Wrongly Banned Member [Archive]

chmorroni

05-01-2014, 21:54

One of our team mentors was banned from CD indefinitely for no reason that we can see. The forum won't even let his computer access anything on the site. Is there some way that his account may be reinstated as allowed? This was a couple years ago, so he can't remember his user name, but is there at least a way his computer could be re-allowed?

yash101

05-01-2014, 22:15

I dont think Brandon blocks people. I think it may be SFS blocking him because it thinks he is a spammer. I can't take a look at what he is seeing so I can't give more than a hypothesis.

Find the IP (https://google.com/search?q=what%20is%20my%20ip%20address) and check it against the database at http://stopforumspam.com.

If it isn't in there, I suggest emailing Brandon about this at webmaster @ [this site's address]

(just to prevent spambots from getting the address)

Otherwise, we at least need the IP. If you don't want to display it correctly, talk with Brandon and PM it to him

dtengineering

05-01-2014, 23:01

I knew CD was good... but to ban a computer from the site for several years? Impressive. :)

Jason

chmorroni

06-01-2014, 01:38

Just because I am not there, currently, I am going to try to learn a little. Correct me if I am wrong, but, as I can access CD while on the same network, doesn't that mean that it couldn't be blocking the IP? Cookies and the like have been cleared multiple times, but that didn't help, so it can't be those. If it isn't the IP or cookies, what else could the server be using to block the machine?

I'll check the IP tomorrow, anyway, and see what I find. I'll also email Brandon. Thanks for the steps to solution!

I knew CD was good... but to ban a computer from the site for several years? Impressive. :)

Jason

That was my first reaction, too. Then I realized how frustrating it must be.

Kevin Sevcik

06-01-2014, 01:47

Can he see ANYTHING on the site? What error message pops up when he tries to browse to CD? I'm thinking it might be something screwed up local to his computer like censorware, a bad HOSTS file, or something else.

Joe Ross

06-01-2014, 01:50

Can he see ANYTHING on the site? What error message pops up when he tries to browse to CD? I'm thinking it might be something screwed up local to his computer like censorware, a bad HOSTS file, or something else.

Or he could be using a proxy that has been banned.

chmorroni

06-01-2014, 01:56

Can he see ANYTHING on the site? What error message pops up when he tries to browse to CD? I'm thinking it might be something screwed up local to his computer like censorware, a bad HOSTS file, or something else.

Whenever he tries to load any page on the site (that we have tried, it is hard to get places without links) it loads the same page that, if I remember correctly, displays a message to the effect of "this (I think it says account) has been banned." It appears to be a message from the website itself, because it is formatted like the forum; it has the same color scheme, fonts, etc.

Or he could be using a proxy that has been banned.

I didn't think of that. I'll make sure to check that, as well.

Is there somewhere that I could find a list of banned proxies?

artdutra04

06-01-2014, 05:34

One of our team mentors was banned from CD indefinitely for no reason that we can see. The forum won't even let his computer access anything on the site. Is there some way that his account may be reinstated as allowed? This was a couple years ago, so he can't remember his user name, but is there at least a way his computer could be re-allowed?Every page is blocked? Can you clear your cookies or use a different web browser and try again?

If the website is blocked in multiple browsers (in particular a different browser than what was previously used) then the ban is likely not tied to an account/email but to an IP address. We can and do manually ban IP addresses that are the source of prolific spam, particularly if they are from regions where FIRST does not have a strong presence.

In addition, there was a large scale spam attack a while back where they compromised legitimate accounts and started sending spam via PM to other users. If there was no post history that appeared valid, his account could have been banned for spam.

Also, using web proxies or similar may route traffic through IP address blocks that are notorious for spam. Make sure you are connected directly to the Internet (no proxies, no VPN, etc) and search Google for "what is my IP" - the top result directly from Google will be the IP address. Send an email to Brandon at webmaster at chief delphi dot com with this information, as well as the email account used to register the CD account..

JohnBoucher

06-01-2014, 07:03

Try private browsing or incognito mode.

yash101

06-01-2014, 08:16

Try updating the DNS. My workplace doesn't have CD in the DNS records so I have to use google's DNS instead. Try Google's DNS. It is very fast and is often updated.
IPs:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Just use these as the DNS address!

FrankJ

06-01-2014, 10:00

Maybe your firewall blocking the site? School & employers have been known to do this. Not always obvious by the message the firewall returns.

DonRotolo

06-01-2014, 11:49

One of our team mentors was banned from CD indefinitely for no reason that we can see. The forum won't even let his computer access anything on the site. Is there some way that his account may be reinstated as allowed? This was a couple years ago, so he can't remember his user name, but is there at least a way his computer could be re-allowed?
If he can't remember his user name, how can he see that his user name is banned??