Banned! Until 2015

[mousepartygrl]

I have been swamped with the back to school stuff and have not logged in for a few days.

Tonight, I put my son to bed and my dd was in her room so I thought I'd log in for a while. Come to find out my computer has been banned until 2015. I am so bummed. I asked my daughter what happened and she said a new guest asked her if she was in Hi school or middle school....then she got a ban message. Can you get banned for that long for that?

Having vmk withdrawal

 

[surferrat]

acck....I would try to contact them and explain what happened...

 

[mousepartygrl]

Thanks for the advice.... I contacted them and sent them a plea...

"I want my VMK!"

I also asked them to let me know if my DD (who isn't so darling to me right now) did anything to deserve a ban like that. I would hate to find out that it was worse than .... are you in Hi school...

 

[JeanJoe]

Although I'm not at all privy to how they decide how long a ban should be, a permanent ban for merely saying what level of school you're in seems unusually harsh (assuming that was the only response).

I would think that a 2h ban would be more typical, or even just a warning.

Although "appealing" the decision may not get you anything, I would try to contact VMK to ask for it to be reviewed, or at least to let you know what was said that resulted in a permanent ban.

If permanent, and they are unwilling to reduce the punishment, you could create a new character (if it's not also an IP ban), but you'd lose all your stuff.

Good luck to you.

I have been swamped with the back to school stuff and have not logged in for a few days.

Tonight, I put my son to bed and my dd was in her room so I thought I'd log in for a while. Come to find out my computer has been banned until 2015. I am so bummed. I asked my daughter what happened and she said a new guest asked her if she was in Hi school or middle school....then she got a ban message. Can you get banned for that long for that?

Having vmk withdrawal

 

[mousepartygrl]

It's an IP ban! I wonder if I can log on at a friends house and give all my stuff away.

I know that there was someone else here that got an IP ban because of a sister, she was able to get back on.... if anyone knows the trick please pm me!

 

[aeryn]

It depends how you connect. If you are unlucky enough to be on dialup, your IP will change, typically, every time you connect.

If you are on high speed (either cable or DSL), things are a little more challenging.

So, most high speed connections utilize a method of giving you a 'sticky' ip as opposed to a static ip. This means, if your computer refreshes your dhcp address within a certain amount of time, the system will assign you the same IP you had previously.
This amount of time varies from ISP to ISP. I believe, when I worked at Comcast that it was a 12 hour renewal time. When I was with BellSouth, it was 2 or 3 days. The way to force a new IP is to disconnect your connection either by turning off your router/cable modem/dsl modem for the required time, which is a pain. You can also try calling tech support and asking if they will force the dhcp lease renewal or to flush the tables so it'll reassign your IP. Most of the time they won't really do that and you'll spend more time trying to explain to the outsourced first level technical support person than you would if you just disconnected and waited 12 hours.

Personally, I would try to contact VMK and have them investigate further. They seem to hand out the bans with a rather liberal hand and very little in the way of a consistent policy. If that doesn't work, you might try connecting from a friends.

Good Luck!

 

[Roxane]

If you have Road runner, you can unplug your modem and shut down your computer over night. That should change your IP. It sounds like an IP ban, since no one in your house can play.

 

[BestOfMe]

Sorry for what happen. But don't feel bad. VMK is banning almost anyone they can. But I hope to see you soon on VMK

 

[CrazySteph]

It depends how you connect. If you are unlucky enough to be on dialup, your IP will change, typically, every time you connect.

If you are on high speed (either cable or DSL), things are a little more challenging.

So, most high speed connections utilize a method of giving you a 'sticky' ip as opposed to a static ip. This means, if your computer refreshes your dhcp address within a certain amount of time, the system will assign you the same IP you had previously.
This amount of time varies from ISP to ISP. I believe, when I worked at Comcast that it was a 12 hour renewal time. When I was with BellSouth, it was 2 or 3 days. The way to force a new IP is to disconnect your connection either by turning off your router/cable modem/dsl modem for the required time, which is a pain. You can also try calling tech support and asking if they will force the dhcp lease renewal or to flush the tables so it'll reassign your IP. Most of the time they won't really do that and you'll spend more time trying to explain to the outsourced first level technical support person than you would if you just disconnected and waited 12 hours.

Personally, I would try to contact VMK and have them investigate further. They seem to hand out the bans with a rather liberal hand and very little in the way of a consistent policy. If that doesn't work, you might try connecting from a friends.

Good Luck!

Ok, I thought all highspeed connections such as cable had a static ip address that does not change. So are you saying that if disconnect my modem/router for 12 hours, it will change? I did not know this was possible.

There are two ways that your home computer/office computer can get an IP address:

1. A Static IP address is the manual entering of all the information into the computer by the individual. There are three things that need to be entered: the IP address, the subnet mask, and the gateway. Each of these is supplied by the ISP and/or whoever gave you the Static IP. Static IP’s are normally assigned to machines that always need to have the same address (e.g. Mail Servers - if the IP changed on your mail server, you would have to enter in a new setting every time you went to check for mail. And/or your ISP would have to keep on top of DNS changes. So this way the static IP Address always the ISP not to have to do allot of work to keep up with a changing IP address.)

