I'm in Mexico City this week on business, and I'm staying at a Marriott Courtyard.

As long as I'm on the LTE wireless network I connect to the RFM website easily (that's how I'm on right now).

But when I try to connect to RFM via the hotel's wifi network I get a DNS error. Yet every other URL works fine.

Anyone ever have RFM problems at a Marriott property?

Personally, I NEVER use public WiFi because it leaves you vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM) where your login credentials can be stolen, even if you connect over a secure (HTTPS) connection.

I can't imagine that a they would be filtering their DNS. You can find out if they are by bypassing DNS and entering the IP address of exmormon.org directly into the URL or you can use the link below.

www.exmormon.org URL:
http://204.238.168.42

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-in-the-middle_attack

Yep.

When I enter the URL directly the RFM homepage comes up.

They have blacklisted RFM.

Oh, I think this might be a story that the evil media would like to spread. It might be only the one hotel, some or all of them. Research is required. Team effort.

Try getting porn. It would be weird to have access to porn, but not to RfM.

...not at a Marriott :(

I'm going to post this for anyone who may be interested in how I got the IP address for exmormon.org or would like to use this technique for getting around DNS filtering by entering the IP address directly into the address bar (URL).

Domain Name Servers (DNS) are the Internet's equivalent of a phone book. They maintain a directory of domain names and translate them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.

When you do a DNS query you get back many fields of information regarding the requested host name. The record that you're interested in to open the webpage in your browser is the "A" record.

There are several websites which will do a DNS query for you and display the results, kind of like how google does for regular searches. Two of these are:

https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx
https://www.ultratools.com/tools/dnsLookup

After you've looked up the IP address for the website you want, in this case "204.238.168.42" for "exmormon.org", copy it and paste it in your web browser's address bar. You can prepend the address with "http://"; if you want but you don't have to because the browser automatically assumes you want to open a HTTP connection. If you want a secure connection you need to prepend the address with "https://";.

NOTE: Enter http:// and https:// without the quotation marks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/2017 02:39PM by Mnemonic.

or simply get on a linux box and ping it with a -a flag.

.... Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> or simply get on a linux box and ping it with a -a flag.

Which version of linux does ping -a do that?

This is from the Ubuntu 16.04LTS man page on ping.

ping -a
-a Audible ping.

-A Adaptive ping. Interpacket interval adapts to round-trip time, so that effectively not more than one (or more, if preload is set) unanswered probe is present in the network. Minimal inter‐val is 200msec for not super-user. On networks with low rtt this mode is essentially equivalent to flood mode.

Mnemonic Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> .... Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > or simply get on a linux box and ping it with a
> -a flag.
>
> Which version of linux does ping -a do that?
>
> This is from the Ubuntu 16.04LTS man page on
> ping.
>
> ping -a
> -a Audible ping.
>
> -A Adaptive ping. Interpacket
> interval adapts to round-trip time, so that
> effectively not more than one (or more, if
> preload is set) unanswered probe is present in
> the network. Minimal inter‐val is 200msec for
> not super-user. On networks with low rtt this
> mode is essentially equivalent to flood mode.

Help me please!!!! I am an ol dinsaur on a laptop. WHAT language are you speaking? I know it's not Klingon. Can u tell me what you are conversing about in the reader's digest version- 50 words or less. Don't be mean, I am being sincere. I really do not understand what you are saying. thanks:)

cutekitty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Help me please!!!! I am an ol dinsaur on a laptop.
> WHAT language are you speaking? I know it's not
> Klingon. Can u tell me what you are conversing
> about in the reader's digest version- 50 words or
> less. Don't be mean, I am being sincere. I really
> do not understand what you are saying. thanks:)

We're talking about a program that is part of the operating system on your computer that most people aren't aware of and generally wouldn't use.

ping is a command line program, originally from the Unix operating system, that is used to see if your computer can connect to another computer over the network. The "ping" program can also be found on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. In Windows you run it from within the Command Prompt. On Mac and Linux from within a terminal window.

