IstanbulBlock

Table of content :

History

• 2008-03-25 23:00 CET: First Infos about the block.
• 2008-03-26 14:00 CET: Call for Help - Italian Translation
• 2008-03-26 15:00 CET: English Announcement from IMC Istanbul (.doc) - Italian Translation - German Translation (Mixed from the it translation and the english update) - Portuguese-br Translation
• 2008-03-26 15:00 CET: Updates in Turkish
• 2008-03-26 20:00 CET: English Update from IMC Istanbul
• 2008-03-28 12:00 CET: Article in spanish
• 2008-03-28 12:00 CET: Article in portuguese-br

Legal Updates

• 2008-03-26 CET: Turkish Military General Chef of Stuff ordered the Block
• 2008-03-28 CET: ....

Background Links and Infos

• http://www.greatfirewallofturkey.com/

What is blocked?

http://istanbul.indymedia.org for the users of the Turk Telekom RAS Network.

Who blocked the Site?

IMC Istanbul is still talking with the lawyers. But it seems like the order comes from the Turkish Military General Chef of Stuff YAŞAR BÜYÜKANIT http://www.tsk.mil.tr/eng/genel_konular/chief.htm

Why?

For reasons unknown...

• 2008-03-26: We don't have any informations about the reasons for the block of istanbul.indymedia.org at the moment.

How can you get around the block?

Last Update: 2008-03-26 15:34 CET

• Yasaklanan Sitelere Erişim Yöntemleri (Resimli Anlatım)
• Indymedia have set up an alternative URL at http://istanbul.bbm.indymedia.org which is currently not blocked.
• Since the current block of Istanbul Indymedia is DNS-based you can reconfigure your router or computer to use the Open DNS servers. Although be aware that Open DNS servers are provided by a corporate company, who may log your activity. See https://www.opendns.com/start for instructions on using this.
• It may be possible to get around the current block of Istanbul Indymedia by appending nyud.net to the domain name, ie. http://istanbul.indymedia.org.nyud.net. See http://coralcdn.org/ for more information.
• Anonymising proxies such as Anonymouse are often able to get around blocked sites. Eg. Anonymouse can get around the current block by using the url http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://istanbul.indymedia.org

• Simply add one of the following lines to your hosts file. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_file#Location_and_default_content for where your hosts file can be found

208.69.42.132 istanbul.indymedia.org
216.139.209.83 istanbul.indymedia.org

• SSH tunnelling is perhaps the most complicated method of circumventing this block. Whilst it would ordinarily help, the current blocking of Istanbul Indymedia is being done at the DNS level which an SSH Socks proxy would not circumvent.

How does the block work?

The Turk Telekom changed their DNS Server and pointed the istanbul.indymedia.org Domain to another IP.

Original DNS Entry:

host istanbul.indymedia.org bennu.riseup.net
Using domain server:
Name: bennu.riseup.net
Address: 204.13.164.8#53
Aliases: 

istanbul.indymedia.org has address 208.69.42.132
istanbul.indymedia.org has address 216.139.209.83

Modified DNS Entry:

host istanbul.indymedia.org 195.175.39.40
Using domain server:
Name: 195.175.39.40
Address: 195.175.39.40#53
Aliases: 

istanbul.indymedia.org has address 88.255.41.21

The 195.175.39.40 / ttdns40.ttnet.net.tr is a DNS Server from the Turk Telekom.

whois 195.175.39.40
[....]
inetnum:        195.175.38.0 - 195.175.47.255
netname:        TT-RAS-TESTNET
descr:          Turk Telekom RAS Test Network
[....]

What Turkish people see

Other Press

Articles on other Sites than Indymedia:

• http://www.symlink.ch/articles/08/03/27/0923217.shtml (German-Tech-News-Site)
• http://www.gulli.com/news/zensur-t-rkei-sperrt-webseite-2008-03-27/ (Another german IT news Site)
• http://www.ondarossa.info/audio/2008_03_27_3316.mp3 (a radio service about indymedia istanbul - in italian)
• http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Tuerkisches-Militaergericht-sperrt-den-Zugang-zu-Indymedia-Istanbul--/meldung/105664 (Major German IT News Site)
• http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,543931,00.html (Largest German Online News Site)
• http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/105906/access-to-another-website-banned (Turkish media freedom association, English [highly sponsored by eu])
• http://www.jungewelt.de/2008/03-29/113.php (German Ex-GDR Daily Newspaper)
• http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/27/27605/1.html (German Political, Netactivism, whatever Site)

Global IMC Feature

• IstanbulBlockFeature20080328