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Hello Everyone,
This morning I was shocked to learn that I was blocked from accessing this site, as well as Fictionmania, Crystal's Story Site and Sapphire's Place. The notice I was shown stated that bigclosetr.us was banned from this network because it had been classified as having nudity, pornography and sexually explicit material.
Excuse me, but I missed the announcement that the first amendment had been repealed!
Has anyone else experienced this? Is readership down because of it?
My ISP is ATT.net, formerly bellsouth.net, now merged with Yahoo. I don't even know who to complain to! I had to access another ISP server through another computer via internet to enter this blog. I don't know how long before it shuts me down or won't let me back in either. Thanks for your interest and concern. Hope I can see any replies.
Avid Reader
Comments
I live in Russia
And the only time I had a similar problem with connecting to Big Closet was when I needed some thorough cleanup on my PC. So I can't be of help, really. However, I must ask - how old are you? Because if you are old enough (strictly legally speaking), your compliant will be based on the fact that you do know where you are treading on Internet, and they indeed are shunting your rights (not that they aren't doing it right now).
I am mostly Internet illiterate, and intricacies of it elude me. But you could try to use a proxy server, maybe?
Faraway
Faraway
Big Closet Top Shelf
Where you can fool around like you want to and most you get is some bemused good ribbing!
I remember
that happening to some people a while back. I can't recall what they had to go through over it though.
My home network has no problems. I use an ATT dsl line. But when I am out and about on my laptop using wireless, I will run across a provider once in a while that refuses access to certain sites based on listed content.
ewireless from eateries and coffeeshops is okay, but some private unsecured networks like to be in control of what you see. Guess they don't want employees or students surfing porn, or what someone may class as porn.
Get your phone bill and check the ATT number for net help and start there. Some admin here, or maybe some of the geniuses like Piper (there are others, don't hit me)may have better answers.
If you us MS Windows programs
I noticed something similar the other day after my MS Vista ran an update and parental controls got turned on. All I had to do was turn it off again and everything works fine.
Huggles,
Winnie
Huggles,
Winnie
Also Your Security System....
Also your security application might have a parental controls feature that got turned on. It's also possible that your ISP AT&T has parental controls settings. If you can't find anything on your computer, you should contact AT&T customer service.
I'd be really surprised if they started blocking porn (not that BCTS is porn). Besides the First Amendment issues, it would anger too many customers. Plus porn is huge business.
Edit: I just did a Google search of "at&t blocking porn". There's nothing in the first 3 pages of results that is current. Most of what is there is from summer 2008 covering the blocking of child porn.
No pornography here
There are some nude pictures and some sexually explicit stories but pornography in the US requires sexually explicit pictures, which BC does not have. Very few sexually suggestive pictures as I sometimes ask for ones close to the borderline to be removed.
Not a lot I can do about this. I know there are ways to visit the site without going through such filters but never having needed to do so, I'm not sure how.
Since ATT sells phone service to escort services, adult bookstores and the like, this is very hypocritical of them and should be actionable under the law since they are a publicly licensed, government favored utility. Your tax money at work, subsidizing the operation of such practices.
Monopoly, it's not just a boardgame.
My sympathies but not a lot more, sorry.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
I've never heard of ATT.net blocking these sites.
It's quite possible either an update turned parental controls on, or something is hijacking all your web traffic. That is in itself bad.
If running IE, open up your tools==>internet options==>connections==>lan settings to see if somehow a proxy got identified in there. Unless one points to a DSL connection it can probably be removed.
Delect ALL your history, cookies, etc. Pay particular attention to installed objects--if you see anything you can't identify be real suspicious.
Open a command window (DOS window) and start regedit. (Be careful in here, this thing pretty much is the configuration for everything in Windows)
Find the section under software==>Microsoft==>internet explorer==>typed uls and delete ALL the keys in there.
Then do a search through the registry for the strings "fictionmania", "storysite", "topshelf", etc. If someone is looking for access to things and put these in the registry it's obvious they didn't want you to see them, so they will undoubtedly not be fully qualified URLs, so use partial strings. If you find anything for these anywhere, they are probably tags to forward something through something that was accidentally (maliciously downloaded) on your machine. Try following any numeric IDs to see if an EXE or DLL or OLE is eventually specified before deleting these however.
Finally reboot your PC, and also power down and repower your DSL or cable connection if you're using one.
Hope this helps.
If you're running Vista, an automatic update just probably turned some Misguidedsoft "feature" on.
Good luck.
Hugs
Carla Ann
ATT Internet sucks.
Welcome to the wonderful world of ATT Internet. Crystal had something similar happen with them blocking... I can't remember if it was email, a special port or something. You might shoot her an email and ask.
First Amendment rights do not apply to the internet in this instance. It's a private business that is providing the service so they get to dictate the rules. It would be the same if you owned the company. Now if the government came in and tried to block the service, that would be a whole different ballgame.
http://lilithlangtree.tglibrary.com/
~Lili
Write the story that you most desperately want to read.
No, it's not really a private company
That's the rub. No phone company is truly private, all are entangled in government, mostly for subsidies and special protections. They should not be regarded as private companies.
