Global block?

MreeBiPolar · March 16

Not sure what subforum should it go to, but for whatever reason, over the weekend, the forum page started showing just the "Global Block" plaintext message when accessed from any of Russian IPs. With the odd timing and seeing as it's not even a 403 or anything, the impression is of someone going rogue in the tech team.

LootAllTheStuff · March 16

Not necessarily a rogue tech team member. Another possibility is that the servers were under attack over the weekend, and the CDN decided to proactively block the offending IP address range. Which, of course, carries a risk of collateral damage. Note that if there was an attack going on, that wouldn't be publicly acknowledged. Having said that, the game did seem a bit more laggy than usual, especially Sunday night.

MreeBiPolar · March 17

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

Not necessarily a rogue tech team member. Another possibility is that the servers were under attack over the weekend, and the CDN decided to proactively block the offending IP address range. Which, of course, carries a risk of collateral damage. Note that if there was an attack going on, that wouldn't be publicly acknowledged. Having said that, the game did seem a bit more laggy than usual, especially Sunday night.

That's why I specifically mention the unusual message rather than a 40X code.

Vitgar · March 30

@ZOS_GinaBruno And how long will it last? I've been seeing this for the last 2-3 weeks while VPN-off. All Russians bear a collective responsibility? No maintenance schedule, no patch notes anymore.

Vitgar · May 16

In response to Support they created an article (!) in the Knowledge Base. However, I still don't have access. This is what the block page looks like now:

A big corporate secret.

jm42 · May 16

zos completely ignoring this thread is funny

UrQuan · May 16

The Russian government has been increasingly instituting various internet blocks for months, especially on different types of social media and forums. Have you considered that this is more likely to be caused by your government than by ZOS?

jm42 · May 16

UrQuan wrote: »

Have you considered that this is more likely to be caused by your government than by ZOS?

we considered and it is not

DenverRalphy · May 17

If it was a block at ZOS' end, it would likely be accompanied by a "Why am I being blocked?" Mini FAQ or link. At least, that's the typical behavior seen in the past.

Enemoriana · May 17

UrQuan wrote: »

The Russian government has been increasingly instituting various internet blocks for months, especially on different types of social media and forums. Have you considered that this is more likely to be caused by your government than by ZOS?

It's true that many things are blocked from this side, but it usually looks different. So more likely it's on ZOS side. Not a big problem, but quite annoying. Have to use vpn while playing because of it, to not to switch it on/off all the time (which needs relogging in game usually), and it gives more lags.

DenverRalphy wrote: »

If it was a block at ZOS' end, it would likely be accompanied by a "Why am I being blocked?" Mini FAQ or link. At least, that's the typical behavior seen in the past.

Don't remember any faqs or explanations when payments were removed from accounts on PC. That was not "ru cards don't work" (which is not on ZOS, of course), but any fields for adding card info disappeared, so even not russian card can't be used to pay for something on ru account. So no, silent actions also were seen in past. Understandable, but very annoying, as I can't even ask a friend from another country to pay for my ESO+ (and I don't want to use any grey schemes with region change).

jm42 · May 17

DenverRalphy wrote: »

If it was a block at ZOS' end, it would likely be accompanied by a "Why am I being blocked?" Mini FAQ or link. At least, that's the typical behavior seen in the past.

it can be like this, or 403, or whatever, or maybe even without any error. much easier to use tracert and see where it stops responding to clarify

LootAllTheStuff · May 18

It could be a backbone or exchange block along a link somewhere between RU and ESO/ZOS if it's only showing up when not using a VPN. Have you tried running a traceroute to see where the connection stops?

Vitgar · May 18

I've done tracert

tracert forums.elderscrollsonline.com b]VPN=ON[/b

Tracing route to site-5020507.onvanilla.net [162.159.128.79]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 162.159.128.79

Trace complete.

tracert forums.elderscrollsonline.com b]VPN=OFF[/b

Tracing route to site-5020507.onvanilla.net [162.159.138.78]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 7 ms 25 ms 81.177.115.67
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 81.177.115.62
4 * 29 ms 29 ms 185.140.148.153
5 29 ms 30 ms 30 ms 95.71.2.226
6 26 ms 27 ms 26 ms 172.68.8.51
7 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms 162.159.138.78

Trace complete.

If you open site-5020507.onvanilla.net in your browser, you get a "400 Bad Request" error with VPN=ON, and "L2.1 Block" with VPN=OFF. I quess this is a problem on the onvanilla.net outsource side, and ZOS doesn't interfere with their policy. That explains their inaction

UrQuan · May 18

Vitgar wrote: »

I've done tracert
tracert forums.elderscrollsonline.com b]VPN=ON[/b

Tracing route to site-5020507.onvanilla.net [162.159.128.79]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 162.159.128.79

Trace complete.
tracert forums.elderscrollsonline.com b]VPN=OFF[/b

Tracing route to site-5020507.onvanilla.net [162.159.138.78]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 7 ms 25 ms 81.177.115.67
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 81.177.115.62
4 * 29 ms 29 ms 185.140.148.153
5 29 ms 30 ms 30 ms 95.71.2.226
6 26 ms 27 ms 26 ms 172.68.8.51
7 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms 162.159.138.78

Trace complete.
If you open site-5020507.onvanilla.net in your browser, you get a "400 Bad Request" error with VPN=ON, and "L2.1 Block" with VPN=OFF. I quess this is a problem on the onvanilla.net outsource side, and ZOS doesn't interfere with their policy. That explains their inaction

onvanilla.net, which is the backend domain for many forums including this one, uses cloudflare as a content delivery network and security layer. Russia has blocked or severely throttled cloudflare services country-wide. ZOS can't do anything about your government blocking and throttling cloudflare.

Vitgar · May 18

If "my government" or ISP block something (bbc.com or x.com), they don't put up "Global Block" or "L2.1 Block" signs. This is highly-likely done on the other side.

jm42 · May 20

UrQuan wrote: »

Vitgar wrote: »

I've done tracert
tracert forums.elderscrollsonline.com b]VPN=ON[/b

Tracing route to site-5020507.onvanilla.net [162.159.128.79]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 162.159.128.79

Trace complete.
tracert forums.elderscrollsonline.com b]VPN=OFF[/b

Tracing route to site-5020507.onvanilla.net [162.159.138.78]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 8 ms 7 ms 25 ms 81.177.115.67
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms 81.177.115.62
4 * 29 ms 29 ms 185.140.148.153
5 29 ms 30 ms 30 ms 95.71.2.226
6 26 ms 27 ms 26 ms 172.68.8.51
7 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms 162.159.138.78

Trace complete.
If you open site-5020507.onvanilla.net in your browser, you get a "400 Bad Request" error with VPN=ON, and "L2.1 Block" with VPN=OFF. I quess this is a problem on the onvanilla.net outsource side, and ZOS doesn't interfere with their policy. That explains their inaction

onvanilla.net, which is the backend domain for many forums including this one, uses cloudflare as a content delivery network and security layer. Russia has blocked or severely throttled cloudflare services country-wide. ZOS can't do anything about your government blocking and throttling cloudflare.

borking cloudflare has nothing to do in this case as it works inconsistently and we have already used to how it goes, it’s always eather endless loading or 403. problems with cloudflare never result in constant “global block” messages . trust me, our government is the first thing we consider having problems in internet, but I’m glad you read the news

jm42 · May 20

I also want to add that ZoS can 100% clarify this , but they have chosen silence. idk how you can have enough will to just block the part of your audience as some message but to not have the courage to say this message out loud