In reply to a post by Pheasant:

As said above, very evident your public IP address is being black-listed, hence blocked. Contact them to get it unblocked. It may be because the IP address within a range you’ve been assigned by Zen has been used in the past for reasons, that have caused them to block it. Only they can unblock it.

Ah.... we may be successfully focusing in on the problem. That comment, @pheasant, looks like the most credible explanation I've seen.

So even though it's an IP address from a range assigned by Zen, Zen won't take any action to sort it? Feels a bit like they have sold me faulty/damaged goods: an IP address that is tainted for reasons that have nothing to do with me.

On that logic, they should replace it with a product - an IP address - that works, rather than saying 'tough, it's your problem'.

I have however found a way to email the fiero.nl forum/website admins, so have sent a message asking them to unblock my IP address if they have indeed blocked it. I wonder if that will resolve the situation?

192.168.x.x is your own ‘internal’ IP address range. It’s the external address that is the cause of concern.

Type in whatsmyip in your browser to see it.

It doesn’t quite work like that 😅

It more of a reputational factor that some other party in the whole wilderness of the internet that deigns or decides your IP address (or more likely a large range of addresses) have at some time in the past been deemed to be part of shall we say conduct unbecoming…

There are several such reputations agencies (all private) on the internet that rate IP address ranges like this or indeed the individual site owner / operator may run their own blacklisting too.

It’s almost impossible for Zen to do anything as there’s possibly millions of different hosts out there.

Ah.... every day is a learning experience. I simply didn't realise there was an internal and an external IP address. I've been to that linked site and can see my external IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6 versions).

I'm still in the dark over static v dynamic IP addresses, but maybe that's a separate topic for another thread or another day.

It does seem to be a wilderness or jungle out there if you don't have a map, or stray off the path!

I see there are ways to check whether one's IP address is on any of those blacklists maintained by agencies. Mine doesn't seem to be. But I'll now have to wait and see what reply I get from the fiero.nl admins.

You can ask Zen if they can put you on a different address range for your public IP. That should resolve your issue.

It's clear that other folks with Zen connections are not having this issue. That's quite likely because they are on different (that are not barred / blocked by your custom car website) public IP address ranges.

Zen will have a few ranges available that they should be able to assign you.

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 18-Feb-25 12:50:38)

In reply to a post by br1anstorm:

I don't know whether I'm on fixed or dynamic IP. Who decides and how? I have the impression that Zen assigns my IP address (it is shown in the router settings and it is always 192.168.xxx.xx). Does that mean it is fixed? If so, then Zen has fixed it. How can I change it? Trying to do so because of one site seems like sledgehammer to crack nut...

Zen decide and it's part of your contract. They can give you

1. a fixed IP, which stays the same usually for the duration of your contract
2. a dynamic IP, which can change each time your router connects
3. a CGNAT address

all these above are translated to your internal 192.168.x.x address by your router. This is Network Address Translation - NAT.

In reply to a post by br1anstorm:

Yes there is a forum on the fiero.nl site. So what? That's its main raison d'etre: it is a source of tech info on maintaining that particular vehicle.

Why would I (and not Zen?) have been targetted specifically, and why now? I have accessed the site for more than a decade without problems via my previous ISP (who presumably gave me a different IP?) and have not logged into the fiero.nl site and forum at all since my move to Zen. So why would I now be blocked by the fiero site?

So what: People write bad stuff on forums, so forums ban those people. If you have not been on the site since you joined Zen, then a previous person on your IP address probably got banned. IP bans are largely stupid, because:

• IP banning a CGNAT address means banning hundreds of people on the ISPs public IP address, all but one of whom are innocent
• IP banning a dynamic address means banning other innocent people who might get the same address over the days weeks, months and years ahead
• IP banning a static address means banning the innocent people who get that address, when it goes to a new customer after the original offender changed ISP's

In reply to a post by br1anstorm:

To me that suggests it's not personal, but that the fiero.nl servers have "blacklisted" all or some of the IP address(es) used or assigned by Zen., for reasons that have nothing to do with me. And as a Zen client, since only a couple of weeks ago, I'm now suffering the consequences. Is that a reasonable analysis?

If it is, could I not ask Zen to assign a different IP address to me?

None of it is a judgement on you as a person, it is a judgement on your IP address. fiero have blacklisted just ONE, all or some of Zen's IP addresses. Your first port of call is with the site admins, either by email or on the forums [yes, I know, I am not being daft - get on the internet somewhere else] specifically the forum admins. If you are a user with a good reputation and you explain that this comes about because you are with a new ISP, you can hope for sympathy.

Getting a new IP address from Zen is very much the last resort.

Edited by DFScale (Tue 18-Feb-25 13:13:10)

It will be interesting to find out if its just one IP or a range of IP that has been blocked. Hopefully its something that happened many moons ago and they are willing to unblock it now. It does seem over the top blocking an IP instead of disabling their user account within the forum but it may have been a Denial Of Service (DoS) attack rather than a keyboard warrior

Edited by PCJM40 (Tue 18-Feb-25 13:32:32)

In reply to a post by DFScale:

Getting a new IP address from Zen is very much the last resort.

Doesn't seem like the OP is particularly fussed or needs/wants a certain public IP address, just something that works for their browsing etc.

So following the path of least resistance; if the admins at the car website won't engage or play ball to de-backlist then asking Zen to assign a different IP range shouldn't be too difficult. May actually be easier and faster to do.

In reply to a post by br1anstorm:

Ah.... every day is a learning experience. I simply didn't realise there was an internal and an external IP address. I've been to that linked site and can see my external IP address (both IPv4 and IPv6 versions).

It's not that. Internal IP addresses are those on your LAN (typically 192.xx or 10.xx) and known as private addresses. As a domestic consumer you will only have one public IP address. However ISPs buy those addresses in blocks (much as no-one ever buys just one egg). However because a lot of public IP addresses are dynamic some hosts get in the habit of blocking entire ranges on the grounds that you might power cycle your router and return with a different address.

But as regards whose responsible Zen are only responsible for getting your data packets from your router onto the wider internet. That they have managed to do according to your routing. The fact that when they arrived the host refused to accept them is not Zen's fault.

It's a bit like you taking a taxi to a nightclub then being turned away by the bouncer. Would you complain to the taxi company? Now in this case there might be some mileage to Zen getting involved if it was a major host like the BBC because they won't want vast numbers of their customers being banned from there. But in this case it's a small site likely to be of interest to only a small number of its customers. There's just no reason for them to want to get involved.

Edited by Andrue (Tue 18-Feb-25 13:42:37)

If you turn off your router for a while (maybe 30-60 mins) then you may find that, if you are on dynamic, that you will pick up a different IP address (you can check the same way as you have just checked your external address). If it changes then you may find it changes to one that isn't blocked. If it doesn't change then you may be on a static IP in which case you might be able to get Zen to change you to a different static IP.

To muddy it a bit there is such a thing as "sticky dynamic" - this means your address comes from a pool of addresses but that they would generally assign you the same address from that pool even after a disconnection.