Is this Right or Wrong? IP banned

I'm living in a family of SL Addicts and spend way too much time in SL like many of you probably do too. Unfortunately all my fun has come to an abrupt stop due to someone else's actions.

My daughter was reported by another person as underage (although she actually is 1 and without any warning whatsoever her account was banned. The problem with this is that at the same time my IP address was locked too which stops both myself and my wife from getting into SL . We have separate computers but they all use a single broadband line going through a modem/router hence the same IP for all PC's.

After raising a ticket on my daughters account plus 2 very long phone calls (I'm dreading to see the phone bill) l was finally told that in order for even the IP to be unlocked that I will have to give full proof of age and Identity for the banned account and also for ALL accounts that will be using the IP too.

I do understand the need to keep underage kids off of the main grid but by this sledgehammer approach others have to suffer through someone else's actions. Why couldn't just the account get locked instead of the IP? I have 3 rental shops that need paying within the next 2 days but can't gain access till I get all the paperwork together and get this problem resolved.

I'm in the position that I can easily give details of myself for verification purposes, but for my wife and daughter it will be more difficult as they are in the UK with me until we all return to America in a months time. Therefore all the real ID that they have over here is just the passports and by what I was getting told on the phone this was not really enough information as they would need more.

Have other people had problems like this? Suggestions are welcome but keep them sensible please

I should think the passport would be sufficient. And don't they have drivers licenses?

Congratulations. You have experienced the LL policy of shooting first and not asking any questions.

Sounds like a drag. But SL is all jumpy and paranoid about underage puppetpeople bouncing around the porn clubs and such and possibly ending up in a German tv video. Hense the lead boot squashing your IP addy into the ground. So your stuck eating the aggravation in an unpleasant gruel of red tape and customer service inadequacies. Beyond all that, what caused the kid to be reported as an underage sneakaboard? Was this a malicious act of harrassment or did her actions somehow make some whistleblower think she did not belong? Not that it currently makes a difference to your situation, just curious as to how this all happened to begin with.

If you have a dynamic IP address that is a bit sticky -- ie. it's not static, but remains unchanged for long periods of time -- it is sometimes possible to get a new one assigned by changing the MAC address of the router. That's ISP dependent though.

As for "Is IP banning right or wrong?" well, I suppose it stops somebody coming back with an army of alts until a situation is resolved.

...unless they've got a dynamic IP address. So it's hardly a foolproof measure.

It sounds like you've got all the ID required. I'd personally take it by hand to the Brighton office rather than mail copies to San Francisco.

Oh that's such an American thing to say, I have never had a drivers licence, not everyone drives!

I think it is right, you should have kept an eye on your daughter and kept her off the main grid. (good luck sorting it out)

(edited to add, I missed the part about her being 1
oh, she is 18, then I guess it was another case of shoot first ask questions later (for LL)
this is one of the reasons we do not allow the boys access to SL (the main reason being they are way too young)
we keep an eye on what they are doing on their PC (they are only 7 and 9)
so their door remains open when they are on the PC, no chatting with ppl, no signing up for anything, and we are to know what games they play.
The net is not a safe place for anyone, and even less safe for kids.

however I would much rather see ip banning and mac address banning built into the system in such a way, that we the residents would not gain access to said info, but... when someone is banned from out parcel (or sim), they should be banned either via mac or ip, to keep out the alts too

I would love to see a low lvl ban built into the system, then a ban would actually mean something.

See the lindens can do it, but the residents can not, we are stuck with dealing with alt after alt after alt. Doesn't matter if you are a sim owner, or a plot owner on the mainland, you still can only ban on an account by account basis

Well, it might be an American thing to say, but the OP did say "until we return to America", which to me means that they are from America -- and in America, the vast majority of adults do have drivers licenses.

You've got a static IP address?

I'm curious if it is just blocked IPs. Is it also that all the accounts are disabled?

Otherwise, simply going through a different provider would get around a
blocked IP.

