[Help] Redireted!

[DukeW]

I usually onected to Oslo or Zagreb server, bause i join about 18 to 20 channels!
Now this is what happenes:
*** Connecting to Oslo1.NO.EU.undernet.org (6667)
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*** Identd request from 62.231.74.10
*** Identd replied: 9830, 6667 : USERID : duh! : imad
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::: Welcome to the UnderNet IRC Network, DukeW
::: Your host is Bucharest.RO.EU.Undernet.Org, running version u2.10.12.05
I can Only conect to Bucharest, server! Why is that? I have been told in #Undernet that RDS clients are being redirected to that server automaticly! i tryed conecting to the server useing not its name but its IP but it didnt work! I find this very unplesent!
Is this permanent? Can i do something to be abel to conect to Oslo or Zagreb?

[sirAndrew]

It`s an RDS policy, RDS clients can only connect to undernet on bucharest.* which is hosted by undernet. RDS is a very strange ISP but i won`t discuss that issue here. However there are some users using RDS that can connect to other undernet servers and that`s because prolly RDS bought some small ISP company and they didn`t restrict the access to irc servers. Being the biggest ISP in Romania you might be surprised to see the decission permanent. It is also a matter of Undernet policy as some servers k-line users telling them politely to reconnect to a nearer server or not so politely that romanians are not allowed to use the specific server. It`s up to the server`s administration to choose their clients....try other servers besides oslo and zagreb. You can see the complete and update server list [url=http://www.undernet.org/servers.php]HERE[/url]

[puterfixer]

Actually, both Astral-UPC and RDS' DNS servers point almost all Undernet servers to bucharest.ro.eu.undernet.org. But, access to the other servers is not actually restricted; they are simply hidden, because the ISPs' DNS servers resolve all hosts to the same IP. This happens for another reason than some ISP or Undernet policy, as far as I know: your connection to the closest server (in terms of network connections) is the fastest and most stable. These ISPs have decided to use this method to "convince" users to get on the closest server to them - the one in Romania - for their own good. This also is a small roadbump for abusers, some sort of "security through obscurity".

One trick is to use a third party network tool, running on some website outside of RDS/Astral-UPC networks, to resolve the server names to their correct IP addresses. For instance, you could go to http://www.samspade.org , enter zagreb.hr.eu.undernet.org in the first text box and click "Do stuff" button; it will return something like: zagreb.hr.eu.undernet.org = [ 161.53.178.240 ]. So there's the real IP address of the Zagreb server, as seen by samspade's website. All you have to do now is connect your IRC client to that IP address instead of the hostname zagreb.hr.eu.undernet.org, and you'll get on it.

Please, do not use my explanation above to do anything wrong or abusive. As I said, the Romanian ISPs forward connections to the Undernet server in Bucharest because there are several good reasons to do that. Going around this setting for bad purposes will only force ISPs to also block outgoing connections to the real IPs of other servers, or IRC ops to k-line .ro ISPs on other servers than bucharest.ro.eu.undernet.org . Use this method wisely.

[Etherfast]

I'm a client of Astral-UPC (at home) for almost two years, and I can connect to any IRC server I want, without being redirected.

But I work for RDS, and all I can tell you is that RDS forwards all of the outgoing requests to *.undernet.org to Bucharest.Ro for the same reasons no outsiders (e.g. outside Romania) can connect to Bucharest.Ro if their IP doesn't resolve to a .ro also.

Technical stuff, like puterfixer said, all *.undernet.org requests to IRC common used ports are resolved to Bucharest.Ro.*

Oh, and if you DNS zagreb.eu.undernet.org from RDS, you WILL get the real IP. Just that the SERVER redirects you when you're trying a connect. Therefore, even if you're trying to connect to the IP directly, you will still be redirected.

[DukeW]

Quite frankly this is getting more wierd bye the moment! Didnt touch a thing and things are back to normal :| hopefuly they will stay this way!
Altough this is verry disturbeing! Now i conect to any server witch i want to without being redirected or what so ever

[puterfixer]

I have been using Astral for 2 1/2 years from Cluj Napoca, with the DNS servers there and the direct Internet connection through Telia, not going through the equipment in Bucharest. And, except for SanJose.CA.US.Undernet.org, all other Undernet servers resolve to the IP of Bucharest.RO.EU.Undernet.org. However, if I find the correct IP address of the other servers (as described above) I can connect to most of them without redirects of any sort, only a few k-line my IP address. So it's not a general rule, there are exceptions caused by different locations or maybe the fact that .ro IP addresses are not contiguous, nor do many of them have a reverse DNS to a .ro host. But this is probably getting a bit too technical.

[DukeW]

Not to tehnical for me ! The main thing is, that it works now! But it culd have been a DNS problem because i did try with the IP as u described an it didnt work ! But hey i really dont care as long as it woks now ! Gues this is the end of this!