IP Address ban

[caribbound]

I tried signing on late tonight, close to closing in fact, and got a message that my IP address was banned until 2006-07-08. After about 30 seconds it went to something like 'there is a problem with the game', I don't remember. Is there a general theory for this? Did dh write vmk begging for permanent dc so his wife and kids would do what they ought during the summer?
When I went to see if I could find out why if said due to sharing too much personal information. Two possibilities come to mind, if it's me. Telling someone the master was home and I g2g make dinner, lol. And she said your real life taken, and I said yes. OR, more likely, poor choice of warding off pesty boys who pretend to trade just to PM asking if I'm taken by saying I have tree kids and could be their mummy. In fact I had someone join my pirate game last night that started off twice saying "yo mummy" which sounded like rude ghetto talk so I ignored it. He/she directed more coments, some I know were to me, during the game, yet they had the lowest score at the end to be the ones complaining, and we won the game. So was this a guy who had his ego crushed that morning and recognized me on the dock, thus called me mummy in the game, then reported me after the game as harassing him with personal info?

I don't know, but what I wonder is why ban the IP address and not the name? Is it b/c they know there are multiple users and likely more than one by myself? My kids won't be happy. We do have a basement computer they don't know is hooked up to internet(I recently found out) and dh laptop which I don't know password for and he may not be willing to tell.

Is it worth telling them I don't think it's a fair ban? I don't know which character they are targeting so if say it my other character were a friend's who comes over to use our computer for email b/c she doesn't own one then it wouldn't be fair that she'd then have to go to the library to play.
I may have to visit my local library tomorrow.

In the mean time, there won't be any meeting with more than Us Greets Us in MY room, and that's only if I get signed in, so someone else feel free to open their own room 1/2 hour after vmk opens with the same room title to meet/greet for the purpose stated in religious sig thread. No religious talk, just making friends, please. And identify yourselves as dis boards members if it's not in your sig.

 

[Nanoer]

it's only for a month and if you go to contact us you can find out what you did to get banned

 

[SassySavanah]

We have two home computers, both hooked up to the same Dsl modem. A few Months back my girlfriend was over on one computer and I was on one. Well she ended up getting banned for a week including the IP address.
It took me a few days to figure out how to change the Ip address but once I did vmk was up and running and I was on vmk 2 days before ban was lifted, of course she was still banned on her account.
I do know with the 10 year IP bans they put a lock on your harddrive making it impossible to just change the Ip address. So not sure if they lock the harddrive on a 1 month ban or not.

 

[lovethattink]

And identify yourselves as dis boards members if it's not in your sig.

There was a thread awhile back where some vmkers were banned for identifying themselves from particular boards. I vaguely remember something about suggesting we remove the word Dis from our sigs.

 

[JeanJoe]

I do know with the 10 year IP bans they put a lock on your harddrive making it impossible to just change the Ip address.

Not possible, and so not true. Just wanted to clarify.

 

[jazstar87]

There was a thread awhile back where some vmkers were banned for identifying themselves from particular boards. I vaguely remember something about suggesting we remove the word Dis from our sigs.

Well, i think was to remove the boards part of dis boards from your sig, but with dis, dis can mean anything, disney, Dogs in Sand, Donkeys incomfortable spotted..... i have been i many staff rooms but nobody ever said to remove dis. Flight did ask about it one time and ask if it meant dis boards.

If players ask about it i just say it means disney...



ot: but nanoer how can vmk be your anti-drug when it is the drug?

 

[SassySavanah]

Not possible, and so not true. Just wanted to clarify.

Not possible to what? Block the harddrive? Ask staff that is what Vmk_Red said!!

 

[macntosh]

by the time you get a response your ban will be three months over. I just got a response to a question I sent about snow rugs and the find the yeti contest I think six months ago now.

 

[maliboomer]

Not possible to what? Block the harddrive? Ask staff that is what Vmk_Red said!!

They can't, it's both impossible (without downloading) and probably illegal. It's just a website - they can stop you from accessing it, but they can't do anything physical to your computer.
You can change your IP anytime you like, you'd just probably have to call up your provider and they might charge you.

'block the harddrive' doesn't even make any sense. To block it they'd have to be able to access it which they can't, and if they could they would be breaking privacy laws...

I've probably got some of my facts wrong, but they certainly can't block your harddrive or stop you changing your IP.

 

[JeanJoe]

They can't, it's both impossible (without downloading) and probably illegal.

Thanks, Boom. I didn't have the motivation to post what you just did

 

[aeryn]

Thanks, Boom. I didn't have the motivation to post what you just did

Amen, Joe I was thinking the *exact* same thing. It is like deja vu all over again

 

[celine12]

Thanks, Boom. I didn't have the motivation to post what you just did

Be glad you lacked the motivation, because it's wrong. Actually they do not ban your hard drive (a feat that is possible, easy and legal) instead they block something else. Disney can take any steps they want to block any user and they have the legal right to do so.

 

[SassySavanah]

Be glad you lacked the motivation, because it's wrong. Actually they do not ban your hard drive (a feat that is possible, easy and legal) instead they block something else. Disney can take any steps they want to block any user and they have the legal right to do so.

Thanks for clarifying that!! I must not have understood the whole harddrive not harddrive thing, but I do know VMk_Red told me they do block something that can't be changed!!

and it is true!! I know someone who got a 10 year ban and a Ip address change did nothing!!

