I tried to get onto IRC tonight and was refused (Not Authorized).  Is this
a temporary situation?

43 responses total.

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It looks like the server at uoknor.edu isn't letting us in.
I tried several other unrelated sevrers, and they wouldn't
let us in either.

What's odd is, the error message said that robh@152.160.30.1
wasn't an authorized user.  Every time I've used IRC before,
it listed my address as robh@cyberspace.org.  Did we change
something that prevents us from sending out our domain name,
and would this cause the other servers to deny us access?

I don't know much about this, but I'd interpret it as a DNS breakdown at
*their* end, I think.

I used to try to *use* IRC when I had an account on Millcomm - I never really
figured it out and mostly had to logout and re-login to do the other things
I wanted to on that system - I don't know if that was just Millcomm or IRC
itself, but it was really a pain in the arse.

Re 3 - That's what I thought too, but I tried several
different unrelated servers from all over the country,
and they all gave similar error messages.  Did everyone's
DNS server break down at once?  >8)

I have used it a lot.  It is a fantastic journey.  I accessed it the same way
I always have and I got the same denial message as did robh

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*** Connecting to port 6667 of server midway.ecn.uoknor.edu 
*** Closing Link: mcpoz[mcpoz@152.160.30.1] (No Authorization) 
*** Connection closed from midway.ecn.uoknor.edu: Remote end closed connection

This is what I get when I try to IRC the last few days.

Why not send mail to the IRC server administrator to see if he/she has an
answer to the question of why we are being treated as unauthorized?

Now, I can not get out on http via lynx, I can't telnet, and irc still is
kaput.

Sounds like the name daemon was down.  What error messages
were you getting?  (Saying "it's down" doesn't help much,
especially when the problem fixes itself before anyone sees
the response.)

It's hard to give you an error message when I did not get one.  Perhaps it
was working, but it was moving at an imperceptible pace?  I gave up after
several minutes.  In fact it timed out once, but no message.
I just tried lynx now and it works.

There are several possabilities there, but essentially it means that something
is down.  If you were only trying to access one web server, it may be that
that web server was down.  If nothing outside of Grex was working, probably
either Grex's name server was down, or Grex's link to the Internet was down.
Both happen from time to time. :(

Actually, saying "I didn't get any error message, it just sat
there" is plenty.

I'd guess it was the name daemon, I've found it frozen up
from time to time.  Usually waiting five or ten minutes
and trying again works for me.

(Oh, and general rule of thumb for anyone - if you think the
Internet link is down, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send mail to
staff right away, don't just post it in the Grex Problems
item or here.  The staffers don't always notice that the link
is dead, and if we don't notice it ourselves, we can't fix it.)

(Of course, those staff people who telnet in or read their mail offline still
won't hear ...)

But those staffers will notice pretty quickly that something
is wrong with the link.  >8)

Is the address for staff - "STAFF" ?

Yes.  It will work lower case too.

or staff@cyberspace.org

such a creative name...

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I try it every once in a while - still get the same "not authorized" signal.
I don't have any idea how to approach this.

I tried it from here just today, and while I did manage to get the
welcome message for two servers, I couldn't actually join any
channels or anything like that.

Lest anyone think this was a problem with the servers, I used
my MSen account to access them as well, and they both worked
just fine from there.

More on the problem:  I tried connecting to various uoknor.edu
IRC servers from my MSen account, and they refused the connection,
just like Grex does.  I also tried a few other servers, and they
seemed to work fine on both MSen and Grex.  So it looks like the
problem is with the server we're trying to use.  I expect we'll
need to define a new one.

In the meantime, mcpoz, which IRC net did you want to connect with?
Undernet?  I can get you a list of usable servers for whichever one
you want.

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Try manhattan.ks.us.undernet.org

Of all the Undernet systems I tried, that one had the best
response, though you will need to sit through a bevy of
dgets error messages before you can do anything.

