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[GH-ISSUE #1222] Can't reach tinytorch.netlify.app from Zimbabwe (Econet LTE) — tito community login times out #1735
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Reference: github-starred/cs249r_book#1735
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Originally created by @taksrules on GitHub (Mar 9, 2026).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/harvard-edge/cs249r_book/issues/1222
Hey team,
I'm working through the TinyTorch modules from Harare, Zimbabwe on Econet LTE and I can't log in — tito community login opens the browser to tinytorch.netlify.app but the page never loads. Just sits there until it times out with ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT.
I also hit a similar issue with tito system update — the git fetch would fail mid-download with curl 92 HTTP/2 stream not closed cleanly. I managed to fix that one by forcing HTTP/1.1 (git config --global http.version HTTP/1.1), but the Netlify issue is different — the site itself is just unreachable from my network.
I did some digging and it's a routing problem between my ISP (Econet) and Netlify's CDN. DNS resolves fine but the packets never make it out of the ISP's internal network:
Workaround: Cloudflare WARP (free VPN) fixes it since Cloudflare actually has a PoP in Harare with proper peering. But needing a VPN just to log in isn't ideal.
A couple ideas that might help:
Putting Cloudflare in front of Netlify (proxy DNS through Cloudflare, keep Netlify as origin) would probably fix this for everyone in the region since Cloudflare peers well with African ISPs
A tito community login --token fallback would let people authenticate even when they can't reach the web page (generate a token from a phone on mobile data, paste it in the CLI, etc.)
Even just a note in the setup docs about WARP as a workaround would save people some debugging time
I imagine this affects other learners on African ISPs with similar routing gaps to Netlify. Figured it was worth flagging since the project's whole thing is accessible ML education anywhere.
Happy to test anything if you need someone on an affected network.
Environment: TinyTorch v0.1.9, Windows 11, Econet Wireless LTE (Harare, Zimbabwe)
@profvjreddi commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2026):
Hey @taksrules welcome and sorry for the late reply on this. Really sorry you're hitting connectivity issues. The site is hosted on Netlify's CDN and unfortunately some regions have spotty routing to it, especially on certain mobile carriers. The HTTP/1.1 fix you found for git fetch is clever.
For the login timeout, a VPN might be the quickest workaround for now. I'll also look into whether there's anything we can do on the Netlify side to improve things for regions with constrained connectivity. Thanks for working through the modules from Harare, that's awesome to hear 🙌
@profvjreddi commented on GitHub (Apr 3, 2026):
Closing — this is a regional CDN routing issue outside the project's control. The workaround (VPN or alternative network) was suggested. If Netlify improves routing to the region, this should resolve on its own.
@profvjreddi commented on GitHub (Apr 5, 2026):
Please let me know if this continues to be an issue, and I'll make sure we find an alternative solution.