Besides I haven't heard the LL blocks IPs...might get tricky with dynamic
IP users.

- Infrared

i think it's wrong. i hope you get this resolved soon.

The manufacturer of the router or modem assigns the MAC addresses. ISP's cannot change it........niether can you. It's like a digital serial number that the ISP's use verify that the device is authorized for service......and they read that address each time you go on the internet. LL cannot ban a MAC address for anyone's computer.....because they simply don't know it and have no reason to know it.

The IP that is ISP controlled is what has been banned. Not any MAC address. If you have a static IP address, your ISP will have reassign a new one to change it. If it's dynamic then you can change it by requesting your OS obtain a new one. But most ISP's assign a static IP for many reasons.....some are legalities.

Not generally the case in the UK for residential users. Static IP addresses are a selling point and cost extra.

If worse comes to worse you might try going through some internet cafe to do your business.

A passport should be more than sufficient.

actually not true, most modern routers include a function for changing the mac address or cloning the mac address of the connected computer... this mostly came about so that residential users of cable internet service could have the ISP install the service and test it with one machine, then the home user could substitute the router without getting cut-off. it also makes testing much easier, since you can put the actual computer directly on the cable line without changing mac address to test for router problems


mostly true, although most cable/dsl services either A) assign from a small pool, or B) associate yout mac address with a particular IP (which is why mac address swapping will generally get you a new one

the reasoaning is actually simpler than any legality, it makes it easier to track abuse of service, simple as that.

first try refreshing the IP addres, OS specific instructions can be found on google
second try something simple like turning of the cable modem for 5 minutes, you MIGHT get a new IP depending on the providers set-up
Third, try cloning a differnt mac address on the router, through the web configuration screen (instructions for this vary by router)
if that somehow disables your internet connection entirely, change it back to the previous mac address, some providers will lock out new or unknown mac address... you can also call them and have them enable the new mac address. this doesn't alwways works as sometimes the provider only uses the modems mac address which isn't generally setable. if you do get the isp on the phone, you might also ask them to flush the current IP but some of them act funny if you make this request)

last but not least, I know the DoD reccomends you don't, but carrying US ID in addition to your passports (in a seperate place) is a good idea, and can speed up replacements of lost passports... just don't take SocSec cards, because those are ridiculous to replace these days

more about MAC addresses

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address

actually yes they can ban a mac address
and yes they should have a reason to know it, and it is not hard to know it, since we are connecting to their system


I used to admin a small rpg game online and we banned via the mac address when folks would circumvent a normal ip ban

if a small time game like that one did it, I am pretty darn sure LL does it for SL

I'm learning new things right and left here. I just looked in my configuration utility for my router and yes I can change the MAC address......that is something that is relatively new for routers. However, if I do change the MAC address, I must call my ISP and tell them the new address so my service would continue (Time Warner's computer would not recognize the new address as a valid one and would block any access to the internet). Not sure you can do the same thing for modems since I have no utility to access any configuration software on that device (no, the modem is not rented or leased from my ISP. I own it). Now I find out that just anyone can query my router/modem and get that same address. I'm not sure about that, but I will attempt to see if that is true (I just love Google).

If all this is true, then no one can be banned from anything on the internet for any offense. Maybe a hardware hash up would be effective.......until someone replaces a graphics card, hard drive, or CD/DVD (possibly even a memory chip). It's all an exercise in futility.....why bother?

I can answer this question as I am krygors wife. A jealous girl got upset because her SL boyfriend decided he wanted to be with our daughter instead of her and this was her revenge. She has admitted it to me and this is just plain rediculous!!!!.. We got no warning, no emails, no questions and no offer to prove differently. They have closed her account fully without even talking to her about this. They took the word of a person that has only been here for a few months without even investigating.

