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Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 4:41 pm
by MikeGL
I tried to install Tor browser. If the tor circuit builds a route and then exits in Germany, Poland or France then you will still be blocked.
So you need additional rule on your Tor by just going to your Tor folder (directory) then manually modify your torrc file.
torrc should contain the following line. (this is an empty file on fresh install)
This will make sure the exit of your circuit ends up in u.s.
Tor connection will be slower than with Opera VPN because there will be 3 hops (with 2 encryptions and 2 decryptions) on Tor, but on Opera just 1.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 5:05 pm
by Sylwy
MikeGL wrote: ↑Mon Jul 20, 2020 4:41 pm
Tor connection will be slower than with Opera VPN because there will be 3 hops (with 2 encryptions and 2 decryptions) on Tor, but on Opera just 1.
Right ! Opera is the no.1 option. A friendly and complete browser.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2020 8:55 pm
by daniel71
When I was in the Philippines I noticed I couldn't log into Talkchess.com also, this was in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 3:01 pm
by mkchan
I'm in India and I'm still blocked. The cheapest way may not be the easiest for non-technical users but what I do is use the free nano VM on Google cloud platform to proxy into here.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 6:05 pm
by mclane
I find it sad that people from all over the world are blocked . They are interested in computerchess and should be able to reach this forum without any limits.
We did this forum for computerchess enthusiasts.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:38 am
by Dann Corbit
I am not seeing the "Your Move Chess And Games" as the bad guys here.
They have been hosting this forum for decades with no compensation.
When was the last time you purchased something from them?
Hosting a server costs real money and effort. And what is their return?
To me, the real enemy here is whoever it was that hacked them so bad they had to cut off a giant range of IP addresses.
Nobody want to deal with a denial of service attack or worse for day after day. They would not have cut off a giant swath like that if whoever the winging twit/twits were had not been a moving target.
We're lucky they didn't just kick the plug out of the wall and call it good.
Sure, there are lots of ways it could be better. But the staying power says something about its value.
IMO-YMMV
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:16 am
by chrisw
Dann Corbit wrote: ↑Thu Jul 23, 2020 7:38 am
I am not seeing the "Your Move Chess And Games" as the bad guys here.
They have been hosting this forum for decades with no compensation.
When was the last time you purchased something from them?
Hosting a server costs real money and effort. And what is their return?
Some percentage of their turnover, obviously.
To me, the real enemy here is whoever it was that hacked them so bad they had to cut off a giant range of IP addresses.
Nobody want to deal with a denial of service attack or worse for day after day. They would not have cut off a giant swath like that if whoever the winging twit/twits were had not been a moving target.
We're lucky they didn't just kick the plug out of the wall and call it good.
There was a highly active forum for computer chess before the retailer here hijacked it onto their site in 1997 (as the internet replacement for control of the marketplace via the Computer chess reports thing) and there would be a forum if the retailer “pulled the plug”. If they did it without warning, users would engage in a flurry of addictive activity and migrate or establish something else.
Your concern for the retailer is touching, if misplaced, and “hacking” activities, if any, take place because it is a commercial site with transactions taking place.
Sure, there are lots of ways it could be better. But the staying power says something about its value.
IMO-YMMV
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2020 9:44 pm
by mclane
Exactly. The forum belongs to the participants and computerchess enthusiasts, chess programmer, freaks, testers, ...
The host , the commercial company, is allowed to put it onto its server as long as the participants want it.
But if the access of computerchess enthusiasts and programmers is not guaranteed anymore and people are blocked,
the whole situation makes no sense anymore.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 4:16 am
by Ovyron
If people want a free VPN to access Talkchess I recommend SoftEther VPN, I've been able to use it to bypass blocks of videos in my country, and yes, when you can watch videos it's because it's very fast and transparent.
Re: Polish users cut off from TalkChess
Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:00 am
by yurikvelo
mclane wrote: ↑Sun Jul 19, 2020 10:20 pm
If it would be my decision, and I am one of the founders who founded the forum in 1997,
I would evacuate the whole forum to a host that is not blocking IP addresses.
USA is no country anymore that guarantees freedom.
If you see HTTP message 403 Forbidden - it is guaranteed that host is not blocking your IP address.
it is web-site admin configuration:
* either in phpBB PHP scripts (header('HTTP/1.0 403 Forbidden'); exit;)
* either in .htaccess (or other equivalent if not Apache)
* httpd.conf or it's include parts
It's pure founders' decision to add lines of this code into web site configuration, not related to hosting
possibly there were some kind of abuse from some IP (e.g. creating multiple accounts for scam or DDoS) and person in charge of website just added IP/mask to web-site configuration
