Banned IP Addresses
Painkiller
Posts: 6,146 Forumite
What is going on with the banning of IP addresses over Christmas / New Year? I've had four different IP addresses banned for no apparent reason and with no explanation given.
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Comments
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Have you been cut & pasting from anywhere as that could be a reason.0
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Most likely it's a complete subrange being banned due to somebody else using that range triggering spam systems. Probably not even this site.
If MSE use people like Spamhaus then that would explain it.0 -
duncanthedog wrote: »Have you been cut & pasting from anywhere as that could be a reason.
Any copied text goes into notepad before being pasted here, I've not changed how I've been posting things for several years though so can't see why it has suddenly become a problem.
I had the following, less than useful, reply from mse;
"Your IP is not being blocked by our forum software directly, it looks like it's being banned by a spam prevention system beyond our control.
In this situation, the best solution is usually to change your IP address if that's possible. This can often be as simple as turning your router off for a few minutes, then on again. The following link may be of help:
https://whatismyipaddress.com/change-ip
We apologise once again. This is far from an ideal situation."
I'm up to 6 banned IPs at this point and having to use a vpn to access the site.0 -
After putting all of my banned IP addresses in a Blacklist checker, there are issues reported with the following blacklists (the top one is common for every banned IP);
dnsbl.spfbl.net
dnsbl.sorbs.net
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
b.barracudacentral.org
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net0 -
Painkiller wrote: »After putting all of my banned IP addresses in a Blacklist checker, there are issues reported with the following blacklists (the top one is common for every banned IP);
dnsbl.spfbl.net
dnsbl.sorbs.net
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
b.barracudacentral.org
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
Which indicates that a range of your addresses that your ISP uses has been blacklisted. These sites don't just block single addresses but complete ranges.0 -
Painkiller wrote: »After putting all of my banned IP addresses in a Blacklist checker, there are issues reported with the following blacklists (the top one is common for every banned IP);
dnsbl.spfbl.net
dnsbl.sorbs.net
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
b.barracudacentral.org
dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net
Most of these type of services usually include details explaining how to remove your IP address from their blacklist.
But in regards the top one, for example, I found this in their FAQs
I'll leave you to check out the others.I cannot access some websites when I'm using my listed IP.
Unfortunately you made a false correlation. The DNSBL technology has no relation with website access control. This means your issue has another cause for sure. Please, consult a network professional to help you discover this cause and fix it.
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I think that top one is the main issue as it is consistent with every email address I am assigned and, in some cases, is the only blacklist listed.
I tried contacting the person who runs that top one yesterday and got the same copied & pasted response from them - contacting a network professional isn't really an option and they weren't willing to offer any more help for anyone who isn't a mail server administrator.
I was doing a fair amount of digging on this issue. That top blacklist appears to be a list of bad ip ranges of smtp email servers. I found some very old threads online with a similar issue and a couple of responses indicated that the person running a vbulletin forum shouldn't be using an email server blacklist to block access to a forum.
Are MSE using this blacklist incorrectly? Should BT not be assigning these dynamic IP addresses? I've asked both but am yet to receive a reply from either.
The other question is, are any other MSE users suffering in silence as they don't have a vpn to bypass the issue?
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Update: All three companies have shirked responsibility.
MSE: I'm afraid your IPs are not being blocked directly by our forum software, so we can't offer support with this. We can only suggest that you access the forum from another location.
BT: Unfortunately because it is not us that is blocking the IP addresses there is nothing we can do in this case, I would go back to "moneysupermarket" and try to explain the situation again to them?
spfbl.net: Your DNSBL service is used only at unauthenticated SMTP transactions, that is not your case for sure. Please consult a network professional to help you discover the real cause of your issue.0 -
Painkiller, some blacklists aren't actual blacklists but lists of IP address ranges of certain types. Residential dynamic IP addresses issued by ISPs to their consumer customers are one type of address and being on that list means nothing other than that it's believed to be that type of address. If you check a list and all it says for the address is that it's residential then you should have no need for concern because it's just right and normal.
For web site access it'd normally be crazy to include such a blacklist in the ones used because it'd block most consumers most of the time. MSE has capable technical people so it's not really likely that they are doing that but mistakes can happen.
However, other blacklists operate on the basis of apparent email spamming and it's possible that a spammer is using machines with addresses close to yours. Some of these will add an address then remove it a day or so later unless it starts to show up regularly and that can cause temporary blocking. But a spammer near to you can cause repeated blocks that can appear permanent.
There might also be lists of forum spamming addresses now and MSE might use some if those or might make it's own based on actual spamming in the forum. MSE probably are the best people to ask because if they are blocking you they should have logs giving the reason.
Back around 1999 I was one part of a team of Windows programmers who used such lists and even had one for residential address blocking. But that was solely for filtering email coming into the Windows computer and wouldn't ever affect web site access. I stopped doing it when the better SpamGourmet antispam service made it unnecessary. It lets you give each place their own dedicated email address and turn off any that get abused. Very convenient and effective. For a while now MSE hasn't accepted at least some of the SpamGourmet addresses so don't try to use it here.0 -
I tried posting on a Discussion Time thread. 3 or 4 times I was told to wait 59 seconds (and once 6 seconds) after my previous post before trying again (even though there wasn't a previous post a second before).
Now my IP address is banned.
I've sent in a query to site admin, using the link offered.
Perhaps I'll get a similar reply to that in post 4 ...0 -
Sounds exactly like how my issue started. Unfortunately I'm still having to use a VPN 6 weeks after this issue started - the switch to the new forum is the only hope of the issue going away.0
This discussion has been closed.
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