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lau
Really nice person to know. :)
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 60
Posts: 9473
Location: Somerset UK
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 Posted: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject: What is a "TOR user"? |
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What is a "TOR user"?
| ouinon wrote: | Was told this morning that I am TOR user, ( unbeknown to me ), "critical error" etc, and that could not post. Anyone else get this?
It seems to have gone away, but don't know why it did it. Was worried that it was that global worm. |
| WP wrote: | phpBB : Critical Error
Sorry. Tor users must get permission from the site admin before being allowed to post. You can email alex@wrongplanet.net to request an exemption from this rule. |
The Problem
This seems to be cropping up more often. I gave a detailed explanation, somewhere else, but here goes again....
TOR is a system that lets people access the web anonymously and untraceably.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)
People volunteer to be "exit nodes", which means that all the traffic for the anonymous users comes from those IP addresses.
The system is used genuinely by political dissidents, say.
The system is misused heavily by spammers, etc.
The TOR designers understand this, and provide means whereby sites can easily reject TOR users, via blacklisting all IP addresses used as exit nodes.
All this would be OK if the people who set themselves up as TOR exit nodes knew what they were doing, but many of them don't. They have "dynamic" IP addresses. This means that each time they disconnect from the net, their old (now blacklisted) address goes back into a pool, and then passes on to some other user.
The blacklists are not updated terribly frequently (as a TOR exit node might just be temporarily offline). I think I heard it was something like a month, as the time an IP address might remain "tarnished" by having been used as an exit node.
It would be nice if ISPs could make it part of their rules. They could insist that a user with only a dynamic IP address was not allowed to operate as a TOR exit node.
The Solution
When the problem crops up, it will generally be just after you have re-connected to the net. Just disconnect and reconnect - which should give you a new IP address. Just possibly, you might get the same one back. So do it again, but stay offline for a little while.
Of course, this solution is of no use if you do have a static IP address and wish to operate as a TOR exit node. In that case, as the message states, you will have to ask Alex if he will exempt you.
NB Before posting here, please read the start of this thread.
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"Striking up conversations with strangers is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Kamran Nazeer |
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lau
Really nice person to know. :)
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 60
Posts: 9473
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:07 am Post subject: Why can't Wrong Planet do <feature of choice>? |
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Why can't Wrong Planet do <feature of choice>?
Wrong Planet is essentially a phpNuke website, using phpBB2 for its forums. However, the software has been quite heavily tailored, over the years.
Alex did investigate converting to phpBB3, when that was released in 2007, but he felt that many members might find the change too great.
Features that may be found on other websites, will not available on Wrong Planet for various reasons. The main ones being that they would take too much effort to add, or that we feel they would actually be detrimental.
An example of the former might a "Report Button". If would be a major design problem to figure out what such a button would actually do, within the context of WP, as it stands.
For the latter category, asking for any significant "embellishments" to the site will fall on deaf ears. WP is all about the text of posts - not about big avatars or fancy signatures.
NB Before posting here, please read the start of this thread.
_________________
"Striking up conversations with strangers is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Kamran Nazeer |
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lau
Really nice person to know. :)
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 60
Posts: 9473
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:15 am Post subject: WP FAQ UPDATE |
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Where are the bunnies?
I will (try to remember to) delete this message and repost a similar one when I make any updates... it just occurred to me that if people had this thread on their watched threads, they might like to know about updates.
The "bunnies"? Well, maybe I'll leave them here and/or hop over them with this.
NB Before posting here, please read the start of this thread.
_________________
"Striking up conversations with strangers is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Kamran Nazeer |
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