Rob & Valerie - As you can guess, I am too ignorant to tell you which server
I want to connect to.  All I know is what I have used at Grex.  I have just
tried the undernet address Rob gave in item #27 and it works fine.  I can get
around in that.  When I sign on, I get the IRC refusal from the Univ of Okla
server, but then if I type "/server manhattan.ks.us.undernet.org" it works
fine.  Thanks.

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Great!

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Any idea why we can't telnet, IRC, or HTTP?

The Internet link was having problems when you entered that response;
since it's fine now, I hope everything's working again.

Ok & thanks.  After I entered the response I saw that only 6 people were on
which is highly unusual for that time of the evening.

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(Don't Mind If I restart this dead item?)

I am very familiar with IRC, and I use it almost every day.

Here are the possible reasons for getting the error "No Authorizaton" 
when tryint to connect to an irc server:

1.  That server already has a user connected to it from the same 
hostname.  IRC servers do not allow more than one connection per person 
on a server.  I think this is only for SLIP/PPP users, so Grex should be 
allowed to have more than one user on the server at a time.  The reason 
for this is simple.  If one person is allowed to join irc many many 
times, it prevents others from accessing it, plus it can be exploited so 
that the person with multiple connections can "flood" people easier.

2.  Most IRC servers only like people from the certain region using the 
server.  For example, if you live in ann arbor, you will probably not be 
able to access an irc server in Phoenix.  However, the irc server 
ann-arbor.mi.us.undernet.org will glady accept your connection.

3.  If you abuse the server, and use it to constantly flood people 
and/or cause problems, you may get banned from the site.  Usually this 
is called a "K-Line" or a "G-Line" (Depending on how long the ban will 
last.)  But, I *think* that a klined user will occasionally get the 
error message "No Authorization"


Finally, Here are a list of undernet IRC servers (Not all of them work, 
depending on where you live)

ann-arbor.mi.us.undernet.org
Norman-r.ok.us.undernet.org
SaltLake.UT.US.UnderNET.Org
SanDiego.CA.US.Undernet.org 
springfield.mo.us.undernet.org
phoenix.az.us.undernet.org
Manhattan.KS.US.Undernet.Org
lowell.ma.us.undernet.org
Dublin.IE.EU.Undernet.Org
Des-Moines.IA.US.Undernet.Org
portland.me.us.undernet.org
okc.ok.us.undernet.org
gateway1.undernet.org
los-angeles.ca.us.undernet.org
SanJose.CA.US.Undernet.Org
Chicago-R.IL.US.Undernet.org
Chicago-1.IL.US.Undernet.org
Chicago.IL.US.Undernet.org
Dallas.Tx.US.Undernet.org
auckland.nz.undernet.org
StLouis.MO.US.UnderNet.org
Baltimore.MD.US.Undernet.Org
washington-r.dc.us.undernet.org
washington-2.dc.us.undernet.org
washington-1.dc.us.undernet.org
washington-4.dc.us.undernet.org
washington-3.dc.us.undernet.org
London.UK.eu.Undernet.org
washington.dc.us.undernet.org
Pittsburgh.PA.US.undernet.org
austin.tx.us.undernet.org
montreal.qu.ca.undernet.org
Vancouver-R.BC.CA.Undernet.Org
channels.undernet.org
Vancouver.BC.CA.Undernet.Org
toronto.on.ca.undernet.org
RockHill.SC.US.Undernet.Org
Lulea.se.eu.undernet.org
Amsterdam.NL.EU.undernet.org
Regensburg.DE.EU.undernet.org
Diemen.NL.EU.undernet.org
Oslo.NO.EU.Undernet.org

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Hmm, Well, I was just in IRC on Grex, and I tried to use the Ann Arbor 
server, and it refused my connection.  If the server currently being 
used is working, then it probably should be kept as it is.  I do not 
know why the Ann Arbor server would not accept my connection.

Not all IRC servers follow the "location" rule, but I said that because 
it is *usually* the case--but not always.

Last I heard, the ann-arbor.mi.us IRC server was being run by Jared.  If we
don't have permission to use it at the moment, I'm fairly sure he would give
us access to it.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss