Tyson's Corner Macy's blocks OCDO on their free Wi-Fi portal

Was at Tyson's I & II with my spouse today and while she made the rounds at Macy's, I sat down in the shoe area to read the Washington Post on my iPad (using their free Wi-Fi service). But when I tried to access OCDO, the alert below popped up. A bit surprising since I routinely OC in the mall, to include Macy's, and have never been challenged by anyone in authority.

The entrance we always go in isn't posted and the mall disclaimer on their web site ("Each of us is responsible for our own personal safety wherever we are-whether at home, at school, at work, in our neighborhoods or at the mall. There is no substitute for being aware of your environment and alert to your surroundings.") certainly would indicate they aren't particularly anti-2A like some of the other local area malls.

Felix said:

Was at Tyson's I & II with my spouse today and while she made the rounds at Macy's, I sat down in the shoe area to read the Washington Post on my iPad (using their free Wi-Fi service). But when I tried to access OCDO, the alert below popped up. A bit surprising since I routinely OC in the mall, to include Macy's, and have never been challenged by anyone in authority.

The entrance we always go in isn't posted and the mall disclaimer on their web site ("Each of us is responsible for our own personal safety wherever we are-whether at home, at school, at work, in our neighborhoods or at the mall. There is no substitute for being aware of your environment and alert to your surroundings.") certainly would indicate they aren't particularly anti-2A like some of the other local area malls.

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That's odd.

My favorite web filter is on the military computers. I once tried to access an area of my state senate's website and it was blocked.

Filter category? GOVERNMENT / LAW

lolwut

Shouldn't have been reading that quaint little local newspaper the Washington ComPost. That's why it happened.

Most of these places that offer free access are using an out of the box firewall set up. The entire service is generally provided and supported by a third party. Certain categories are blocked by default. It may have no relationship to their feelings on the subject matter.

The last time I stopped at Tysons, the entrance I went to was VERY CLEARLY posted. I haven't been back since, and that was about a year ago...

hmmm

Not saying its right or wrong, but since they provide the service free of charge, then why cant they limit where you can visit?
Are other sites pertaining to weapons also blocked?
What about porn sites? are they blocked?
Tobacco sites too?

I mean lets get realistic here... its their right as providing the service free to limit the sites allowed.

AJG said:

Not saying its right or wrong, but since they provide the service free of charge, then why cant they limit where you can visit?
Are other sites pertaining to weapons also blocked?
What about porn sites? are they blocked?
Tobacco sites too?

I mean lets get realistic here... its their right as providing the service free to limit the sites allowed.

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Nobody is saying they don't have the "right" to block any site they want... I suppose if you went to a Microsoft coffee shop, they might block Google. Reports of this nature are meant to inform, so that we can make decisions on which private businesses deserve our support and patronage.

And yes, it is "wrong". But not against the law.

TFred

To be fair, in all likelihood, Tyson's Corner is not intentionally blocking OCDO. That sort of categorical block is typical of most smart firewalls (found mostly in schools and businesss), and blocks selected categories based on the prevalence of certain keywords or phrases in the page, as well as against a list of known websites maintained by the company selling the firewall. If I were to hazard a guess, I would expect that this firewall is on the main gateway of Tyson's corner, and primarily used to block things like porn, gambling, drugs, weapons, etc. from being viewed by employees on their personal computers, but since the firewall is on the gateway, everybody is subject to its filtering. There are ways around this (such as SSH tunneling or using a VPN, and this will also maintain security on open networks, but that's an explanation for another time).

Next time I'm in the Tyson's mall, I'll go by a few more places with free Wi-Fi (Apple Inc, Starbucks, Bose, Cheesecake Factory, etc.) and see if it's common to block sites like OCDO. At this point, I'm not sure if all the stores use a common Wi-Fi server (with common site filtering) as has been suggested. And I'll take a laptop with sniffer installed (rather than iPad) so I can gather more info on names, channels used, signal strengths, etc.

Oh, BTW, of course it's fully within Macy's right to block any site they deem objectionable on their free service. But since their name is attached to the channel freq, they can't just bury their head in the sand and claim it's somebody else's doing. They bear a share of the responsibility...it's not a Tyson's Corner Mall common Wi-Fi.

Felix said:

Was at Tyson's I & II with my spouse today and while she made the rounds at Macy's, I sat down in the shoe area to read the Washington Post on my iPad (using their free Wi-Fi service). But when I tried to access OCDO, the alert below popped up. A bit surprising since I routinely OC in the mall, to include Macy's, and have never been challenged by anyone in authority.

The entrance we always go in isn't posted and the mall disclaimer on their web site ("Each of us is responsible for our own personal safety wherever we are-whether at home, at school, at work, in our neighborhoods or at the mall. There is no substitute for being aware of your environment and alert to your surroundings.") certainly would indicate they aren't particularly anti-2A like some of the other local area malls.

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Yeah, got that same firewall at work. Mine even blocks "advocacy organizations"

Try opencarry.com (not .org) that gets around mine! John seems to have the .org mirrored on the .com. You can use either.

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Maybe request the category be changed from weapons to civil rights.

Great suggestion, Brass Magnet!

I'll give it a try.

I'm at the Starbucks in Springfield and I cannot access the forums via their wi-fi. When I switch to 3G on my phone it works fine. Their firewall prob restricts this site too.


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