Cruisers Forum
Main Forum => General Discussion => Topic started by: flei on January 19, 2026, 07:44:35 am
-
When i open the Forum homepage on my laptop I get the message “Sorry Guest, you are banned from using this forum! This ban is not set to expire.” If I try to log in I get the same message. I’ve cleared my cache, history etc etc but nothing changed. This situation has existed since October. I’m posting this from my phone where I seem to have no such problem. I would like to be able to log on from my laptop as it isn’t very easy to read this forum on my phone.
-
That has happened to me on my Windows computer running Windows 8.1 until recently buying a new Windows 11. This usually worked.
First try rebooting your computer. If that did not resolve the problem for me, I ran (and still do) a program called CCleaner (https://www.ccleaner.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoom230v4WYn8zBi-2j4s-Phy7IIcM8_dzLsw440P1PoWEGJfHaF). It cleans out all cookies, history, temp files, etc.
I have used CCleaner for well over 12 years at home and at work for maintaining my Windows PC. I do NOT recommend using the pay-for version, only the FREE version. I had bought the paid version, in-part to show my appreciation, inspired after Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 8, but it messed up my Windows Office programs.
I LOVE CCleaner. It restores my computer to a good state if I accidentally download something bad that introduces hidden gremlins. It removes the corruption nearly every time.
I exclusively use Google Chrome as my browser, and Gmail. I cannot speak for any other browser and email service, but CCleaner works great for me being 100% Google.
The program has default settings so go through each one in each tab. Selecting certain ones will clean your logins, your pre-filled credit card number, your pre-filled name, address, phone, email, etc. so methodically set yourself up the way you want one time and it will remain so, even after the regular updates. The regular updates address new methods of bad people doing bad things.
-
Thanks Ron but your solutions did not work for me. I use a Chromebook and cannot run CCleaner. We already communicated about this issue on the iRV2 forum.
Any other ideas? Anyone?
-
One thing that throws a wrench in the works is a VPN; I suspect some ad blockers and other spoofing software would do the same. I cannot connect while using a VPN.
-
One thing that throws a wrench in the works is a VPN; I suspect some ad blockers and other spoofing software would do the same. I cannot connect while using a VPN.
Not using a VPN. Ad blocker is turned off. Still get the same message.
I never had an issue for over 5 years while using the same hardware and software. Then back in October I got the message i was “banned”.
-
Not being a Chromebook user this is a shot in the dark. Some have recommended rebooting and clear cache. Have you done a hard reset-boot: removing the battery. This has worked last resort on laptops. I’m out of ideas, hope this works.
-
I get the same message when I'm not in the states or in an airplane. The provider that runs the forum has a restriction that all users must have a U. S. IP address. As soon as I'm back in the states it works just fine. The ban is on the ip address, not you the user.
With that said... Is it possible you are near the Canadian or Mexican border? If on a phone or mobile hotspot or starlink, could you be close enough to a border that you are picking up a tower and "roaming"?
One solution I found to bypass the rules was to use a VPN and configure it to show that I was in Chicago or NYC, or some location clearly inside the states. I. E. I was faking it out and it thought I was in the states.
I hope that helps you.
Larry
-
Not being a Chromebook user this is a shot in the dark. Some have recommended rebooting and clear cache. Have you done a hard reset-boot: removing the battery. This has worked last resort on laptops. I’m out of ideas, hope this works.
I’ve rebooted and cleaned the cache etc. many times with no change in this problem. Not up for trying to remove the battery on this ultra-thin laptop.
BTW I have emailed the PC office several times asking for help with this issue and never received any response. The PC website seems wonky and like there have been no additions or changes in a very long time. Is the company still in business?
Guess I will just continue to use other forums instead of this one. Too bad.
-
I think the forum is quiet because of the season and less members camping in this cold weather... and possibly no one is having problems or needing advice.
So allow me to ask... How are you able to post the above replies if the forum tells you that "you are banned" ? It's the problem resolved?
Larry
-
I think the forum is quiet because of the season and less members camping in this cold weather... and possibly no one is having problems or needing advice.
So allow me to ask... How are you able to post the above replies if the forum tells you that "you are banned" ? It's the problem resolved?
Larry
Problem still exists on my laptop but I can log in and read and post from my phone. However, as I mentioned, imo the phone based interface for this forum is terrible; bad enough that i had not bothered to check the forum for months. I have no clue why i can access the forum on my phone but not on my laptop.
