Thai Govt' Blocks CNN, Yahoo Finance, Facebook And Other American Sites

[george]

I cannot believe that you actually sent this thread to your mailinglist before verifying it's correctness.

Dude, we have certainly verified the content of the article with several members on diffrerent IPS's and locations. I also have this issue on my office computers and one standalone notebook.

As mentioned in the article, not all users are experiencing this issue.

[OxfordWill]

[DP25]

And to Thaivisa.com... pls start moderating your forums! I cannot believe that you actually sent this thread to your mailinglist before verifying it's correctness.

Just think how many page hits they will get. The Thai government censoring prominent American news sources? Everyone will click on that. Much more interesting than 'Post holiday overload causes connection issues for some users'

[A_Traveller]

As noted before my view is that there is a failure rather than a fiendish plot.

Tracing route to facebook.com [69.63.184.142]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]

2 29 ms 29 ms 28 ms 125.24.104.1.adsl.dynamic.totbb.net [125.24.104.1]

3 27 ms 29 ms 28 ms 10.254.1.145

4 28 ms 29 ms 28 ms 118.174.226.81.adsl.dynamic.totbb.net [118.174.226.81]

5 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms 203.113.127.53

6 27 ms 30 ms 28 ms 203.113.127.54

7 37 ms 28 ms 28 ms 203.113.24.241

8 28 ms 28 ms 28 ms 203.113.24.234

9 31 ms 32 ms 27 ms 61.19.10.13

10 38 ms 28 ms 28 ms 61.19.9.69

11 28 ms 31 ms 28 ms 61.19.9.30

12 253 ms 251 ms 249 ms 202.47.253.254

13 236 ms 238 ms 237 ms facebook-RGE.hkix.net [202.40.161.110]

14 241 ms 241 ms 250 ms xe-1-3-0.br02.sjc.tfbnw.net [204.15.23.235]

15 234 ms 254 ms 229 ms xe-4-0-0.br01.sf2p.tfbnw.net [204.15.23.246]

16 304 ms 302 ms 302 ms xe-1-1-0.br01.ash1.tfbnw.net [204.15.21.248]

17 303 ms 302 ms 302 ms te-9-1.csw03a.ash1.tfbnw.net [204.15.23.85]

18 302 ms 302 ms 303 ms www-10-03-ash1.facebook.com [69.63.184.142]

Though this trace ends at facebook.com the browser fails [attempting to load mict]

Regards

Edited December 14, 2009 by A_Traveller

[dude]

I cannot believe that you actually sent this thread to your mailinglist before verifying it's correctness.

Dude, we have certainly verified the content of the article with several members on diffrerent IPS's and locations. I also have this issue on my office computers and one standalone notebook.

As mentioned in the article, not all users are experiencing this issue.

Hello,

Thanks for getting back. I was actually talking about the headline...

This is not a gvnt issue but rather an ISP related issue.

anyways.. back to work.

[afx]

I'm back in the UK (not out of choice, need an operation).

So it's illegal to use proxies in Thailand, never knew that. Ok so I'll just use a VPN back to the UK and go out that way if I have a problem. PPTP isn't blocked on the firewall of the Thai ISP's I have used.

Can someone point me to where it's written down that it is against the law to use a proxy ? I would like to know the law on VPN's also, if it is the same, then I'll just RDP directly to a virtual machine and browse from there if I have a problem. If they did decide to block VPN ports, this would cause catastrophic damage to businesses based in Thailand who have VPN connections to their other international offices etc.

It's just a waste of time, anyone with a modicum of sense will get round this with ease. Even the Chinese are incapable of technically locking down the internet. They do not block VPN ports (PPTP & L2TP being the most commonly used), so blocking a list of IP's to twitter, youtube, hotmail etc is a waste of time when there are innumerate ways to get round this.

[Samuian]

I have CNN and Facebook no problem. with True

Same, same with CAT!

[sedeflonga]

Was just talking to a senior admin from CAT and he told me that he has no problem to connect to CNN, Facebook.

I checked it out right now, it works. Must have been some DNS problem from their site

[markusz]

"Reported as attack site" --> Same story already happend on the BOI-Website in January 2009!

[sedeflonga]

"Reported as attack site" --> Same story already happend on the BOI-Website in January 2009!