 

[maliboomer]

Be glad you lacked the motivation, because it's wrong. Actually they do not ban your hard drive (a feat that is possible, easy and legal) instead they block something else. Disney can take any steps they want to block any user and they have the legal right to do so.

Thanks for the clarification. This probably sounds condescending or as if I'm saying your wrong (I'm 16, I'm sure you'd know more about it then I do, lol (I consider that as a very valid excuse for ignorance, lol)), but what's your source? I'm just interested in reading more about it, and so will the others because they must of had similar thoughts as me and will also appreciate it.
I won't edit my former post, I'll keep it for posterity to remark as incorrect.

 

[JeanJoe]

Be glad you lacked the motivation, because it's wrong. Actually they do not ban your hard drive (a feat that is possible, easy and legal) instead they block something else.

<sigh> I don't really want to be dragged into this... As DisAeryn said, deja vu, all over again. And DisAeryn knows internet protocols.

They monitor something in Shockwave, perhaps an installation serial number, perhaps something akin to a web browser cookie. Uninstalling all traces of Shockwave and re-installing it, along with getting a re-assigned IP address, currently bypasses the blocked access to their website. (But, obviously, does not do anything about a banned character.) However, doing this is almost certainly violating terms of the end user usage agreement we all agreed to, to play VMK, and is not recommended.

Please don't take this personally, but using "extreme" language, like:

Disney can take any steps they want to block any user and they have the legal right to do so

is logically flawed.

They have the right to do whatever they can to prevent a banned individual from accessing their site, I agree.

But they can't take "any steps", if those steps involve altering fundamental functionality of web access, for example, installing a trojan on your machine that prevents you from requesting a new IP address. Or that does anything that changes the functioning of your hard drive.

Companies, like Sony, have gotten into legal trouble already for including copy protection schemes on their music CD's, which, when put into PC's, installs, without the user's permission, software that prevents illegal copying. Disney would be on similar very murky ground if they tried to install software onto user's machines that altered functionality of that computer, more globally than simple access to Disney sites.

Perhaps the "details" in my post here are wrong, but I think the general gist is likely accurate.

And if people aren't convinced, I actually don't have any particularly strong reason to try to convince anybody. I was just trying to prevent further dissemination of rumors that are unlikely to be true. But I don't care enough to fight about it.

 

[punkskateboarder]

weard....but i think it is illeagl to ban your IP.

 

[caribbound]

I didn't mean to open a can of worms!
It turns out I'm not the culprit, my son is. He needs a lesson in geographics. Instead of typing in mid-west (which wouldn't be allowed) via middle west to describe where we live, which isn't likely going to get him kidnapped as I'm not terribly worried about you all knowing I live in WI--it's a big state-- he typed in middle east. No sooner were the words on the screen than the box saying he was banned was also. Funny how I didn't find this out until I was INSISTING he try logging in at the library today because he wouldn't be able to at home.
I don't blame vmk, nor him for an innocent mistake (guess the good grades didn't include US geography these past two yrs ), but why should dd and I have to stay away for a month as well.
Trying to reset the IP address tonight. Will also reinstall shockwave at the advice given here. If not I'll be calling my own mummy to sign in for me and go buy me a pirate pin! That should be interesting to try to explain to an 80 yr old! Good thing she's good with computers and games.

 

[jasonpwns]

That should be interesting to try to explain to an 80 yr old! Good thing she's good with computers and games.
:Rofl2: omg i could not get my 74 year old grandma because me as a kid trying to show my grandma vmk she would not even play a video game for 5 minutes she is like no way i just will watch t.v lol and btw there is a way for blocking your computer from not going to a site and it is legel if you do it in legel way its something that blocks your computer from even going to the site and vmk puts them out 2 people were banned that way for ever

 

[Peacefully]

How terrible would you have to be to even get a 10 year IP ban? You would have to be asking for names and addresses of everyone or something, wouldn't you?

Anyway, with my own experience of an IP ban (my brother got IP banned from a site we both went to when we lived in the same house), they cannot change your computer. Maybe they could do the flash serial number like someone else said, but the only way to change your computer itself would be to do something to it illegally.

I seem to remember my brother still being able to view the site via a site that let you go places using an annonymous IP, but he said they made the place run extremely slowly and this wasn't even a high graphics site. It seemed kind of shady to me anyway.
The site had managed to make it so that no one from the beginning numbers of our IP (I think part of the IP number is for where you live, and the end is random numbers?) could view the site beyond the login page unless they were logged in, and my husband and I were the only ones who could log in from our IP. The guy who set that up was a coding genius.

 

[caribbound]

Yeah! I'm shootin' down dem dehr pirate ships some more. Maltoo did something great tonight, have to figure it out when she posts her own thread maybe in yay me. We switched to cable phone so the new router gave us a new IP address, thus, all but ds are good to go.

Unfortunately my mom never got a complete shockwave download so she didn't get to tour vmk. She'd like it though. She's very impressed with Animal Crossing and how much the kids learned about mortgages and maintaining verbal as well as written friendships and doing jobs. Vmk doesn't have any responsibility involved like that, but it's just a new dynamic of challenges.

Thanks for the help of those who offered advice. I'm off to hunt some ghosts now.