Is my IP Address banned?

BigFurryMonster · February 22, 2004, 18:36

Hi,

I'm having big trouble accessing Apolyton. At work, it works fine, but at home, I cannot reach the site or the chatroom with a normal connection.
I do not have any trouble connecting to other sites. I know Apolyton to be "up" since other people can reach the site at the same moment.

Only when I enter a proxy server, I can reach the Apolyton site. However, this causes some trouble with other sites, so I'd rather not use this trick. Also, this will not let me access the chatroom.

Is my IP address banned? I have a dynamic IP address - the first half is always the same, the second half changes with every session. Maybe Apolyton is blocking a range of IP addresses?

Please help!

BFM

Skanky Burns · February 22, 2004, 19:06

Try running a tracert from your home connection to see where the problem lies.

From a dos prompt:
tracert -d apolyton.net > trace.txt

This will also output your tracert data into a text file (trace.txt) that you can copy and paste here if need be.

Ming · February 22, 2004, 19:25

There are only a few IP addresses that are restricted at this moment. I've just ran a check on ALL the IP's you have ever used that we have records on, and NONE of them are even close to the IP's that are being restricted.

The problem is on your end... not Apolyton's.

Arnelos · February 23, 2004, 03:35

Huh... that explains why you haven't been around lately. I'll let people know about your problem. Who knows, maybe someone will have an idea.

BigFurryMonster · February 23, 2004, 05:01

Thanks for your quick answers! I have tried the following:

* I already did a TraceRt to www.apolyton.net. After the 18th hop (the "ev1" network I believe), the packets get lost.
(I will post the results here later).
* I had a friend, who can access www.apolyton.net do the same. His packets also get lost...!

I do have a firewall (Zone Alarm), and have tried every setting (especially the "low" security setting, the "off" setting and shutting the thing down entirely). No result.

I'm currently considering:
* Is it possible that my virus scanner is interfering?
* Does the route from my computer to apolyton run through a domain in which there are restricted IPs, or a firewall that is configured too strictly?

MrWhereItsAt · February 23, 2004, 09:19

Haven't changed OS or Browser recently, BFM?

BigFurryMonster · February 23, 2004, 09:24

When this problem occurred: no, not recently. I've been using Win XP and IE 6 for some time now.

Yesterday, I installed Mozilla, told it to always use a proxy, and now I can connect with it. For my other internet business, I use IE. A messy fix. It doesn't help in the chatroom department, either.

DrSpike · February 23, 2004, 09:24

It could be at your end as Ming suggests. However, I had some very weird problems the other day where I could not access Apolyton at all except the front page. If I logged in there everything worked, but manually loading any other link to forums or posts would not work at all.

Nikolai · February 23, 2004, 09:54

Weird... I have the same problem as some of you might know. My case and BFM's is quite alike as far as I can see.

Ming · February 23, 2004, 10:32

Let me rephrase my answer... It's NOT an IP ban issue... as far as other possible site problems, I wouldn't know. I haven't had any problems in the last week connecting to the site

BigFurryMonster · February 23, 2004, 11:36

Loud & Clear, Ming! Thanks for your reply.

Nikolai - which firewall(s) and/or virus scanner(s) are you running that might be causing this?

Arnelos · February 23, 2004, 13:09

Quote:

Originally posted by BigFurryMonster
* I already did a TraceRt to www.apolyton.net. After the 18th hop (the "ev1" network I believe), the packets get lost.

Sounds to me like you found your answer. One of the intermediary networks in between your ISP and Apolyton.net is losing packets. Others (seemingly also from Europe) are experiencing a similar issue and may be behind the same connector.

My GUESS is that this one network link is losing packets because of the recent virus mess, but that's just a guess.

In terms of what to do, not sure there's much you CAN do. The only thing I can think of is to contact your ISP and let them know about the problem and at which hop the packets are being lost (that ev1 network).

BigFurryMonster · February 23, 2004, 14:50

Why can my friend access Apolyton while his packets are also blocked?

And why do I suddenly have access?

Why has my internet connection password setting suddenly changed?

And where does this virus mess come from? Where does it go?

/me runs away screaming in terror.

BigFurryMonster · February 23, 2004, 17:39

Argh! Now I'm disconnected again....

Something fishy is going on.

DrSpike · February 23, 2004, 19:45

Yeah, I also had weird downtime for a short period tonight.

MarkG · February 24, 2004, 10:29

tracert or ping not reaching the apolyton server doesnt mean that you cant access the server. just that tracert calls are stopped at some point for security reasons

if by using or not using a proxy you can or can not access apolyton then it is obviously an issue on your end, something to ask your ISP about

BigFurryMonster · February 24, 2004, 15:13

I did. They said: it's obviously a problem on the other end.

(I'm just reflecting their opinion, not mine)

MarkG · February 25, 2004, 00:00

so what's the proxy you use?

Nikolai · February 26, 2004, 05:26

I called my internet provider two days ago, and they told me that they changed some IP adress ranges or something some time back, and that was probably the problem, since some servers/internet sites had sometimes problems with that. So they will bee contacting the server administration this week.

Hopefully this will be solved then!

BigFurryMonster · February 26, 2004, 05:27

I use the proxy of my ISP: proxy.wanadoo.nl:8080.

Nikolai: interesting. My problems came up after a broader range of IP addresses had become unreachable by my ISP's customers. The ISP has fixed the problem for the other IP addresses, but they might have changed some "settings" in a similar manner as your ISP...

yaroslav · March 6, 2004, 09:38

Hi,

I'm suffering the same problem, and the solution that worked for me was also to set a proxy. Here is a list of proxies:

http://www.aliveproxy.com

Instructions for setting a proxy in IE are here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...29#post2782929

Hope that will help others European that are finding problems to connect Apolyton.

BigFurryMonster · March 8, 2004, 04:13

It's indeed typical that this happens only to Europeans. There must be a patriottic American server along the route...

yaroslav · March 8, 2004, 16:31

I hope it will be solved soon, though.

BigFurryMonster · March 20, 2004, 19:05

Any luck with you guys? I can't connect to 'Poly directly, and am still using a proxy.

Q: can I use a proxy with MIRC ? I'd really like to enter the chatroom again....

Nikolai · March 25, 2004, 06:10

This is my first visit to Poly since last post in this thread... Still not possible to reach the site, although my internet provider promised that it would take only maximum a week.

I will try that proxy thing yaroslav suggested though. Nothing must be untried!

DrSpike · March 25, 2004, 06:15

That blows! Can't you open an account with a new ISP? It takes like 5 minutes here, and you have a good reason for cancelling your old one.

alva · March 25, 2004, 06:22

If he's on broadband it might be harder to change just like that.

DrSpike · March 25, 2004, 06:32

True.........but then he could get a new static IP address, since usually not everyone with a broadband ISP is affected by these intermittent problems.

Skanky Burns · March 25, 2004, 07:59

Personal broadband generally give you a dynamic IP adress, static costs extra. But thats in Australia, ymmv.

DrSpike · March 25, 2004, 08:00

Most ISPs here offer a choice, with no price difference, although a couple of years back you had to pay extra.