Actualy, the 'attack site' problem comes from students which using 'go.th' websites and running a lot of spam/scam/...'

I saw those block for a few years already. That immigration site is blocked because someone might have flagged it at mozilla

as bad -for whatever reason.

[perax]

There other things that could go wrong besides what listed above. For example, all large ISP run web cache farms to try to optimize usage over their international links and improve user response time. When you open www.hotmail.com, the page you get most likley did not come from a hotmail server somewhere one the web, but for a local copy cached somewhere by your ISP. It is not terribly uncommon to see some of the servers on a farm to go out of synch.

Also, it could just be that some well-meaning staff tried to add a redirect to a well-wishing page and ended up messing some sites (what happens, for example, when you try to access any website from an hotel and are instead redirected to a page where you need to log-in or pay for your inetrnet access). Might not necessarily have been done with 'malicious' intent.

Anyway, be under no illusions, all internet traffic through Thai ISPs is already proxied, logged and filtered. Some ISP do this better than others, but this is a requirment since 2008. The law (Computer Crimes Act B.E.2550) forces your ISPs need to keep a lot of details about every page you access from Thailand (URL, timestamp, ip source, login ID/phone number/etc.), and retain it for a lot of time.

[yuyi]

...

If you use TRUE, the sites load but without CSS (graphics and layout) if you switch to KSC, then the sites load just fine.

Just think a little, we had an almost 9 days of holidays behind us (many Thais took the entire last week off), and most people are using TRUE. Thus, the TRUE servers are having a difficult time to cope with the high load, now that everybody is back in the office.

If you run cmd and then tracert the IP of your 'blocked' site, you will see where it hangs.

Just give it a few hrs and it'll be fine again ....

Hey dude,

just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it's not happening.

Depending on your ISP some sites get redirected to w3.mict.go.th however it is not the same everywhere. George sees Twitter.com redirected to w3.mict.go.th, i don't. However I see facebook.com redirected to w3.mict.go.th. And CNN doesn't even load. True is caching, so you might get the main html from the cache, just not the css and pics.

If it wouldn't redirect some sites to w3.mict.go.th I would agree with you that it is just too much traffic, possibly. However too much traffic is no reason for redirecting to w3.mict.go.th

And here's a traceroute:

3 61.19.10.41 0.180 ms 0.159 ms 0.154 ms

4 61.19.9.69 0.322 ms 0.284 ms 0.288 ms

5 61.19.9.30 0.303 ms 0.213 ms 0.282 ms

6 202.47.253.254 200.385 ms 200.312 ms 200.252 ms

7 facebook-RGE.hkix.net (202.40.161.110) 201.352 ms 201.196 ms 200.859 ms

8 xe-1-3-0.br02.sjc.tfbnw.net (204.15.23.235) 241.848 ms 242.922 ms 245.387 ms

9 xe-1-2-0.br02.sjc.tfbnw.net (204.15.23.166) 238.331 ms xe-4-0-0.br01.sf2p.tfbnw.net (204.15.23.246) 211.349 ms xe-1-2-0.br02.sjc.tfbnw.net (204.15.23.166) 238.690 ms

10 xe-1-1-0.br01.ash1.tfbnw.net (204.15.21.248) 283.037 ms 283.096 ms xe-1-0-0.br01.ord1.tfbnw.net (204.15.20.51) 398.498 ms

11 xe-2-2-0.br01.lga1.tfbnw.net (204.15.22.67) 280.042 ms 279.906 ms te-9-3.csw08d.ash1.tfbnw.net (204.15.22.59) 287.607 ms

12 xe-2-1-0.br01.iad1.tfbnw.net (204.15.20.128) 286.612 ms 286.721 ms www-12-08-ash1.facebook.com (69.63.187.17) 287.768 ms

As you can see there is no w3.mict.go.th or its IP there.

The redirection to w3.mict.go.th happens for http traffic only, probably because it is going through a transparent proxy. And there seems to be the problem, the misconfiguration.

if you go through a different ISP you might not go through that messed up transparent proxy.

So no intentional blocking, just another example of things getting too complicated for the technicians involved, here the ones in the surveillance / censorship systems.

