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O2 now blocking sites

Our man in Havana

It appears that o2 are now blocking some sites on the basis of a list supplied by the Internet Watch Foundation.

File hosting sites are affected so far from what I can see.

Any attempt to reach these sites is greeted with a o2 screen saying that they have blocked the site on the basis of what the IWF say.

This can be avoided by not using o2's DNS settings.

Seems we are headed down a slippery slope.

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[Deleted User]

Reports that o2 is blocking popular image hosting site imgur.com

http://tinyurl.com/3yc6p6n (tiny url to avoid profanity)

Well done o2 you truly are idiots.

Matt Bauer

As an o2 customer for 11 years, I speak from experience when I say that o2 have been going downhill over the past few years, and I could no longer recommend them.

Avoid o2 if you can.

doyler442

What the hell is this about? How have they blocked imgur? Is this some kind of mistake, as in they are likely to rectify it any time soon?

As a user of such a site I will quickly be cancelling my O2 account if they continue this crap.

Looks like they might be doing something but this still isn't good enough:

http://forums.o2online.ie/forums/showthread.php?12759-Imgur

Our man in Havana

Just change your DNS to Open DNS and it won't matter what o2 do.

jor el

Haddockman wrote: »

Just change your DNS to Open DNS and it won't matter what o2 do.

While that is true, they shouldn't have this policy of blocking sites at random in the first place.

[Deleted User]

I've reconsidered getting an o2 broadband dongle because of this ham fisted blocking.

Further more I will be actively encouraging anyone that will listen to avoid o2 like the plague.

generalmiaow

Haddockman wrote: »

Just change your DNS to Open DNS and it won't matter what o2 do.

That's not possible on a lot of mobile handsets, some of which are affected by the block on imgur. (such as mine)

Edit: Just for information, all censored hostnames have records pointing to 62.40.38.145

On the positive side, this has created a huge ****storm

http://www.google.ie/search?q=o2+imgur&hl=en&safe=off&tbo=1&prmdo=1&output=search&source=lnt&tbs=rltm:1&sa=X&ei=-dMsTL-AFJi80gSU1IWqCQ&ved=0CAcQpwU

harryd2

Another customer leaving.

generalmiaow

Making its way up now, I wonder if any MSM will pick this up in the US?
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39839/O2-Ireland-begins-web-censoring

I'd be surprised if don't have a serious look at the way they do this from now, based on the amount of negative attention they are getting.

Our man in Havana

They don't care.

They did not give a stuff when I raised the issue 10 months ago. Their basic response was we can do as we please and STFU, go away.

Matt Bauer

If you are a bill pay customer, and o2 won't fix this for you, I'd say you have grounds to terminate your contract without penalty. Especially if you have an iPhone or other smart phone with them, where one of the primary purposes of the phone is to access the internet. Unless o2 can fix it of course.

Our man in Havana

They can fix it but o2 choose to rely on the word of Ned Flanders and the other outraged folks at The Internet Watch Foundation, who is not a police or other governmental body.

I have solved the problem by bypassing their DNS server, but I do see peoples points. It is the principle of the matter. Last time I checked this was not China.

Our man in Havana

http://forums.o2online.ie/forums/showthread.php?6034-O2-now-blocking-sites

http://forums.o2online.ie/forums/showthread.php?6334-Imageshack-blocked-!!

jay93

Matt Bauer wrote: »

If you are a bill pay customer, and o2 won't fix this for you, I'd say you have grounds to terminate your contract without penalty. Especially if you have an iPhone or other smart phone with them, where one of the primary purposes of the phone is to access the internet. Unless o2 can fix it of course.

even if you are on bill pay they will not let you out of contract ive seen people on the o2 forums trying to do so and o2 would not give into them .so pre pay or bill it doesnt matter they simply will not let anyone out of contract i know its bull but thats whats happening at 02 at the moment

JohnK

As I said in this post, due to O2's unjustifiable actions I'll begin looking into Vodafones/Meteor/3's offerings as I cannot in good conscience pay money to a company whos censoring my internet access. I will also be encouraging everyone I know on the O2 network to do the same as this is just not on. Censorship has no place in the civilized world and O2 are a disgrace for enacting it.

jor el

jay93 wrote: »

even if you are on bill pay they will not let you out of contract ive seen people on the o2 forums trying to do so and o2 would not give into them .so pre pay or bill it doesnt matter they simply will not let anyone out of contract i know its bull but thats whats happening at 02 at the moment

They didn't let me out either, I just stopped paying them. They won't let it go to court, because they'd have to explain why a change to the contract is not, in their view, a change to the contract.

