Country identification blocking

I would like to purchase some music from a specific web site, but it somehow checks what country i'm in (it only allows to buy from Canada) and tells me that I can't buy there. The bug is that I AM in Canada...  Using my laptop, when I go to the site form home, it denies me, when I go from the same laptop but connected from work it allows me in.
I have a router at home acting as a firewall.  Could it be some scurity feature from the router? Is there a way to disable that feature, or create a sort of rule that lets this specific web site to check my coutry info?

Any help would be helpful. thanks.

10,509 views 36 replies
Reply #1 Top
Gee, Patric....maybe you're not in Canada anymore.....you don't have a dog named 'Toto', do you

The router firewall could be stopping the inbound traffic...you don't have a software firewall running too, do you?
Reply #2 Top
No, no software firewall, just the router. Besides, as I said, it works from work using the same computer... ??? I'm confused. I checked all my settings from my firewall but most of it is Chinese to me...
Reply #3 Top
The router only blocks inbound traffic and there lays the problem. The router will stealth your presence on the INTERNET, thus the software you're trying to download cannot tell where you are. I assume you're on a corporate firewall at work. That is not the same as a router. There should be software on your Lap (somewhere) that will allow this site thru...I've never seen a router setup that was optionless..
Reply #4 Top

Yes, I can go to the router's configuration through a web interface. Only, I don't know what I'm looking for...

Reply #5 Top
You're looking for the site that you want to allow thru. In other words, you want to put the site (www.whatever.com) in the trusted zone and the router will let it through.




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Reply #6 Top

OK, so I'm looking for something that says "Trusted Zone".  I'll check that out when I get home. Stuck at work still right now. 10:30 pm. *sigh*

Reply #7 Top
...yeah, Patric. It could be called a number of different things (trusted, safe, allowed...you get the idea), but I think when you see it, you'll know that's it. You'll probably have to type in the site addy, so look for that in the same place. If you can't find it, let me know who's router it is and I can tell you where to put the info...
Reply #9 Top
OOOoooo....there nice ones. You'll be looking for disabling WAN blocking for that site so it can ping you.....so start there.
Reply #10 Top
OK, disabling WAN blocking.  Yeah, I think I remember seeing WAN somewhere. I'll check it out. Thanks a million.
Reply #11 Top
.......always a pleasure........even if you don't know where you live
Reply #12 Top
  In the grey area above you.
(that's what my wife - an American - calls Canada)
Reply #13 Top

Hey, you're from PA. The wife's from PA too. Ambler. Close to you?

Reply #14 Top
About an hour or so down the Pike....she be a Philly Gal
Reply #15 Top
Ya, she misses her Philly Cheese steaks.
Reply #16 Top
I'll pick her up one next time I'm down there.....I'll send it to her if you guys ever figure out where you're at..
Reply #17 Top
Hehehe! Where's my GPS when I need one!
Reply #18 Top
Reply #19 Top

OK bad news. I don't see WAN blocking anywhere, neither do I see trusted, blocked or anything like that.

Under Setup I see the following tabs:
Passwords, Status, DHCP, Log, Help and Advanced.  Then under the Advanced tab, I get the following tabs:

Filters, Forwarding, Dynamic Routing, Static Routing, DMZ Host, Mac Addr Clone, Wireless.

That's it... ?

Reply #20 Top

Could it be that your Internet Service Provider is registered in some other country, and the web site is using a simplistic method of determining what country you are in (like basing it solely on the home country of your isp)?

We were working on something similar for our web site at work a while back, and that was one of the problems we had to overcome. AOL IP addresses, for example, always comes back as being in Virginia, USA, even if the user is somewhere completely different. We had to use a combination of IP address, user's system clock, and user's system language settings as criteria to make our best guess as to their location. Untimately though, it still wasn't flawless, and we ended up abandoning it for the time being.

Reply #21 Top
No, my ISP is Videotron, and it's a Canadian company.   That shouldn't be it.
Reply #22 Top
Patric, Mike is right....your signal could be going from Canada to China and back. Go here and see what your IP and provider shows as: http://grc.com/default.htm (go to the Shields Up Section and click on it and it will give the info.) If it doesn't show as Candadian (or even if it does) you may have to call your ISP and ask about their routing. They'll even tell you how to adjust your router.

Having said that, you should be able make the changes you need in 'Filters'
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Reply #23 Top

It shows me as modemcable190.122-37-24.mc.videotron.ca but I don't see where it says what country I'm in, other than the obvious .CA at the end of the domain name. I guess I'll give Videotron a call. ONly problem is that I'm kinda illegally sharing my Internet. Videotron wants to charge you for every computer, and I say bull... Anyway, I guess I could say that I have a router only as a firewall.

Reply #24 Top
The ISP ID is corect and shows in Canada, so we know they're not 'renting' bandwidth. You're right about the ISP, but you don't have to tell them what it's hooked up to other then you use a router. As long as they don't have a 'Pull Index' to determine how many computers you have hooked to it, they won't have a clue (other then what you tell them). For the most part, Wireless connections fall into that catagory everywhere, so you're save in telling them just about anything you want. There's nothing nefarious in what you're doing....few ISP's charge for a Lap since you can go just about anywhere, find a hot spot and connect.
Reply #25 Top
The site checks your ip address. According to the ip-address modemcable190.122-37-24.mc.videotron.ca resolves to, you're in Chantilly, Virginia, US of A.

Instead of calling your ISP, I'd sooner contact the site and tell them their detection scheme is flawed.