What follows has been posted in various other threads and has been repeated in IRC - but I thought it was probably an OK idea to post it all together in one place if only so I could point them to it - anyway:
As far as we have been able to work out someone has informed and organisation in the UK called the Internet Watch Foundation http://www.iwf.org.uk/ of our little place on the net and they have deemed it to be unacceptable due to either race hate OR childporn... probably both. They have place ONE SPECIFIC URL on a block list.
Seemingly NTL and BT subscribe to this block list to different degrees (although oddly some people are still getting through from at least NTL not sure about BT). The URL they are blocking is the main /b/ http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html one which is why you are seeing a 404/403 on that one, but are still capable of seeing links within /b/.
There are quite a few ways to get around this, the two that I employ when Im on my work BT line is by using the IP address of the of the /b/ server, so then the URL would be: http://66.207.165.178/b/imgboard.html - this also works for NTL users. NTL users can also just add a '?' mark to the end of the normal URL to get around it thus: http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html?
You can also use proxies and tunnelling an other crap, such as http//securebar.secure/...
or installing your own copy of squid maybe.
BT users only are currently finding them selves banned completely from the img.4chan servers, I have no idea what that is about as I dont think anyones said.
Are BT/NTL logging failed connects to the boards? No idea. How long is this gonna last? No idea. Is there anyway to ge the block lifted? Having read the IWFs complaints procedure... only if you want the police at your door if its still found to be CPy.
I think thats it, be brave /b/tards. You can get through this.
D.
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Anonymous2006-07-18 11:16
Huh. I'm on NTL and I didn't notice anything at all at any point in this clusterfuck.
Go figure.
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Anonymous2006-07-24 18:38
I never had any problems until now - now /b/ is not accessible by normal channels (although http://66.207.165.178/b/ does work)
That worked for a bit for me, but now I get the 404. And the webcache just got banned AGAIN.
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Anonymous2006-07-24 19:37
hmm, now img.4chan.org/b/ and dat.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html redirect to img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html which is blocked on NTL, is this 4chan's doing? if so change it back plz.
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Anonymous2006-07-25 13:27
blocked by BT too, having to use the IP version to get it working, if they block that its proxy ahoy
Myself and several of my fellow BT customers have become rather confused about a situation that seems to have affected us all simultaneously. It has come to our attention that no BT user can access the URL http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html or any variation thereof while using BT to connect to the internet.
As with all collectives of people on the internet, rumours are rife; the most prevalent of which concerns BT, the IWF, the Cleanfeed system, or a combination of all three blocking the site due to alleged illegal content. However, we are yet to receive a difinitive answer regarding the exact nature of the block.
I am writing to ask you whether or not the aforementioned URL is in someway 'blacklisted' by either BT or the IWF, or whether or not it is included as part of the cleanfeed system. Earlier today, I made a call to BT customer and technical services, who informed me that they could find no information regarding a BT-initiated 'block' on the domain. However, I appreciate that the people I was speaking to, in their own words, were "not the right people" to ask about the problem, and therefore I would appreciate any light you can shed on this matter.
As you may or may not be aware, the URL in question is one for an anonymous imageboard. This means that any user can post any picture or any text on the site without having to register or enter their name. The site does, however, log their IP address. There is only one rule: No illegal content. Users who breach this rule are banned without hesitation, and their posts are deleted. In the case of a user posting obscene content related to sexual abuse of children or animals, the user is also reported to the relevant authorities, as this is deemed immoral and unacceptable.
I and the other users of the site are completely in support of this rule, and wish to use it simply as a place of discussion and a source of humour.
Therefore, I can see no conflict of interest between http://img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html and either BT or the IWF. However, I would appreciate any help you could offer in pinpointing the origin of these difficulties.
Regards,
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I'm pretty sure that's all true. Let's see how it goes.
