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Exinda WebUI Is Slow If There Is No External Internet Access

Author: Luis Fernandes Updated

 

Overview

The Exinda appliance can run and operate seamlessly without access to the Internet. Some features, such as contacting the Exinda Licensing Server to check for license and firmware updates, as well as anonymous proxy updates, will not work, however, the core functionalities of the device will operate with no issues.

In some scenarios, while using a device without external Internet access (or restricted access through a firewall or other filtering tool), accessing the WebUI may exhibit slow loading behavior.

 

Root Cause

In version 7.x, the WebUI uses a font from Google Fonts' open environment. This font is hosted on fonts.googleapis.com. Without external Internet access to get to the site, it is possible that the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) design (that requires the font for text rendering) will hold the rest of the web page from loading. When the request times out, the rest of the request will be displayed quickly, as it is local.

 

Resolution

As a workaround, It is possible to use the host's file on the machine that is accessing the WebUI to block access to fonts.googleapis.com; this will provide a shorter timeout, and therefore, it will result in faster WebUI loading time.

  • Changing Host File on Linux:
    1. Edit the /etc/hosts file in a standard text editor, e.g., nano, vi, Vim. 
    2. Add the following line: 

      127.0.0.1 fonts.googleapis.com
  • Changing Host File on Windows:
    1. Open the file C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts in Notepad.
    2. Add the following line: 

      127.0.0.1 fonts.googleapis.com
  • Changing Host File on Mac:
    1. Navigate to /private/etc/hosts and open the file in TextEdit.
    2. Add the following line: 

      127.0.0.1 fonts.googleapis.com


Note: The computer on which the host's file is edited will have all traffic blocked to fonts.googleapis.com; this can potentially affect general web browsing if this machine ever gets connected to the Internet through any means. Many sites are free to use fonts from Google's distribution, and fonts hosted there will not load for every page if this workaround is enabled.

Additionally, this is resolved in ExOS v7.4.4. Upgrade to this firmware to implement the permanent resolution. For more information, refer to ExOS 7.4.4 Release Notes.