Forum being picked up as 18+ site

[Justin Runyon]

I co-own a History research site/forum. A few years back we had one university network that somehow blocked us as "hate group". We never did figure out how the little bots came up with that one.

Justin Runyon
Organization of American Historians
Company of Military Historians
S.W. Terre Haute #19 F&AM
Terre Haute Chapter 11 RAM

[English Bloke]

Crikey! Must cost Mr Sticks a fortune in air fares.

[O'Callaghan]

OK I administer my network, and am familiar with the big 3 Verizon, AT&T and Sprint and don't know of any content filters. Is this a smaller provider? Do you know they are explicitly filtering content? What about your DNS server settings? (this is what translates yourwebsite.com to an IP address) any chance you are using DNS servers like OpenDNS that do content filtering? I would be pretty miffed if my ISP was filtering and that as the admin or account holder there was no access to the settings. Any chance you have addressed this with your provider and checked with them? Sometimes they will have a tool to "white list" URLs. I used to do International customer support and that was often an issue with foreign sites. Submitting URL for approval manually and then it would allow access. Your verbage is also interesting does it really say "18+" or does it more specifically indicate adult content, pornography or some such language?

NOTE: I realize in proof reading I was assuming you are in the US, please disregard information as appropriate if you are outside the US. No slight intended

After a number of mergers there are currently exactly four nationwide cellular networks in the US, of which T-Mobile is in 4th place out of four. Everyone else either leases capacity from those four or is only regional, not nationwide.

Not really nit-picking, but it seems funny you have heard of numbers 1, 2 and 3 but not the only other one? They have been in the news as well, because AT&T wanted to buy them out, but it doesn't look like this will be allowed to go ahead.

Actually, T-Mobile is also one of the few (in fact the only one that also has its own US network) that is also in other countries beside the US, so I suppose the OP could be elsewhere. That would be another reason why AT&T would want to acquire them, I suppose. ETA: That is, apart from it bumping AT&T into the number 1 slot in the US if they could have bought them.

Of course, there may well be regional networks on the left coast that have more customers out there than T-Mobile, even though they don't exist back East. I also admit it's confusing that there are a lot of other cellphone companies that have lots of customers but no network of their own.

[seanachie]

After a number of mergers there are currently exactly four nationwide cellular networks in the US, of which T-Mobile is in 4th place out of four. Everyone else either leases capacity from those four or is only regional, not nationwide.

Not really nit-picking, but it seems funny you have heard of numbers 1, 2 and 3 but not the only other one? .

When I said familiar with, I meant data cards or hot spots. My employers have gone with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. I have not had an employer use T-Mobile phones or data devices. I used to support European customers so am very familiar with T-Mobile in Europe, in the US I know them just don't have working knowledge. Poor choice of words perhaps.

[O'Callaghan]

When I said familiar with, I meant data cards or hot spots. My employers have gone with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. I have not had an employer use T-Mobile phones or data devices. I used to support European customers so am very familiar with T-Mobile in Europe, in the US I know them just don't have working knowledge. Poor choice of words perhaps.

Ah, I see.

Well, the OP seems to have been banned for using all manner of different proxies. The only slightly troubling thing about that is that it's exactly what he would have needed to do to access the site if it really was blocked by his carrier. Apparently it's not blocked by T-Mobile in the US, but what if it were blocked by them in another country? Or, he could just be a troll, LOL!

[Steve Ashton]

Veda Sticks.

I have spoken to T-Moble and they assure me that X Marks is not blocked in any way.

I then did some research. I have found some interesting results.

You registered to X Marks using the IP address 92.40.18.145.
You registered on the 7th of Sep. 2011 at 3:11pm Pacific Standard time.
This IP is registered to "threembb" out of Manchester, UK. This is listed as a known proxy server.

In the last seven days that you have been a member, you have logged onto the forum from 8 different IP addresses.

187.17.145.60 which is registered to "turboseg.com.br" which is located in Anapolis, Brazil. This is a confirmed proxy server. (as of 11:00pm PST this is now also listed as being owned by a known spammer.)

200.201.187.250 which is registered to "smtp.rjzcyrela.com.br" in Rio de Janerio. This is also a confirmed proxy server. (at 11:10pm PST this is now confirmed to be owned by a known spammer also.)

212.174.102.107 which is registered to "tekfenendustri.com.tr" in Isanbul, Turkey. Again this is a confirmed proxy server.

66.71.246.181 which is registered to "wire six" out of Atlanta, GA. Not only is this another confirmed proxy server, this IP is listed worldwide as belonging to a known spammer.

85.214.52.27 which is registred to "stratoserver.net" out of Berlin, Germany. This is another confirmed proxy server and another IP listed as belonging to a known spammer.

92.40.189.57 Again registered to "threembb" out of Manchester, England. Again a know and confirmed proxy server.

and
94.232.65.104 registered to "Obyedinyonniye Lokalniye Seti Ltd." out of Moscow, Russian Federation. Again a known proxy server and again listed as belonging to a known spammer.

Sir, I am giving you far warning. You have 24 hours (from 8:30pm PST, 20 Sept. 2011) to contact me via email or phone and give me adequate explaination for this or I will remove you from this forum as a spammer.

If I have not heard from you within the given time, your registration here, and all the IP addresses you have used, will be placed on our list of known spammers. You will not be allowed access to this forum, ever again.

Your clock is running.

[CDNSushi]

It's because of the super-secret area of the forum where we keep the regimental, up-kilt nudie photos...

[CDNSushi]

Please bear in mind, gentlemen, that proxies, VPNs, etc, etc, are not the issue here.

The OP was given a chance to clarify his intentions. Want to hide behind a proxy wall because you're paranoid? Alright -- but it behooves you to give the site admin an explanation if they're telling you that you look an awful lot like a spammer... As he chose not to make any sort of response (and based on Steve's statement that the OP DID look at the warning message, then there was no other choice but to ban the user as a spammer.

[seanachie]

Please bear in mind, gentlemen, that proxies, VPNs, etc, etc, are not the issue here.

The OP was given a chance to clarify his intentions. Want to hide behind a proxy wall because you're paranoid? Alright -- but it behooves you to give the site admin an explanation if they're telling you that you look an awful lot like a spammer... As he chose not to make any sort of response (and based on Steve's statement that the OP DID look at the warning message, then there was no other choice but to ban the user as a spammer.

Your point is well taken and I did mean to obscure the message amongst the fog. Your explanation is entirely correct. I just saw something that I was afraid could be read and misunderstood, didn't meant to take it off track. Some people here teach me a lot of which I am often ignorant, this was one area I knew something about and was trying to share. Thanks!