[phazey]

Don't know if it's related, but on some ISP's in Vietnam it's impossible to get Facebook....maybe there's a flap on the AAG.

[Meridian007]

Facebook and BP are fine with my True connection, no problem connecting. However, I've noticed that a larger number of Thailand based websites are showing up as malware sites recently, including many University websites.

Hacking in Thailand, or just someone playing with the malware lists for the search engines? Prolly just some zitty teen wanting to cause trouble, or it could be part of a plot to cause anarchy!

[crocodilexp]

Amazing journalistic incompetence in merging together two completely unrelated items, and distributing wildly as headline news without any investigation.

Immigration website being blocked by Firefox (and/or Google) is due to hacking that introduced malware to the site. All sites are susceptible to such attacks, but Thailand is unique in that nobody takes them seriously (Thais take very few things seriously).

Possible blockage of CNN, Yahoo, Facebook, Flickr etc. by Thai authorities is completely unrelated. It may be a technical glitch. Any journalist worth their salt would have called and checked if this is actually censorship by the government (even if they don't get a clear answer). If it is censorship, this would indeed be huge news, and will damage country's political reputation as well as business confidence.

It wouldn't surprise me if it is both censorship and a technical glitch. Even back when YouTube was officially and publicly blocked few years back, it was accessible from some networks within Thailand.

Thailand doesn't seem to have a tight "Great Firewall" like China with clear policies. Somchai the censor may order Somporn the admin at True or TOT to amend their block lists, but nobody seems to be fully responsible for particular sites being blocked/available/partially available. There's no legal process to block sites, no way to challenge the block, so we're lucky technical side is just as sloppy.

Edited December 14, 2009 by crocodilexp

[bggg]

CAT Chiang Mai - problems for the last few hours loading many pages, facebook loads a shell then stops, google would not load.

[FreeSpirit54]

I had problems reaching Dr Mercola website. I switched to OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 and I was able to get through and it seems faster all round now although still still the normal variability in speed from 0kbs to very fast. In CM but not sure of the ISP in this guesthouse where I'm staying.

[infernalman7]

True ADSL2+ in Chiang MAi is back to normal again.

[caf]

What the heck are you talking about!? None of these sites are 'blocked by the Thai government'. You should edit the headline and story for wildly inaccurate hysterical information.

"Thai Immigration website is reported as an attack site by Google and FireFox."

Reported as an attack site by Firefox? Since when does Firefox report attack websites? Do you understand the difference between your browser and a search engine reporting an attack site?

I would echo that.

What on earth is TV talking about. Certainly a lack of understanding of basics resulting in an hysterical and inaccurate thread heading.

[jambla]

My earlier post:

---------------------------

Samut Prakarn True

cnn.com - No access

flickr.com - No access

yahoo.com - No access

facebook.com - access

gallery photo on imgur.com - No access. Example --> http://i.imgur.com/xHNic.jpg-

---------------------------

Update:

Everything back up now. All working fine.

Edited December 14, 2009 by jambla

[punkonater]

"MICT blocking CNN, Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr for some users/ISP's"

no they arent.

Working fine for me. True internet, firefox.

[cmsally]

Big problems with Maxnet since Saturday

I have a mict fix on my computer

but still dropping the connection and slow as a stuffed snail.

Called Maxnet and they have been checking even connections outside my house. Can't find a problem but seem to have made slight improvement.

[alant]

"Using proxy servers and trying to circumvent government blocked websites is a criminal offense in Thailand."

can someone help with this?

is it a criminal offense to use an overseas vpn etc, reason not to avoid thai but to get uk web pages?

[Totster]

"MICT blocking CNN, Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr for some users/ISP's"

no they arent.

Working fine for me. True internet, firefox.

The word "some" is important in that quote...

totster

[A_Traveller]

Proxies and the law.

The position that the then ICT Minister took was 'the use of proxies to access legal sites is fine, though their use to access illegal ones, was illegal.'. This was in an interview with another publication if I recall.

The law however, identifies under section 13 the use of tools to circumvent the law, in very broad terms which led to the question for the Minister. Further, the defined offences [sections 6 - 11] are similarly broadly defined. Therefore, the view is that use, discussion of, links to is unwise in this public forum. As to VPN's etc., again the then Minister's words say one thing, but it is entirely possible to apply the letter of the law to them as well.

