THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Is no-one else getting redirected to a different website when trying to access BBTF? It’s been like this for about a week for me and I have no idea how to fix it and find the real BBTF.

That’s weird mezzie.  I’ve no such problems with BBTF. - Maybe you have a virus.

Works fine for me.

Bizarre :(

It’s been like this for a week, and it’s ONLY with BBTF. It’s redirecting to an old article about Derek Jeter, located here:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_6_55/ai_61619030/

It was very funny the first time I got redirected, and I assumed it was just a hacker’s prank, and that things would be back to normal soon, but nothing has changed since then.

I’ve rebooted, cleared out my cache, deleted cookies, tried accessing it through a proxy, and used multiple browsers, but it’s always the same. The domain is redirecting there.

If someone could forward this to the site owners, I’d be very grateful. I can’t even find the contact information, since it’s redirecting. I can access pages via Google’s cache, which is how I knew the site was actually up and running (for some people).

Due to the redirect page and the fact that it’s only BBTF, I’m 99% sure it’s not a virus, at least in the usual sense…

Thanks

1/Mezzie, you probably have some malware on your computer.  Run Spybot or Ad-Aware to try and flush it out.  I guess there could also be something screwed up with your DNS but that seems unlikely.  Where does it re-direct you?

Oops, I should have refreshed.

Mezzie, try opening a command prompt and typing:

ipconfig /flushdns

a longshot, but youneverknow…

Try finding hosts file in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc. Maybe something got written there.

Thanks guys!

I tried flushing the DNS using the ipconfig /flushdns command, and also checked the hosts file, but neither of those things worked. The hosts file hasn’t been touched since 2008 (when I got my machine), and there’s only the localhost there.

This is really the most bizarre thing ever if no-one else is experiencing it!

I just tried accessing BBTF through my wife’s computer, which is connected to the internet via the same wireless connection. Sure enough, it redirected.

Then I figured if both computers were experiencing it, it must be related to our internet connection. So I logged on to my work server (VPN) (on my computer, the same one), and voila! I’m able to access BBTF now, using the same browser.

I just did an ipconfig /release and /renew, but that didn’t fix the issue, so I’m going to try turning off my modem and see if that helps…

Knowing more, does it sound like perhaps a hacker may have collected IP addresses of people connected to BBTF at a particular time, and is redirecting all those people?

Are you using your ISP’s DNS servers? Maybe something is wonky there.  Try setting your DNS to use openDNS servers:

https://store.opendns.com/get/basic

Truly very strange.

Gah, this site needs an edit.

Mezzie, before you try that, what happens if you go directly to BBTF’s IP?

http://66.197.211.53/

It’s possible that Primer has blacklisted your IP address because it is similar to an IP address that should be blacklisted.  Normally though, it would redirect to its home page.

Also, try a different browser (Firefox/IE/Chrome, etc).

Going directly to the IP address still redirects, and I’ve tried both Firefox and IE on my computer and my wife’s computer.

It does sound like I was blacklisted. If someone could post BBTF’s webmaster’s contact info, I’d be very grateful!

In the meantime, I’ll check out the open DNS link

I had this same problem (same stupid Jeter articlet too) about a year ago.  I don’t recall what caused it to stop, though, so I can’t be much help to Mezzie. 

Mine was intermittent though; sometimes I would be taken to BBTF and then be redirected after clicking a link there.  Other times it would work fine all the way through.

In the meantime, I’ll check out the open DNS link

Well, if going directly to the IP still re-directs then openDNS isn’t going to be any help.

It sounds like perhaps the BBTF team has banned someone and then as a joke, caused their IP-block to re-direct to that article.  And it just so happens you are in the same IP-block as that poster.  At least that’s my guess.  You’re not the poster known as ‘kevin’ are you?

I would email Dan Sz.  Here’s his email:

dan {at} baseballthinkfactory.org

Although, come to think of it, you said you tried going through a proxy and it still happened? Did you use a web proxy like hidemyass.com?

My problem with Primer might be unrelated. I have different IDs there (Tangotiger, Tango_Tiger, Tango) and each one had to be created because I couldn’t sign in on that ID for whatever reason.  I gave up after the third one and haven’t posted there since. 

However, in each case, I was able to get to the members page to do that.

UPDATE:

So I tried OpenDNS before reading Ryan JL’s update, and as he said, it didn’t work.

When I was trying a proxy, I was using FoxyProxy and XRoxy in Firefox, and couldn’t actually even get a proxy working at all. At the time, I thought it was related, but in retrospect, it wasn’t. Using hidemyass.com works just fine!

Sounds like I’m on a blacklist, as Ryan suggested. I’m not Kevin, so I’ll try emailing Dan

Also in retrospect, I’ve been a BBTF member for several years now, but almost never post. I un-lurked just prior to this all happening to post about Blyleven/Morris (under the username “mezzie"), and this happened shortly thereafter. Attempting to login just now via Hidemyass.com, it says my username can’t be found in the DB. So clearly I was removed as a user, too, and likely the IP blacklist followed. It’s all coming clear now.

Thanks again for all your help folks! I knew this would be the most productive place to ask.

UPDATE #2:

Dan replied almost right away.

It looks like my IP address was on the banned list, and the Jeter redirect is the result of being banned (ha!). It’s been on the list for a very long time though, so I had nothing to do with the ban. No idea how dynamic my IP address is and why I’d end up with someone else’s old IP address.

Hopefully I’ll be removed and able to browse again soon

Mezzie’s IP was on the banned list for some reason.  Maybe horrible luck?  It’s an old listing, too, but I went ahead and removed it.

Tango, you can’t log in at all?  Tango looks to be still active and working, but I don’t know why I can’t find Tangotiger in the database.

The Jeter article is what happens if you happen to be on a bad IP address.  A lot have been banned over the years (lots of spammers) and I guess mathematically, the odds that someone will stumble onto one at some time are pretty decent.  If you’re not Kevin or Rob Base or someone advertising male enhancement pills in posts, you shouldn’t be banned.

Dan, thanks a ton! I wish I’d emailed you a week ago, but of course I couldn’t browse the site for any contact info :D

I’m still getting the redirect, so I assume the banned IP list will take some time to refresh and percolate out. If I’m still having trouble in a couple of days, I’ll let you know!

PS Tango et al, sorry for hijacking your thread for my own personal problem. I honestly had no other ideas for figuring this out though… Now back to my regularly-scheduled lurking.

Dan: you probably can’t find Tangotiger because I had asked that all my threads at Primate Studies not be ported over during the transition six or seven years ago.  I presume that was done by purging the Tangotiger account (which is fine).

Tango_Tiger and Tango should be fine but are not. 

I just signed in with the Tango one, asking for a password reset.  I logged in with the new password, telling me I’m now logged in and then it redirects me to the front page, but I am not logged in.  If I go to a blog post, the comments section is not available, and I have to click to log in, which I do, but that doesn’t help.

In any case, I’m not concerned.  Actually works out better, as I can just link to Primer and post from here.  It makes it easier for me to search through the archives when needed.

So, don’t worry trying to troubleshoot....

mezzie: yeah, I was thinking of creating a separate thread for you, which I will do now…

This thread has been renamed in the title, but the URL is untouched.

A new thread, with the original title and original content, has been created, but with a new URL.