How can I prevent a website from being blocked?

[skhoury]

Hello all,

I have a client that plans on developing and hosting a website.

He wants to be sure that his site cannot be blocked.

I stated that as long as someone knows your sites IP address its easy to block the site.

Is there a way to evade being blocked?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[ChrisHirst]

blocked by what or whom ??


Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Woo Hoo! the cobblers kids get new shoes.
People Counting Systems

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Sheco]

The web browsers innitiate communication with web servers by sending an HTTP request. The web server replies with an HTTP response.

So if you wanted to block this you could either prevent the request reaching the server, or prevent the server's response reaching the browser.

 

[safaritek]

??

Sites can be blocked for many reasons and at many points. I think you may need to expand on what exactly he thinks may happen.

So long as you are hosting the site on a class C commercial IP and the firewall is set to allow port 80 the site will not be blocked by the server itself.

Outside forces that block sites you only have varied degrees of control over, such as firewalls, corporate web policies, ORDB databases, Blacklists, ISP restrictions, etc.

Very few sites are ever "blocked" for no reason.

 

[skhoury]

He will be hosting on a class C public IP and he will have a firewall in front of it of course.

What he fears is that the site will be blocked by other ISPs.

So for example (and this is just an example) - if the site is hosting material on video game ROM files (which of course is illigel) and the ISP or the country (such as Japan) doesn't want this site to be accesible - they can simply block it.

Is it possible to prevent something like THAT from happening?

Thanks all...

 

[Sheco]

The cool thing about the internet is that you don't need to build your own private network connection to each and every potential user. It is a patchwork of networks that all work together to get your data from here to Japan or Timbuktu or whatever.

The flip side of this is that you do not have control over the network between your server and the users.

 

[skhoury]

Right - My assumption (and this is what i've told the client) is that it is really impossible to control how a 3rd party treats your site.

i.e. they may block your URL, your IP, they may apply content filters, they may even block your entire IP block coming from an ISP...so many things can occur.

I just don't think there exist a way to *ensure* you are not ever blocked by anyone.

 

[Sheco]

On the bright side, a clever teenager can often find a way to see what he wants to see... via google cache, anonymous proxy, peer-2-peer, or whatever.

 

[safaritek]

You won't be able to control any outside forces.

ISPs and networks control access by methods that are not affected by the other illegal bypasses mentioned above.

If he's not going to be doing anything illegal or immoral, then he won't have anything to worry about.

 

[skhoury]

Yup - exactly as I suspected.

thanks for all the input guys - I appreciate it!