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Post by khj on Jun 28, 2023 5:19:33 GMT
That's interesting. There's no intentional blocking of VPN access on our part. I usually keep an eye on those accessing via VPN, but once initial post is made, it's no biggie. It does sound like they are doing geoblocking. Again, I assume they have a good reason for wanting to block Japan, or else they did it accidentally -- maybe they were trying to block another Asian country. I know on another forum, we were constantly spammed from 2 Asian countries. I eventually had to do IP address range blocking (affects specific IPs in a region) to stop the spam. It's sort of a nuclear solution & I hated doing it, but they were simply signing up again and again while changing their IP address. However, neither of those countries/region were Japan. I guess we Asians all look alike sometimes?!?
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Post by khj on Jun 28, 2023 5:27:17 GMT
OK, I just checked ProBoards. Apparently they do selectively blocking of VPN's. Which is news to me, because I know others who have been accessing this and other ProBoards forums via VPN. But apparently, they have been adding on to the selective block list over the years as a precaution against DDoS attacks. Guess they are seeing some sort of history/pattern. There is no way for individual forums to turn off this "feature". This I can understand, because DDoS attack would affect ProBoards site-wide, not just individual forums. Still, seems like a nuclear solution to me... Now I'm wondering if APS has done something similar. Only they would know. k
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angore
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by angore on Jun 30, 2023 11:28:42 GMT
When I was using a T Mobile Home Internet account, Wikipedia blocked me when I tried to sign in. I got this warning about the ISP being a source of attacks.
Sprectum tries to disparage T Mobile Home Internet (caps, etc) but for the money it is a far better deal than Spectrum for anyone bu the very heavy users. I have it at my dad's because AT&T decided to end DSL (hidden blessing) because we ended up gettingrid of the AT&T landline and DSL and saved a lot of money.. The AT&T support was awful.
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Post by philatarium on Jun 30, 2023 21:17:39 GMT
Sprectum tries to disparage T Mobile Home Internet (caps, etc) but for the money it is a far better deal than Spectrum for anyone bu the very heavy users. I have it at my dad's because AT&T decided to end DSL (hidden blessing) because we ended up gettingrid of the AT&T landline and DSL and saved a lot of money.. The AT&T support was awful. Thanks very much for mentioning this, Al angore ! We have had Spectrum since it was ... [well, I can't remember what -- the ownership and company name has changed 3 or 4 times in the last decade or two]. We are paying a ridiculous amount of money for slower and slower service, and they're just about to switch out some equipment and raise the rates again. My indifference and inertia, it turns out, has limits! I've decided we've got to switch to something else, and I had been seriously thinking about the T-Mobile service. (We have their cell phone plan, and the coverage is great here.) I've seen the Spectrum ads maligning the T-Mobile service, where the dad gets voted off the island, but there are only 2 of us, and neither of us is a gamer, so I think we'll be ok. Your comments are just the nudge I need to start taking action on it -- first as a parallel option, and, if we're at least as well as we were before, technology-wise, and I think we will be, then I'll start unwinding the Spectrum bundle.
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Jul 1, 2023 2:47:19 GMT
I'm still getting LNA message from here. Let me see if I can escalate up the chain at APS for resolution.
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angore
Junior Member
Posts: 75
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Post by angore on Jul 1, 2023 11:15:05 GMT
T Mobile is just 4G/5G Internet one way phone that creates a hotspot for $50 (never goes up, no contracts) and you get one box you plug in and set up with a phone. Spectrum just keeps jacking up the rates. I did some performance tests and download speeds were much higher than DSL (near 100GB). For $50 month, it was worth a try but there was no other option anyway.
You can manage via phone from anywhere. The account number is a phone number!
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Jul 1, 2023 13:19:27 GMT
I've used 2 mobile phones, a mobile hotspot (MiFi), two different internet fiber connections in a total of 4 different locations, as well as connecting to WiFi in a couple of hotels and restaurants... guys, this is not the problem, I get the same result from multiple devices (whether they are mine or not), regardless of where in Japan I'm trying to connect to stamps.org.
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Post by philatarium on Jul 3, 2023 1:09:17 GMT
Thanks, Al angore, for all the info! We're going to try it. Because of our work schedules and the holiday, we're going to go into the T-Mobile store on Wednesday to get it set up. (It turns out there's a slight glitch with our shipping address if I try to do it online. Spent an hour with an online chat person trying to get it straightened out. At the very end, she told me we could just walk in and finish the account setup there (we already have the phones and mobile service), and walk out with the device, rather than wait to have it shipped.
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Post by philatarium on Jul 3, 2023 1:21:36 GMT
Scott --
I used to run my own website, and when I had problems with spam and DOS bots, I could manage which IP addresses I could block. As you know, the addresses go left to right from broadest area to smallest. I always tried to keep the blocked area as small as possible (because I had international clients), like to the right-most decimal point, but sometimes I had to keep expanding the area, moving left to the next decimal point in the address, to get a broad enough area to protect my site. I never blocked an entire country, but sometimes had to go pretty big.
It sounds to me like whoever manages this for the APS (and it might be contracted out to whoever hosts/manages their website) inadvertently ended up drawing the area so large as to block all of Japan (or at least the broader Metro Tokyo area, or the Kantoo area, or perhaps all of Honshuu).
Perhaps your email to them is getting blocked as well? Could you call them? (I know the time difference is a big pain in the butt. -- I used to work part-time in Japan.)
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Post by philatarium on Jul 7, 2023 15:12:46 GMT
Thanks, Al angore , for all the info! We're going to try it. Because of our work schedules and the holiday, we're going to go into the T-Mobile store on Wednesday to get it set up. ... angore, We did pick it up on Wednesday, and wow, it works great! So much better, faster, more reliable, and a broader wifi area -- I can go out to the street or to the garage in the back and still stay connected. I'm going to wait a couple of days and see if we're completed weened off of the cable tv part of the Spectrum package (I think we are), and then I'm greatly looking forward to packing up all the equipment and going in to the Spectrum store and cancelling the account. Can't wait!
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Jul 8, 2023 1:12:36 GMT
So the issue is wider than originally expected. I have now verified that the same issue is occuring in Singapore and Sri Lanka. Working on verifying if it is a problem in Europe. I also did get a message back from APS finally, so someone is looking at it. It's been more than 2 weeks since I was last able to connect to their website.
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Post by khj on Jul 8, 2023 19:46:23 GMT
I will be heading over to Asia next week, will check accessibility while I'm there.
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Jul 8, 2023 23:55:53 GMT
Hopefully we have it resolved by then. What part of Asia will you be in?
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Post by khj on Jul 9, 2023 5:45:50 GMT
Taiwan
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Post by ClassicPhilatelist on Jul 9, 2023 6:16:15 GMT
I have verification now that it is working in Australia (Both Brisbane and Sydney). So far my theory of this being contained to Asia is holding. khj, if this isn't fixed before than, would you please check while in Taiwan for me? Thanks, -S
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