[vlc] can't register in forum

[Konstantin Pavlov]

On Tue, Nov 01, 2011 at 12:57:22AM -0000, Guy Perkins wrote:
> Hi
> 
> >From what I know and can work out.
> Firtsly, it seems to be to do with the blacklist used.

Indeed.

> Secondly, There is no information from devs about the blacklist service
> used to allow users to try and help sort it.

Yeah, this was really frustrating for our users to see a blank page with
weird error. I have fixed forum.videolan.org to show more meaningful
webpage when this happens ( http://forum.videolan.org/403.html ).

Unfortunately I found no way to provide information why the user was
blocked; so the only way to find that out is to come on IRC as suggested
and ask me or other admins for help. 

Most of the time the IP addresses of users are banned as DNS blacklist
services list those as spam bots or open proxies.

> Lastly, This is the bit that I won't nail my hat on, but rather, it's
> based on what I have tried. (with a pointer from Remi). User
> agent...But..Not user agent alone, as if you try to resolve by stripping
> .net and other extensions from a legitimate IE8 string, to leave a bare
> IE8 string. No cigar, same 403. Tested IE8 strings in FF, but will
> return 403 in FF, so cannot establish if string blanketley rejected, or
> if is detected as browser behaving as different to agent & so rejected.

I think there might be a bug in our security system, so the best way to
debug IE8 issue is to come on IRC and chat with me. I don't have a windows
machine to test myself, unfortunately.

> Really need some method of either having access to blacklist provider to
> solve, or conduit/facility to provide info for Devs to forward to
> provider to resolve.

Sure.  We're using http://www.flameeyes.eu/projects/modsec by the way.

> Well understood that Devs far too busy to mess about with this, but,
> guys, us users hands are tied here. We are ***sing in the wind.
> 
> Just to clarify, I am happy and willing to pursue and put the effort in,
> not only for myself, but for others too. So please do not see this as me
> wanting to add to devs workload. We are just frustrated and would really
> like to resolve this.

Sure.

-- 
Konstantin Pavlov
VideoLAN team