[tor-relays] BBC iPlayer blocked for UK middle relay operators?

Chris Whittleston csw34 at cam.ac.uk
Sat Jun 28 14:46:40 UTC 2014


Paul,

I'm also with Virgin Media and have had a similar tech support
conversation. I didn't mention I was running a Tor relay to them at the
time (do you know anything about their policy regards Tor?), but they
checked through all my 'Super Hub' settings including the port forwarding I
have set up so I imagine they noticed. They couldn't explain it at all, and
because it seems like a completely device agnostic issue (phones etc also
don't work) - it is probably on the iPlayer provider's end. I also noticed
that I was getting 'Forbidden' errors from the nhs.uk site a while ago and
posted about it here - but right now I seem to be able to access everything
there just fine so maybe they have reviewed their policy on Tor nodes.

Matthew - that's an interesting point about switching out the router MAC
address. I'm not currently using a separate router, but might consider it
in the future. I guess though that if this is the result of a provider
blacklisting all Tor relay IPs, the new IP will just get added to the list
as soon as it's published and it'll be blocked again.

I think I'm going to continue to harass BBC support about this under I get
a response other than 'have you tried turning your router off and on' or
'check your IP is registered in the UK with your ISP' - ugh...

Thanks for the info all


On 28 June 2014 13:23, Paul Blakeman <blakeyman at mac.com> wrote:

> Chris
>
> I have had several issues that appeared whilst running a Tor network.
> This has happened to me too even though I switched mine (relay) off
> several weeks ago…
> I have notified BBC (via supplied contact forms 3 times) and have had no
> resolve
> Other services affected have been nhs.uk & lovefilm.com although since
> switching my relay off these now work again.
>
> My supplier is Virgin Media and I have spent *hours* on tech help support.
> Nobody can answer this.
> My dynamic WAN IP (assigned via DHCP) never changes and I’ve been told it
> "can’t & won’t ever change…”.
> It’s been the same IP address for years...
> Therefore if anybody wants to monitor or divert my traffic they can.
>
> Who provides your service?
>
> Thanks,
> Paul
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 28 Jun 2014, at 12:52, Chris Whittleston <csw34 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> > Is anyone else running a relay in the UK having issues accessing BBC
> iPlayer from the same connection? For the last 6 weeks or so now I've been
> getting messages telling me I'm 'outside the UK' when I'm in London, and my
> IP address clearly resolves to show that.
> >
> > Just wondering if the provider BBC use for iPlayer might have started
> just blocking all Tor IPs recently - including middle relays.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > tor-relays mailing list
> > tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
> > https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
>
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>



-- 
*Dr Chris Whittleston 栗主*
Department of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
Lensfield Road, Cambridge, CB2 1EW
Email: csw34 at cam.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1223 336423
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