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How To Get Around Being Banned From A Site |
Get around a website banIf you want to access a website that has banned you - maybe a forum or a games site for instance - here are some methods.
These are based on the fact that the site has to identify you somehow, in order to ban you. If you change your identity, they can't prevent you from access as they don't recognise you. At this point it would be fair to state two things: don't do it again or you'll get banned again; and those who get banned, often get repeatedly banned for the same or similar things - so you may be wasting your time anyway, you aren't wanted on that site.
However, what does happen to many of us is that we are innocently banned. For example, you go to a site that you have never visited before, only to find you cannot access it. What has happened is that they have banned the IP of someone who broke the rules. No one with that IP can access the server; but of course, on DSL, there could be hundreds of people on that IP. Thousands, even.
So let's go forward on the assumption that you have been innocently banned and would like to exercise your right to access the website's services freely, and without transgressing their terms of service in any way :-)
1. Change your IP
Your IP is the Internet address by which you are virtually and physically located. It's a set of numbers like: 88.151.392.XXX [we omitted the last numbers].
If you reboot your router, the IP will usually change. This is the first thing to do. Some find that every time they reboot, the IP changes; but others find they must switch off for an hour in order to get a new IP. Unfortunately, if you are on cable DSL the IP often doesn't change when you reboot. What you must do is switch off and wait an hour or longer; or reboot multiple times. IPs are still dynamic - but just harder to shift. For those that can't be changed, or for business DSL lines with static IPs - you'll have to get in touch with the ISP and have them change your IP. You'll need the username and password, and a good story.
2. Flush your cookies
The site may have inserted a special cookie on your browser to tell them you are banned. Therefore you need to ditch it: flush your browser cookies. Also, flush your browser cache as well since that may help - clean the whole lot up.
However, sites can also lodge deep cookies on your PC, so this doesn't always fix it. You need an antispyware app or a junk file cleaner that removes cookies from your machine's Application Data. I recommend this one: Empty Temp Folders
...which can also be downloaded from: www.majorgeeks.com/download1575.html
I advise you to go VERY carefully with any file deleter - just use it to get rid of cookies, you don't need any of them. Some will be for auto logins, but you can just login again. If you go round deleting other files - even if they seem to be temporary or surplus - then you will often have problems afterwards. It's best to play safe - just dump the cookies and leave it at that.
3. Re-register at the site with a new username, password and email
You'll have to change everything or they'll know who it is. All your user details need to be different - and don't forget the email address, dummy.
4. Get a proxy server
If for some reason you can't change your IP, basically you're stuffed, since that is the #1 way they identify you. However, there is an out: go there via a proxy server. That means to go via another server first, then on to the desired site. Clever, huh?
Go to our page on how to access sites banned at work for some good ways of doing this.
But if you need to access a game server or something, setting up a proxy server for that purpose is harder. It can be done, but it's too involved to explain to non-techies. Search on terms like 'proxy server for gaming', 'proxy servers' etc. Maybe you can get a techie friend to sort this out for you.
Banned from a site you never visited before
This happens frequently. It's because when the site banned someone who was causing a problem, they used an IP ban. That means they blocked anyone with that IP from accessing the site. However, any given broadband IP is used by hundreds of people with the ISP who own that IP - and all of them are blocked from the site.
There's an easy way out though - just change your IP. Reboot your router (the black box that connects your phone line or cable service to the PC), and it will get a new IP. Simple! In fact it's so simple that banning people by IP is a bit pointless - especially as it will inconvenience far more users than is generally realised. Cable routers, by the way, sometimes need to be switched off for ten minutes before they will get a new IP.
If for some reason you can't get a new IP, just use a proxy server to visit the site. See above for details.
Site ban Q & AQ: Why not change your ISP ?
A: This is pointless as all that happens is you get a new IP, you could do that a lot easier just by rebooting your router or going through a proxy server.
Q: I heard if you change ISP you'll get banned from the Internet as a whole.
A: Not so. You can chop and change as much as you like.
There doesn't seem much point, though. Why bother? If their service or cost can be bettered, then change. Get two connections if you like - some people have more than one, and use them for different purposes. But don't bother doing it just to change your IP, there are easier ways.
Your ISP can ban you, of course, if you ignore warnings they send you. These might be about exceeding your bandwidth allowance, using your connection for spamming, or uploading / downloading 'illegal' content.
Hope this helps. Be nice to people and it pays off. You'll probably be broke, overworked and walked on - but you'll sleep better.
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Get Around a Site Ban
