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IP Blocking UK Website: Can It Be Overwritten?
Professor Snugglesworth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
For a good few years now I've been contributing to a UK gaming website as a reviewer: http://darkzero.co.uk
Recently, I've been unable to access the website at all. According to the owners, it seems that my IP (Comcast, because who else?) had set up a block that keeps customers from accessing it. They've been e-mailing Comcast to try to get the site working again, but in typical Comcast fashion they've been very slow to respond.
I was wondering if there was a way I could bypass whatever restriction they've got and access the site like I used to. What's weird is that even if I'm using my devices on a public WiFi service away from my house, I still can't access the site. I can, however, access it on my work PC, but I require some extra programs on my desktop PC to efficiently work on the site, so that won't do. If there's a way I can get it working, I would like to know.
Recently, I've been unable to access the website at all. According to the owners, it seems that my IP (Comcast, because who else?) had set up a block that keeps customers from accessing it. They've been e-mailing Comcast to try to get the site working again, but in typical Comcast fashion they've been very slow to respond.
I was wondering if there was a way I could bypass whatever restriction they've got and access the site like I used to. What's weird is that even if I'm using my devices on a public WiFi service away from my house, I still can't access the site. I can, however, access it on my work PC, but I require some extra programs on my desktop PC to efficiently work on the site, so that won't do. If there's a way I can get it working, I would like to know.
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It would work but VPNs are slow and you have to trust the other computer with all your info. So if you use a public / free / browser one, don't log in to anything and certainly no creditcards.
It could be that the block is just a DNS block. The DNS is like a phonebook, telling your PC where to find a website. Every ISP has their own.
It is really easy to switch to googles DNS:
https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/docs/using
Particularly given that it's affecting your device on public WiFI as well, that would tend to suggest smomething less ISP specific than an active block, so DNS is a good starting point.
The other option I can think of that's device specific is you might have a proxy enabled on your device (Google proxy with the name of your OS or browser if you don't know where to look). A proxy is another machine that all or some of your traffic is sent through instead of going directly to the site. Proxies are used for filtering, caching and other things.
If you had a proxy set up, and it was blocking this site, it would explain why it is that it happens even when you connect to public wifi rather than just through your ISP,
Since you can access the site from work, you can do some comparisons and see if you can work out where the failure is,
First step I would take is to run
This should tell you the numeric IP address of the site, If this is different on your work machine than your personal device then odds are it's a DNS problem and swapping to google DNS would work.
Assuming the IP address is the same, I'd next try pinging it:
This should tell you if the site is reachable, and how long the round trips are taking. If this fails on both devices then it just means the site is blocking pings. But if it only fails on your personal device then it would suggest something is amiss with the connection. But this would be odd given that it's also blocked for you on public wifi.
The final thing I'd be checking is use a different browser. Just incase there is something odd setup that's blocking for some reason.
Given that this isn't restricted to your home connection, I doubt a VPN will solve the problem. That would be more applicable if your ISP is actively blocking for some reason. But here's some info on VPNs just incase. As Sander's says, that means all your traffic is routed through the computers of your VPN provider, so assume they can see all traffic and behave accordingly.
If the site you're trying to access is a HTTPS site then it's less of an issue because the traffic is encrypted all the way to the site. But it's something to keep in mind. If it's HTTP remember that they can not only see what you send, but also change the page on the way back through (e.g. To insert Adverts)
I'd recommend staying away from free VPNs. At best they're slow, but it's equally likely the site you're trying to access them will have blocked them because it's a pretty common option for trolls etc to rout through free VPNs. It's also that much more likely that they're trying to do something dodgy with your traffic (because they've got to be paying the bills somehow).
There are public paid VPN services that are pretty affordable, Most of these are also reasonably fast as a major part of there user base is people bypassing region blocking on streaming services such as Netflix.
Personally I use "Pure VPN" which is about $10 a month and has pretty simple guides on how to set it up for newbies. I certainly wouldn't rely on a service like this for security's but they're OK for bypassing region blocks etc.
It might also be worth googling the name of your preferred VPN provider and the name of your ISP before signing up. It's certainly possible for an ISP to block a VPN, but it would be relatively unusual.
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no, changing your dns server for that PC will only affect that PC, won't do anything to your router.
I use Firefox, but it seems they have an extension for that too. How does it work?
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What would be the next step to try?
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You should be an administrator for your own pc, so thats probably not it...
Just install the extension, when you want to visit the said URL, click on the extension icon on your browser and turn it on:
It says I need to sign up with my email for a "free premium trial".
Don't quite like the sound of that.
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Hmmm. I guess I am one of the "free for life" users from back in the day
All I have to do is sign into the icon and the site opens just fine. I wish there was a way to just have it auto-switch to the UK server every time I open the site, but it's better than nothing.
Thanks for the help everyone.
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