AOL users, having trouble viewing the forum?

WA · 09-13-2002, 07:36 AM

I've been getting emails from AOL users having trouble viewing the forum altogether- the message they see is that they're banned.

If you're an AOL user and have experienced such woes, please let me know. I'm trying to get to the bottom of the problem. There are a couple of banned AOL emails/members, but somehow that seems to be affecting all AOL users.

bcarl314 · 09-13-2002, 01:42 PM

I've had problems occasionally when I use AOL (lots of problems with AOL in general, but also the one you mention here). I'm guessing it stems from their use of DHCP and your filtering based on IP address. (Just a guess though.) If I log-off and log back on, that usually fixed the problem.

Spookster · 09-13-2002, 03:31 PM

I'm posting this using AOL.

whackaxe · 09-13-2002, 04:36 PM

banning by IP isnt a good idea because i heard one day that a popular message biard banned a user and all the compuserve users couldnt acess the board! and AOL is p00 anyway so there you go

joh6nn · 09-13-2002, 08:36 PM

when i used aol ( recently switched DSL, thank the lord ) i could only see the Forum if i was using aol; if i tried to use Moz or IE, it would just time out. never had a problem.

WA · 09-13-2002, 09:49 PM

Well, I understand banning by IP isn't an exact science, but when you're only banning a precise IP (xx.xx.xx.xx), I don't see how that could affect an entire chunk of users. Yes there may be a small handful of users that will stumble across this IP, but not an entire group.

John, your past problems with viewing the forum may have something to do with the fact CF uses mod_gzip to compress content. It saves on bandwidth and boasts page delivery time, though particular browser setups have been known to choke on it.

Spookster · 09-13-2002, 09:59 PM

If the IP that you ban is the IP of a proxy server and I would guess AOL uses proxy servers to protect their users wouldn't that block every user going through that proxy server?

joh6nn · 09-13-2002, 10:11 PM

can't be the case, George, because i use Moz exclusively now that i've got DSL, and the forums work fine ( better, actually, because of the tabs ). work fine in IE, too. my take on it is that AOL tries to lock you into using their browser. was the only logical explanation i could come up with.

i don't know a whole lot about IPs and blocking them, but i think that Spookster may have hit the nail on the head

WA · 09-14-2002, 12:39 AM

Ok can someone provide me with AOL's proxy server's IP, or just any AOL IPs I can use to check against the forum's list of banned IPs? I'm getting more and more emails from frustrated AOL users

MCookie · 09-14-2002, 08:23 AM

> > Ok can someone provide me with AOL's proxy server's IP

http://webmaster.info.aol.com/index.cfm?article=15

Spookster · 09-14-2002, 10:30 AM

I almost feel like a psychic.

whackaxe · 09-14-2002, 01:19 PM

aparently AOL make their users bo through powerfull free proxies (or routers or whatever i never get this stuff!) and then make you pay! AOL is the devil!!

WA · 09-14-2002, 09:58 PM

Ok I've done a frantic grab-and-drop of any IPs on the forum's banned list that could be AOL related. From the couple of emails I've gotten, it seems to have worked.

whackaxe · 09-14-2002, 10:27 PM

so AOL is the devil! ha ha! i was right! cant you just ban by email instead?

Guardian23 · 09-16-2002, 12:32 PM

whackaxe has a point about the e-mail thing (and the devil),
because in actuality, alls a banned user has to do is use a
different Computer or Connection to access the service, and
wheras a person can conveniently go to a different coffee shop,
they might be more reluctant to keep changing addresses.

Just my 2cents

Guardian