Thread: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
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Old 28-05-2008, 17:15   #7374
AlexanderHanff
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Re: Virgin Media Phorm Webwise Adverts [Updated: See Post No. 1, 77, 102 & 797]
Quote:
Originally Posted by SelfProtection View Post
I wouldn't believe BT if I were you, I've been doing this throughout!

Apart from temporary timeouts when the system is forced to re blacklist the IP address, the system works faster without the extra hops!
I don't need to believe BT, I just used them for reference. With the current method, if you have the webwise domain blocked in your firewall it is impossible to traverse onto the internet. It simply will not work since all requests MUST go through a webwise domain first and if you can't find that domain because you have blocked the IP your traffic is going literally nowhere.

And throughout what? The trials have not even started yet. BT have explicitly warned people not to block the webwise domain for this exact reason. It can't be worked around.

The only time (according to Kent) that the webwise system will blacklist your IP and bypass the profiler is if you have the cookie blocked (and even that takes a couple of attempts and only works for a very short period and as described by Dr Clayton (and confirmed by Kent at the PIA meeting) can still result in getting stuck in a loop). And this is detected by the webwise system, so even then you need to be able to get to the webwise system before this can happen.

So with respect, no blocking with your firewall is a very bad idea if you want to use the web at all on port 80.

Let me just add a little extra info to clarify matters. The Layer 7 Switch performing the Deep Packet Inspection looks for a cookie, whether you have a cookie or not, it forwards the packets to the webwise system, which will then attempt to set a cookie. If it is unable to set a webwise cookie it assumes it is blocked and blacklists the IP for about 6 minutes if I remember correctly (I would need to check on the time the IP stays blacklisted).

But regardless of whether a cookie is present or not, the first point in the system (the DPI switch) is going to forward everything to webwise and if webwise is blocked, that means you can't go anywhere.

Alexander Hanff
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