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    #1

    Blocking

    I am now banned from the Kubuntu forums.

    I got banned when I used my previous VPN provider and with my new provider I am now banned again.

    This is really ridiculous. Some idiot using the same provider and server flames the web site and so the admins block the whole server and everybody on it. I know this makes it easy for the admins, but it is kind of like an idiot committing a crime in a city, so the police arrest everybody in the city. Makes it easy for the police they no longer have to find the guilty party, just totally isolate the entire city.

    I can get through if I turn the VPN off, but that pretty much negates the whole purpose of having a VPN.

    If the admins want they can probably run any VPN provider out of business by simply blocking their server(s). And yes, I have tried switching servers from the same provider. Still blocked.

    So whether or not I will be back to the Kubuntu forums is an open question and unresolved at this point. I know that I am not essential to the continued operation of the Kubuntu forums, but I have to wonder how many other would be contributors/users are experiencing the same casual contempt and treatment.

    And no I do not have a solution since I do not operate a computer web forum open to thousands of others and so know zero about the intricacies of their operation. But refusing service to tens/hundreds/thousands of users simply does not seem tobe a sensible solution.
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    #2
    It isn't the provider, or not likely to be, rather the IP address the VPN connection gave you. The IP needs to be different than the one you are using, as that is what is being blocked -- most likely. Did you submit the ZB Block report?
    Windows no longer obstructs my view.
    Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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      #3
      ZB Block is very aggressive. I wish that this tool focused more on action and less on location. One or a few baddies using a vpn's ip addresses (or even an ISP's addresses!) ruins it for everyone using that vpn (or ISP's ip ), once those addresses are put on The List. Then Snowhog has to get everyone using these on a whitelist.
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        #4
        Geezer's issue is the IP address he was assigned. Not the Host. Not the Domain. Not the email address. JUST the IP address, which got registered with Stop Forum Spam this month.
        Windows no longer obstructs my view.
        Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
        "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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          #5
          Yes, his reported ip address while using the vpn is the vpn's address, right? Just like mine, when I try and connect to the forum while using one as the ip address changes and the whitelist you added my then-current vpn address to does not apply anymore. So when Geezer's changes, you's have to fix it for him again, and likely every time his address changes. Kinda why I wish things were more about action than location - not to ignore, but focus on activity. Prevent bad activity, rather than block chunks of things. I dunno.

          Luckily these reports have become much rarer, for sure.
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            #6
            Originally posted by Snowhog View Post
            It isn't the provider, or not likely to be, rather the IP address the VPN connection gave you. The IP needs to be different than the one you are using, as that is what is being blocked -- most likely. Did you submit the ZB Block report?
            Originally posted by Teunis
            One problem is VPN providers have a finite number of IP addresses...

            I use VPN for accessing certain services (like SIP) from countries with a less understanding culture but I see hardly a reason to use VPN for a well moderated forum with little contentious content like this one.
            Especially since this forum has gone to the expense of using https.
            Originally posted by Snowhog View Post
            Geezer's issue is the IP address he was assigned. Not the Host. Not the Domain. Not the email address. JUST the IP address, which got registered with Stop Forum Spam this month.
            So it's worse than I thought.

            Some idiot does something stupid on some forum somewhere, not even necessarily on Kubuntu forums, and all members of forums that use the same VPN and receive that address get banned.

            I know zero about the s/w running these forums, but what they're doing is like using the proverbial sledge hammer to kill a fly. It's worse than that actually, it's using a 10" cannon to shoot the fly and destroying the house the fly was resting on. Or dropping a 500 Lb bomb on the house to make totally sure the fly is killed.
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              #7
              Originally posted by Teunis
              One problem is VPN providers have a finite number of IP addresses...

