Geekzone now blocking TOR access?

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#454629 2-Apr-2011 21:21

scottjpalmer: And then they ban-evade by getting a new account.

We don't do this stuff for fun, it is to preserve the GZ experience for all.

Only allow one account per IP per week (if on TOR)?

freitasm

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#454632 2-Apr-2011 21:24

Unless you are a trusted user, we already block you posting from a list of countries (including, but not limited to, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Laos, Nigeria)...

No one complains ;)

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#454633 2-Apr-2011 21:26

codyc1515:
scottjpalmer: And then they ban-evade by getting a new account.

We don't do this stuff for fun, it is to preserve the GZ experience for all.

Only allow one account per IP per week (if on TOR)?

<joke>

Just a minute, I will get our legion of developers to do it this weekend...

</joke>

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freitasm

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#454642 2-Apr-2011 21:52

gible: Righty then...I guess I'm done. Thanx :)

Note to self: if Tor doesn't work, cycle for a new exit node.

Note to self: even when it's made clear that something was put in place because of the troubles the alternative caused, some people won't play in the team...

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#454645 2-Apr-2011 22:08

freitasm: Note to self: even when it's made clear that something was put in place because of the troubles the alternative caused, some people won't play in the team...

I'm on the team now?!?

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#454653 2-Apr-2011 22:23

I have also had a few problems with Tor in the past when I used to run my own online community. It's just not worth the hassle as a admin. Best to block Tor / Known Proxies and leave it as that. If you are using Tor to get around network policy's then you shouldn't be here during worktime etc.

ISP's don't log network traffic per user (as it's a big effort to do so) - There shouldn't be a reason to run Tor unless if you were trying to get around restrictions or to hide something else. Tor slows down your internet experience and also just creates a hassle for System Administrators and also people like Mauricio.

You can still access the forums via the normal way quite a bit faster, just use that ;)

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#454691 3-Apr-2011 01:28

michaelmurfy: There shouldn't be a reason to run Tor unless if you were trying to get around restrictions or to hide something else.

Yeah, right. If you're not doing anything wrong, you got nothing to worry about. Where have we heard that one before?

Maybe you don't care if half the world thinks it is entitled to snoop on everything you do on-line. I happen to value my privacy and I frankly resent the suggestion that I must be up to no good if I want to run Tor. I understand and respect the reason Geekzone felt the need to block Tor, but I personally like the feeling that no-one is looking over my shoulder and I'm more than happy to sacrifice a little load time for that.

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#454697 3-Apr-2011 05:26

Rikkitic: I understand and respect the reason Geekzone felt the need to block Tor, but I personally like the feeling that no-one is looking over my shoulder and I'm more than happy to sacrifice a little load time for that.

Except for all those tor exit node operators...

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#454722 3-Apr-2011 09:26

PenultimateHop: Except for all those tor exit node operators...

Nothing's perfect and there's always https.

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#454732 3-Apr-2011 09:45

Rikkitic:
PenultimateHop: Except for all those tor exit node operators...

Nothing's perfect and there's always https.

That's why people talk about "man-in-the-middle" attack. Someone could be proxying other sites on their TOR exitm and armed with a certificate could intercept the traffic, unencrypt it to look at, then encrypt again before sending it to its final destination.

If you are worried about privacy and use SSL, think again: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/04/man-in-the-midd_2.html

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#454748 3-Apr-2011 10:44

freitasm: Unless you are a trusted user, we already block you posting from a list of countries (including, but not limited to, China, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Laos, Nigeria)...

No one complains ;)

How could they? They're blocked.

Cheers - N

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#454757 3-Apr-2011 11:18

Good point. We don't actually block the Contacts form, only posting in forums, comments, PMs and blogs. If you are a trusted user then you can post from anywhere. We had cases of users who wanted to post while in China and India and couldn't so we implemented that.

It's working well, you don't see spam around much these days...

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#454758 3-Apr-2011 11:19

freitasm: If you are worried about privacy and use SSL, think again:

Thanks for the heads up. I am generally aware of issues like this but as with all things, compromises have to be made between what is practical and what is desirable. My paranoia does know bounds and there is a limit as to how far I am prepared to go. Because I'm not up to anything more nefarious than wanting to maintain my privacy, I make a reasonable assumption that the world's security services are not motivated to spend the money and resources it would take to track me. There is also little to be gained from raiding my bank account or credit card.

Any security can be breached if someone is prepared to go to the trouble. I also know there are evil exit nodes. They can monitor what comes out but they still don't know where it's coming from unless I tell them. I still like Tor anyway. To quote from the site: "The Tor project is based on the belief that anonymity is not just a good idea some of the time — it is a requirement for a free and functioning society."

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freitasm

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#454760 3-Apr-2011 11:23

I am not against TOR and understand it has its uses. Years ago (back in 2000) I used ZeroKnowledge, software from a company that developed a very similar structure of routers around the world to forward requests trying to anonymise the previous layer. Because back them people didn't offer their bandwidth for free, the company didn't have many nodes and went into the security business (still around at www.zeroknowledge.com).

It was an interesting software too. For example you could create multiple "personas" for mail, IM, IRC, usenet newsgroups, etc. Very cool stuff.

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#454814 3-Apr-2011 15:10

Because my preference for Tor is not based on anything shady, I initially accepted at face value that Geekzone didn't want me to use it, and I willingly came out from behind my cover when it wouldn't let me. At first I didn't have any problem with that. This discussion has made me think about it some more however, especially as member gible appears to have been censored for nothing worse than being a smartass.

Anyway, while I fully understand and accept that Geekzone has good reasons to want to block Tor users from setting up anonymous accounts and logging in under those, I don't quite get why Tor users can't even browse the site as anonymous guests (that 403 error). It just seems a little heavy-handed. It also seems a bit pointless as I quickly realised that it can be easily got around by funneling Tor through a web proxy. I still can't log on (which is fair and reasonable) but at least I can scan the forums again with my shields up. Question: So why do it this way at all?

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