User talk:Jwalk1230

Reply to your email
I have recently found your email, which for some reason had been sent to my spam folder, so that I didn't see it earlier.

Essentially, in this context, a "colocation web host block" means that instead of connecting directly to the internet, you are connecting to a company which then connects to the internet for you. (That is a very minimal explanation: much more complete information is available in the article Web hosting service.) The problem there is that people can use web host connections to hide where they are really editing from, which can be used for various unconstructive purposes, such as pretending to be several different people so as to give the impression of multiple editors independently supporting a position in discussions, or for evading blocks, or for various other unhelpful purposes. There are, of course, perfectly valid and honest reasons for using a web host to connect to the internet, but using them to edit Wikipedia frequently causes problems, and therefore they are often blocked. I don't know the history of these blocks, but if both an administrator on English Wikipedia and a global Wikimedia foundation steward have independently found reasons to block the range, there must have been some indication of problems.

The IP range you quote is both locally blocked on English Wikipedia as a web host and globally locked on all Wikimedia projects. Also, to my knowledge at least two of the IP addresses in the range have been identified as hosting open proxies, and I have confirmed that one of those two currently has open ports, which means that it may still be available as an open proxy, though I have not been able to confirm that it is. I have checked a sample of IP addresses in the range you gave, and every one of them turned out to be allocated to a colocation web hosting service called Leaseweb.

You may have good reasons for connecting to the internet via a Leaseweb account, but unless you can give very good reasons why you need to do so in order to edit Wikipedia, you are unlikely to be allowed to do so. (If you can give good reasons, you may possibly be given IP block exemption, but that would need to be subject to vetting by a CheckUser. There is certainly no question of unblocking the IP range, which would allow anyone using the web host back in.) From what you say in your email, you have edited both from home and from your University. Do you edit from home via your University through a Virtual Private Network? If so, could you disable that VPN when you want to edit Wikipedia? If you are not connecting via a VPN, then it seems to me unlikely that both your connections go via the same web host. If it is only at home that for some reason you use a web host connection, then again maybe you could disable it and connect directly to the internet when you want to edit Wikipedia. Otherwise, it may be that you will just have to accept that you can edit only from one of those two places, namely the one that doesn't use Leaseweb. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 11:23, 13 August 2015 (UTC)

Your second email
Once again, your email went to my spam folder. I have no idea why. The IP address you gave me is a "private" address. That means that it is only used on a local, private, network, not on the internet. That address may well be the one your computer sends out, but before anything you send gets onto the internet, some network device, such as a router, replaces that private address with a public IP address, and that is the one which reaches Wikipedia. That means it is that public address which must be blocked on Wikipedia, not the private address you gave me. The easiest way to see what IP address is reaching Wikipedia is to try editing a page without logging into your account, and if the IP address is blocked, you will see a message telling you what the IP address is. If you are blocked, there may be no "edit" link on the page, but there should be a "view source" link at the top of the page, which will serve to let you know the IP address. Also, even if you are blocked, you can usually edit your own talk page, so you should be able to post messages here. (Talk page access is not usually removed except for editors with a history of disruptive misuse of talk page access while blocked.) I will try to get back onto this again, but unfortunately I am now out of time, and I am unlikely to get another chance until Tuesday. The editor who uses the pseudonym "JamesBWatson" (talk) 21:14, 16 August 2015 (UTC)