Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#1

Post by qerim » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 6:12 PM UTC

The ISP in my hometown (Albania + Kosovo) has decided to block my whole domain to my free legal streaming website because they also happen to offer IPTV services. I only found out after trying to access my site from Albania today, it just comes up with a “bad URL” request. The streams I serve on my site are public freely available TV channels, combined into a single page.

Since EU laws do not apply to neither of these countries, is there any course of action I can take to prevent this sort of monopoly going on?

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#2

Post by PaulHoule » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 6:18 PM UTC

Get a vanity IP address like 75.74.73.72. Make up signs telling people in your town to switch their DNS to Cloudfare or Google.

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#3

Post by emccue » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 6:20 PM UTC

Speak with a lawyer. There might be nothing, there might be something.

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#4

Post by qerim » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 6:21 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Get a vanity IP address like 75.74.73.72. Make up signs telling people in your town to switch their DNS to Cloudfare or Google.

Unfortunately the people are not very clued up on things like this at all.

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#5

Post by qerim » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 6:43 PM UTC

emccue wrote: post #3

Speak with a lawyer. There might be nothing, there might be something.

I’ll explore this option. I also know that Vodafone is a big network carrier here, so I’ll check if they rent out their service to these ISP companies. If they do, then it’ll be easier for me to communicate with Vodafone.

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#6

Post by rozenmd » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 7:12 PM UTC

qerim wrote: post #4

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Get a vanity IP address like 75.74.73.72. Make up signs telling people in your town to switch their DNS to Cloudfare or Google.

Unfortunately the people are not very clued up on things like this at all.

Similarly, you could proxy your service through another hostname?

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#7

Post by bufferoverflow » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 7:15 PM UTC

Isn't that a clear case of tortious interference?

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#8

Post by SargeDebian » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 7:27 PM UTC

Depending on how you built it, could you migrate it to a platform like AWS or Azure where the IPs you use are mixed up with other services?

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#9

Post by mtlynch » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 7:30 PM UTC

rozenmd wrote: post #6

qerim wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately the people are not very clued up on things like this at all.

Similarly, you could proxy your service through another hostname?

Wouldn't the ISP just block that hostname, too?

Re: Ask HN: The ISP has a competing product so has decided to block my domain

#10

Post by Waterluvian » Thu, Dec 29, 2022, 7:31 PM UTC

PaulHoule wrote: post #2

Get a vanity IP address like 75.74.73.72. Make up signs telling people in your town to switch their DNS to Cloudfare or Google.

And there goes 99% of the potential customers.