dnsstuff.com site banning SA

P

Peter7

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I've been trying for months to get access to the dnsstuff.com site. Today I get an abuse message: http://banned.dnsstuff.com/pages/abuse.htm.

The problem is that all SA traffic goes through a transparent proxy, whether you like it or not. Since all SA traffic is coming from this single IP, there's some logic in place that's saying we may be abusing the service, or at least some people are. Not very sure.

http://www.dnsstuff.com offers some VERY useful tools. Luckily I work for a U.S. company and I have remote access to machines over there to still use the site.

Anybody else notice problems accessing dnsstuff.com?
 
I also could not access it. It seems VERY VERY sloppy on their side that they cannot pick up the IP address of the requesting server (or its router), but pick up the transparent proxy. Afterall, they specialise in network (internet) traffic.

However, since I just tried, it works. It has the correct IP, and greets us as a SA visitor. Try again? But, I did switch over from Internet Solution's SAIX IP range to their own IP range (196.x.x.x).
 
Strange thing - I can now access it. First time in a VERY long while.
 
Peter7 said:
The problem is that all SA traffic goes through a transparent proxy, whether you like it or not. Since all SA traffic is coming from this single IP, there's some logic in place that's saying we may be abusing the service, or at least some people are. Not very sure.
Click to expand...
Thankfully this is not 100% correct. There are teams of proxy servers. I know of at least 5 in just the adsl network. Other real (as opposed to the virtual ones) service providers will have their own.

Obelix
 
Obelix said:
Thankfully this is not 100% correct. There are teams of proxy servers. I know of at least 5 in just the adsl network. Other real (as opposed to the virtual ones) service providers will have their own.

Obelix
Click to expand...

Is SA unique in this "proxy story"? I would think not, since a proxy system would greatly reduce international bandwidth for all "remote" countries (Australia, Mauritius). Regardless of the bandwidth available in under sea cables, it would make sense to try and conserve this.
 
I get:

Server Error
The following error occurred:

Code: 
 The server response could not be read because of an error. Contact your system administrator.
Please contact the administrator.
 
Here's some feedback from one of the honchos from dnsstuff.com:

That IP was indeed blocked, but the block was removed at the request of
SAIX. Some of the IPs that were unblocked have since been blocked again
(our site automatically bans IPs that are running malware that abuses
our site), but the .3 IP has not.

If you have troubles accessing our site, you can use
http://backup.DNSstuff.com.

Do note, however, that while running a web proxy usually saves money for
the organization that sets it up, it does so at a cost to both the users
(you) and the websites that it connects to (us).
-Scott
Click to expand...

Seems to be an ongoing problem. :cool:
 
Last edited:
I am still not convinced. Why do they not use my IP address, but use SAIX's proxy?
 
Because the ADSL block of IPs is dynamically assigned. Most ADSL services operate like this. The only means they have to stop abuse is at the proxy level.
 
Moederloos said:
I also could not access it. It seems VERY VERY sloppy on their side that they cannot pick up the IP address of the requesting server (or its router), but pick up the transparent proxy. Afterall, they specialise in network (internet) traffic.
Click to expand...

It also seems very sloppy that someone posts a negative comment about something which they do not have knowledge of. <G>

If we used the X-Forwarded-For: header, then malware, spammers, hackers, etc. would just do this:

send( "X-Forwarded-For: " + RandomIP );
RandomIP = RandomIP + 1;

and voila! They would be able to bypass our rate limiting system.

The IP address that you connect from is virtually guaranteed to be correct. The IP address in an X-Forwarded-For: header is only as trustworthy as the IP address that makes the original connection.

FWIW, we have spend HUNDREDS of hours of time (on a *free* website) to deal with abuse. One of the things that we did to help our users (sloppy ones and non-sloppy ones <G>) is that you can now go to http://www.DNSstuff.com:8080 which will in most cases bypass the proxy server, and allow you access to our site without having to deal with the problems of the restricted Internet access that your Internet provider provides.
-Scott
 
Thanks DNSStuff, we realy do appreciate all your efforts! Your service is very useful!
 
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