Well well, facebook was working fine yesterday morning, but when I tried again at 5:00pm, connections to facebook were timing out.
At first I thought facebook's servers were down. But it was working fine in other parts of the world, and I could view http://static.facebook.com (but not login from there).
Does this mean it is blocked ? This is not the first time a site would be without the standard 'Site Is blocked' message. If you remember, skype.com used to be blocked like this a few years ago.
On the other hand, it could also mean that facebook's servers that serve the middle east are down - but that is unlikely ...
A little bird I know tells me an anti-islamic group on facebook has caused the offence - but this is strictly a _rumor_
I look forward to more news about this... Hopefully, Etisalat and the TRA will shed more light on this ...
EDIT: It's up ! It's up ! It's up now ....
EDIT: It's down ! Its down ! Its down again ... but at least we know it can't have been blocked.
01 October, 2007
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It was not only Facebook yesterday that was having problems, as I tried many sites and they would work sometimes, and then time out again.
I think our favorite Telecom Company was having problems yesterday and some still today.
Its working fine through other illegal ways...plus its also working fine through DU [emirates hills etc]...
so in the end it comes down to etisalat....
hmm...here we go again...
Regardless of whether it's working or not I have a question. Why should they block anything that's anti-Islamic? Blocking web-sites that disagree with your religious beliefs seems fruitless and a statement that one is not able to defend the validity of their faith as truth. Stop blocking the web sites with which you disagree and let the people think. If you want to enter the "world of ideas" you must be able to defend your beliefs against all ideas - not simply block them out. Besides the idea of blocking out those who disagree with you leads in the direction of other more drastic "gagging" of the opposition.
It is still not working in Abu Dhabi - it stopped sometime mid day yesterday (Sep 30) and has not loaded since.
I manage a couple of servers in the USA from Dubai. Sometimes they just show-up as not available, even though I know they are not being blocked.
So I started using a separate DNS service. In short DNS is what helps you map between website names and their actual IP numbers.
http://www.opendns.com/
It is pretty easy to do it, even for a novice. Try the page above and see if you can follow the instructions. If not I will make a tutorial and post it on here.
D.Blogger
Hi
Facebook was not working till late last night and when I ran Windows Diagnostics it said that an external firewall was blocking access.
Just wanted to add to the growing tide of discontent against blocking of sites - first sexanddubai (which was one of my all time favourite blogs and now Facebook) Someone at the TRA really needs to rethink their strategy.......
Disgusted and disconnected :P
Hmmm.. does it mean that facebook is blocked? maybe.. but why?
Is it because there are "bad" pix..?! Or because there are some members act in a way that they shouldn't act in, especially because of their stature?!!!
We will wait and see..
Its working fine for me now.
It does seem like Etisalat is having problems with some of its links.
Look on the bright side: Enemybook is still accessible.
It is Blocked the guys at Eatshit told me that as well.
yes..facebook is temporarily blocked in uae!..as according to a customer service rep at etisalat
If it's blocked.. I guess we just have to show Etisalat how popular Facebook is by sending them a few thousands of "unblock requests"..
Hmmm... VERY strange indeed. I cannot log into it from Al Barsha, Dubai, yet my friends down the road have no problem logging in. & To top it I'm still getting friend requests etc from within the UAE. WTF... Looks like a partial subscriber meltdown.
the reason for u getting the requests is cuz..fb is working in the free zone areas..
n people are also accessing it on Du connection or GPRS, or proxies(though i dunt knw any proxies that are working!!)
So lets start sending those "unblock requests" Does anyone know how to send them? I think we all need to bombard etisalat with the requests until they listen....There is power in numbers.
Dubai Blogger ... followed the instructions on OpenDNS and got as far as adding a network on the dashboard page. It doesn't seem to have helped in accessing Facebook though... Help!
Guys,
If in your proxy settings you put Etisalat's official proxy (Adress: proxy1.emirates.net.ae / Port: 8080)
It works! Weird I say..
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