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Ask HN/PG: Is my IP banned?

6 points| DXL | 16 years ago | reply

Since about two days I am unable to connect to Hacker News. My problem seems to be comparable to the one reported here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=775381

Firefox shows simply a blank page (0 bytes), curl says "Empty reply from server" and Google Chrome notes "Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): Unknown error."

My IP address can be viewed at http://yfrog.com/el64282782g. I have maintained only this account, which is still available and I have never posted anything controversial. In fact, I haven't submitted or commented on anything in the last three weeks or so at all. I ought it highly unlikely that my family with whom I share this IP would be interested in Hacker News so that can't be it either.

Can PG or someone else please check and see if my address is in fact banned or if it is a problem at the client's side.

Thanks, Daniel

P.S. I know recall having recently installed this userscript:

http://github.com/brainkarma/hnreputation/tree/master

Might that have triggered an automatic anti-dos/anti-scraping ban?

11 comments

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[+] brk|16 years ago|reply
I have no idea about the banning status of your IP address. I do find it somewhat disappointing that a hacker news type could not do a little more low-level troubleshooting to try to at least approximate the root cause.

Have you tried your same PC/browser but going through a proxy? Have you tried your same account on the same PC in a different browser? Tried logging in from a free/unsecured wifi somewhere? Tried deleting cookies in your browser? Tried a different PC (library, friend, other family member, etc.).

Perhaps it's just my mood this AM, but it seems rather "do my homework for me" of you to post this up without having done some research and troubleshooting on your own.

[+] jacquesm|16 years ago|reply
it's not as bad as asking what ^H stands for :)
[+] DXL|16 years ago|reply
"Have you tried your same PC/browser but going through a proxy? Have you tried your same account on the same PC in a different browser? Tried logging in from a free/unsecured wifi somewhere? Tried deleting cookies in your browser? Tried a different PC (library, friend, other family member, etc.)."

I used a web proxy to post this and as I noted in my original post (see paragraph 2) I tried Google Chrome as well as curl. I have also tried accessing the site using a different computer on the same network/IP. I did not mention this in my original post and in hindsight I see that I should have.

Perhaps this question should have been just addressed to PG (and an email would have been sufficient), but on the other hand when I realized that the userscript might have been the cause a few minutes after posting, ashleyw's and jacquesm's comments were valuable.

So please excuse me if I wasted your or anyone else's time.

[+] jacquesm|16 years ago|reply
I'm suggesting the same approach as the one the other author used (it turned out to be a peering issue there)

- check your DNS resolver, make sure you get the right IP address (174.132.225.106)

- do a traceroute to the server and make sure you can actually reach it

- try telnetting to the server and see if you can find out anything by observing the response

If you find there is a peering issue (a router somewhere that drops traffic to the subnet HN is hosted on) then a whois on the ip of the router will sometimes give you contact information of the party responsible in case your own ISP gives you the run around.

Oh, and last, make sure nobody is pulling a prank on you, check your own iptables!

[+] ashleyw|16 years ago|reply
Yes, your IP is banned. A few of us were banned for using the greasemonkey script you mentioned, so unless you've done anything malicious recently, that's likely the reason.

I apologised to PG directly and he kindly removed the ban for me.

[+] DXL|16 years ago|reply
Thanks. I emailed him yesterday and asked the same thing, now I'm just waiting for a response.