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Anonymous2006-07-29 14:33
>>127
i don't think he'll notice it through the flood of "OMG WTF HAV U DONE TO 4CHAN YOU DICKDICK GIVE IT BACK OR I WILL HACK YOUR BT"
You guys are probably right. It doesn't really affect me personally - I'm switching ISP to Bulldog in about a week, because they are made of win and god - but I know that for those of us who, for example, have to consult with 35643674645 housemates or weird parents to change their ISP, or are in a contract, this sucks pretty bad.
Also, if it IS the IWF and not a standalone BT thing... then we're all fucked, because all UK ISPs are going to have to use Cleanfeed from 2007 onwards.
... Please tell me the EFF operate in the UK...
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Anonymous2006-07-30 4:57
I wonder if many of those who hate America's deterioration of civil liberties know about the UK. They pull even worse shit than we do.
Seconded. I live here and it's only in the past year I've come to realise exactly how bad we are for laying on our backs and letting our government do whatever the fuck it wants.
It's a really impotent feeling. We often pride ourselves on being somehow 'more civilized' than America. It's just that our stupidity is less openly on display than yours; it doesn't mean it's not there.
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Anonymous2006-07-30 7:46
Ok back on topic.
We need a computer geek to come up with another temporary solution to our problem of having no 4chon.
Our first encounter of the "block" was a piss take, but now things have stepped up a notch I havent been able to be a /b/tard in over a week.
The only way is to use proxies, to masquerade as another IP address. The problem there is that they keep getting banned due to people posting beastiality or CP.
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Anonymous2006-07-31 0:51
Great stuff - a couple of days after the webcache gets unbanned, some twat goes and posts beastiality again and this time gets it permabanned. I swear if I get hold of him I'll give him some beastiality by beating him to death with a frozen horse-dick.
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Anonymous2006-07-31 1:02
.... on top of which, it seems like BT has found out about and blocked the /dat.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html address too - so there's no way in at all now :(
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Anonymous2006-07-31 1:24
I'd suggest widespread complaints, protest marches, withholding your payments, and that sort of thing, but i don't think i can do much to help from here.
Er, not4chan does not currently exist. In addition, child porn very rarely showed up there and always got a quick deletion. It was less common than it is in /b/, actually.
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annoyed2006-07-31 9:04
Aw ffs, got on for a while now its banned AGAIN, seriously this BS is pissing me off big time, fucking moronic BT...
That's what I do and I never have to worry about BT's bans, or the proxy getting banned for horse porns or whatever.
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Anonymous2006-08-01 13:48
It's me, the fag who wrote that letter to the IWF guy.
I haven't had a response yet, and I've since managed to switch to Bulldog (as of this morning), so I'm not really expecting him to respond.
I know NTL users can get on /b/ again, but can someone from UKOnline check it out? If even one of those ISPs unblocked it completely, that means it is NOT on cleanfeed - at least, not anymore.
im on ukonline theres 1 way to get around it but, dat.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html, img.4chan.org/b/imgboard.html, replacing /b/imgboard.html with /b/? are all blocked, however there is one which works, if you are smart enough you will figure it out but im not passing it out, out of fear that it will be abused in some way and bt will block it off hence leaving the last resort of proxys which people have mentioned about, i know replacing imgboard.html with ? got blocked off after more people started using it
as long you use an adsl service in the UK theres a very large chance you are gonna get blocked since adsl companies rent exchange space off BT
also have you had any luck with them moot (if you are still following this)
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Anonymous2006-08-01 21:01
I have an idea that 4chan could do. No doubt you guys will tell me everything that's wrong with it (first coming to mind being "Too much effort"), but meh.
Maybe 4chan could make a read-only ban system for proxies, i.e. so people on webcache.bt.net can't post but can read? Sure, people with static IPs should be punished for posting bestiality and cp. But how much harm can someone do from reading 4chan from a proxy? Read only /b/ > No /b/
the only way to get rid of the CP is to get rid of /b/.
a small price to pay.
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Anonymous2006-08-08 7:37
if you get rid of b all of the btards will have nowhere to go and you will have to deal with them in your favorite forums. and id rather not have to deal with them in /s/.