Site filtered out in Arab countries?

heikki74 · 2005-08-18 07:04:00

I have a corporate website located in Finland. Customers in arab countries (for example United Arab Emirates) complain that they can’t access it. The error message is:

——————————————-
Network Error (tcp_error)

A communication error occurred: “Operation timed out”
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact Customer Support.

——————————————-

Maybe it is caused by some country wide internet filtering? The website doesn’t contain anything that needs to be censored in those countries, but I’ve heard that no filtering is perfect. I found this information regarding to UAE filtering policy

Still it isn’t clear what to do. Is there someone in UAE that I should contact to get the website unfiltered? Any suggestions?

Thanks, Heikki

Last edited by heikki74 (2005-08-18 10:08:24)

ubernostrum · 2005-08-18 12:52:55

It could just be normal network issues. Have someone there do a traceroute and see where the connection attempt dies.

If you are being blocked by a governmental filter, there’s really nothing you can do about it.

heikki74 · 2005-08-18 14:17:11

I’ll try that, thanks.

aab · 2005-08-19 07:40:41

It could just be normal network issues. Have someone there do a traceroute and see where the connection attempt dies.

Sidenote – traceroute may not neccessarily have direct connection to website availability. Many overly defensive routers drop ICMP packets which are used by ping or traceroute but pass tcp quite happily. Unfortunately it is becoming more commonplace nowadays, making remote diagnostic harder.

Maybe that particular site has been blocked by dumb domain name filter like infamous innocent but raunchy looking http://www.penisland.net/ (work safe).

colak · 2005-08-19 08:49:59

lol

creativesplash · 2005-08-19 10:13:01

hahaha .. :0

heikki74 · 2005-11-21 20:07:49

A little update to this old thread. I finally got a chance to try traceroute and ping from Dubai. The CEO of the company was visiting a client there and this subject came under discussion. The forementioned website wasn’t available from the client’s office and it was the same case from the hotel.

Sidenote – traceroute may not neccessarily have direct connection to website availability. Many overly defensive routers drop ICMP packets which are used by ping or traceroute but pass tcp quite happily. Unfortunately it is becoming more commonplace nowadays, making remote diagnostic harder.

This seemed to be correct. Traceroute showed just a couple of hops and then it was almost all “request timed out”. During this remote phone troubleshooting (I really don’t envy ppl doing online support ;) we tried traceroute and ping from the command prompt and PC Pitstop Trace Route Utility. Similar, non-working results, with every case.

The weirdest thing is that the website of the sister company is working allright (they are located in the same town, just different hosts). The best clue so far is that VPN connection from Dubai back to Finnish company works only by using IP address (not with domain). So wtf is going on?? How come that kind of problem appear only in one place of the globe? (Btw, the company’s and it’s sister company’s domains have the same nameservers and similar domains)

Tomorrow I’ll get some more info ..and a another try to limit the options.

—edit
I’m not sure about the VPN thing after all.. I have to check it tomorrow

Last edited by heikki74 (2005-11-21 22:05:04)

Anark · 2005-11-22 05:35:44

Fake error messages seem to be popular with Net censors

heikki74 · 2005-11-22 13:46:38

Thanks for the link.
It seems, at the moment, that host’s ip is blocked for some reason. We tried other sites at the same server and they didn’t work either.
Sites on another server (same host) with different last number of ip were unavailable as well.

I guess the question is “Are some ips blocked in Dubai?” or “Is it a routing problem?”. Could this be a routing problem somehow? Sites on a different host located in the same town work ok. Last three parts of their ip are different.

~~When trying to access servers with ip only this error message showed up.~~

- edit
Error message just looked similar, here’s the correct one

Last edited by heikki74 (2005-11-22 13:58:28)

NyteOwl · 2005-11-22 22:21:59

You might try checking the server IP against one of the blacklists from Spamhaus, ORBS or SPEWS, etc.

heikki74 · 2005-11-23 13:33:08

Spamhaus and SPEWS nope. I couldn’t find ORBS. What else are there?
I’m quite sure that this is IP blocking.. and based on what I’ve read they use SmartFilter.

We have contacted UAE Telecom Etilasat. We’ll see if they reply this time. I tried the same thing 6 months ago.
I have an option to move the site to a non-blocked server, but I try to avoid that.

Damn #@! blockers

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#1 2005-08-18 07:04:00

Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#2 2005-08-18 12:52:55

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#3 2005-08-18 14:17:11

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#4 2005-08-19 07:40:41

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#5 2005-08-19 08:49:59

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#6 2005-08-19 10:13:01

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#7 2005-11-21 20:07:49

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#8 2005-11-22 05:35:44

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#9 2005-11-22 13:46:38

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#10 2005-11-22 22:21:59

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

#11 2005-11-23 13:33:08

Re: Site filtered out in Arab countries?

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