This is where you run into my real conservative outlook. :) If it looks like a government agency, quacks like a government agency and eats the public corn, it's a government agency. First Amendment rights should apply to all government-supported agencies. Public utilities are a huge, huge example because they are all public, a truly private utility is a rare beast.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Thererin lays silliness
I can agree with that to a point, but if we go with that train of thought then everything, everywhere, and everybody is part of the government in some way shape or form. Therein lays silliness.
So unless it has Federal Government, in some form, stamped on its butt it ain't the government, and thus able to make its own annoying rules of participation.
http://lilithlangtree.tglibrary.com/
~Lili
Write the story that you most desperately want to read.
Temporary solution
Google on 'anonymous proxy' or 'anonymous server.' Choose one and try browsing your favorite sites.
It's not a perfect solution, since they have to pay for their servers some way. Sometimes it's ads, and sometimes you are given limited access until you pay a fee. Also, some anonymous servers won't let you log into any sites, so you won't be able to post.
Meanwhile, calling tech support is your best bet. I suspect that you somehow triggered the parental control, or you connected to your ISP with proxy settings. (I remember doing that when I first got an internet account. Connecting via their proxy server routed everything through their parental controls.)
Road Open Again
Everyone,
I'm once more able to visit my favorite sites. Thank all of you who left responses and all the offered ideas to help me.
For the record, I am old enough to have to have a son who teaches 3D Computer Graphics at the University level, am running Windows XP, with auto updates turned OFF (I wouldn't touch Vista), and Firefox, (wouldn't use IE either).
ATT.net was no help. I got the run around from all the people who claimed that THEY would never stoop to such a low as restricting free access for anybody to anybody, and therefore, it must be something in MY network or the site I am trying to access.
My network is three feet of ethernet cable from my DSL modem to my computer, and the sites are obviously accessible. I had already checked the parental filter and everything else in my own computer, and performed several re-boots, all to no avail. I proved it wasn't anything in my settings when I was able to freely access those sites when I did go through a proxy server and was able to post my initial blog request.
So what did that leave. It had to be something within my ISP's domain that they didn't have complete control over. I zeroed in on the DNS Server (I was using Open DNS) and bingo, changing to another DNS Server made the roadblock go away. I guess Open DNS is not so open after all!
Thank you all for your interest and assistance. And a special thanks to Erin, who seems to keep this site going strong, but still has time to give kindly help to individuals like me.
Avid Reader
ATT-more arrogant than Microsoft???
I wouldn't put it past ATT doing this, even though it appears they didn't. They have replaced Microsoft as my nominee for "most arrogant company". When I switched from ATT DSL to cable modem (because its performance went down as fast as the price went up)I had problems getting my bill (prepaid) straightened out. I trie4d vainly to explain my logic to the "customer service" rep and was told "Shut up and I'll tell you how this works" I guess she was using the animal husbandry definition of service. I finally gave up and accepted a refund that was incorrect and too small. I now don't use ATT for anything.
Back in the day
The old AT&T could have given lessons to Microsoft on fornication with the customer without permission. Ever hear of the movie "The President's Analyst"? The ultimate baddie in the movie was "TPC" and nobody had to have the acronym explained. Getting even with TPC was the subject of more than a few books, stories, and articles.
The breakup was supposed to stop all that but nowadays they seems to be coming back as strong and as bad as ever. One of these days you might be thinking favorably of M$ when it's compared to the new, revitalized AT&T.
m
They know they can survive
I have a theory
I think I know what must have happened...
Your DSL is probably not of the fixed-IP variety, right? That is, your IP changes from time to time.
Well, somebody else (some other ATT.net customer) who does NOT understand what they are doing decided to use OpenDNS access restrictions feature. So they registered their (then current) IP with their account on OpenDNS and asked for it to block adult sites.
Thing is, sometime later ATT.net reshuffled IP addresses. And you got this people's old IP. Which is set up in OpenDNS to block adult stuff. So you got blocked.
Meanwhile, THEIR kids got a block-free IP and are happily downloading hardcore llama porn.
If they understood the concept of dynamic IP addresses, they would have set up the OpenDNS Updater utility to automatically change their IP when it's reshuffled, so the block would move to their new IP. But they didn't. So their kids get their porn, and you get blocked.
Rule 34: Llama porn
LOL.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Haha,
"Hey Mom! Look at this! Camel copulation!
Can I borrow your credit card for a few minutes? It says here
there's lots more...."
Hugs
Carla Ann
Out of curiosity...
I googled on llama porn. It looks like the same thing I saw live and in person at the alpaca farm just north of Cadillac.
Hey, when you live in the country, the idea of cats and chickens and goats and all those other animals doing the mating thing is no big deal. From quite a young age, our kids knew what was happening when the rooster hops up on the hen's back.
But llamas and alpacas make lots of grunting noises when they're going at it. It's nothing like the caterwauling that happens when our furry felines mate, though.
This is why we need Fair Access Policies
So that we control what's on our internet, not the executives of our ISP -- who may, if they get ultra religious, decide that anything THEY consider "porn" be blocked. This is the same issue as the problem earlier this year and last with Comcast throttling Torrents.