[SOLVED] Zorin OS Forum Website

Hello Folks,

I was wondering if any other Zorin users are having issues connecting to the Zorin Group Forum?

The reason I ask is that I have been working on installing Zorin on my wifes laptop and moving files and this morning I went to visit the forum to look for help with her wireless card. When I tried to navigate to the site I was told I was permanantly banned and that my IP address was banned. Really weird as my wife set up a forum account then I set one up not too long after her.

My concern is that either her machine or mine have been compromised, we have had unauthorized use of our email account, or my home network has been compromised. To be safe we changed all our passwords and the usual. I even ran ClamAV on both machines as well.

I did email the address on the page saying I'm banned and filled out a contact request on the Zorin OS homepage. I'm posting here with the hope that an admin of some type can educate me as to why I'm banned.

Of course, there may be a chance that the webpage has been hijacked or something as such. I downloaded the Tor Browser and used it to mask my IP address. I got the same result as above which got me thinking the webpage was compromised.

Any help or comments would be HUGELY appreciated! We both love the distro...my wife is having her first taste of Linux and after quite a few distros in the past several months I found Zorin to be great while intalling it on her machine. Hope I can get this worked out as I don't know how easy it would be running Zorin without forum access.

Thanks in advance for the help!
Tim

http://zoringroup.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

Is the site above the one you are referring to? I have no problem accessing the site and navigating it. I didn't try to register/logon as I don't have any interest in doing that.

I'm posting here with the hope that an admin of some type can educate me as to why I'm banned.

I'm really not sure what you mean by that, you can't expect an admin at Linux Questions to have any answer for why you can't log on to another site which it totally unrelated?

Yancek,

First, my apologies...I was hoping that an admin or the such from the Zorin side of the fence would see this post. To be perfectly clear that in no way, shape, or form would I expect someone from this forum be able to "fix" the problem. I'm not the smartest guy in the world but thinking someone from this board could fix a problem with another website is really crazy. I posted to the LinuxQuestions.org site in the hope to bring light to my situation and hopefully attact some attention from the Zorin group of people or possibly an admin from thier board. Sorry for not spelling that out.

Here is the message I see what I try to navigate to the above link:

Information

You have been permanently banned from this board.

Please contact the Board Administrator for more information.

A ban has been issued on your IP address.


Thanks for navigating to the site. I'm guessing that something happened with my account with Zorin that I can't figure out. I will have to wait for their reply. It might be because two forum accounts were registered from one IP address, first for my wife then an account for me.

Thanks!!!!

I am going through the same headaches crazyporcheman. But on another forum.

My IP address got banned because of another member with the same IP address as mine and his IP address was part of the banning process.

I installed on my own. Jumping through hoops, Because I believe in helping myself instead of counting on others to bail me out.

If you follow these steps below and done everything correctly, then this will work like a charm! This might also work on other versions of Ubuntu & TBB. Download the latest (Tor Browser Bundle) from https://www.torproject.org/ and save it into the Home (Downloads) directory. Create a new folder somewhere in the Home directory. Example: Documents and move the tar.xz package into the new folder. Right click with the mouse arrow on the tar.xz package and choose: Extract here Go back to the new extracted folder tor-browser_en-US and open it Right click with the mouse arrow on top of the start-tor-browser. In the menu, Choose: Properties » Permissions and mark the 'Execute [X] Allow executing file as program' and hit the Close button. Do not close down the folder! Move the mouse arrow to the very left top of your computer. Now you will be able to see a "Invisible" menu that says: File | Edit | View | Search | Tools | Documents | Help Choose: Edit » Preferences » Behaviour Now mark the (Ask each time) square and hit the 'Close' button. Now you are ready to go! Off topic! I've seen alot of people recommending others to install and run “WebUpd8“ and other things like “Polipo“ Well, that's up to each one of you, however I wouldn't recommend any third party software to run within the Tor network. It is also said that the Tor Browser Bundle is more secure to run, rather then installing other softwares like “Polipo“ Just a thought! enjoy your Toring!