2. A Dynamic IP address is by far the most popular way of giving out IP addresses. A computer gives your computer all of the information (IP address/subnet mask/gateway/DNS servers) every time you go onto the Internet/network. Here’s how it works: normally there is one or there may be multiple computers set aside to hand out dynamic IP’s to computers that connect to the network (internet). These computers hold a list of IP addresses that it can distribute and a list of IP the addresses that it have been distributed. It also checks periodically for computers that have left the network (internet), if it finds any that have left, it will put the IP address back into the available list. Because there are people popping in and out of the network/internet constantly, the list is always changing so the next time you go onto the network/internet you might get a different IP address or Dynamic IP address. This is a very simple explanation. The computers that have these lists are called DHCP servers (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).

 

[HollyJoy]

sorry this happened to you! Yikes, it's getting rather scarey to even talk in vmk. I understand the reason behind the dictionary thing, and I like that they are trying to protect the kids. However, with this being said, I think they are taking things a bit too far. Some of it is just silly. I hope that you can get this resolved with vmk.

 

[aeryn]

Ok, I thought all highspeed connections such as cable had a static ip address that does not change. So are you saying that if disconnect my modem/router for 12 hours, it will change? I did not know this was possible.

There are two ways that your home computer/office computer can get an IP address:

1. A Static IP address is the manual entering of all the information into the computer by the individual. There are three things that need to be entered: the IP address, the subnet mask, and the gateway. Each of these is supplied by the ISP and/or whoever gave you the Static IP. Static IP’s are normally assigned to machines that always need to have the same address (e.g. Mail Servers - if the IP changed on your mail server, you would have to enter in a new setting every time you went to check for mail. And/or your ISP would have to keep on top of DNS changes. So this way the static IP Address always the ISP not to have to do allot of work to keep up with a changing IP address.)

2. A Dynamic IP address is by far the most popular way of giving out IP addresses. A computer gives your computer all of the information (IP address/subnet mask/gateway/DNS servers) every time you go onto the Internet/network. Here’s how it works: normally there is one or there may be multiple computers set aside to hand out dynamic IP’s to computers that connect to the network (internet). These computers hold a list of IP addresses that it can distribute and a list of IP the addresses that it have been distributed. It also checks periodically for computers that have left the network (internet), if it finds any that have left, it will put the IP address back into the available list. Because there are people popping in and out of the network/internet constantly, the list is always changing so the next time you go onto the network/internet you might get a different IP address or Dynamic IP address. This is a very simple explanation. The computers that have these lists are called DHCP servers (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).

* WARNING *
* BEGIN GEEK TALK *
A "sticky" address is what most high speed providers use. They do this to provide the users with what appears to be a static but is actually much less costly than statics for the ISP. An ISP has to justify every IP it hands out to IANA (the board handles Internet Addressing). Typically the rules are that an ISP has to use 80-85% of the address pool that IANA has assigned them before they can ask for me. With IPv4 (the system we are currently on) there is only a finite amount of addressing and IANA strictly regulates it. ISP's set their DHCP servers to "prefer" to renew or reissue an IP address to the hardware (MAC) address that had it last, which is usually the address of the cable or dsl modem. This is what makes it "sticky". If you leave your modem off for X period of time, the timeframe to renew the address you had will expire and someone else will be assigned the address you had. When you reconnect, you'll be assigned a different address.

If you have a static IP, you will almost always know it because ISPs charge more for that service.

* END GEEK TALK *

 

[mousepartygrl]

Thank you so much for the advice. I'm going to wait for a response from vmk first and then if that doesn't work I'll try the others. You are all so technically smart... lol.

 

[Maleficent2]

This is what makes it "sticky". If you leave your modem off for X period of time, the timeframe to renew the address you had will expire and someone else will be assigned the address you had. When you reconnect, you'll be assigned a different address.

Oh now that bites! you mean I could get an IP addy of someone that has been ban from VMK in essence making me the banee! how unfair is that!

I know the odds are against that but it could happen.

Mal

Hope you get it straightened out mousepartygirl

 

[wdeversole]

If you leave your modem off for X period of time ... you'll be assigned a different address.

I found this out the hard way. Unplugged cable modem when we went away on vacation. When we got home, I plugged it back in, and was bombarded with Gnutella file sharing requests - we're talking one every few seconds. Now my computer firewall was blocking these requests, but it was slowing down the system.

The first tech support person INSISTED that "someone at your IP address enabled this file sharing". (At least I think that was what he said - he had an Indian accent,). Finally after a few transfers up the ladder I spoke to someone who knew what was going on.

Since my modem had been unplugged for several days, my "sticky" IP had been released, and I had been assigned a new IP. He told me to unplug the modem for two days in order to get another new IP address.

So I will never unplug my modem again !!

 

[mtlhddoc2]

OK, before everyone freaks out (some have already) - I would hazard a guess that being banned til 2015 is actually 20:15 tyhe time, not the year in which case you are banned until 8:15pm, or about 8 hours, not 10 years

 

[tolkien7]

Unless more happened than your DD is reporting...

 

[mousepartygrl]

It was really 2015 the year! VMK responded to my request for information saying that my dd gave out personal information. I asked them nicely to lift the ban or somehow just ban my daughter.... I'm not sure they can do that.

 

[disvaclub92]

Dis Aeryn - thanks for the information. I had no idea. I do not mind the geek talk - I need all the techie help I can get.

 

[aeryn]

Dis Aeryn - thanks for the information. I had no idea. I do not mind the geek talk - I need all the techie help I can get.

Any time I usually try to put the disclaimer on there tho so that I don't inadvertantly throw anyone into a coma with the Geek Talk

 

[Adventuredaz]

This may be out there on the topic, However regarding Ip addresses, If you can go mobile, any hot spot will also be adifferent Ip, and at hotels it is usually multiple Ip addresses at the site. So if you can't access at friends, find a hot spot.