Re: [tor-relays] BBC and UK Lottery blocking ip addresses running relay nodes

Dear Dan,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble. As I guess you read in previous messages on here - I had a similar issue with nhs.gov.uk and the BBC earlier this year. At this point, I again have access to both sites. for the BBC, you could try filling in this form if you haven't already:

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/incorrect_location_may2014

I'd advise you tell them that you are running a Tor relay when you describe the issue. I assume you're running middle (i.e. not exit) relays given you are using your home IP? If so - make sure you include this detail, and emphasise that as a result, no Tor traffic is coming from your IP to the BBC website - the only traffic is from you yourself.

If you don't hear back from them within a week or so, you could try poking the iPlayer guys on Twitter giving them your case number (@BBCiPlayer). At least for me, once I regained access to iPlayer, I also regained access to all other BBC UK only content.Â

I'm afraid I don't have any experience dealing with the Lottery site, so I can't advise there. It's possible that the BBC and Lottery people are using the same hosting provider, and so fixing the BBC issue may resolve your Lottery problem...but we can't be sure. I'd get whatever contact details you can from them and explain the problem, what a middle relay is, how it's just you etc and see what they say.

Good luck,

Chris

On 11 September 2014 17:23, Dan Hanley <hanley.dan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

All

I can see there was a previous thread related to this in June, but thought I'd add what I'm seeing to the discussion.

After the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill (DRIP) was rushed through parliament I decided to do my bit for the privacy cause and run a couple of Tor relays.

I run one from my laptop at home and one from my desktop at work.

Since doing this I have suffered deliberate disruption in service from the BBC and the National Lottery.

A Tor relay is a node on The Onion Router network that traffic gets router through to anonymise where it originated from. (https://www.eff.org/torchallenge/what-is-tor.html)

Note that I am running middle relays, not exit relays, so the connection to the destination site will never come directly from one of my relay nodes. Neither have I used the Tor browser to access either site.

Â

The BBC

Within 48 hours the http://bbc.co.uk website started redirecting me to the http://bbc.com international version. They seem to think I am no longer a licence payer, or perhaps conspiring to allow non licence payers to access their UK service. The redirect is based on my homes IP address, so all devices, laptop, phone, ipad etc get redirected. The redirect seems to trigger via _javascript_, I can access http://www.bbc.co.uk with _javascript_ disabled.

The international site recognises that my ip address is in the UK and refuses to let me access international content.

The net result is that I and my family can no longer access either UK or international BBC content.

Â

The National Lottery

The Lottery allows me to connect and browse their site but as soon as I try to make a purchase I get blocked:

Â

Why is this odd:

Any of the popular IP checking sites/tools show that my address is located in the UK: e.g www.whatsmyip.com or https://who.is

I am using two different ISPs (Zen and VirginMedia) neither can explain the behaviour.

Contacting the lottery they blame the ISP, I have been unable to get a response from the BBC.

Assuming I can believe the look up services and the ISPs that my IP addresses are still located in the UK, the only explanation I can come up with is that the BBC and the lottery are deliberately blocking ip addresses that are registered on the Tor network. Whether they do this independently or avail of a common third party is unknown.

Â

So the cost of trying to maintain privacy seems to be the loss of BBC and Lottery â which seems unfair.

Â

ÂRegards

Dan

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Dr Chris WhittlestonÂæä
Department of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
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