My ISP (CenturyLink) blocking RaceDepartment?

[Aaron Markham]

I just moved into a new house & had CenturyLink DSL (10mbps) installed earlier this week. Everything is working fine except I cannot access RaceDepartment. I keep getting a "Site Cannot Be Reached" message in Chrome & IE. I tried it on my wife's PC & it still wouldn't work. I then pulled up the mobile data on my phone & RD works fine. Currently I am using the Proxy website Hidester to access RD on my PC. I talked with CenturyLink tech support & they said RD was blocked due to it being a "risky site". They would not help me any further. Is there anything RD can do?

 

[UMC 22]

They wouldn't explain why they deem RD to be "risky"?

 

[Aaron Markham]

They wouldn't explain why they deem RD to be "risky"?

No, they told me to contact RD. From past experience there customer service is horrible (CenturyLink).

 

[Neilski]

That's surreal.
In my experience, when an ISP blocks a site, they don't do something stupid like giving users a "Site Cannot Be Reached" message which conveys no useful information. They tell you "this site has been blocked because [explanation]" so that you know what's actually going on, don't waste your time retrying it (as you have had to do), and can ask them about it if need be.
In the UK for example, some sites are blocked by court order due to piracy.

Whatever the problem, no ISP should block any site without being able to give you specific and concrete reasons for it.
I'd find a real ISP if I were you. If they are blocking RD they are likely to be blocking other sites too.
They may even be breaching their contract with you, depending on quite how it's written. Also, I'm certainly not a lawyer but I doubt that any court would deem it reasonable to block sites without giving the users a reasonable explanation, regardless of what the contract says.
"Risky" is beyond lame! Do you have that from them in writing?

For the avoidance of doubt, I have no idea at all why they would consider this site risky. Perhaps @Dave Stephenson has come across this type of nonsense before...

 

[Dave Stephenson]

I've just been reading through some of this lot. Some of it seems pretty rough.

I have no immediate reason to believe the site is risky. It could be better by serving over https (in the works) but that's really not something that and ISP would usually get involved in. The most of the kind of things ISPs protections would warn about would be flagged up typically in a default out-of-the-box Chrome install in my experience. I also can't find any technical contact details to open a dialogue with them so I'm not sure there's much I can do about it atm.

As for remedies, first thing I'd try personally is using alternative DNS servers. Not sure if you know how to or what version of windows you have. This link includes instructions for windows 10 and two options, Google, and OpenDNS. Hopefully that'll help.

 

[dud]

If Google doesn't say it it's worth nothing. Even if they do, it is often caused by e.g. a user posting an image that might trigger a known exploit in a browser.

 

[Aaron Markham]

As for remedies, first thing I'd try personally is using alternative DNS servers. Not sure if you know how to or what version of windows you have. This link includes instructions for windows 10 and two options, Google, and OpenDNS. Hopefully that'll help.

Changing my DNS server did the trick!! Thank you! Are there any downfalls to using Google or OpenDNS vs my ISP's DNS?

 

[UMC 22]

Are there any downfalls to using Google or OpenDNS vs my ISP's DNS?

Not as far as I know. It's essentially an address book which converts urls into ip addresses. Your ISP has told theirs to block certain addresses. Google has not. Simples.

 

[Dave Stephenson]

Changing my DNS server did the trick!! Thank you! Are there any downfalls to using Google or OpenDNS vs my ISP's DNS?

I personally use them all the time. If you have any kind of parental control service with your ISP that could be affected. That aside though I would think not. Google maintains data or requests for up to 24hours if you use theirs, I imagine it gets used for ad targetting in the same way most of their services are so if that's a worry I'd choose openDNS.

 

[dud]

A DNS server cannot block addresses. It could only redirect. Redirecting in DNS is certainly not OK and such a server should not be used.

Bad-site warnings are built into both Chrome and Firefox, and do a better job.

I do not think that Google's DNS can be used for ad targeting since it doesn't have any information about the user except the IP address.

 

[Eddie DePaolo]

I just want to say you are not alone. I tried accessing racedepartment a couple days ago after a long hiatus of sims and thought the site no longer existed! Went to it on my phone and voila, it exists!

I'm going to try Dave' solution of using another DNS. Hopefully that works for me too.

 

[dud]

I just want to say you are not alone. I tried accessing racedepartment a couple days ago after a long hiatus of sims and thought the site no longer existed! Went to it on my phone and voila, it exists!

I'm going to try Dave' solution of using another DNS. Hopefully that works for me too.

Are you on Centurylink, too?

 

[MANashTTU]

I am on Centurylink DSL in Texas and this site is blocked for me, too.