BBC website blocked for anyone else (or is it my fault?)

Fogmatic

On my home wireless network, a guest can't access the bbc.co.uk website with his iPad (other websites are fine). So I tried my usual BBC online radio bookmarks in my computer, and find I'm blocked as well.

Firefox says .Blocked domain', and we get a box saying 'Sorry, but www.bbc.co.uk is blocked on this network. Contact your network administrator'. At the bottom is 'Powered by Open DNS'.

Is it just my settings? I last accessed the BBC website about a week ago (at the most), and can't think of any relevant settings I might have changed, for a long time back.

I have to sign off soon till the morning, so please excuse any delay getting back here.

mike65

I just checked and its fine for me (FF v12)

Random

its working for me on upc. have you tried a different browser?
have you setup customer dns servers on your pc or router? or would someone have done this for you?

yoyo

If you have set up opendns (www.opendns.com) to block certain websites this may be the reason, try logging into open dns (if you have login details) and check exactly what it is blocking

Nick

Did someone set up your network?

As it has openDNS implemented.

Fogmatic

Thank you everyone for your help. Nice to know the BBC hasn't suddenly changed the rules & withdrawn ine of my lifelines!

I had wondered if it was something to do with crossed 'wires' due to the iPad being connected to the same network; I only became aware of the problem after the iPad was connected yesterday, and it's the first time a visiting computer has connected to our network. But the Network & Sharing Centre doesn't see the iPad, and turning off the iPad doesn't solve it.

The DNS thing did ring a bell, from a few minutes' foray into the subject, back when I was trying to diagnose a mail download delay, and find out if it was down to new settings at some mail server. I haven't set up anything to block any websites (and always fend off any parental control and other filtering options) , but someone over in another forum said it sounded as if my IP didn't have a 'reverse DNS record'. I found some instructions on how to find out (though I still haven't read up on what it all means). It involved going to www.dnsstuff.com & doing a 'lookup' with my IP address. I can't remember what happened there; the only printouts I have from that session are from a site called MX Toolbox, were I did a lookup/test (maybe I was redirected there).
I looked in my password collection & found nothing re opendns.com, or any other websites from that foray into DNS matters. And opendns.com has no account with my email address. There's no related software installed, and the start menu search box finds nothing re either website/program (nothing's appeared in my selective startup list either)
That foray into DNS was back in July, and the BBC site only became blocked sometime within the last 2 weeks. It's a mystery to me why something has suddenly started muscling in on my browsing!
The BBC site's the only blocked one I've noticed so far, and a random sample of bookmarks found no others (though of course there may still be others).

Forgot to say I use Vista Home Premium SP2 & Firefox, & Internet Explorer has the same problem, though I think the problem must be some network setting. I set it up myself, and can't think of ay changes I've made to it recently.

I'll probably have to be absent again till tomorrow evening - it doesn't mean any lack of appreciation for your help!

KAGY

If you have access to your router's admin page try using Google's DNS server 8.8.8.8 iirc
A reason for the block could be due to your ISP dynamically assigning you an IP address. If you use opendns server and are assigned an IP address that was previously assigned to another user of opendns (and if neither of you have an IP address updater service running) you might be inheriting their blocks.

Fogmatic

Thanks Kagy.

Yes, no problem accessing my router's admin page (it's how I set it up). But I don't really know what opendns server is, or how to find out if my connection uses it or not. I'm sure I haven't consciously had any dealings with it (is it up to users, or is it for ISPs/other servers?)

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I'd better read up a bit on the subject first! I don't know what in the router settings to to try 8.8.8.8 in place of, for instance, or what the iirc signifies (and whether it's something to type in/set). (And how a block-inheriting problem can persist when an IP address is dynamic). The proper response to my query is now probably 'Buy a book/Google it'!

One possible clue has come up, but it might just muddy the waters. It now seems there are some ongoing problems with my internet connection, that are out of my control. I still have the above-mentioned email problem (which is the authenticaton process taking 2 minutes from pressing 'get mail' to the mail download starting). When I reported it to my ISP, he'd said there was a server problem out of his control. He's just told me they're changing 'service' in a few weeks' time, and that should solve the problem (among others, perhaps).
I'm now wondering if the site blocking thing could be down to some server after all. We've now found the RTE site is blocked, as well as the BBC one, and I've just noticed the message says 'The site was categorised as News/Media, Television'. I gather from a quick search that categories like this were devised for countries/organisations/ISPs that want to block sites of a particular type (temporarily or permanently), to achieve various things (in the case of this category, free up some bandwidth).
I can still access newspaper sites & YouTube.