-
I get the same message when I'm not in the states or in an airplane. The provider that runs the forum has a restriction that all users must have a U. S. IP address. As soon as I'm back in the states it works just fine. The ban is on the ip address, not you the user.
With that said... Is it possible you are near the Canadian or Mexican border? If on a phone or mobile hotspot or starlink, could you be close enough to a border that you are picking up a tower and "roaming"?
One solution I found to bypass the rules was to use a VPN and configure it to show that I was in Chicago or NYC, or some location clearly inside the states. I. E. I was faking it out and it thought I was in the states.
I hope that helps you.
Larry
I first got the banned message in October while attempting to log in from my home in MA, the same place I’ve lived since I registered for this forum. Since 1/4/26 I’ve been in Las Cruces, New Mexico (close to Mexico but ~50 miles away) where I will be until April; i was here last year at the same time and the forum worked fine then. I am not a techie and i do not understand why i am having this issue.
-
BTW, in an attempt to work around my issue I thought I would just set up a new account by registering using a new user name etc.. However, this won’t work because as soon as I go to the forum home page I get the message “Sorry Guest, you are banned from using this forum!”, and I cannot proceed further. ugh.
-
Back in 2018 my wife and I travelled to Israel, Egypt, and Greece. On a few quiet evenings, I decided to go on this PC forum with my phone. Once I got back to my own house in the USA, this forum got squirrelly, and it was not the only forum. I learned to never log into any forum when outside the USA. The same goes for other internet venues.
I am uneasy checking my email when outside the USA for fear that I will mess up something with that critical service.
-
Hi Guys!
It's hard to know why this is happening as each individual user and login attempt provides a different scenario. The ban is "automatic" and I do not see a way to remove the ban on individual usernames. However the frequency certainly increased after we raised our security with GoDaddy this past fall as the site was and continues to get hit with a high volume of suspect and malicious traffic. We want to resolve the hyper sensitive banning while maintaining the security.
We appreciate your patience as we continue to review and try to improve the experience without removing necessary security protocols.
Thank you for the engagement that you provide on this forum and we will continue to try to remedy the issue.
safe travels!
-
Hi Guys!
It's hard to know why this is happening as each individual user and login attempt provides a different scenario. The ban is "automatic" and I do not see a way to remove the ban on individual usernames. However the frequency certainly increased after we raised our security with GoDaddy this past fall as the site was and continues to get hit with a high volume of suspect and malicious traffic. We want to resolve the hyper sensitive banning while maintaining the security.
We appreciate your patience as we continue to review and try to improve the experience without removing necessary security protocols.
Thank you for the engagement that you provide on this forum and we will continue to try to remedy the issue.
safe travels!
Well for some reason this morning I tried to access the forum on my laptop and could!! and was also able to log in. I have no idea why I couldn't do this for the past 3+ months or why I could now. Weird. (WH)
-
FLEI,
I had some free time to research this further and found a way to get myself "banned', AND HOW TO REMEDY the problem. I won't go specifically into how to get yourself banned, but basically it is caused by accessing the forum on different ip addresses from different countries within a short period of time... I.E. The forum software thinks that you are a bad character trying to spoof it and it drops a poisoned cookie on your device. That cookie eventually ages off and let's you back on.. While you still have it on your device, all users who try to login from your device are banned. (As you have experienced and described above.) The good news is, there's a way to get rid of it instantly.
To remove the ban you must remove ALL saved cookies for the forum website. THE KEYWORD IN THAT SENTENCE IS **ALL**. The basic "delete cookies" command does not always remove the one which bans you (this is a whole new issue of DELETE based upon versions of CHROME and maybe other browsers too). To do so, follow these steps. I only have Chrome, so if you are using Edge, Safari, or Firefox it might be slightly different.
Open Chrome
Open Settings (click on your Google avatar icon, at top right and then click on Settings )
Click on Site settings
Click on All sites
Click on the magnifying glass and search for phoenix
You will get at least one result, including...
phoenixusarv.com
Click on the trash can beside Phoenixusarv.Com
Click on Delete & reset
..... Now all of the cookies, saved credentials, saved history, and the "you are banned" cookie are gone!
Open the forum. It will ask you to login as if it was your first time to login on this device. It will ask for your userid and password and all should be good.
From what I can tell after reading hundreds of online support discussions the SMF administrators of our forum have an over zealous rule to block international hackers with too broad of a wildcard pattern for IP addresses... It blocks the bad guys and occasionally tags us too.