              I use VPN for accessing certain services (like SIP) from countries with a less understanding culture but I see hardly a reason to use VPN for a well moderated forum with little contentious content like this one.
              Especially since this forum has gone to the expense of using https.
              That means turn the VPN on/off depending on what sites I am currently visiting? I am usually running a minimum of 5 programs simultaneously and adding more bother to one of them is hardly making life better.
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                #8
                This, from todays 'block' geezer received:
                Code:
                #: 508558 @: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 06:53:42 _0000 Running 0.4.10a3 / MS-77g / COOK-2015-02a / OCBLKP-2014-12b
[FONT=Helvetica Neue]Host: xx.xxx.xxx.114
IP: xx.xxx.xxx.114[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica Neue]
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Score: 1
Violation count: 1
Why blocked: No registrations, or logins, from hosts listed as hostile on Stop Forum Spam (http://www.stopforumspam.com/removal) (local block).[/FONT]
                I masked all but the last three digits of the IP for posting purposes here, but both (Host and IP) addresses are identical. It's this IP address that is being identified by ZB Block and triggering the denial to geezer. He says that Internet access is provided by the retirement facility he is living in. Fine. He needs to address this issue with their IT guy so he/she can get a different IP address assigned to his connection.
                Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Snowhog View Post
                  This, from todays 'block' geezer received:
                  Code:
                  #: 508558 @: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 06:53:42 _0000 Running 0.4.10a3 / MS-77g / COOK-2015-02a / OCBLKP-2014-12b
[FONT=Helvetica Neue]Host: xx.xxx.xxx.114
IP: xx.xxx.xxx.114[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica Neue]
[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica Neue]Score: 1
Violation count: 1
Why blocked: No registrations, or logins, from hosts listed as hostile on Stop Forum Spam (http://www.stopforumspam.com/removal) (local block).[/FONT]
                  I masked all but the last three digits of the IP for posting purposes here, but both (Host and IP) addresses are identical. It's this IP address that is being identified by ZB Block and triggering the denial to geezer. He says that Internet access is provided by the retirement facility he is living in. Fine. He needs to address this issue with their IT guy so he/she can get a different IP address assigned to his connection.
                  Okay - this posting has me totally baffled. You have identified an IP address as mine. That is not my IP address, either through my VPN or my ISP.

                  Through my ISP my IP address is xxx.xx.xxx.42
                  Through my VPN the IP address is: xxx.xx.xx.88

                  My internet access is not provided through a retirement facility. I am retired, but do not now, nor have I ever, lived in a retirement facility.

                  So I can only deduce that your identification through ZB block is faulty or ZB block is faulty or somehow I have been misidentified as somebody else.

                  Now since you seem to have confirmed that I have been misidentified, can you please unblock my IP address? Maybe your database has been hacked and scrambled so that a miscreant can do their dastardly thing and shift the blame to others.

                  Then I can leave my VPN on when I have to post here since I am only blocked when the VPN is on.
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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Teunis
                    I use VPN for accessing certain services (like SIP) from countries with a less understanding culture but I see hardly a reason to use VPN for a well moderated forum with little contentious content like this one.
                    Especially since this forum has gone to the expense of using https.
                    I have thought about this posting some more and the assumptions behind the post are so very, very wrong in so many, many ways that it would take many hours to properly reply. So I can summarize by saying that you are totally wrong in many ways.
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                      #11
                      Update: I have my VPN connection set to automatically connect through PIA US East when network manager connects to the internet. I turned that vpn off, setup PIA US New York City and then signed into the forums. I am signed in as I write this and my PIA US New York City VPN connection is active.

                      So I am blocked when connected through one PIA connection but not another.

                      I still maintain that to block a VPN address is dropping a 500 Lb bomb on the house to kill a fly. There must be an intelligent way to accomplish your goal of blocking miscreants without harming perfectly innocent bystanders.
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                        #12
                        Originally posted by geezer View Post
                        Okay - this posting has me totally baffled. You have identified an IP address as mine. That is not my IP address, either through my VPN or my ISP.

                        Through my ISP my IP address is xxx.xx.xxx.42
                        Through my VPN the IP address is: xxx.xx.xx.88

                        My internet access is not provided through a retirement facility. I am retired, but do not now, nor have I ever, lived in a retirement facility.

                        So I can only deduce that your identification through ZB block is faulty or ZB block is faulty or somehow I have been misidentified as somebody else.

                        Now since you seem to have confirmed that I have been misidentified, can you please unblock my IP address? Maybe your database has been hacked and scrambled so that a miscreant can do their dastardly thing and shift the blame to others.

                        Then I can leave my VPN on when I have to post here since I am only blocked when the VPN is on.
                        This then, wasn't from you (yesterday)?
                        Hello Snowhog,

                        I am in a retirement estate where wireless connectivity is provided via fibre, no VPN connection. The service provider is right here on the premises and I will
                        speak to them about this. Obviously I am keen to have forum access again so that I can keep up to date, especially as regards 15.10 (which btw. is working
                        great so far in Vbox).
                        Anyway let me see if there is anything that can be done from this side. I have not had any other forum sites being reported.

                        Regards,

                        Walter
                        Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                        Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                        "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Snowhog View Post
                          This then, wasn't from you (yesterday)?
                          Nope - Have no idea who Walter could be, but most certainly not me.
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                            #14
                            Well, my bad then. I got you and 'Walter' mixed up. Did you use the URL in the ZB Block blocking page to contact us?
                            Windows no longer obstructs my view.
                            Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
                            "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes​
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