Thread: ISP Blocking access to CAG website

Australia is supposed to be leading the world in Internet filtering under the guise of blocking child abuse websites. As of about a week ago, Bigpond, our equivalent of BTInternet, has now blocked all access to the CAG website!

I haven't been able to access the CAG website through my ISP for about a week and have checked with other people here in Oz - anyone who uses Bigpond as their ISP can't access the site but people using other ISPs can.

I guess this is just the start of the Government controlling what we can access :cry:

I have complained to Bigpond but they haven't even replied.

Trekrider

have you tried using a web proxy? like or similar to Hide My Ass! Free Proxy and Privacy Tools - Surf The Web Anonymously or Guardster Free Web Proxy

Originally Posted by version302003

have you tried using a web proxy? like or similar to Hide My Ass! Free Proxy and Privacy Tools - Surf The Web Anonymously or Guardster Free Web Proxy

I'm using 'TOR' which is how I am getting on now Unfortunately this does slow things down and as yet I haven't got TOR working on my normal PC so I have to use my old PC.

The question is, why have Bigpond blocked the CAG website - what has a UK Consumer Action site got to do with Australia?

I had a problem with Bigpond a couple of years ago. My Blueyonder (Virgin) emails were being blocked by them and I could not talk to relatives down under.

A lot of emails between us later and they said it wasn't their fault as Blueyonder had been 'blacklisted' but they didn't know why.

The eventual outcome was that a lot of expats got together and threatened Bigpond with a mass exodus of the company to another ISP if they didn't sort it and unblacklist Blueyonder.

It worked and Blueyonder emails were free to wing their way to all parts of Oz.

IMHO - it all boils down to more evedence of governments worldwide attepting to take control of the net.

Remember the net was originally 'invented' to enable information to be quickly shared amongst scientist with research.

It has since evolved into a global freedom of speech and governments don't like things they can't control. (or indeed free speech) - lol

I guess we will have a continual battle for many years to come.

PS: Good on the expats for standing up to this draconian action

I wonder if it's our server IP they're blocking, the hostname in the URL, or the DNS. If it's the middle one, you might be able to get round it by using The Consumer Forums - Welcome to the The Consumer Forums

We also run Apache on 81/tcp so The Consumer Forums should allow you to bypass a transparent web proxy (if they use them)

There was something in The Register last month about filtering in the UK:

Government pipedreams on internet ratings doomed to fail • The Register

(It mentions Aus quite a bit too)

Most likely they're accidentally blocking CAG (would be a bit embarrassing for them if they were doing it intentionally); whenever a supposedly intelligent filter is introduced, there are always plenty of stories about innocent sites being affected

After complaining to Bigpond and providing them with traces they have turned my access back on No explanation as to why they had blocked access though.