Put her on warning, but dont bann my IP address so that Krygor or Myself cant come in. Krygor and I have been apart of Secondlife for 2 years now. We have owned many buisnesses along the way, bought many sims along the way and trust me we have spent alot of money in sl to be treated like this really makes me angry

How can someone make a complaint on a ticket and within a couple of hours our computers crash out of sl and we cant get back in but I put in several tickets and still no word, no repair and just see the words work in progress.. come on Lindens get this taken care of ... They was wrong to do it the way they did and I feel they need to repair this mistake quicker then they are..

Do I sound mad? yep I do lol... Second life withdrawls are getting worse lol, shakes are coming... FIX ME

LOL. I'm sorry Peggy but you're wrong.

I change the MAC address of my router regularly -- generally when I want to force a refresh of my IP address. I've been doing it for years, and it's hardly difficult with the right hardware.

Here, I just took a screenshot of my router settings screen. Just for you:

http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5845/routeripaddressmo2.jpg




It has nothing to do with being "authorized" and everything to do with tying a piece of hardware to a specific subnet.



Actually, LL CAN read the MAC address of your computer's network card because they have a dirty great big lump of software called the "Second Life viewer" installed on your computer, and it has full access to the Windows API. So, they can get the serial numbers of just about every piece of hardware in your system, generate a unique ID and block your machine based on that if they like.

Hmm... déjà-vu!



In the UK most ISPs charge extra for static IP addresses, but dynamic IP addresses generally remain "sticky" for months because most users' connections are 'always on', or rarely go offline (not giving them enough time to refresh).

I'd be disturbed if ISPs assigned static IPs for legal reasons because it implies their technology is primitive. Even if your IP address changed every five minutes, your ISP would be well aware all of them were assigned to you.

As I said above, an easy way to change a "sticky" (dynamic) IP address, that doesn't change when you reboot your router, is to change the MAC address of your router. And if you contradict that point again, Ima damn well take a video of me doing it and post it to YouTube for your perusal.

Oh, I see that you were re-educated by the end of page 2 Peggy.

Sorry.

I been reading this thread with interest. All the stuff about changing IP and MAC addresses in order to circumvent a ban is too technical for me.

The question that interests me is was the banning unfair of not. I can understand why LL are so sensitive about underage residents but......

Is it really true that anyone with a grudge can contact LL and say they think Joe Bloggs is underage, and that this results in an immediate ban? Is no evidence required? Can someone enlighten me?


PS. Krygor and Jacama. For what it's worth, you have my sympathy.

PPS. Waiting for a post from the girl who did the reporting.

I guess the answer Peter is yes , anyone can hold a grudge and get you banned. Its really sad to think its that easy to ruin someones second life.

We wont give up though without a fight as its just unfair and like I said before unprofessional of the owners to do something like this in the way they have done it

Hi all,

I wish to thank you all for your support over this as I feel this is a very unfair situation.

The IP address I have is a fixed one which I noticed last night just after trying to force it to renew. Yes I know there are work arounds, but just felt that I needed to post on the forums to help highlight this problem to others.

My real concern over all this is by the method that this all happened. No warning, no emails and no messages. My daughters account stopped on the windows PC and then when my wife logged out of her Linux PC she could not regain access either. My wife raised a ticket and then phoned on the number she was given. After nearly half an hour on the phone giving information about hers and my daughters accounts she was told that she needs lots of proof to be sent and they will not release the IP until they receive proof. At this point I began to lose my temper over this stupid situation and took the phone from her and spoke to the person on the other end of the phone. Well after a long chat, getting put onto hold etc the operator told me that he was unable to get authorisation to re-enable it and now as I was kicking up a fuss I have to provide proof of all the Ava's that access on that IP along with age verification. Needless to say I just gave up trying to hit my head against the brick wall.

I have now contacted my ISP for a new IP and I will tell my daughter to forget about her old ava and we will make a new one for her and make sure it is age verified first.

The funny thing is that I used to play a game called Entropia Universe but stopped because I felt it was just gambling dressed up as a game. For some reason I feel like I am gambling again will all the money I have invested into SL because it only takes one malicious call to get an account destroyed.