Yesterday I had just finished creating an add-on domain for one of my web sites when the site went down. I waited a little while but it did not come back up. I could not even ping the server. I was pretty sure it was an internal problem that they would resolve pretty quickly so I filed a trouble ticket and went back to work on other stuff. A little while later I cranked up Torpark and tried to reach my web site. Surprise, surprise, Torpark could reach my web site. My web site was really up! That was good news. Since the primary feature of Torpark is its ability to allow you to surf the internet anonymously, I knew that the problem was with my route to my web site. I have a another website with the same provider and I could get to that website so this was quickly becoming a fascinating problem.
I remembered that I had seen a really nice visual trace route program in the past but I couldn’t remember its name. So I googled for visual trace route and found it, VisualRoute. At their website I ran their online version and confirmed that they could get to my website. To confirm that my problem had to do with my IP address, I downloaded VisualRoute. Visualware offers a 15 day trial. The downloaded version told me the last IP address it got to on the route. I checked my other website and it flew right through this router. Hmm..its been a long time so I think I better call them on the phone and see what’s going on.
Just got off the phone. They had banned my IP because I had too many failed password attempts. In a way I am glad they ban IP addresses if they have failed password attempts. However, as a long time system administrator I would like to know when someone is trying to break in so I was puzzled why I was not notified. They said they did not provide that functionality at this time but they would pass the request on.
I guess what I learned from this episode is that Torpark is a quick way to see if your IP address is banned. It is not a tool I plan to use everyday but it is nice to tool to use to get around IP blockades.