I’m aware of IP address blacklists (e.g. via whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check ). My IP address is on several blacklists but this has never caused me trouble before.
The matter could prevent me from playing Mafia at SDMB, as quicktopic.com will probably be used by the upcoming game. :mad:
The providers are putzing around with something - routing tables or DNS, I don’t know. I can get to rolling stone if I plug in the IP address (http://64.147.122.110/) into the URL field, but not by name. I was poking around at the google cache and ended up on the MICT’s lese majeste page so I decided to stop there before somebody comes knocking at my door.
In the past I’ve sometimes found browser waiting for mict.go.th on queries unrelated to Thailand. (I click Stop or Back quickly when I notice this.)
In other news, once from Wikipedia I clicked a “go.th” link to learn something about Thai government structure and got … a Malware Warning from Avast Antivirus. :smack:
The Thai censoring proxies now use plausible-looking error messages, exactly like the first one you posted.
The rollingstone.com error looks like a standard Akamai message. I don’t know if the censoring proxies use that style of message or not, but it seems likely.
(Attempting to reach it via freeproxyserver.net I got a pdf error message and an all-black display. I can read it via Google by clicking “View as HTML” though I prefer to view pdf’s.)
… And then, after experimenting a bit, I discover that inserting “www.” in front of the “wikileaks.org” works (without proxy)!! The pdf then loads. :dubious: :smack:
You guys ever tried using the Tor network? It’s helped me in the past when traveling in censoring countries (Turkey in my case–I didn’t have any problems when I was in Thailand).
I believe Thai censorship is implemented separately by each ISP. They probably use different methods and aren’t always in sync.
Pure speculation, but since that proxy server is insecure it would be possible for the Thai censoring proxies to also censor the sites you try to access through it.
I haven’t seen one but I don’t know.
Yes, Tor. Be very careful of proxy servers you just find on the internet: some of them are malicious; they may be monitoring what you do, or injecting malicious code into the pages you view. Tor is designed to remain secure even when many servers have been compromised.
I’m posting this reply via Tor. Thank you. It does allow access to all the forbidden sites mentioned upthread.
Unless you have a 2-paragraph How to Use Tor, for Idiots to recommend, I may use Tor only when needed. SDMB loads slowly; is that due to Tor itself, or the lack of ABP?
Have any other Thailand-based Dopers noticed a sudden upsurge in censorship, just in the last few days?
I guess the government server that displays the “Forbidden” message is getting so many hits, it’s unresponsive.
As I said, I downloaded Tor and it works great. However, it’s not configured right so I only use it when I need to, so I still become aware of these Thai hooks to w3.mict.go.th .
Lately, I hit it so often I don’t try to keep track. The first two URL’s in the recent thread about JPM’s $2 billion loss take me to w3.mict.go.th ; e.g.
(Something lese majeste about the JPM story? :smack: )
Something odd I noticed a few weeks ago is that the King’s wikipedia bio is off-limits:
(Substitute “https” for “http” and/or “th.” for “en.” and you’re OK.)
I know it’s been a huge pain trying to find a working proxy back to the USA. They are good at making it seem like a network connection problem too, by just letting the connection time out instead of redirecting to a censorship page.
As I said above, I think they are purposefully letting the connection sit idle and time out, so that users spend time fiddling with their network or yelling at their ISP.
