Banned again at Old Sparkey Forum

kengrome · Post by **kengrome** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 12:54 am

I know some of the folks here are also members of Old Sparkey Forum, and that's why I'm posting this here ...

I've been 'banned' for months, maybe even a year or two, at Old Sparkey Forum. No one really banned me of course, but apparently the forum software is configured to disallow logins from my IP Address, or maybe the forum software is simply buggy -- it is 5-6 years old after all!

The thing is, this morning I was actually able to login and access the Old Sparkey Forum for a change! So I posted a new thread asking if someone there made any recent software changes. Then I went out for a while, and when I returned I restarted my computer and found an email telling me that someone had responded to my post. I tried to login and read that reply, and you guessed it -- I am 'banned' again!

Of course this means I cannot read the reply someone posted, nor can I login and then email the forum admin to tell him about this problem. If any of you have a free moment, perhaps you can visit my new thread in Old Sparkey Forum and tell me what the reply says?

Jimmy W · Post by **Jimmy W** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:54 am

JEM

PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:19 pm
hmm.... Chuck's off paddling somewhere.....
_________________
Matt - JEM Watercraft

dangermouse01

Well, Chuck IS away on a little paddle camping adventure.

Chucks away, you are no longer banned, sounds like more than just a coincidence? (Twilight Zone music playing in the background). Laughing

DM
mike

oldyaker

PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:36 pm
Chuck is enjoying Yankee weather......he'll be back Monday. If the Vienny's don't lay him up for a spell. Shocked
_________________

kengrome · Post by **kengrome** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:06 am

Thanks Jimmy W, I appreciate it. I guess it's just the software ...

... or maybe it *IS* the twilight zone ...

john the pom · Post by **john the pom** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 7:31 am

Probly a silly question, but have you considered trying a new user-name?
Regards John.

kengrome · Post by **kengrome** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:18 am

Hi John,

I cannot visit any page while I'm banned because no matter what page I try to visit, I am always redirected to the 'you're banned' page.

And here's the thing that makes me believe that this problem is totally unrelated to my account:

I have manually deleted ALL the cookies from the site (numerous times) and this means the forum software has no way to identify me or any of my account information, because that info is stored in the cookies I have deleted.

This means the only info the forum software has about me is my ip address. Therefore my guess is that I'm being banned either because of my ip address or because the forum software is buggy.

I've visited the site using three different browsers within minutes of each other and I always get the same results no matter what browser I use, so this is definitely not related to any particular web browser.

Some people have claimed that there is no 'ip address banning' being done in that forum, and I hate to say this but I'm not sure I believe them when I the evidence suggests otherwise.

john the pom · Post by **john the pom** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:16 pm

Okay, but have you tried signing up with a new user-name?

kengrome · Post by **kengrome** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:11 pm

Okay, but have you tried signing up with a new user-name?

I tried, it is impossible:

I cannot visit any page while I'm banned because no matter what page I try to visit, I am always redirected to the 'you're banned' page.

This means I cannot go to the registration page so how can I sign up with a new username? I need to be able to visit the registration page in order to sign up as a different user, but that page -- and every other page on the site -- is impossible for me to visit as long as I continue to be 'banned' ...

Jimmy W · Post by **Jimmy W** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:51 pm

I also think that it is banning some IP addresses. Last week I was on the site and I left home for awhile and while gone, I turned off my DSL modem. When I got back home and turned the modem back on, I was banned. I also deleted all cookies, but stayed banned until I turned the modem off and back on so that I got another IP address. That cured the problem and I was able to get back on. During the time that I was banned, I was able to get on here and everywhere else that I tried except for Old Sparkeys.

Jimmy

kengrome · Post by **kengrome** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:10 am

Jimmy, your experience confirms without a doubt what I have suspected all along -- the Old Sparkey Forum is banning people based on their ip addresses.

My problem is worse than yours though, because even when my DSL modem loses its connection and re-connects again (or when I turn it off and then on again like you did) it ends up getting the same ip address as the last time, or it gets another ip address that is banned ...

I have struggled with this problem for more than a year already, with no help from anyone in charge. This leads me to the conclusion that they couldn't care less about fixing it, and they probably never will.

Several months ago someone CLAIMED that he had eliminated all the ip address blocking, but obviously his did not. Maybe he didn't know how to use the admin interface properly, or perhaps the software ignored him and continued to implement blocking via ip address anyways (which indicates a bug in the software) ...

Either way, the problem still exists and no one is doing anything about it.

P.S. Neil has a new email address, it is neilbank (at) gmail (dot) com

Post by **jem** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 6:45 am

kengrome wrote:
Several months ago someone CLAIMED that he had eliminated all the ip address blocking, but obviously his did not. Maybe he didn't know how to use the admin interface properly, or perhaps the software ignored him and continued to implement blocking via ip address anyways (which indicates a bug in the software) ...

If Chuck said he did it, he did it. Chuck fully acknowledges Neil is the computer brain behind his forum. I'm 150% if it were something easy to fix, it would have gotten done by now.