Posted: 11th Oct, 2007 By: MarkJ
The O2 owned 24Mbps offering UK ISP
Be Unlimited is in hot water with some of its customers after blocking access to some websites hosted by Lycos. It's understood that the problem stems from a poor implementation of the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) child abuse block list:
Be Unlimited Statement: "The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) provides a dynamic list of URLs for websites which contain potentially illegal content. This IWF list is supplied to O2 (who own Be Unlimited) who have voluntarily implemented a solution to block access to these URLs.
Be have implemented an immediate solution to ensure we are achieving the objective of the IWF but recognise there may be a rare occurrence when a site is inappropriately blocked. If we have denied access to a site that an individual or organisation believes has been mistakenly blocked please contact Be Member Services at memberservices@beunlimited.co.uk or open a ticket in the Member Centre giving as much detail as possible. We can then review the site against the IWF list on an exception basis. Be are continuing to work on the solution to minimise these exceptions and we will keep the Be Members up to date with our progress."
It's believed that Be's method results in the often specific URL's (website addresses) supplied by the IWF being converted into IP addresses. Typically it's possible for many different websites and domains to use a single IP via shared hosting. More @
Thinkbroadband .