If you find you're BANNED!

[Bill D (wwh)]

Just a small point to remember in the future. Bear with me if you find this a bit techy and wordy! :)

Most if not all forum admins are fighting a constant and ever-changing battle to prevent would-be spammers from signing up. Thanks to some excellent anti-spam measures put in place by Ian, and vigilance on the part of our webmasters and the rest of the committee, very few get through here, despite up to two dozen attempts a day.

When you go online, you're assigned an IP Address (a unique ID for your computer). IP Adresses consist of four blocks of one, two or three digits, separated by dots, e.g. 123.45.67.89. Usually, but not always, the first three blocks will be the same every time you go online.

We have a lot of anti-spammer measures in place, and one of those is to ban the first three blocks of the IP Address the would-be spammer used. In the above example we would block 123.45.67.

Recently there have been several cases of bona fide Members and Users finding themselves banned because a spammer has happened to have been using the same three blocks of the IP Address that they've got.

If you should ever find yourself banned from our forums, that's probably the reason. The first step to take is to contact me directly if you're able to, or use the committee email address on our website if you can't do that, and include the IP Address you have at the time. We'll then check, and if the above is the problem we'll remove the appropriate IP blocks, which will let you back in again.

You can check your own IP address at http://whatismyipaddress.com/

The above url will give an accurate result for direct connections to an ISP and for most proxy servers.

It's very unlikely that this will ever happen to many people, but please make a mental note that if you do find yourself banned, that's probably the reason, and it will help us sort the problem quickly if you include the IP Address you're using at the time.

[GAZ]

Bill, just clicked on the link and it tells me I am near Skipton in Yorkshire! I am sure I am in Dalston, near Carlisle, Cumbria!:p

[Bill D (wwh)]

Bill, just clicked on the link and it tells me I am near Skipton in Yorkshire! I am sure I am in Dalston, near Carlisle, Cumbria!:p
Strange...! I imagine that's some problem with your ISP, but someone else may have a better suggestion. I'm getting my correct location, and when I zoom right in the map shows a position about a mile from my home.

You'll find a poll here (http://whatismyipaddress.com/polls/index.php?qid=map-correct&aid=-1) which shows the accuracy that users have reported. 52% are shown within 1.1 miles of their true location, but some are way way out!

Edited to add: anyone using a proxy server may show as being a long way from home, but the IP Address will usually be correct.

[dodgydaved]

Strange...! I imagine that's some problem with your ISP, but someone else may have a better suggestion. I'm getting my correct location, and when I zoom right in the map shows a position about a mile from my home.

You'll find a poll here (http://whatismyipaddress.com/polls/index.php?qid=map-correct&aid=-1) which shows the accuracy that users have reported. 52% are shown within 1.1 miles of their true location, but some are way way out!

Edited to add: anyone using a proxy server may show as being a long way from home, but the IP Address will usually be correct.




Sunninghill has also, apparently, migrated to somewhere near Harrogate - it'll be a long way to work on Tuesday :):):)

[Bill D (wwh)]

Sunninghill has also, apparently, migrated to somewhere near Harrogate - it'll be a long way to work on Tuesday :):):)
Well, at least it's only cachers who're getting moved around, not caches...! :D

[DrDick&Vick]

Cardiff shown for me, not is West Sussex, but then again I am using a mobile internet connection.

[Mongoose39uk]

About 1.5km for me, not sure what that is in English.

[Bill D (wwh)]

About 1.5km for me, not sure what that is in English.
That's just over 0.9 of a mile in English, so that's pretty close. :)

[Bill D (wwh)]

Cardiff shown for me, not is West Sussex, but then again I am using a mobile internet connection.
Yes, I think it's likely to be wildly out with mobile connections, but to the best of my knowledge the IP Address should still be correct.

[martybartfast]

Once you've blocked a subnet does it stay blocked permanently until someone asks for it to be unblocked? That's not such a problem for members who would know where to come to ask for help, but it might be preventing legitimate newcomers getting to the forums. Some sites will automatically re-enable a blocked subnet after a period of time (ranging from days to weeks) - might be worth considering.

[t.a.folk]

In a matter of 5 minutes we moved from Northampton to Bedford .:lol:

[Bill D (wwh)]

Once you've blocked a subnet does it stay blocked permanently until someone asks for it to be unblocked? That's not such a problem for members who would know where to come to ask for help, but it might be preventing legitimate newcomers getting to the forums. Some sites will automatically re-enable a blocked subnet after a period of time (ranging from days to weeks) - might be worth considering.
To the best of my knowledge it remains blocked unless and until I or one of our webmasters removes it from the list.

It's difficult to know where to draw the line with anti-spam measures - we need to be reasonably secure or we'd be inundated with spammers, and some of the photos some of them post would most certainly offend some users, but on the other hand if we tie things down too tightly we keep legitimate users away.

I know this isn't perfect, but people who want to sign up and can't because they're blocked can still access our website, and contact us through it.

[The Hornet]

and some of the photos some of them post would most certainly offend some users,
Where do I get a list of these photo's ;):ph34r:

When using my normal proxy server I'm in the Yorkshire Dales but if I disable it I end up in Manchester. :eek:

[t.a.folk]

Our 2nd ,3rd and 4th set of digits are not the same each time we log on .

Earlier today we took a trip to St Neots ,now we're back at Bedford .where we were last night .
..it depends on the "traffic" routing .

[keehotee]

Our 2nd ,3rd and 4th set of digits are not the same each time we log on .

Earlier today we took a trip to St Neots ,now we're back at Bedford .where we were last night .
..it depends on the "traffic" routing .


Unless you're with Eclipse (or one of the other ISP's that provide them free) - or you pay for a static IP - it's more likely that you have a dynamic IP that's allocated each time your router connects, and nothing at all to do with your location or traffic routing ..... the locations given are the addresses where those IP's are registered, so in my case it's one of BT's addresses.

[ivanidea]

I'm with Eclipse, at work and at home and have fixed IP addresses at both locations.

At work in Staffordshire, the "What's my IP address?" web shows the correct IP address, but places me at Luton! I think the last time I tried a similar website, it had me at Exeter, which used to be the site of Eclipse HQ.

[t.a.folk]

Unless you're with Eclipse (or one of the other ISP's that provide them free) - or you pay for a static IP - it's more likely that you have a dynamic IP that's allocated each time your router connects, and nothing at all to do with your location or traffic routing ..... the locations given are the addresses where those IP's are registered, so in my case it's one of BT's addresses.

We def' do have dynamic ,and happy with it . :)

Diverting internet traffic ,good isn't it ;)

[Fellwanderer]

Bill, just clicked on the link and it tells me I am near Skipton in Yorkshire! I am sure I am in Dalston, near Carlisle, Cumbria!:p

I thought I was a bit south of Hadrian's Wall, but, no - Edinburgh!

[Bill D (wwh)]

It beats me how some of you folk manage to find any caches at all, if you don't even know where you live! :ph34r: :p :D :D :D

[Guanajuato]

Bill, just clicked on the link and it tells me I am near Skipton in Yorkshire! I am sure I am in Dalston, near Carlisle, Cumbria!:p
Also in Cumbria (South this time) with Plusnet, and it reckons I'm sat in the middle of the moors North of Skipton (oh how I wish I was!). Now I'm pretty sure Plusnet is based in Sheffield.