Provider added a 'home safe' function - the knock-on effects are twisting my melon, Man!

[CalumH]

Hello all,

If this is not the right place to post this please move it or ditch it & let me know.

Recently my ISP, let's just call them SpeakySpeaky UK (because now I'm paranoid), suddenly added a suite of 'home safe' functions unnanounced & unrequested. All of a sudden lots of stuff disappeared, not just these forums but tumblr, youtube, etc. And not with any 'blocked' or 'page not found' message either, just nothing.

I eventually tracked down the root of the problem & switched off a safety feature clearly intended to keep youngsters from accessing unsuitable content - I'm all for this, don't get me wrong, it's entirely well-intentioned & that's fine, I simply don't require it as I live by myself, police myself adequately & comfortably, and I've been a grown-up now for far too long for my liking.

So... the first part of the problem is solved, I think, but all is not back to normal, eg. just now even google's normal search page couldn't even find the name of my (popular) ISP..!?

I can add any detail to this question if needs be, since I've clearly changed something while searching for the cause of the problem, but has anyone else experienced anything similar just lately?

I just haven't known where else to ask since googling 'why won't my computer let me see my nice erotica from the good old days?' simply didn't seem an option!

Cheers, Cal.

[buttsie]

Try using a proxy and you'll most likely bypass the ISP / Govt filter
- at least for everything except those starting with https

I always find just adding XXX to searches opens up results that have been filtered
keeping in mind google is fast losing search returns because of dmca takedowns

www.anonymouse.org

Its most likely something they are testing leading up to
the blocking of porn in the UK thats due in April 2018


The award for worst ISP goes to... it starts with Talk and ends with Talk

Its not the first time they've had issues with some sites being off limits

Their reviews read like a walking disaster
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/0...o_load_amazon/

UK Governments Porn Age Verification Scheme
http://vintage-erotica-forum.com/sho...ensorship+porn

[Hugh Jampton]

If you have inadvertently changed some of your settings whilst solving your problem you might find using Windows system restore will undo some of the damage.

Obviously you may need to solve your problem again once you have restored it!

If it is only Google that is affected it might be worth going through your Google privacy settings and making any changes you think might help

[CalumH]

Originally Posted by buttsie

Try using a proxy...

Heck, that sounds like a whole lot of reading to do before I understand what that is... is it a simple process?

Originally Posted by buttsie

Its most likely something they are testing leading up to
the blocking of porn in the UK thats due in April 2018

What the deuce...!?! Is this something they've snuck through under the grand cover-story of "... but don't worry, the country's going to hell in a handcart anyway"?

Originally Posted by Hugh Jampton

... you might find using Windows system restore will undo some of the damage.

I never like doing that kind of thing unless absolutely necessary, it tends to mean hours of uber-boring restoration work in settings, email accounts etc... unless there are quick & clever things I don't know about...?

Originally Posted by Hugh Jampton

If it is only Google that is affected...

I don't know, do they own tumblr too, for example? & why would a standard google search just time-out with a blank screen, rather than returning a 'positive' no/nul/error result?

[buttsie]

Its actually little more than a visit to the website

www.anonymouse.org

Their FAQ
http://anonymouse.org/faq.html

and enter the http address of the page your trying to visit

You can start anywhere but I used a few search engines like
www.google.com & www.duckduckgo.com and bookmarked them both.


Admin Jenny suggested it as an easy option when a few of us were being
blocked by pimpandhost at our ISP level

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server

They arent perfect but their better than no access

[ButteredUp]

Uh just to throw my idea in here, how about uninstalling & re-installing your web browser.
Making sure you keep your bookmarks & make a clean
installment.I know that has helped me before.
That might help.

[CalumH]

Originally Posted by ButteredUp

Uh just to throw my idea in here, how about uninstalling & re-installing your web browser.
Making sure you keep your bookmarks & make a clean
installment.I know that has helped me before.
That might help.

I think you may have nailed it there Buttered, thank you. It took me a while to sort out, making sure things were backed-up just in case etc, but a complete remove & reinstall seems to have stopped firefox from behaving like a total dick !!
Much appreciated & thanks

[seagal99]

Have had no probs with TT isp after many years, maybe I am the exception.