I have to stop using this site until AT&T and Spamhaus figure sh** out.
AT&T's newest internet service is basically it's own proxy. It is literally a cellular service picked up by a home gateway and used to connect computers, gaming consoles, etc., to the internet. You can have a fully wired connection inside of your house, but the internet *coming in* is just a wireless cell phone signal.
The problem is, cell phones change towers quickly and frequently. And if one tower is less congested than another, your signal switches automatically. That usually means your IP switches easily too.
When you put a home internet connection on that network, you risk LOTS of things becoming unusable every few minutes as your IP changes. That is where AT&T has "fixed" it by making a proxy of their own.
I have two public IP addresses. One is before the proxy and the other is after. I can see the "before proxy" IP when I log in to my router. (It does NOT start with typical LAN IP numbers like 10 or 192, so it's NOT a private network number). But websites generally see the proxy, which starts like 73.213 or something (not looking at it RIGHT NOW, so I don't recall exactly).
That second IP number belongs to LOTS of users on the AT&T network. Again, it's a proxy on their end - and involuntary if you use their internet service "Internet AIR". That is simply how it works.
That means Joe Blow, two towns over, who I have never met, is likely using the same public IP if he hits the same tower. If he has a virus spamming something on the internet, his IP gets blocked by Spamhaus. But it is also MY IP!
Its like banning an entire subnet through a certain ISP. It affects lots of people at once. But Spamhaus does not want to change it, despite tons of innocent people being affected. AT&T won't change it because if they do the internet won't work properly for the AIR customers.
I did try resetting my modem/router/gateway. But only that number I see from being logged in to the actual gateway, was changed. Websites still saw that other public IP address.
Two days ago, my internet went out completely, from about 2am to 11am. When it came back the IP that websites saw was SLIGHTLY different, so I tried again... But Spamhaus had already blocked that one too.
Unfortunately, typing here on my phone (which uses Tmobile) is SUPER slow. Even if I use my virtual keyboard the input just is delayed and no where near what I am used to.
So until I find a different internet provider, AT&T puts me on fiber (I literally live across the street from the world's largest data center...), or Spamhaus stops blocking entire groups at once because ONE user is causing spam, I can no longer use this site. I know I didn't participate much, but it still sucks when I want to chat about kitty fishies, and have given up facebook.
