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IP Address Banned?

Yithian

Yithian

Parish Watch
Staff member
Joined
Oct 29, 2002
Messages
36,446
Location
East of Suez
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Would any user who finds his or her attempts to access the site normally blocked by the board please contact a moderator by private message (or contact us directly via the 'Contact us' link at the very bottom of the main page if able).

It would not be prudent to discuss details 'in the clear' as it were, but suffice to say that we have been obliged to make some technical changes and it may be generating false positives and affecting the innocent.

Apologies for any inconvenience so caused.
 
Hello everyone!

I visited a family member who lives about 300 miles away for a few days of vacation last week and brought my laptop along. He was kind enough to let me use his WiFi network so I could check mail and also read my favorite websites before bed.

I wanted to read the Forteana Forums, but, even though I logged in with my user ID and password, I got the message that my IP address was banned. I was unable to send any message inquiring about what to do; whatever I clicked on just repeated that my IP was banned.

Does this mean that if I ever want to read this website from a WiFi network other than my own (like at an airport or a coffee shop) I won't be able to because any other IP address will be banned?

Thanks in advance to anyone shedding light on this situation.
 
Using different WiFi locations you will log in through different ip addresses. The one St home must be fine as you an access no problem. It may be that the one you accessed when you were away was on a banned list. This should not really be a normal occurrence for you. If you sned a PM to EnolaGaia and let him know the dates he can check what IP address you were using at the time and see what the problem was.
 
Kate In The Desert said:
Does this mean that if I ever want to read this website from a WiFi network other than my own (like at an airport or a coffee shop) I won't be able to because any other IP address will be banned?
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No ... It doesn't mean you cannot ever access the forum from a WiFi network other than your home network connection. However ...

It does mean you may be blocked again if you arrive at our gates from an IP address or address range (specific node, sub-net, or entire network) which has been flagged for toxic activity.

The IP address designates your point of connection, not your device. Running into a block isn't about your laptop per se; it's about the relative location of your laptop in the overall IP address space at a given time.

Here's what almost certainly happened last week ...

Your relative's WiFi network (regardless of whether it's a home or business setup) connects to the larger net via a router. That router represents and designates the top-level / entry point node for a local network. Certain IP address ranges are reserved for "private networks" (of any size). Router manufacturers typically configure their products to reflect one or another of these default private network ranges out of the box. The router owner is then responsible for configuring or assigning things within the private network space his / her router establishes.

The proportion of router owners who reconfigure their IP settings to something other than factory defaults is arbitrarily infinitesimal. This means there can be an arbitrarily large number of local private networks connecting to the net at large using identical IP addresses for their entry points and possibly individual / terminal nodes within their scope of jurisdiction.

If you show up at our forum's gates operating from an IP address / range flagged as toxic, you'll be blocked. Here on our (receiving) end of the connection path we don't have any way to differentiate among duplicate IP addressing or ranges employed by who-knows-how-many routers.
 
gordonrutter said:
... If you sned a PM to EnolaGaia and let him know the dates he can check what IP address you were using at the time and see what the problem was.
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AFAIK that won't work. If Kate was blocked at the fundamental level of making a connection there'd be no record (associated with her account) of the IP address that was blocked out of hand. She shouldn't have been able to perform a login, because the server should have ignored any input from a blocked address.
 
EnolaGaia said:
AFAIK that won't work. If Kate was blocked at the fundamental level of making a connection there'd be no record (associated with her account) of the IP address that was blocked out of hand. She shouldn't have been able to perform a login, because the server should have ignored any input from a blocked address.
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Sorry my bad, that's why EnolaGaia is the expert at this!
 
Do you know if your friend uses a VPN? The IP address blocks the popular services use often get abused by spam mail bots etc quickly get added to blocked lists through no fault of their own.
 
Kate: I've sent you a PM. I need some more info to get a better idea what happened.
 
Thanks, everybody! This makes me curious about my brother-in-law's home network and IP address. He's located in Page, Arizona (on the northern border with Utah).

Enola, I should have mentioned this. I have this forum, along with other websites like my favorite political blogs, permanently open in the browser I use for personal stuff (the other browser is for work). I had closed my browsers and other programs before shutting down the computer before transporting it. When I opened the browsers again in Page, forums.forteana.org was one of 14 web pages which loaded automatically because they were a saved session. I assume the Forteana page, like the other pages, loaded from memory, which would probably be why it showed that I was still logged in. Throughout all my clicking on the site, my avatar remained in the top right corner of the screen.
 
