Why am I “banned from using this forum”?

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.