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Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

blog.tymscar.com

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Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#101

Post by tecleandor »

nomilk wrote: post #98

> even if I installed a VPN on my main machine, what about my phone? My laptop? My desktop? Every device would need the VPN running, and I’d have to remember to connect it before browsing. It’s messy. Is there a way to install a VPN such that requests to/from certain domains (e.g. imgur.com) are routed via the VPN and the rest of your traffic is via non-VPN? This would solve the problem of constantly having to dis/re…

That'd be "split tunnel/VPN" by domain name, and usually it's limited to HTTP/S requests (because the hostname comes with the petition header), but some vendors (like ZScaler) do tricks to apply it to different protocols.

For example, the equivalent in Tailscale would be an "App Connector":

https://tailscale.com/kb/1342/app-connectors-setup#add-a-cus...

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#102

Post by nomilk »

tecleandor wrote: post #101
nomilk wrote: post #98

> even if I installed a VPN on my main machine, what about my phone? My laptop? My desktop? Every device would need the VPN running, and I’d have to remember to connect it before browsing. It’s messy. Is there a way to install a VPN such that requests to/from certain domains (e.g. imgur.com) are routed via the VPN and the rest of your traffic is via non-VPN? This would solve the problem of constantly having to dis/re…

That'd be "split tunnel/VPN" by domain name, and usually it's limited to HTTP/S requests (because the hostname comes with the petition header), but some vendors (like ZScaler) do tricks to apply it to different protocols. For example, the equivalent in Tailscale would be an "App Connector": https://tailscale.com/kb/1342/app-connectors-setup#add-a-cus...

This is all new to me, but seems odd (startup idea?) why there isn't a SaaS letting me accomplish this on iPhone in a few minutes. (a few youtube searches for 'how to split VPN' are hopelessly theoretical as opposed to practical)

E.g. I'd definitely pay $10/month for an app that lets me input domains and which country to re-route traffic through.

E.g. a handful of social media apps via US (my country has age verification), a handful of news sites via UK (some countries I travel to block them entirely), spotify via a single country (I don't care which one, so long as it's constant).

I currently use ProtonVPN iPhone and macOS apps but AFAIK it routes all traffic through a single country which requires opening the app and manually changing it each time you want traffic routed via a different country.

Extremely keen to hear any solutions people have used on their own devices.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#103

Post by extraduder_ire »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #95

they block VPNs too, if yours is working it's just a matter of time until they get to it. Avoid using imgur entirely. What I find insidious is that unlike reddit and some other sites, they won't tell you it's blocked, they'll give you this: {"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}

Even if they give you this error if you load and image directly, it will often still work if hotlinked in a web page.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#104

Post by [deleted] »

cpressland wrote: post #88
tom-9999 wrote: post #86

This can be done on UniFi using policy based routing too trivially if anyone wants to repeat this. Instructions using the unifi mobile app as it’s what I have to hand: 1) download wireguard conf file from vpn provider. On mobile app settings -> vpn client -> add new -> wireguard. Upload the file and save it 2) settings -> policy engine -> policy based routes. New. Select what to route -> specific traffic. Source = al…

The only downside is this doesn’t work if you have IPv6 enabled as UniFi Network still allows those to bypass the VPN. I ended up making a long list of firewall rules to block specific sites IPv6 ranges, which worked until I hit cloudflare backed sites. I’m really hoping UniFi start supporting IPv6 WireGuard soon.

[deleted]

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#105

Post by crimsonnoodle58 »

That's a lot of steps for something that would be a simple route rule or mangle + mark routing on mikrotik.

The route rule would route out a VPN instead of the main route.

If the domain name resolves to many IPs you can keep an address list up to date using a simple script.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#106

Post by daveoc64 »

michaelt wrote: post #69
juntoalaluna wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not why imgur have left though, they didn't want to comply with Data Protection laws.

The "online safety act" introduced mandatory age verification starting in July 2025. The government announced "plans to fine Imgur after probing its approach to age checks and use of children's personal data" in September 2025 [1] Are you telling me those were unrelated? How are you going to fine a website over age checks without the law that requires age checks? [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gzxv5gy3qo

Yes. The ICO investigation that resulted in Imgur blocking the UK pre-dates the Online Safety Act coming into force.

As others have mentioned, Ofcom is responsible for enforcement of the OSA - but the investigation against Imgur was carried out by the ICO.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#107

Post by DaSHacka »

mr_mitm wrote: post #44
omnicognate wrote: post #25

> Second, even if I installed a VPN on my main machine, what about my phone? My laptop? My desktop? Every device would need the VPN running, and I’d have to remember to connect it before browsing. It’s messy. This is what routers are for. My router (a cheap fanless box with several network ports running linux) is the only thing on my network that knows there's a VPN. I can selectively route whatever I want through it…

You can just use FoxyProxy instead of a separate browser instance. This firefox addon will use a proxy based on URL patterns.

You can do this in the configuration for Firefox containers too.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#108

Post by chatmasta »

Imgur is one of the more annoying UK geoblocks because they persist it with cookies, so if you want to view something you can’t just switch to VPN for a second without also changing browser sessions.

Reddit is worse… you can’t even view someone’s profile if they’ve ever submitted a post labeled NSFW.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#109

Post by mr_toad »

oskarkk wrote: post #91
echelon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wildly ironic that an EU company doesn't ship to the EU. Regulatory compliance shouldn't be hard. The idea is to quell negative externalities, not to shut off innovation itself. > Because of unbelievably bureaucratic recycling regulations, PC Engines will NOT sell directly to end users within the EU. https://pcengines.ch/order.htm > EU - a single market ? > Far from it, there are separate registration and recycling s…

And in the end, 90% of people will throw it in the trash with everything else. I'm actually in the other 10%, but I live in the middle of a big city where I have electronic waste container like 300m away. Btw, that's an awful website. I like simple minimalistic websites, but some people confuse "simple" with "give literally 0 fucks about the reader" and then I have 50-word long lines to read on my 32" monitor. Just p…

You’re lucky. For people without cars anything other than curbside recycling is usually a nightmare. Ironically.

Re: Imgur geo-blocked the UK, so I geo-unblocked my network

#110

Post by tymscar »

notepad0x90 wrote: post #95

they block VPNs too, if yours is working it's just a matter of time until they get to it. Avoid using imgur entirely. What I find insidious is that unlike reddit and some other sites, they won't tell you it's blocked, they'll give you this: {"data":{"error":"Imgur is temporarily over capacity. Please try again later."},"success":false,"status":403}

That’s what I get if I go to their page, but when curling the image directly it works fine
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