Larry
-
FLEI,
I had some free time to research this further and found a way to get myself "banned', AND HOW TO REMEDY the problem. I won't go specifically into how to get yourself banned, but basically it is caused by accessing the forum on different ip addresses from different countries within a short period of time... I.E. The forum software thinks that you are a bad character trying to spoof it and it drops a poisoned cookie on your device. That cookie eventually ages off and let's you back on.. While you still have it on your device, all users who try to login from your device are banned. (As you have experienced and described above.) The good news is, there's a way to get rid of it instantly.
To remove the ban you must remove ALL saved cookies for the forum website. THE KEYWORD IN THAT SENTENCE IS **ALL**. The basic "delete cookies" command does not always remove the one which bans you (this is a whole new issue of DELETE based upon versions of CHROME and maybe other browsers too). To do so, follow these steps. I only have Chrome, so if you are using Edge, Safari, or Firefox it might be slightly different.
Open Chrome
Open Settings (click on your Google avatar icon, at top right and then click on Settings )
Click on Site settings
Click on All sites
Click on the magnifying glass and search for phoenix
You will get at least one result, including...
phoenixusarv.com
Click on the trash can beside Phoenixusarv.Com
Click on Delete & reset
..... Now all of the cookies, saved credentials, saved history, and the "you are banned" cookie are gone!
Open the forum. It will ask you to login as if it was your first time to login on this device. It will ask for your userid and password and all should be good.
From what I can tell after reading hundreds of online support discussions the SMF administrators of our forum have an over zealous rule to block international hackers with too broad of a wildcard pattern for IP addresses... It blocks the bad guys and occasionally tags us too.
Larry
Thanks Larry, I think you MAY have figured it out. As I stated above everything started to work fine again on 1/26/2026 so maybe the "bad cookie" expired?
However, re. the cause of the problem, I have not recently attempted to log on from a foreign country (I'm sure I viewed the forum in 2023 when we traveled a few months in Canada and that never caused this issue). When the problem first occurred in October 2025 I was at home in Massachusetts, USA, the same home I was in when I joined the forum and ever since. The problem persisted when I arrived in NEW Mexico (the US State, not a foreign country) on 1/7/26.
Anyway, all is well now and if this happens again I will follow your advice.
-
I think that's where the wildcard ranges of banned IP addresses kick in. For example there could be some IP addresses in New Mexico that are interspersed within a broader range of IP addresses for one or more countries that have these hackers. The forum administrators may have put in a broad Wild Card range of IP addresses to block those foreign countries and inadvertently banned you in New mexico. I don't know what the admins did on this forum but I suspect they probably caught their error and fixed that, specially since your cookie aged out and went away and you are able to log on now and not get banned again.
Nonetheless, glad you're back online.
-
FLEI and others: thanks for all your ideas and imput on this issue. I hadn't checked in a few days, but I am just now getting on the Forum for the first time in at least a month, probably more. No travel of any kind, always using my PC at home.
No deleting of caches, nothing, All of a sudden it works again. Hopefully the Phoenix Team keeps it working given the challenges of today's mixed up world !
Jim
-
Hi Everyone!
We made several updates to the forum over the last couple of weeks. We hope that this will eliminate some of your issues in logging in. Having said that, I have seen a record number of fake registrations during this time. Fortunately they were obvious and have been rejected.
thank you very much for your patience during this time! Please let us know how it goes!
Safe Travels!!
-
Tried to log into this forum on 2/21 and again got the message I was banned. Tried again every day since and got the same message every time until this morning (2/26) when this did not happen (which is how I am able to post this message). My location (currently New Mexico) is unchanged from where I have been since 1/7/26. Not sure updates have fixed this for me. This is a very irritating and negatively impacts my interest in trying to use this forum.
-
This is a very irritating and negatively impacts my interest in trying to use this forum.
What you have experienced is likely the reason why this forum has so little activity. I think other members just don't say anything about it. Once the issue started, forum participation dropped to almost zero. It is very sad.
I check for new posts here daily, and I use this forum as a library for all my Tips & Tricks which are naturally PC-focused but often applies to other brands of motorhomes. I often direct other RVers on other RV forums to my PC posts which indirectly promotes the Phoenix Cruiser.
The problem you have on this forum, may be a problem for visitors as well. I wish there was a clear solution for Phoenix to fix this virus or whatever it is.