as an exercise, try to write the end-user-level document on how a typical end user can tell if application X, for a very large range of X, is not working because of an isp-imposed firewall or
OK... I'll give it a whirl :-) Dear <user>, Thank you for selecting CensorCo Bicycle Company's Internet with TrainingWheels(tm). We would like you to know that we've made every effort to keep your internet experience safe, but, depending on your usage and other factors, some unexpected things may still happen. First, your safe internet connection supports only the following services: 1. Your access to web sites via HTTP and HTTPS. 2. Your ability to send mail through our mail relay via SMTP to mail.censorco.net. 3. Your ability to look up DNS records through DNS to ns1.censorco.net and ns2.censorco.net. All other traffic will be blocked. This means that if you are using any other internet-based applications, such as on-line gaming, peer to peer file-sharing, etc., they will not work with Censorco. These applications have been demonstrated to be unsafe, and, are not accessible while still using the TrainingWheels(tm) service. If you want to do this, you will need to contact your account representative, pass a brief internet knowledge and security test, and sign the appropriate waiver. We will then remove the TrainingWheels(tm) from your internet service and you will receive a full, unfiltered, unsafe connection to the internet. In the meantime, here is a step-by-step guide to determining if your problem is due to an unexpected situation, or, due to a characteristic of the TraningWheels(tm) service. 1. Are you trying to browse the web? If yes: 1a: Does the URL you are having difficulty with start with http: or https:? If Yes, then, most likely this is an unexpected situation. If no, proceed to step 2. 2. Are you trying to send email? If yes: 2a: Please check that your outbound server is set to mail.censorco.net. If not, this is your problem. If so, proceed to step 2b. 2b: See if you can go to http://mail.censorco.net in your web browser. If so, you are suffering from an unexpected situation. If not, chances are that you are having DNS problems. Proceed to step 5 below. If no, proceed to step 3. 3. Are you trying to look up information in DNS? If you don't know what this means, the answer is most likely no. If Yes, proceed to step 5. If no, then proceed to step 4. 4. Your problem is that you are trying to use an unsupported internet application. This application will not work with the TrainingWheels(tm) service. Please contact your account representative to have your TrainingWheels(tm) taken off. This concludes your troubleshooting. Please do not proceed to the next step. 5. If your web browser says "Host Not found" when you try to visit http://mail.censorco.net, you have an unexpected DNS problem. Call censorco technical support for assistance. If your browser is saying anything like "NXDOMAIN", "Nameserver Error", "Could not find host", etc., then these are the same as "Host Not found" above. Otherwise, your problem is most likely caused by an actual problem with nameservice on the internet in general or an effort to access a host which no longer exists. These things happen from time to time. You may want to try your request again later. If it still doesn't work, then it is likely the server you were trying to reach no longer exists. This is not something that CensorCo controls, and, as such, we cannot really help you with this situation. ================================================================= Sure, no marketing department on the planet is going to be happy with it, but, it does provide a reasonable set of steps that allows you to determine if our problem is due to complete filtration, or, other issues. Owen -- If it wasn't crypto-signed, it probably didn't come from me.