# i think my IP is banned



## scarf (Jan 11, 2010)

hi, i just registered on the main site and here in the forums.  on the main site i can't see any pictures except for the FA header at top.  if i click on a thumbnail link and then "download" i get a 403 access forbidden error.  i searched around here and it seems that error can be caused by a ban on my IP address.  i don't know why that would be the case, though, because i haven't ever accessed the site until recently.  i thought it was a temporary problem with the site at first.  then, after a few days, i thought maybe it is because i haven't registered and logged in.  can an admin/moderator look into it?  thanks.


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## net-cat (Jan 12, 2010)

Your IP, assuming it was the same one used to create this post, is not banned.


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## scarf (Jan 12, 2010)

yes, it should be the same IP, as is the IP i am making this post with...

why, then, are there no images loading, and i am getting a 403 forbidden response when i try to download an image?

thanks.


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## Ricky (Jan 12, 2010)

Seeing how the first 3 posts in Site Discussion are complaining about similar issues it seems they are having a problem today.

Just a guess.


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## scarf (Jan 14, 2010)

this has been an on-going problem for me for weeks.  the majority of users here seem to not be having the problem, as they are avidly talking about the site like normal users would.  and even some of my friends do not have this problem.  i have tried to download images from a number of other IP addresses without problem.

a "403 forbidden" error and you say my address is not banned? doesn't make sense.  what else can cause a 403 error?  permission issues i know, but that would affect all users as far as i know.  maybe my IP address is not banned but there is a wildcard match on it or something?

thank you.


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## scarf (Jan 14, 2010)

hi, i tried something new.  i used wget from this same machine to try and download an image, and it worked fine without any error.  so it maybe has something to do with the browser here?  it is firefox, "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.17) Gecko/2010010604 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.0.17"


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## Kesteh (Jan 14, 2010)

Get the latest firefox, which should read "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20091221 Firefox/3.5.7"

Since you're on linux you need to get the linux build.


Also,


			
				Firefox said:
			
		

> Firefox 3.0.x will be maintained with security and stability updates until January 2010. All users are strongly encouraged to upgrade to Firefox 3.5.




An IP ban wouldn't let you touch anything related to the site. There's an underlying cause.


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## scarf (Jan 15, 2010)

ok i updated but still no change


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## ArielMT (Jan 15, 2010)

Edit: I should add the disclaimer that I'm not a member of Fur Affinity staff.

Ubuntu 9.04 won't get Firefox 3.5 in the repository, only Ubuntu 9.10.

Anyway, if you were banned, I would have to believe that you would receive a notice clearly stating that you were banned.  HTTP 403 errors tell you something else, that you don't have permission to access a specific resource, and many times they're caused by permissions problems that exist on the server.

My suggestion is to clear your cache and cookies, and try again.

To clear your cache, go to Tools -> Clear Private Data, and tick the Cache and Offline Website Data checkboxes.  (The other checkboxes can remain ticked or cleared depending on your preference.)

To clear your cookies, go to Tools -> Clear Private Data, and tick the Cookies checkbox.

If you'd rather clear only your FA cookies while leaving your other site cookies alone, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Privacy -> Show Cookies.  In the top box, search for furaffinity.net, highlight all the cookies that show up in the next box down, and hit the Remove Cookies button at the bottom.


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## scarf (Jan 15, 2010)

hi, thanks for all your suggestions.

firefox-3.5 is in the 9.04 repositories, as i did install it with simple apt-get command.

my cookies/cache/website data is automatically cleared every time i close the browser, so that has happened several times yet i am still not seeing any pictures and still get the 403 errors.

the thumbnails seem to be stored on a.facdn.net server which is denying my browser access.  if i try to copy a thumbnail address and paste into the address bar i get a 403 error.  the full images seem to be on d.facdn.net server which is also giving me 403 errors.

yet, as i mentioned, wget works fine from the same machine.

sorry, but i am not using windows, so the c:/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts file and suggestions are inapplicable to this situation.


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## scarf (Jan 15, 2010)

hi,  ok i got it!  i knew it had to be something with the browser... just took me a while to think of it.

so, it was the referer header.  i have the RefControl add-on installed and it is set to forge the referer header.

after adding an exception for d.facdn.net the thumbnails are loading and i can download images.


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## ArielMT (Jan 16, 2010)

scarf said:


> firefox-3.5 is in the 9.04 repositories, as i did install it with simple apt-get command.



Huh, fancy that.  Nice on them for that, though the firefox metapackage still references firefox-3.0, which is why I never noticed.  I stand corrected.



scarf said:


> so, it was the referer header.  i have the RefControl add-on installed and it is set to forge the referer header.



Note to self: Ask for a list of installed extensions when a browser problem is suspected, or ask user to start browser with its safe mode.

Glad to hear the cause was found.


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