Com-Central.net

Hi All...

It's a known issue for some that because we're linked to a site known for flight simulation ("gaming") that some folks have not been able to access our little home because the site is blocked by various filters for a variety of reasons. This can happen anywhere, military systems, business systems...I've had it happen to me when in certain airport lounges or the occasional business hotel. Roy Lingle was elaborating on his recent experience so I posed the question in the Moderator's Forum about what, if anything, could be done about site classification so as to exclude as few people as possible from access to the site and admins asked:

If I knew the rules of what is and isn't allowed, we may be able to 'help' AFV with a new lead in page using their own URL and domain name. I'm not sure if linking the current forums to the new site would be caught by the filters or not.

See if those effected can get a list of what's acceptable and we'll take it from there....

Roy gave us a few insights...can anyone else add to the discussion so we know how we can "insulate" the AFV forum from those filters that block some would-be members from signing on or accessing from certain sites? Any information would be appreciated! We're in the process of revising the site anyway and this would be a good time to implement such changes...such is the great effort the site administrators go to to accomodate the membership here.

Many thanks!

Bump....was really hoping for some input here, folks. We need some parameters that we can apply or delete to change our profile from the gaming sniffers that tend to filter and thus block our site from many servers for people who really want to get on here...or even just view in some cases. Surely somebody knows something about this stuff...si?

Doug,

I know from personal experience I could not access this site from a lot of military networks. A lot was based on the individual posts policy letters, not a uniform across the board exclusion. Overseas was more interesting, depending on what camp I was at. Sometimes it's nothing more than a by name list restricting access. Ebay is one of the main ones always excluded. What I discovered in 2002 in Kuwait was I could not access them in English but if I did it in another language it went through. Al Jazera was excluded but we got around that by clicking on the Arabic language site when we Googled it. Couldn't read it but got the images, our 'terps would take care of the langauge barrier. The "Gaming" piece is what I believe causes the main exclusion for this site. We are always getting the speech on how certain activities suck up a lot of bandwidth and generally slows down the whole net. Games are at the top of this IAW our commo guys. In my very limited computer knowledge I think it's just as simple as these guys punching in a by name list of key words to block access. If there was a way to drop the "com-central" from the address might that fix the problem?

If what I'm saying sounds out there, remember, I'm very much like a person who drives a car but has no idea how it works when it comes to this stuff.

Joe D

I've been swamped and haven't had time for more than quick looks and sghort responses and this is something that won't fit in a short response well.

Having some insight into how sites are added to our corpoarte no access list I am amazed about how fractured the decision making is.

There is a general rule that web mail sites (gmail etc) are blocked as well as anything hinting at pornography, racism, sexism or any other socially senstitive issue where the display of such on an office machine could possibly offend someone. 'Social Engineering' (facebook, myspace, etc are verbotten also. 'Gaming' I believe is often a euphnism for gambling and is the reason those sites are blocked. Any site that appears to allow filesharing is definitly blocked. Defense contractors are being hit very hard by DOD to tighten up access to their networks.

That said it all comes down to the individuals who are setting up the block lists. I know of lesser known email sites that remain available just because they fly under the radar and don't get enough hits that they show up on the daily (yes the block lists are monitored and added to daily) traffic lists. Now if a site gets blocked there is a way to request that it be unblocked but agaqqin the amount of justification needed depends on whether you have to make the request 'official' or not.

I'm not sure there is any foolproof method of figuring out what causes some sites to be blocked and others not because there is no single set of rules. Sometimes it comes down to if the network admin is interested in military stuff or flight simulation and therefor takes the time to make sure sites he or his friends are interested in can get through shields. Or a network administration group that is interested in doing a good job and providing a nice working environment and taking the extra time and effort while still protecting the network from the really bad guys.

- Joe_D

Doug,
The "Gaming" piece is what I believe causes the main exclusion for this site. We are always getting the speech on how certain activities suck up a lot of bandwidth and generally slows down the whole net. Games are at the top of this IAW our commo guys. In my very limited computer knowledge I think it's just as simple as these guys punching in a by name list of key words to block access. If there was a way to drop the "com-central" from the address might that fix the problem?

Joe D

Hi Joe...

I'm inclined to agree with that bit up there, and from what I understand, it just might be possible for Bushy to do something about it...including an independent URL trail that by-passes the Com-Central lead in. Roy did challenge the blocking at his site, and found even discussion of gaming was a no-no (since C-C doesn't actively game on site...you don't actually play here, though we link to some servers). There might be a way around this....

Hi Folks!

I understand the no video thing and I figured the gaming thing was just like that. Uses to much band width, but not being allow to even talk about games surpised me. Blocking gambling sites however makes a lot more sense! I guess the word "games" covers to many things and it is just easier to block all things that use that word.

There are times during the midnight shift that I have time, sometimes in small blocks, where I am waiting for work to come in and I would visit C-C (love the screen shot contest) and the AFV DG. I have found that starting about 0600 AM MST that the network starts dragging really bad due to the east coast and central time zone offices coming on line. At that time I get off and do some reading if things are still slow.

The new site blocking software is very odd. I like to check the news on AOL, Yahoo, and CNN and it blocks a lot of the links to the individaul news stories. I have been seeing a lot of the "this site blocked due to Social Engineering" and "that site has porno". I guess the news story has the word porno in it, therefore the story is off limits. I have a co-worker who likes to check the local Police Department wed site for the latest traffic reports so she knows if there are any problems with her route home. For some reason that site is blocked. The reason given is a string of numbers which we have no idea what they stand for.

For all those who are looking into this and can possible work out a fix, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Sgt, Scouts Out!

- Roy_A_Lingle

Hi Folks!
For all those who are looking into this and can possible work out a fix, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Sgt, Scouts Out!

That´s what we´re here for, Bud....the admins at C-C are the most responsive I´ve ever seen. I´m just the messenger. Yer problem is my problem.