Here is an example of what is displayed if you run ping. By default, ping will try to send one request a second to the other computer and display the results until you interrupt it by typing <CTRL>-C.

ping exmormon.org
PING exmormon.org (204.238.168.42): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=0 ttl=43 time=124.016 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=1 ttl=43 time=91.382 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=2 ttl=43 time=89.923 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=3 ttl=43 time=93.511 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=4 ttl=43 time=89.635 ms
^C
--- exmormon.org ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 89.635/97.693/124.016/13.233 ms

cutekitty:

I realized my previous post may not have been a complete explanation.

The original poster (left4good) posted that they were unable to open exmormon.org in their web browser because they were getting a DNS error.

When one computer connects to another computer over the internet it needs to know the Internet Protocol (IP) address of that computer. IP addresses are a series of 4 numbers, each with a range of 0-255. Since people aren't very good at remembering numbers like that the internet uses a system called DNS to translate host names into IP addresses. For example exmormon.org has an IP address of 204.238.168.42

One way to find a computer's IP address is to use the ping program, however, since ping uses DNS to convert the host name to an IP address it would only work if DNS is working.

Command line programs like ping need a way to set options. This is done by using "switches" following the name of the program. The post regarding the "-a" switch was discussing some of those options.

pinging it from my mac returns the IP by default!

ping exmormon.org
PING exmormon.org (204.238.168.42): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=0 ttl=45 time=48.589 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=1 ttl=45 time=48.214 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=2 ttl=45 time=48.834 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=3 ttl=45 time=49.413 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=4 ttl=45 time=49.598 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=5 ttl=45 time=47.946 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=6 ttl=45 time=47.850 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=7 ttl=45 time=73.460 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=8 ttl=45 time=48.912 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=9 ttl=45 time=49.378 ms
64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=10 ttl=45 time=48.432 ms

wrong place :(



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2017 06:06PM by nomonomo.

nomonomo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> pinging it from my mac returns the IP by default!
>
> ping exmormon.org
> PING exmormon.org (204.238.168.42): 56 data bytes
> 64 bytes from 204.238.168.42: icmp_seq=0 ttl=45 time=48.589 ms

Which is great when DNS is working and can resolve the IP address for exmormon.org but completely worthless when DNS isn't working or is blocking the requested host.

The reason I posted the instructions I did was because it was a way to bypass DNS and access the host directly using its IP address.

Marriott HQ employee here. I'm reading this thread on my phone, using our building wi-fi.

Are Marriott hotels franchises? Kind of like fast food places? If not, may hotel management can set network policy. Or maybe the DNS the OP complained about isn't working right.

About two thirds are franchised, the rest are directly managed (but the physical buildings are still owned by third party real estate companies.)

I'm using a Marriott network right now. No problems.

Is it possible that the particular Marriott is a franchise that is run by Mormons and they had RFM blocked? Maybe other web sites?

I avoid Marriotts. I know it's not "Mormon owned," but any hotel that puts a BoM in every room won't be getting my money.

I stayed at a Marriott last night. I rarely do. My observations with the particular one I stayed at:

They don't understand bars. In the Marriotts I've been in, the bar is in the central space. This is weird. When I want to go into a bar, I want a cozy place where I don't feel I'm in the open and vulnerable. This is just a human thing. Humans like the periphery zone. Not the middle zone.

Next. Comfort in the room seems to be an after thought. They had a mini fridge sitting on the floor at the edge of the business desk. What???


Third. The bathroom light switch is outside the bathroom. This gives the person in the bathroom no control over a room with no window. Again, it places the patron in a vulnerable position.

Forth. The bathroom floor with a super high polish tile. One drop of water and you were skating across the floor.

Fifth. The shower was behind the bathroom door. Very awkward layout. You can only shower in the bathroom with the door closed -- remember the only light switch in outside of the bathroom.

How did these guys get to be world wide hoteliers. Their instincts are very off.

Oh and one other thing. Yes there was a book of moron in the bed side table drawer.

Checking into a Marriott Hotel:

Me: "Is the porn disabled?"

Desk Clerk: "No, it's just regular porn, you sick bastard."