Getting Around Ban

[Kung Foo]

Is there another way to access a forum that you are banned from than changing your ip address?

[Will.Spencer]

There are three types of forum bans I can think of, and there are ways to evade each.

Username Ban

As a forum administrator, I can ban your user name.

Not much of a problem for you -- you just re-register under another user name.

E-mail Address Ban

As a forum administrator, I can require e-mail address verification to register a username on the forum.

Not much of a problem for you -- you just get a new e-mail account from one of the free email services and register another user name.

IP Address Ban

As a forum administrator, I can ban the IP address which you appear to come from, or even the range of IP addresses around your current IP address.

This ban is a bit more difficult to avoid, but not much. There are quite a few methods of getting around an IP address ban.

Change your ISP

If you change your ISP, your IP address will change.

Sometimes you can change your IP address by asking your ISP to change it for you, or even by turning off your cable modem or DSL modem and leaving it off for longer than your ISP's DHCP server is configured to remember your MAC address. Or, you can buy a new DSL modem or cable modem and your ISP will see the new MAC address and assign you a new IP address.

Use an Unsecured Wireless Access Point

Another method of avoiding an IP ban is to connect using an unsecured wireless access point. Then, you are using the IP address of that Internet connection.

Use an Anonymous Proxy

Alteratively, you can use an anonymous proxy. You connect to the anonymous proxy and then through the anonymous proxy to the forum.

The forum sees your IP address as being the IP address of the anonymous proxy, not your real IP address.

Use Onion Routing

Onion routing causes your computer to route each connection through another node on the onion network. This causes each of your connections to the forum to appear to come from a different IP address.

Onion routing is usually accomplished using the popular Tor client.

Apologize

Perhaps the best way to avoid a forum ban is to apologize and ask for another chance. This works for all types of bans. E-mail for forum administrator, explain that you understand why you were banned and that you would like another opportunity on the forum.

Most forum administrators really want more forum members, so they are motivated to give you another chance.

If not, there are plenty of other forums for you out on the Internet.

[darviria]

heh I remember when I was an irc sysop we wildcard banned a whole ISP for some reason. And I've known people to wildcard ban a whole country by the top level domain from a forum to prevent spam

[Kung Foo]

I got Ip banned, so none of the other options would work. I could not e-mail the administrator because I could not find his e-mail address. Even when I first registered, the mail that autmatically sends to my e-mail doesn't have his e-mail on it. I have a static ip address so the off and on of the modem or iprelease or renew does not work. I was thinking about switching my wireless adapter in my computer since I have two, would that change my address?

[Will.Spencer]

That would change your MAC address, but would not change your IP address -- because you have a static IP.

E-mail webmaster@ the domain name of the forum from which you were banned.

[Kung Foo]

Hm.. ok so I e-mail since its name is ForumW right.

[Will.Spencer]

Exactly. That's an Internet standard address.