Title: WordPress cannot access external network
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# WordPress cannot access external network

 *  [laithabbas0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/laithabbas0/)
 * (@laithabbas0)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/)
 * Hi I am creating an intranet wordpress site, I am trying to install themes/plugins
   but I am getting this error:
 * `An unexpected error occurred. Something may be wrong with WordPress.org or this
   server’s configuration. If you continue to have problems, please try the support
   forums.`
 * I checked the firewall to see if it blocking the host and it turns out that there
   were no hits on the firewall meaning that the connection did not even try to 
   leave the box. I can access the internet from that box but wordpress can’t. I
   tried adding `define(WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL', false);` in wp-config.php but it
   did not do anything. Any ideas??

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078610)
 * You need to speak to your local server/network administrator about this.
 *  Thread Starter [laithabbas0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/laithabbas0/)
 * (@laithabbas0)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078611)
 * He is sitting right next to me. The problem is coming from WordPress, I can ping
   [http://www.google.com](http://www.google.com) and it shows up on the firewall
   but when I search for plugins I get the error and nothing on the firewall.
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078612)
 * > The problem is coming from WordPress
 * Sorry but you are the only one currently experiencing this problem. It’s a local
   server issue – sometimes caused by a failure to compile PHP with cUrl.
 *  Thread Starter [laithabbas0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/laithabbas0/)
 * (@laithabbas0)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078615)
 * I am running it on Ubuntu Server and I install apache2, mysql and wordpress manually
   I also had to install php module for apache manually. so the problem might be
   that any idea where it could be coming from? am I supposed to have certain apache
   modules for this to work other than mysql and php modules?
 *  [esmi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/esmi/)
 * (@esmi)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078621)
 * Not usually. All I can suggest is that you check through your Apache & PHP configuration.
 *  Thread Starter [laithabbas0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/laithabbas0/)
 * (@laithabbas0)
 * [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078638)
 * You were right, php curl extension was not loaded. I just did apt-get install
   php5-curl and it worked!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘WordPress cannot access external network’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [install plugins](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/install-plugins/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [laithabbas0](https://wordpress.org/support/users/laithabbas0/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpress-cannot-access-external-network/#post-4078638)
 * Status: not resolved

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