body is very irritating to say the least (maybe even illegal since it is hiding public information from non Irish residents inside EU).
I shall test my theory using an Irish proxy and if my suspicion comes true I shall start to hassle them on the phone and write to their senior management.

GGTrek

Ok, my suspicion was fully verified (spent half an hour today playing with Irish proxy servers). The guys that run the gov.ie domains are stupidly playing with the rtb ie access. Using Irish proxy I managed to get full access to rtb ie website (does not matter if you digit the prtb ie domain name, at the end the DNS goes to the same IP 137.191.234.7). These guys are a joke, blocking Irish public body information to residents of other EU is very likely to be illegal. Incredible thing is that they do not block the domain portal.prtb.ie [137.191.234.18] (notice the different IP!). I sent an email to support gov ie and gave them a 3 days deadline to remove the illegal blocking. If they don t remove it I shall start to complain with the Irish Office of the Ombudsman. BTW the new boards.ie sucks as well with the link rules and the very frequent 500 server errors.

Michael D Not Higgins

I'm willing to bet on Hanlon's razor in this instance. The site is accessible from the UK, and what benefit would there be to blocking access from certain countries?

The_Conductor

duffman13 wrote: »

Cheers thanks for the heads up, still having the issue but got a mate to forward it to me, seems to be inaccessible to me overseas. Thanks for the quick response.

Yes- doesn't seem to work from the UK (Vodafone UK) or Portugal (Vodafone PT) (haven't tried any other locations recently). It may be ISP dependent.

Edit: Works with Virgin Media in the UK.......

Go figure.

The_Conductor

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

I'm in the UK and can access it.

Which ISP are you using?

Michael D Not Higgins

The_Conductor wrote: »

Which ISP are you using?

Demon in work, giffgaff on mobile (O2 network), TalkTalk at home, EE on work mobile. It works on all of them.

Edit: I'd be willing to bet a problem on the ISP side rather than on RTB's side.

GGTrek

After a few calls and emails to gov.ie and RTB and office of ombudsman I got my written answer today: the RTB is purposefully blocking non Irish IPs!!! I got an email from the registration department of RTB confirming the blocking! To add injury to insult they attached a PRTB registration form since they are so dumb they think I cannot overcome their amateur IP blocking, funny I did send to them proof that through Irish proxy I did get acess to their website! They were just too lazy to read my full email with all the proof!

Reason for this draconian and illegal measure: RTB site was hacked a few months ago!!! Like massive global IP blocking is the proper response to an hacking incident instead of beefing up security on their side!

Transparency to public on how this decision was taken: none whatsoever! No notice to public, no notice on press, two weeks to answer my requests without details on how this decision was taken! Why should I pay these people of the RTB 90 eur per tenancy and they don't even want to allow me to access their public info from outside Ireland.

This is not "Hanlon's razor" as previous post commented, this is sheer stupidity mixed with a lot of arrogance and it is not going to end well for the RTB. Next step is formal complaint to the office of the Ombudsman, FOI request to RTB about who took this decision based on what law and what basis.

If this does not solve escalate and then the courts. I have a profound dislike about the useless (P)RTB quango and the bureaucrats that populate its ranks. Any suggestions about a lighter course of action is welcome.

GGTrek

OSI wrote: »

Care to state what statue you have verified they are breaching by taking fairly standard proactive steps to protect their infrastructure?

Thei response to the hacking is like: ohh the hacker was from outside Ireland. Ohh then everyone outside Ireland must be bad and taking a hammer against every legit user accessing from outside Ireland!!!
There are many alternative solutions in website protection like putting a proper firewall or a cloud firewall in front of the website server, with proper admin righs and proper "difficult" passwords that are changing with frequency.
Start reading the Freedom of Information act and geo-blocking-digital-single-market on EU website and you will understand.

athtrasna

Thread closed pending review