Post subject: Tip #4: Wait & try again (aka 'I've been banned!')
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 21:41:03
4. Wait and try again...
You try to log in and you get an error message that says you've been banned from the chat room.
Surely it wasn't something you said, right? I mean, surely. All you did was type your name, for cryin' out loud. So why the rejection, why the door in the face, why, why, why?!
Well, believe me, it's nothin' personal, and it's definitely not my doing.
Here's the Why and the What You Can Do About It:
The Why
The chat room uses a rotating network of web servers (aka, Internet Relay Chat or IRC servers) that are not owned by me nor under my control. When an IRC server bans someone, it bans by IP address, which is a number used to identify--among other things--specific computers or shared web servers. Unless you have a dedicated IP address as part of your internet service, your IP address changes all the time.
There's basically two things that have to get along in order for your chat session to work:
1) your connection, as identified by the IP address that your computer is currently using; and
2) the IRC server that the chat room is currently using.
Each time you log into the chat room, either or both of these things could change.
When you're banned, it's because the current IRC server doesn't like your current IP address. There are many possible reasons for this, including but not limited to:
1) some computer which had had the same IP address as you is a known
source of spam;
2) your computer has viruses and is a known source of spam.
Since I don't run the network of IRC servers that the chat room uses, there's no way for me to know exactly why each instance of banning occurs. Why can't we all just get along, right? Well, there's just no accounting for the love between machines, lemme tell ya.
The What You Can Do About It
1) wait a while and try again
;
The IRC server that the chat room uses constantly changes randomly.
Next time it switches to another IRC server, that IRC server may not
have your IP address on its banned list. Additionally, your IP address
might change to another IP address over time, depending on your internet
service, and that new IP address may not be on the banned list of
whatever IRC server the chat room happens to be using at the time.
2) use a different computer that has a different internet connection
(this is bound to give you a different IP address); or
3) get a dedicated IP address as part of your internet service
so that only your household uses your IP address. You'd be no longer be affected by other people's "internet reputations" in this regard, and this may help keep your computer off of banned lists in the future.
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Erika