However, for most users today, access to a rocky peak website [or EFF] is possible, whereas prior to the law being promulgated that was not the case.

Regards

PS Try searching for Computer Crime Act B.E.2550 and you should find unofficial translations [Note since the law is in Thai there is no such thing as an official translation]

Edited December 14, 2009 by A_Traveller

[george]

Blog:

MICT Gone Astray

Lately even the pro-establishment news website TAN was calling for the sacking of the ICT minister: “Almost one year as the ICT minister, Ranongrak Suwanchawee has failed to show the public any tangible achievements but a series of failed policies.”

Her ministry’s latest coup? Web users all over Thailand report blockings and hazardous scripts by the mighty MICT. A reader reported absolutelyBangkok.com was blocked as were – depending where you are and what ISP you use – CNN, Yahoo, Facebook, Flickr and ...

Read more: http://absolutelybangkok.com/mict-gone-astray/

[virtualtraveller]

Let me clarify a few things here that are just plainly incorrect, I work in the web publishing industry and have experience with Google's Site Attack Prompts, and web access in general.

1. The warning shown above has got nothing to do with Thailand blocking anything, it is now routinely displayed by new generation browsers based on an extensive database of sites that google has found to contain unusual 'bits' (scripts, links, trojans, malware etc) on the website's server/folder.

2. This warning is actually overkill and seems to pop up often even when the site in question really is harmless, it's been happening for about 6 months now and quite annoying, I've got one of these reported on a domain I own that redirects to another site, in other words nothing at all is hosted, and the eventual landing site is deemed clean by Google, somehow they've picked up that the redirect domain hosted something dodgy.

3. Several times I've had this pop up on sites of mine, discovering that there has been an intrusion to our server and some harmless malware uploaded. You have to remove it, then reapply to google to index you on the 'safe' list.

4. About 2 weeks I noticed that sites hosted in the US were inaccessible, including all mine and many others since California is the world hosting hub, it was out for an entire day, and continues to be slow or drop out now and then, this is due an issue with the undersea cables between Thailand and West Coast US, and since there are several cables and other companies involved between here Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii, Midway etc it is likely that data gets re-routed through a different cable set, perhaps a mismanagement error at CAT upon arrival - my experience with Thai management of broadband suggests this as most likely.

5. If a site is blocked here, it usually shows the Royal Thai Police warning, which is a white box of about 5 lines. This comes and goes depending on who is (illegally) enforcing the ban.

6. About 6 months ago the expensive (500m baht) firewall was probably installed and turned on, because web access became slower and bizarre things were happening, such as red 'blocked by the Thai Police' sentence was randomly appearing in the middle of text on pages, but vanishing when the page was refreshed, suggesting the software was not working properly in filtering.

7. I use both TOT and Maxnet internet and my observation is that there has been a marked improvement in reliability and speed in the past 4 weeks, and though a page might still take a few seconds to load up (usually you see a blank screen for about 2 secs then everything appears instantaneously), it seems to behave as if the data is transmitted then held up somewhere momentarily while being parsed (filter inspected).

[perax]

"Using proxy servers and trying to circumvent government blocked websites is a criminal offense in Thailand."

can someone help with this?

is it a criminal offense to use an overseas vpn etc, reason not to avoid thai but to get uk web pages?

I don't see this in the CCA. That document specifies requirments for ISPs and penalities for people (regardless of nationality or location) that commit acts that fall under the scope of the CCA. I do not see anything that says that using a web proxy somewhre else is in itself illegal.

The government was supposed to issue a regulation describing how the act should be applied, but I do not know if that ever happened.

[keyjor]

Using TOT in my house and wifi in my apartment in Khon Kaen. No probelems anywhere?

[sedeflonga]

Could someone confirm that this site works? http://apps.facebook.com/texas_holdem

Not just the css stuff but also the flash (which doesn't get loaded with me today)

EDIT: HAHAHA absolutelybangkok.com doesnt work either... I think big brother is reconfiguring network and has problems to get it right

2nd EDIT: now after a few minutes it comes up but with that http://w3.mict.go.th lagging in the status bar

<snip>

Edited December 14, 2009 by webfact
link and reference removed //WF