Question About Proxies

[Wolfie]

Ok guys, I need a question answering...

I have had a helluva time getting Age Of Conan to work, well to patch... get a connection to their patch servers. I kept getting a 403 error on their HTTP patch manager (which i presume is Forbidden). I established that it wasnt my hardware or software. Eventually someone put me onto a program called "Proxy Switcher" which scans for public proxies and then connects to them. By using this program i was able to connect to the Patch servers and i am now downloading the patches (albeit slowly)

So my question is, who is blocking me? Is it hyperthetically possible for FunCom to be blocking my connection based on an IP range/Country through a specific port (in this case the patcher, port 7000) or is it more likely to be my ISP (True)?

Basically i dont know enough about these proxy servers to fully understand who is talking to who? Is it the proxy server talking to their patch server thats working or is it me talking to the proxy thats working... (if you understand what i mean) - is there anyway to test this? I tried 2 proxies and they both connect, whilst my direct connection does not connect.

Any advice guys?

[monty]

403 messages (access forbidden)means that their server is set to block access from the IP range you are on.

Nowadays most webhost control panels have that function, often called IP deny manager.

By using a proxy, their patch server can only see the IP address from the proxy server, so the proxy will get access and then forward everything on to you.

It's definitely not a block initiated by Thailand since bey getting the 403 message served, you know Thailand is letting your requests go through to their servers

[Wolfie]

The other thing is i *can* access the files via HTTP (Web Browser - port 80) so is it possible to block a connection/IP address via a specific port?

[A_Traveller]

^ yes.

Regards

[Wolfie]

Ummm ok, so it sounds more and more like the game vendor instead of my ISP (True)

Just trying to figure out who is blocking who - so i know who to shout at

[A_Traveller]

Just to add, with True and other Thai ISP's at times their main world facing addresses, get flagged as problematical {spam, aggressive downloads, etc.} [wonder why ] and this can cause the other side to revoke the address either by port or by activity, e.g.: standard single stream HTTP OK, multi-stream disallowed, other port access disallowed.

Regards

Edited May 21, 2008 by A_Traveller

[Wolfie]

Just to add, with True and other Thai ISP's at times their main world facing addresses, get flagged as problematical {spam, aggressive downloads, etc.} [wonder why ] and this can cause the other side to revoke the address either by port or by activity, e.g.: standard single stream HTTP OK, multi-stream disallowed, other port access disallowed.

Regards

Yeah, im guessing its something like that, I've emailed their technical support team but they are slower than a slow thing, on a slow day in a slow mood. So its just a case of waiting, at least i can get past the problem and *appear* to be able ot use direct connection to actually play the game... not a huge problem, but would like to get it sorted out