Matt Bauer

jay93 wrote: »

even if you are on bill pay they will not let you out of contract ive seen people on the o2 forums trying to do so and o2 would not give into them .so pre pay or bill it doesnt matter they simply will not let anyone out of contract i know its bull but thats whats happening at 02 at the moment

Doesn't matter, just call your bank and cancel the direct debit. It's like you bought a phone and you can't call some of your friends numbers, and o2 won't fix it. You bought the phone to make phone calls after all.

Our man in Havana

jor el wrote: »

They didn't let me out either, I just stopped paying them. They won't let it go to court, because they'd have to explain why a change to the contract is not, in their view, a change to the contract.

Have they stopped sending you letters yet?

jor el

Haddockman wrote: »

Have they stopped sending you letters yet?

Yes. I contacted Daryll and he sorted it.

Still no admission of this being a change to the contract from O2 though.

100gSoma

I use the reddit app on HTC Desire and thanks to the imgur blocking, its now useless.
How do I change the DNS on my mobile phone? anyone?

100gSoma

why has this died down. I would have though mobile users would have been up in arms? I cannot use the reddit app on my HTC Desire because every image thats on imgur (99% of digg.com and reddit.com images) is blocked. I am out of contract with them so will move if they are not going to review this. imgur is not a torrent or porn site and actively remove inappropriate content. O2 are fools for not doing their own research about the sites they block.
:mad::mad::mad::mad:

TJM

@Soma

Could you confirm that imgur is still blocked - it doesn't seem to be on my 02 iphone at the moment.

darrensweeney

does any1 know wat the average speed of o2 home broadband is im fed up paying eircom redicouls money and the o2 sounds good but cant believe they are offering up to 7.6mbs for 20euro month

Spooky1666

darrensweeney wrote: »

does any1 know wat the average speed of o2 home broadband is im fed up paying eircom redicouls money and the o2 sounds good but cant believe they are offering up to 7.6mbs for 20euro month

Ok here is one thing to understand it's technically not broadband. It's midband.
The average speed very vastly from person to person. How many people are currently using the service in your area is a BIG factor. You could be getting 5mbps, if five more people start regularly using it could bring it down to 1mbps or less. As with Eircom I know they are a huge rip and there service is generally pathetic for wat they charge. I would recommend you to switch to mobile broadband.( Usually 5mbps is the highest anybody ever gets on mobile broadband but from seeing over people's experiences the average is around 1-3 mbps.) If you get Meteor service in your area you might be better off going with them as they usually provide a better service. ( Remember it's highly variable per area.) They all offer a trail period ( usually 7 days) were you cancel your contract and get a refund if it's not up to scratch but o2 have this offer were you can borrow a modem for 48hrs and see how it goes. You have to pay a 75 euro fully refundable deposit and you don't sign any contracts

Hope i've helped

if you go for it please let me know how it goes and if you need any more help just ask

I'm happy to help

watty

I never got any more than 0.7Mbps on O2.

BEASTERLY

Well I have never come across this , nobody will ever officialy stand up to them on this because you will have a hell of a time trying to explain what you were doing on a blocked sight anyway.

The sites are blocked for a very good reason , be a lawful user and you will never have a problem with their blocking!

JohnK

BEASTERLY wrote: »

[...]
The sites are blocked for a very good reason , be a lawful user and you will never have a problem with their blocking!

Well thats bull**** for a start as they're using the IWF blocklist and they have in the past blocked legal content. Chances are theres plenty more we just dont know about.

jor el

BEASTERLY wrote: »

Well I have never come across this , nobody will ever officialy stand up to them on this because you will have a hell of a time trying to explain what you were doing on a blocked sight anyway.

The sites are blocked for a very good reason , be a lawful user and you will never have a problem with their blocking![/QUOTE]

Try reading the thread before spouting uninformed inaccurate nonsense like this. There is no evidence of any unlawful activity by users or the sites in question but O2 are still blocking them. This is proven by the fact the O2 have subsequently unblocked most of those sites within hours of blocking them.

O2 have shown absolutely no reason for why they have blocked any of the sites so far. Users don't need to explain anything, it's O2 that needs to explain their actions.

Kriebie

OK, I just ran into O2's blocking system, for the first time.
It concerns a picture on tinypic.com, FFS!