This exact thing happened to me earlier in the week. I was panicked in case I'd upset the wrong person or done something wrong, but I managed to get a message out to Yithian, who put Enola onto the case and they managed to sort me out. Enola said it was probably a mistake, but be reassured that it's happened to others too.
 
Kate In The Desert said:
Thanks, everybody! This makes me curious about my brother-in-law's home network and IP address. He's located in Page, Arizona (on the northern border with Utah).
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Thanks for noting the location. That confirms something related to the PM I sent you. However, I still need answers to the questions in the PM to offer any more specific theory as to what happened.

Kate In The Desert said:
... When I opened the browsers again in Page, forums.forteana.org was one of 14 web pages which loaded automatically because they were a saved session. I assume the Forteana page, like the other pages, loaded from memory, which would probably be why it showed that I was still logged in. Throughout all my clicking on the site, my avatar remained in the top right corner of the screen.
Click to expand...
Yes - that makes a difference. The saved login session reflected in the locally (laptop) saved last versions is no good if your IP address has changed. If you attempted to take any action based on that last login from elsewhere you should have been immediately prompted to log in anew.
 
Enola, there was no prompt to log in again.

Tangletwigs, I have no idea if my brother-in-law uses a VPN. I'll have to ask. Thanks for bringing this up!

Catseye, sorry to hear you had the same problem, but thank you for your reassuring words!
 
Kate, I've sent you another PM summarizing the extent of what I can tell about the situation.

The lack of an immediate prompt to log in anew is a bit of a surprise, but it doesn't change what I said in the PM.
 
I am having much the same problem as the OP. I don't have wifi at home so was accessing the FT website at work - but then I got the message come up that the IP address was banned... Fair enough, I thought, probably something to do with it being a work address - so I accessed the site via my phone - not using a VPN or anything like that (I don't even have a contract, I'm on pay as you go...) - and that worked until a couple of days ago when the dread IP address is banned message came up... Any ideas on what can be done? I'm visiting friends at the moment, and hence can access the site from their wifi... Any help will be much appreciated!
 
I have had this problem numerous times and @EnolaGaia has kindly helped me out.

My problem usually stems from my home connection. I have now discovered that if I restart my router, the actual IP address changes and I am no longer banned.
It is important to know that the IP address you see from your laptop/pc is not really the IP you are accessing on the web. Again Enola showed me how to see where I can find the true connection info.

So, for some, if it is possible, try restarting the router and this might fix the problem straightaway.
 
I always get the same message about my IP address being banned if I don’t have a connection to Wi-fi and attempt to use 4G.
I've given up trying to access the site away from home or away from a Wi-fi network.
 
Unless I use wifi, my IP address just started being banned too. It means I can't browse the forum on the go
 
I have the 'banned IP' message now and then when out and about. It seems random.
 
I’m getting the “IP address banned” message all the time now from my home network. Until yesterday I only got it when using my VPN. Now I get it even when VPN turned off. I’ll try the trick of rebooting the router when I get back home.
 
Yep me too only when using my iPhone and only this site, try again later and no problem.
 
It's an occasional problem for me, on a few occasions my ip has been banned when I am on the bus, when I connect to the Wi-Fi at home or work I am instantly unbanned.
 
titch said:
It's an occasional problem for me, on a few occasions my ip has been banned when I am on the bus, when I connect to the Wi-Fi at home or work I am instantly unbanned.
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Me too but that's because of the bollocks we talk.
 
Mr_Hermolle said:
I am having much the same problem as the OP. I don't have wifi at home so was accessing the FT website at work - but then I got the message come up that the IP address was banned... Fair enough, I thought, probably something to do with it being a work address - so I accessed the site via my phone - not using a VPN or anything like that (I don't even have a contract, I'm on pay as you go...) - and that worked until a couple of days ago when the dread IP address is banned message came up... Any ideas on what can be done? I'm visiting friends at the moment, and hence can access the site from their wifi... Any help will be much appreciated!
Click to expand...
The IP address range from which you were accessing the forum "a couple of days ago" was flagged for multiple spam attacks over the last week (and continuing). The specific IP address from which you arrived 2 days ago is flagged for a series of spam attacks from earlier this summer.

The most likely explanation is that our automated security service is blocking incoming traffic until such time as the flags (alerts; whatever) on the IP address and / or entire IP range fade in ascribed severity.

Any time you access the forum from a mobile / wifi connection your arrival is evaluated with regard to the IP address from which your connection last "jumps" to our server. When using an intermediary (ISP; VPN; wifi / mobile service) it's anybody's guess what IP addresses they are ascribing / assigning to you or routing you through.
 
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