Orange UK blocking access to MoDaCo - but not to soft porn sites!

[Guest Monolithix]

[teaser]

So I got a Samsung i780 from Orange today to put through it's paces (full review coming up!) and obviously one of the first things I'm going to try is to load up our very own www.modaco.com in pocket IE to check out that 320x320 screen, here's what I was presented with!

I tried a few other popular sites: pocketpcthoughts, theunwired, and coolsmartphone all work fine and the XDA-Developers main site works while their forum is blocked! Odd, thought I, their filter must be really strict, I can't think what we might be hosting to warrant blocking - lets give a site that definately comes under the "NSFW" category a try, www.fhm.com perhaps? Click the jump to check out the shocking (and probably slightly NSFW :D ) result![/teaser]

So the topless girls are fine by Orange's adult content standards (leaving me to censor them for our family-friendly site!), but two of the worlds biggest WinMo community support sites aren't?

Come on Orange, what are you playing at?!

[Guest WearTheFoxHat]

Oh my ... naked handsets!

Check out the flashing LED's on her!

Edited March 26, 2008 by WearTheFoxHat

[Guest keni]

Modaco.com seems to work on my Orange Touch Dual... I wonder if they belive I'm over 18... Fools!

[Guest NikLP]

I would try resetting your handset a few times. This happens to me infrequently, despite no "actual" block existing on my handset/account. It will probably start working soon enough.

[Guest tasman]

what exactly is the full url for the FHM site ? Purely to check to see if I get the same problem you understand :D

[Guest shootydogthing]

Yeah, T-mobile are weird too... bebo and sections of the BBC website are blocked, but a quick google search for "porn"... Nothing. It lets me do it. WTF?

[Guest mstephenson]

This is going back a while (12 months or so since I switched to T-Mobile) but I used to get all kinds of weird problems with Orange and it's 'safeguard' feature. Sometimes it would block out all racing and betting sites, sometimes it wouldn't. Switching the phone off and on again seemed to have some effect but I don't see how it could really, maybe it was just coincidence. Also, sometimes it would just block out perfectly innocent sites as seems to be the case in this example. I didn't realise this was still an issue a year later...

[Guest Gears]

I seem to be getting the site OK, but I guess it might depend on the data package or access point? I've never opted out of a content filter, but I've never opted in ether. T-Mobiles' content filter allows modaco though

[Guest Monolithix]

Orange turns it on by default i believe, so if you've disabled it you'll be able to access the site normally :D

[Guest Magnetic_dud]

the right word is "LOL"

it's obvious they fear about unlocking&hacking

they don't care the customers

they think to the money

[Guest Confucious]

they think to the money

What? You mean Orange think? :D

[Guest Thumper Net]

modaco is a sort of porn for orange uk as everyone slags them off all the time ,its not an orange friendly forum, could be a reason why its blocked , they dont want to scare off their new customers ? good to see orange letting the playboy pics though on the phone ,but paul does call his phones sexy alot in the podcasts so it should get through wierd :D

Edited March 26, 2008 by Thumper Net

[Guest Looby]

Maybe Orange are not fond of Paul's debrander either...... :D

Edited March 26, 2008 by Looby

[Guest UndeadDevil]

Back when I was on Orange (About a year ago) on a SE K750i, I simply had to disable the proxy in the connection settings and the Blocking died. Does this still work?

[Guest Mysterious Stranger]

I had this a year ago when using PAYG sims - I even requested a review at the time to confirm and they confirmed it was due to the ad banners showing gambling sites etc. Soft porn's fine it seems.. Once I'd registered a CC to prove I was over 18 it worked fine.

M.S

[Guest WinDoze9t8]

[teaser]

So I got a Samsung i780 from Orange today to put through it's paces (full review coming up!) and obviously one of the first things I'm going to try is to load up our very own www.modaco.com in pocket IE to check out that 320x320 screen, here's what I was presented with!

I tried a few other popular sites: pocketpcthoughts, theunwired, and coolsmartphone all work fine and the XDA-Developers main site works while their forum is blocked! Odd, thought I, their filter must be really strict, I can't think what we might be hosting to warrant blocking - lets give a site that definately comes under the "NSFW" category a try, www.fhm.com perhaps? Click the jump to check out the shocking (and probably slightly NSFW :D ) result![/teaser]

So the topless girls are fine by Orange's adult content standards (leaving me to censor them for our family-friendly site!), but two of the worlds biggest WinMo community support sites aren't?

Come on Orange, what are you playing at?!

LOL, I find that XDA-DEV... forums are sometimes blocked for me some mornings (not always) even though I have confirmed my age. Perhaps its just a glitch in the system. Maybe if it was called SPV-Dev... then it may work LOL

[Guest WinDoze9t8]

What? You mean Orange think? :D

Not outside the Orange "box"

[Guest mattie01]

Not outside the Orange "box"

i love that game collection. portal rocks...

[Guest spacemonkey]

I get this if I go to any modaco sub domain. For instance http://vox.modaco.com however going to the main url works fine.

Very odd.

Edited April 1, 2008 by spacemonkey

[Guest Monolithix]

Hey spacemonkey, long time no see :( I see the right kind of post title even brings the old school lurkers back out of the woodword :D

[Guest PayableOnDeath]

I wonder if there are any images of phones with out covers on ( am sure there must be ) on this site, I bet orange see uncovered phones as porn an therefore block

I could see why they block XDA, as they wont want a load of customers using O's internet connection to brick thier phones with the latest non orange rom lol :(

oh btw paul, i there is some thing wrong with the image upload on your post, looks like its got a bit corrupt and put a black rectangle in the middle of the image :D

Edited April 3, 2008 by PayableOnDeath