Blocked & WorkAround

[JusMe]

For several years now, along with TV and other news sources, I've been connecting daily to the Edmonton Sun, along with its sister/affiliate newspapers - Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, London Free Press.

I'm on a MacBook Pro, using OS 10.8.5, and Safari.

But a week ago, suddenly I seemed to be cut off, getting this message only:

Service Unavailable

The server is temporarily unable to service your request. Please try again later.

Reference #6.24fa56b8.1424763157.62be0b11

It definitely wasn't temporary, as it's still there.

I did have some DNS problems that were interfering with my email, but they've been cleared, and the problem still exists.

I finally found that if I use Zenmate, which only works with Chrome, not Safari, I get all the connection I want. Seems it goes through the Canadian site, to and from Germany, and then to Thailand.

First, anyone else have similar difficulties connecting directly to any of those sites?

Would you think the blockage is in Canada at the newspaper network, or perhaps in Thailand?

Anyone know of something other than Zenmate that does the same thing but works with Safari?

[Crossy]

The block does not appear to be in Thailand, VPN to Singapore nets the same message, possibly the paper does not want outside users viewing.

Any VPN/proxy that puts you in Canada will probably do the trick, and for static pages (not video) one of the numerous free (slow) ones will work.

Can't make any recommendations (I'm a Brit so a Canada IP is not of much interest) but Google is your friend.

[KhunBENQ]

ToT, Thailand: Service unavailable... on both links.

VPN server Cananda AND Singapur: sites open OK.

The error message does not sound like it is a block from Thailand, as the message comes from the server definitely.

Also a ping to edmontonsun.com [207.253.226.30] is perfectly OK.

So also no DNS problem!

Blocking Thailand IP adresses is well known for sending emails (in a certain way).

But that a news portal (?) blocks access from a Thai IP is quite unusual.

Guess you have to ask their network what this is about:

info <at> canoe.ca

Or try edmontonsun online desk:

Online Desk
Max Maudie, Online Editor
edm.online <at> sunmedia.ca

Or the webmaster:

edmontonsun.com (207.253.226.30)

207.253.0.0 - 207.253.255.255
612 St-Jacques
Montreal, QC
CA

DNSMaster, Service Affaires
dnsmaster <at> videotron.net
+1-866-380-4668

Edited February 25, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[JusMe]

No response to the couple of emails I sent off with a query, but I did spend some time pissin' about setting up a VPN. (Hey, I'm a Mac guy, unaccustomed to reading or following instructions)

Seems to be good, and I've even got a little icon on my menu bar to turn it on and off whenever needed.

I'll still be curious to find out why there's an apparent blockage, but at least I've got through it.

[RichCor]

Interestingly enough, they only seem to be preventing SEA countries from connecting.

US, UK, AU, China Bhutan can connect. Just the SEA IP geo-location IPs (except for Vietnam) seems to be 'ignored' for service, .

[Suradit69]

Using 3BB and Chrome just now:

[FlorC]

Blocked ? I'm on TOT with firefox , and no problem for those sites.

[yankee99]

working with 3bb ftth

[RichCor]

Thailand geo-location IP addresses seem to be services now. Very odd.

Still blocking from Cambodia, but the previously blocked SEA countries (sans Vietnam) are working now.

[KhunBENQ]

Just noticed the third link (London ...).

This is the only one that works.

The first two still create the error message from the server (have ToT fibre, IP starts with 101....).

Quite sure they use some "blacklists" that creates arbitrary results due to some spammers that have used your current IP address in the past.

That they don't respond to the requests is poor.

Using these blacklists when trying to send email (from your PC) is commonplace, but for reading a news website it is simply stupid.

Edited February 26, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[yankee99]

Just tried from my True high speed cable in chonburi and all open fine.

[KhunBENQ]

Goto to this site:

http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check

Click "Check Blacklists" right to your IP address and see whether it shows "your IP" on one of the blacklist.

Mine is always on:

pbl.spamhaus.org
zen.spamhaus.org

Normally completely irrelevant, as I don't want to send non encrypted emails via POP/SMTP.

Edited February 26, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[JusMe]

TOT ASDL Safari on my MB - Service Unavailable now, 11 a.m.

But I was able to read the news using the VPN.

Still hopeful I'll get some response to my emailed queries.

[Assurancetourix]

The same here in Sakon Nakhon province; Open fine .

3BB , Win 7 and Firefox

[DKUNPUTAF713]

No problem from the States!

[KhunBENQ]

Daily report: unchanged, None of the links works.

After rechecking the initial post, I see there are six (6) example links.

None one works correct here.

http://www.lfpress.com/ OK! (but click on "SUN MEDIA" top row and see the error)

Fail:

http://www.ottawasun.com/news

http://www.torontosun.com/home

http://www.winnipegsun.com/home

http://www.calgarysun.com/home

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/home.html

Has anybody performed the blacklist check as described in post #12?

Would be interesting to know/compare the results!

Edited February 27, 2015 by KhunBENQ

[alocacoc]

Just opened your blogs by 3bb in Thailand. No problem here.

[JusMe]

I used that blacklist check site, and found four that blocked me: dnsbl.sorbs.net, dul.dnsbl.sorbs.net, zen.spamhaus.org, & pbl.spamhaus.org

But trying to go directly using Safari to the Edmonton Sun website, I immediately get that Service Unavailable.

But at least using the VPN I was able to connect and read whatever I wanted this morning.

[KhunBENQ]

Ok that fits my expectation.

Now it would be interesting to see the blacklist result for someone who has no problems with these links!

[yankee99]

heres mine all links work

[KhunBENQ]

heres mine all links work

This also fits to my assumption.

Your IP is not on one of the infamous "spamhaus" blocking lists.

Edited February 28, 2015 by KhunBENQ