Thank you,
The problem was resolved.
The IP addresses were blocked,
but have since been unblocked.
I was having trouble due to the wrong username and password.
I was not aware for days that my IP addresses and others at
friends and associate sites had been permanently blocked,
until requesting TCH check them.
They unblocked them.
However, some of our users may have accidentally made
the same mistake I did, and attempted to login more than
three times (that's the limit ?). I will warn all of our users to
be extremely careful, and stop trying if it doesn't work the first or
second time, since the TCH policy seems to be to permanently
block IP addresses after so many failed attempts to login.
A recommendation to consider would be to only
temporarily block IP addresses for failed FTP attempts
(i.e. for 30 minutes, an hour, etc.). Also, it would be nice if
an FTP account is blocked, that a message was displayed that
their IP address had been blocked. And, in addition, does it
make sense to block all protocols ? Once the IP address is
blocked for failed FTP attempts on ports 20 and 21, does it
make sense to also block HTTP ports. Because, the location
can't even view their own web-page anymore.
Otherwise, the problem is compounded further and leads to
more failed attempts, because they go to the provider of the
FTP account, ask to confirm the username and password, then perform
more retries. The administrator of the account tries it and says
it works for him, and he doesn't understand what the user's problem is
either. Everyone is stumped. Little did they know, the user with the
fixed IP address would never get logged in, no matter how many
times the administrator changed their username and password.
Fortunately, for me, I was able to deduce that TCH was blocking the
IP address. Therefore, I temporarily used dial-up (very slow) to access
our web-site.
Then, I politely requested that it be unblocked.
And this is the response I got:
_________________________________________________________________
Fixed IP Addresses being blocked
A TotalChoice Staff Member has replied to your Help Desk Ticket with the following:
I have unblocked the IP's.
Further abuse of our network may result in the suspension of your account.
Repeated failed logins are resulting in your IP being blocked.
Warmest Regards,
Bill Kish
General Manager
TotalChoice Hosting, L.L.C
___________________________________________________________________
How about that?
So, I'm a network abuser and threatened to have my account suspended?
What account? I'm not even the owner of the account, and said so in
the very first correspondence above.
But, in all fairness, at least he conveyed the accusation and threat
with the "Warmest Regards".
NOTE: We were not trying to abuse the network.
More than one person made the same mistake.
It's a very common mistake.
Also, the odd thing was, that the IP blocking didn't occur until later.
But, when people can't get logged in, they naturally retry.
They think they mistyped something, so they type it in again.
Still, no luck.
So, they think, well, let's try it in uppercase and lowercase.
Then, they might capitalize the Username.
Then, they might add the first letter of their last name to the username.
Then, they might try one more time and give up.
Or, like me, I tried different usernames and passwords that
had worked previously, but now no longer worked (and they
had been saved in a FTP profile).
Little does the person what's going on, but they have now
been identified as a network abuser, and banned.
Not knowing what's going on, they call other people and ask them to try it.
Some can get in, and some can't .
So they try a dial-up account, which usually gets in, because their
IP addresses change each dial-up. Some persons with fixed IP addresses
can't get logged in, because they've been permanently blocked too.
Business and operations come to a halt, and there is much
confusion and frustration. Data and information can't be transferred.
Then, when politely asking to check and unblock three IP addresses,
the user is accused of abusing the network and threatened
with the removal of their account ?
Security is a valid issue for concern, but there must be a better way.
But, I fear we may have other users in the future that will
make the same mistake. What should we do ?
Will we be able to request they be unblocked after we
warn them to never make more than 3 mistake trying to log in ?
And, don't try different usernames and passwords that used
to work either, because that will only compound the problem.
Plus, do we need to warn all users that if their HTPP is blocked too,
it's probably TCH banned them ? So, perhaps you can see the problem?
We're afraid we most likely will be revisiting this problem.
But, there's a good lesson in this.
Whenever people go about selecting a host for their web-pages,
they might first want to ask about the IP address blocking policies.
Temporary IP blocking would greatly reduce the problem.
Permanent IP blocking for all protocols (FTP and HTTP), will
most certainly lead to blocked communications.
At any rate, thank you for unblocking the IP addresses.
It appears to be working OK now (for me).
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