From http://tor.stackexchange.com/questio...rt-tor-browser

Then you can make a launcher even/also if you wish. Like I did in my toolbar

http://postmyimage.com/img2/763_tor.png

Then go to Zorin forum in Tor browser and login with a different IP address. My ISP is stone age Windstream corp. and is
a static fixed IP brought in on telephone lines.

After you successfully login to Zorin. You can notify the admin there of your troubles. Something I am going through with
the previous mentioned forum admin presently. He is aware of my situation now and we are working on a solution to my problem. I am leaving the forum name out because. It does not matter as is Nunya buziness.

Edit: I find it funny as all get out. Posting in this thread while in Zor. While in Linux.
That my user agent shows as Windows 7 in tor, in linux.

I followed the link posted by yancek, and it looks strange for me that the latest posts there dated November 17.
It may indicate that the forum ran into some technical issue and it isn't fixed till now.
May by your permanent ban is a consequence of these problems?

Thanks rokytnji!

I had installed Tor Browser via the WebUD8 means yesterday and tried accessing the forum that way but got the same result. I just unistalled Tor Browser using the apt-get remove command then removed the PPA from the Software Sources.

I then reinstalled using the approach listed in your last post and I'm still being told I'm banned.

I have a fair amount of Linux experience but by no means am I a power user or comand line guru...are there additional commands I should have run between the sudo apt-get remove to get rid of the first install and then doing the new install of Tor.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tim

Hi Teufel,

The forum is not the clearest but there are newer posts and it just takes time to navigate to them. I had the same thought the first time I looked at the forum.

Thanks,
Tim

Or, something else. Because iin tor vs firefox on mine.

http://postmyimage.com/img2/249_z1.png = Firefox

http://postmyimage.com/img2/432_z2.png = Tor Browser

So I guess for Zorin forums site. My previous post is irrelevant. Because Zorin Forum does not like Tor Browser.

SOL Then.

To remove Tor for the 2nd install. Just delete the folder you made. It is how I would do it anyways.

Sorry I led ya down a blind road. I would not run Zorin Myself, But I understand choice is personal.

.are there additional commands I should have run between the sudo apt-get remove to get rid of the first install and then doing the new install of Tor.

locate tor

would be my friend in that. But if you picked completely remove in synaptic. I would not sweat it.

I would use tor in search box of synaptic and use completely remove myself. Just easier.

Explains why Tor wouldn't work.....!

I emailed the forum admin for some help, submitted my issue on the Zorin Homepage contact section, and just sent an email to the lead developer pleading for help. We will see what happens... I will make sure I post the outcome of my communications here on this forum.

Also, when I installed Zorin on my wife's laptop I found there is an issue with her wireless card. I may post later asking for help with that issue on this forum. I found some answers on the Ubuntu Forums and the AskUbuntu site and need to read through them. It looks like there is a chance I may be able to use this site for help in that respect.

Thanks folks!

I followed the link posted by yancek, and it looks strange for me that the latest posts there dated November 17.

Interesting. I just went to that link again and the first post at the top is 1:24pm, January 11, 2015.

you are right, topics list split into two parts, so to achieve the latest I had to scroll down for two pages approx.

Well...I sent off emails over the weekend to the forum admin, asked for assistance via the homepage contact, and sent a personal email to the lead developer of Zorin. And...have gotten ZERO reply...

Not sure if I'm being impatient and need to give them more time or if I sould call it quits with Zorin. As I'm typing this I seem to remember that with Zorin you are able to donate 10 euros to get the premium version and with the upgrade you are given technical support from the team rather than self-support via the forum. I'm glad I didn't spend the money to be possibly ignored if I had a technical concern... Hope they can get it together as I think thier OS is great!

rokytnji - What OS are you using? Looks cool from the screenshots you posted.

Thanks for your help guys!

After waiting for a few days and expalining my circumstance to the folks at Zorin they got me unbanned! Very happy in that both my wife and I love the OS and I would like to use the Lite edition as my go to distro. Patience was the key!

Thanks to all those who replied and for the help!!!

Take care,
Tim

I am betting your IP address was banned like mine was. It took me about a week for me the site admin to untangle that mess.

Good to hear though.