Perhaps I should just wait for that change that's coming up sonewhere upstream, and see what happens? I've probably taken up enough of your time, anyway!

If you post us your router name and model, we certainly will help you here.
It is a relatively straight forward process, I would suspect no more than 5-6 steps as usually the DNS settings are in the 'setup' section.

If you want to check what best dns settings to implement in your network in the future I would recommend using namebench.

Fogmatic

Thanks! It's a Linksys WRT54GC (ver.2).
Yes, loads of DNS-type numbers in there!

I've just remembered I printed out all the router's settings pages in July, once installed & with everything working properly (apart from the mail problem, which was just coincidental). I'll cross-check those with the current settings this evening. If it's any help, I could post the settings here (or on Flickr, & link to them).

Fogmatic

Have now looked at router settings. Turns out I hadn't printed out all the settings pages. I missed a few deeper ones I didn't notice on setup, & so would have left as default. I think I left everything as default unless required to enter something (except for trying different wireless modes), but I might be wrong of course.

There's only 1 change from the original printed settings (that could have any significance); in the Status section, the 2 DNS addresses have changed (including their 1st group of digits, which have changed from both being 216 to both being 208). (DNS address 3 is blank as before). But that might be normal for all I know!

Would it help if I posted the settings here (or at least linked to them)? Might take a couple of days to find the time to get them uploaded though (the only way is as images, I guess?) Or maybe that would be overkill (I expect you know just what settings may need changing, unlike me!).

niallb

Fogmatic wrote: »

There's only 1 change from the original printed settings (that could have any significance); in the Status section, the 2 DNS addresses have changed (including their 1st group of digits, which have changed from both being 216 to both being 208). (DNS address 3 is blank as before). But that might be normal for all I know!

These are the settings for opendns.
Change the first entries
208.67.222.222 or 208.67.220.220
to different servers and you will be back in business.

8.8.8.8 is a google nameserver as suggested above and is a good replacement for most people.
Use 8.8.4.4 to replace the second one.

KAGY

Fogmatic wrote: »

Thanks Kagy.

But I don't really know what opendns server is,
I don't know what in the router settings to to try 8.8.8.8 in place of, fo or what the iirc signifies ce'

Sorry for the delay
Think the other posts might-have shown you how to change the settings.
opendns is a domain name server that is like the phone book if the internet, it changes the website name into an IP address that the computers use to communicate. Normally you'd use your service providers server but there are other open access servers, opendns is one of them Google is another. I changed to Google because eircom was having problem with theirs one week, opendns has other setting including website filtering. Normally you'd gave a background service running to inform opendns if your IP address changed.

To change opendns filtering you need to log in to their website.

Btw iirc hth
By the way / if I remember correctly / hope that helps

Sent from my phone so ignore the errirs

Fogmatic

Thank you Kagy, and everyone else who's taken the trouble to give me all the info.
It won't be wasted - it'll save me a lot of trouble next time I have connection-related problems (there is bound to be a next time!). But I've just learned that in this case it wasn't my settings after all!

I got an email the other day from my local ISP/their umbrella organisation (I couldn't tell which), saying they don't have the bandwidth to provide TV service on their network, and giving the details of ap upgrade bundle that includes TV.
I thought no more about it, till it dawned on me to reply asking if they'd blocked the TV sites, and if it was possible to not block the entire BBC website (as I wasn't into watching TV on computers even if I'd thought the connection was suitable, but used other parts of the BBC site a lot).
The reply (from our local mast operator) said they had blocked the sites, as some people had been hogging the bandwidth with TV and crashing the system at (Townland), and gave me some DNS settings (in confidence) to bypass the block. (I haven't tried them yet, as I'd like to secure the wireless first).

I won't go into any more detail (for obvious reasons), but it just might help with someone else's diagnostics (enen if they're not blessed wih an ISP that knows all its customers!).

Fogmatic

Oh, and thanks for the additions to my vocabulary.
I was fairly late to mobiles (the coverage being fairly late getting here). By which time everyone was assumed to know textspeak!