Login

61

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by Ron Dittmer on January 20, 2026, 10:11:20 pm »

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.

62

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by flei on January 20, 2026, 12:41:48 pm »

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.

63

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by flei on January 20, 2026, 12:32:17 pm »

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.

64

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by flei on January 20, 2026, 12:24:52 pm »

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.

65

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by LRUCH on January 20, 2026, 09:43:20 am »

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

66

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by flei on January 20, 2026, 08:34:43 am »

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.

67

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by LRUCH on January 19, 2026, 02:41:59 pm »

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

68

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by TinTurtle on January 19, 2026, 12:53:33 pm »

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.

69

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by flei on January 19, 2026, 12:23:48 pm »

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”.

70

General Discussion / Re: Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

« Last post by TinTurtle on January 19, 2026, 11:57:00 am »

 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.