Hi A site that I have visited for years recently underwent an "upgrade" - all of a sudden the site was unavailable to me, I ran a webpage test and I could see that the site was unavailable from New zealand, Australia, Hong Kong (and who knows where else) but was available from the US and UK for example. I contacted the site owner who was very concerned about this because they have a store on the site that ships to the countries the site is unavailable in. The site owner is very "untechnical" and went to their host who said the following: Now...my ip is dynamic so what would be the point of unblocking it and what about everyone else blocked? I am currently in New Zealand which I don't believe is a country with high malicious activity and I have never experienced this before - I think this situation is ridiculous and their site is not accessible by a significant customer base so they are loosing out because a host has made an arbitary decision that they were not aware of. Is this a resonable action by the host? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Reply With Quote
Read the host's TOS as its something between you and him. (As you agreed to that while signing up for a contract) Try to migrate your site from that host to some other host.
Not very helpful Starcaller. The owner of the site wasn't even aware that continents were being blocked and doesn't understand anything about hosting - I have never seen this happen before the extent of the blocks are significant.
LOL, my name isn't starcaller, its ~~~~. If your host is not aware of what's going on with his servers, better move out before some bad/terrible nightmare occurs. In case something unfortunate happens, your host might say "I'm not aware of that & I don't understand how to fix that" Seriously, if your host doesn't care about his business, I can bet on the fact that he wouldn't bother if your site goes bust. Sign up with some reliable host and ask them to migrate your site, they'll do it at no extra charge + their IPs won't be blocked. I personally use hawkhost.com its very reliable and budget friendly This is their official specials/coupons page - http://www.hawkhost.com/Specials Oh, am not affiliated with them, its just my personal experience, hope it helps. P.S. - NZ is a peaceful country, I hear that the police don't carry guns, its just the military people who have it.
thanks ~~~~ the host is aware, its the website owner that was not aware that traffic from a significant number of countries is being blocked. Thanks for the host suggestion, i'll let them know. Cheers Thats correct the police don't carry guns generally (the special defenders do) but they carry tasers! Its a very peaceful, chilled out place to live.
Lol, that's more weird & truly funny that the website owner doesn't know a particular country is being denied (He must have edited the .htacess files knowingly/unknowingly). Here is a website to achieve it - http://www.countryipblocks.net/ If the owner isn't comfortable shifting the website to a different host, you'll have to browse the site using a proxy/VPN (assuming you are visitor to their website). Seriously, am still laughing at the poor webmaster who isn't aware of this, it made my day (I'll have to see if I can give you some green reps for making my day ) Edit - Just added a rep. -~~~~
Its perfectly reasonable as along it was mentioned in the TOS. DDOS are major disruptions in hosting. I would switch hosts if your site