[mythtv-users] Ananova blocking IPs?

[Ray Olszewski]

At 10:01 PM 7/21/2003 +0100, Andrew Ingram wrote:
>It's a static IP, but I assigned it another static IP and I still had
>the same problem so I went back :( I wonder if there is something else
>that can be detected about my machine.
>
>I don't know what other conclusion to come to. How the rest of the
>internet could be fine, how 3 different kernels all don't work, reboots,
>etc ,etc.

Sorry to jump into this late, but I tried a couple of tests from here just 
to see if I could see anything helpful. I assume we are talking about the 
site www.ananova.com as the top-level site, and the ability go get to its 
TV listings data that are about 2 or 3 clicks from there.

1. The FQN does not respond to pings, from either a Linux -OR- a Win2K 
host. It may just not answer pings, period; some sites are like that, after 
all (I've seen it justified on security grounds, but this seems to just be 
from the sort of bubbleheads who think they can justify any idiocy by 
waving the security flag). So don't infer anything just yet from your 
inability to ping the FQN from the Myth host.

2. Using Netscape on Win2K, I can view the site just fine. This matches 
your Windows experience.

3. Using lynx on a Debian-Sid Linux host, I can view the site just fine and 
get TV listings (subject only to the limitations of lynx in displaying 
complex Web pages).

I'm working from a NAT'd LAN, so everything is using the same (apparent) IP 
Address.

There might be something about the XMLTV scraping process that they detect 
and block (dunno, since I'm not in the UK), but they do not seem somehow to 
detect and block Linux-based queries. Probably the best way to test the 
IP-blocking hypothesis is to assign a "failing" IP address temporarily to 
your Windows host and see if it can then reach Ananova.