StarHub's SafeSurf is gone mad.

[CTSG]

Hello guys,

I've been staying in Singapore for over 9 months and untill now, I had no bigger problems with my internet provider. But lately, about 2-3 weeks ago, their protecting system, SafeSurf, started blocking websites that I'm using. In fact, it's been blocking mainstream porn sites and torrent trackers since forever, but now it blocks all file sharing websites, several videos hosting websites, most of movies subtitles sharing websites, tones of random websites and God knows what else. Why they won't let ME be responsible for what I'm browsing? I feel so caged in this place. I hate being overlooked and told what's good and what's bad. I can tell this things by myself. I just want to know if any of you guys experienced this kind of problems, and basically how you feel about this.

PS. Not every torrent is illegal. Not every movie online is porn. Not every software is cracked. Not every blog contains inappropriate content. Get some common sense.

Regards,
Kamil

[nakatago]

Wot? Aside from the sluggish performance I feel during primetime, I've no problems with Starhub. As a matter of fact, I just downloaded the latest Ubuntu (Maverick Meerkat) via torrent roughly two weeks ago.

You may want to cite which safe sites Starhub is blocking and see if others are experiencing the same problems.

[CTSG]

Sure, here's few examples of websites blocked by SafeSurf:

thepiratebay.org
torrentreactor.com
btmon.com
vector.com
opensubtitles.org
subtitlessource.org
garagetv.be

Ofcourse these are just examples. There's much more and many of them are just random, like blogs or articles. Anyway, my point is... We all, more or less, are inteligent beings. Why can't we decide for ourselves what websites we want to browse and what not?.. :/

[nakatago]

i'll check when i get home. the sites you mentioned, however, do have a reputation for carrying and/or relating to pirated material.

in any case, welcome to singapore. where gahmen knows best.



ps

the gahmen has been deduced to read this forum.

[CTSG]

Means what? If I complain too much, gahman will meet me in the place where there is no darkness?

Also, I re-checked opensubtitles.org just now and it just started working again. Also, urbandictionary.com is being blocked. ;<

[x9200]

Also, urbandictionary.com is being blocked. ;<

Not from my starhub end of the line.
On more general note, really, are you that surprised? There is a censorship here that prevents you from watching various things. Cutting off some website is nothing but logical taking into account the status quo. This is the nanny state and whether we like it or not it's hard to blame the authorities for just being consequent.

[beenthere]

- snip -
Ofcourse these are just examples. There's much more and many of them are just random, like blogs or articles. Anyway, my point is... We all, more or less, are inteligent beings. Why can't we decide for ourselves what websites we want to browse and what not?.. :/

Would have been annoying if you could not turn it off. The first thing I did was to disable safe search. It's just a couple of clicks away after you log in...

[ksl]

Well the first 2 i tried worked fine including the pirate website.

I guess you need to check your firewall settings or your security settings.

[observer]

Seriously? SafeSurf is something you subscribe to, to protect your kids. So you knowingly subscribe SafeSurf and then complain about it in public? Just disable it. I think the only thing "caging" you is yourself. I also don't think they are the ones with the lack of common sense here.

I've no problems accessing any of those sites at all. Maybe you shouldn't be surfing those sites anyways.