Saudi TechView » Saudi Internet

YouTube “Videos” blocked in Saudi Arabia

Khaled A. — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:38:34 +0000

You can no longer browse YouTube videos. For some strange reason the following url has been blocked:

http://www.youtube.com/videos

This is YouTube’s directory of videos, could this be the first step to fully block YouTube in Saudi Arabia (again)? Now you can no longer browse videos on YouTube.

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.

Travian.ae blocked to boost the Saudi Travian server?

Khaled A. — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:09:27 +0000

Travian.ae has been blocked in Saudi Arabia a few days ago. This noticeably effected the site’s “alexa ranking” as you can see here:

Here’s something weird that I discovered: there is a Travian.com.sa, a Saudi Travian domain! So why did CITC block travian.ae and not travian.com.sa? Saudi players have been playing on the UAE servers for years now.

Here are the WHOIS info for both domains. This is TRAVIAN.AE:

Domain Name travian.ae

Registrar ID 123DOMAIN
Registrar Name Klute-Thiemann Infomationstechnologie GmbH&Co.KG
Status ok
Registrant Contact ID KT-259733205
Registrant Contact Name Travian Games GmbH
Registrant Contact Email domain_master@traviangames.com
Tech Contact ID KT-037219030
Tech Contact Name Siegfried Mueller
Tech Contact Email domain_adminc@traviangames.com
Name Server ns01.travian.org
Name Server ns02.travian.com
Name Server ns03.travian.net

This is TRAVIAN.COM.SA:

domain: travian.com.sa
organization: Travian Games GmbH
address: Wilhelm-Wagenfeld-Str.22
address: P.O.Box 305150
address: 80807 Munchen
address: Germany
admin-c: SM187-SA
tech-c: TK27-SA
reg-c: TK28-SA
nserver: ns01.travian.org
nserver: ns02.travian.com
nserver: ns03.travian.net
req-date: 2009-05-27
reg-date: 2009-05-30
source: SaudiNIC

Could Travian.ae be blocked just to boost Travian.com.sa’s numbers? The more players on the Saudi server would mean more money from premium Travian players.

What do you think? What other reason is there to block the biggest Saudi server (Travian.ae)?

Travian blocked in Saudi Arabia, productivity skyrockets

Khaled A. — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 11:47:04 +0000

Online gaming website Travian has been blocked in Saudi Arabia. At the time only the Arabic interface version (www.travian.ae/) has been blocked. You can still access the original website.

If you really care about it then you know where to fill the forms to have it unblocked. This is one block I do not mind .

Sections of Flickr are still blocked in Saudi Arabia

Khaled A. — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:46:14 +0000

I will not understand the logic here. I was browsing for Apple Store photos and found out that this image was blocked. Here’s what I noticed. This URL, for example, is blocked:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/76/

Before they used to block: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/ now only a section is blocked.

You can’t block content like that, it is annoying for legit Flickr users. Here’s an example of a typical Flickr page now:

I found the following blocked folders, I will add the ones I find:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/76/

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/54/

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.

Blocked in Saudi: Arabic Android development: Ardroid (update: unblocked)

Khaled A. — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:00:27 +0000

Update: It got unblocked fast! According to my inside source this post triggered an auto block. My guess “الجنس” caused it .

Now here’s something you don’t see getting blocked: a development website. Oh wait, you do see stupid blocks all the time! ArDroid.com is an Arabic website dedicated development of Arabic applications for the Google Android platform. It’s a well known site and I blogged about their efforts on my personal site.

Only reason I can think of is stupidity … either that or that it’s a mistake.

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.

Blocked in Saudi Arabia: respectq.net (update: unblocked)

Khaled A. — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:19:42 +0000

Respectq.net (Google cache) looks like a normal blog and hardly any content worth blocking.

Most likely blocked for this post (Google cache) which talks about “We Hate CITC” website.

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.

Updated a bit.

Anime News Network suddenly blocked in Saudi Arabia (Manga Fox unblocked)

Khaled A. — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:57:17 +0000

Anime News Network (www.animenewsnetwork.com), a very popular Anime news website was suddenly blocked in Saudi Arabia sometime last week according to @Shinryoma.

Anime News Network was never blocked in the country. Anime is not porn, CITC.

Update: Thanks @Turke and @Missice81 for telling me this. Manga Fox ( www.mangafox.com ) a Manga source, as been blocked as well! What’s next? One Manga? Manga Stream?

Update 2: Manga Fox unblocked.

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.

Google isn’t working for some STC subscribers (update: might be DNS)

Khaled A. — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:47:50 +0000

Update: More people are having problems (here and here). The problem is apparently caused by using any external DNS (Google DNS for example). This is very weird.

This is not surprising. Some STC customers (including me, Muneeb in Dhahran and Abdullah in Riyadh) are having problems accessing Google. This appears to be random because others told me that it’s working properly.

This is not only effecting searches but Google Reader, Google Analytics, Youtube and other services! This is the error message by the way:

Network Error (tcp_error)

A communication error occurred: “Operation timed out”
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact your network support team.

Please, STC: fix your servers already.

Blocked in Saudi: Domain Tools’ WHOIS (update: unblocked!)

Khaled A. — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:14:31 +0000

Domain Tools (not blocked) is an online tool for webmasters. Their WHOIS service (formally known as whois.sc) is now blocked. The blocked URL is:

whois.domaintools.com

WHOIS is a harmless protocol used to look-up domain names, etc. There is no reason what so ever for having it blocked. Read more about WHOIS on Wikipedia.

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.

Blocked in Saudi Arabia: Google Help Group

Khaled A. — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:29:02 +0000

Google’s very own “Google Groups Guide” Google group is blocked for no known reason. This is a Google Groups help and support forum. Here’s more info about it:

The Google Groups Help Forum is the primary channel for getting your Groups questions answered. You’ll find that this community is always buzzing with activity. Get ready to meet some expert users of Google Groups who’ll provide friendly advice about the product (if you’re nice to them). The Google Groups Guide and Groups Guide Ray, Google employees, regularly monitor this unmoderated Help Forum. The Guides will only respond to questions if there is valuable information to share with our users that has not already been provided by the Forum’s resident experts! Messages from Google employees will appear with a blue “G” badge.

From the description I see no reason to have it blocked. Here is the blocked URL:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-groups-guide/

To help getting it unblocked as soon as possible fill the form at internet.gov.sa, write an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or send a fax to +966(1)2639290.