Debian User Forums

Has anyone else encountered problems with startpage and a broken captcha they recently started using ?
In the past I all ways suggested using them, but that is a thing of the past. They have started using a broken captcha, yes, you have to answer the captcha before you can do a search, that is bad enough to start with, but the captcha does not work, even if you are very careful and type in the correct text, it will error, and say it timed out. So I contacted them, and the truth comes out, they do track your IP, and if it is a IP they don't like, well you are out of luck, the captcha will never be solveable, also, if you are using a VPN, that could cause the captcha, ...you will not be allowed to do your search using startpage. Any way fortunately there are other search engines that do still work.
They also said, if I do to many searches, that can trigger the block,...bah, so much for startpage, and no point in suggesting doing some searches before asking a question, if that is the way it is going to be, setting a limit to how many searches someone can do ! Absurd,...sometimes it does take changing the keywords, and trying several times, to find results that are use full, by setting a limit to how many searches can be done, renders the search engine useless. Maybe it is just me, or has anyone else run into this, maybe not since so many people don't bother to try searching first, and now I join the crowd, no point in trying to search first if the search engines start using broken captchas. Actually though, I have not had the problem with google,and the duck duck quack quack one, however the google search engine gives mostly results that are just spam sites, with advertising campaigns, and almost zero useful info. Maybe I should do some searches, and see what other search engines are available. -----searching-------
Oh no, the broken captcha again, ---.... so , what other search engines do members here suggest ?

what other search engines do members here suggest ?

https://medium.com/searchencrypt/these- ... 5778415c78

I'm trying swisscows. https://swisscows.com/

GarryRicketson wrote:They have started using a broken captcha

I'm not seeing that here (UK).

Have you tried disabling javascript? That gets rid of their silly advert links for me

Thanks for the links, and I will try that on the java script.

GarryRicketson wrote: . . . however the google search engine gives mostly results that are just spam sites, with advertising campaigns, and almost zero useful info. Maybe I should do some searches, and see what other search engines are available . . .

I haven't seen the captcha . . . my IP must not be suspect. But in the past months I haven't been able to get good search results. Yes, I use operators but the algorithm keeps feeding me useless **** that has nothing to do with what I want. Seems Google is learning how to "jail" information" and instead provide propaganda. We are discussing search result issues over at Devuan also.

I don't see it and I use Startpage every day as my home page and search engine. Try adding Startpage to your browser:
https://support.startpage.com/index.php ... my-browser

KBD47 wrote:I don't see it and I use Startpage every day as my home page and search engine. Try adding Startpage to your browser . . .

He's already using startpage. If you ever were to land on a tainted exit node in a VPN, you'd probably see it. If you have a clean static IP, you probably never will.

Exactly, and I have removed startpage from my book marks, so no, I am not using Startpage any more. I did contact their support, and surprisingly got a reply, but the reply was so absurd, and the excuses so poor, ... in any event, it did make it clear to me that they are a bunch of liars,...give it some thought, they claim to respect your privacy, but are using the IP you have to decide to block you from using the search engine, or permit you to use it, they pretend to be private, but work hand in hand with google, ...I am through with startpage, and will not be going back to using them ever.
They also tried to tell me maybe it was because I use a VPN, which I don't, but even if I did, that is not a good excuse to throw up walls, with a damn captcha that does not work. If your privacy was being respected, the server would not even know you are using a VPN, or tor, go figure. If the captcha at least worked , it would not be so bad, I don't really mind typing in some text, and then continue, but the captcha does not work, even if one types in the correct text, any way, it is no big deal, I don't need startpage, there are others that do work well,......The thing that really annoyed me, is they deny that the captcha does not work, and tried to blame it on me using a VPN, but I do not use a VPN, my IP is dynamic, so I get what the ISP gives me, and that leads to what a bunch of liars these people at startpage are, they do check your IP, and if it is from a ISP they do not approve of, or some VPN, they deny access to the stinking search engine. If they are checking your IP, and what ISP you use, or determining that it is a VPN, What else do they check, and share with Google ?.... think about it.
When I did some searches, using a new search engine, I did find some stuff about others that have had problems, many were using tor browsers, the point is, a search engine that claims to be private, has no business , sniffing your methods of browsing , then deciding to block you. What browsers,ISP, or VPN you are using, is none of their business, or they could at least be honest, and admit, "We check your IP,browser,ISP, and if it is a VPN as well, and if we do not approve of your browsing methods , you will not be allowed access" The pretending to be so private, etc, is a bunch of lies

No problems with Startpage here and I use it a lot.
Having a blocklist is not the same as tracking your IP. Maybe your reputation as a cybercriminal has caught up with you @GarryRicketson!

Startpage works as expected here as does, duckduckgo and qwant

That said they all return crap results. So poor in fact it's a cause for concern. I mean I can't be the only person in the world that's using icewm with tint2! Being the freetard I am I try and stick to searx and gigablast and if I could manage to build a yacy package for my Dragora3 machine I'd use that even if it's a bit fat.

Also, i'm not seeing that here (LT).

"What browsers,ISP, or VPN you are using, is none of their business"

Startpage from its inception has fought litigation from the EU and the US for access to its user base information. That battle is ongoing. Now in the US major ISPs are completely accessible and cooperative with government requests for user base information. Spectrum, Verizon, etc. and most social media like Facebook etc. and certainly complete access to Google. In the case of some major ISPs like Spectrum and Verizon LTE your ISP can jump your search and return their own results with page that has their own search engine labeling, of course this only happens with Google and so is known to be a concession or by agreement. It can also happen with Startpage because of Google but it is not a result Startpage approves or agrees to. Whatever is going on with Startpage it is not because of business or government pressures, but more likely a result of those pressures on your ISP. You use a computer. You use the WWW. There is no tin hat that can protect you, and no such thing as privacy.

TC

Yea, I know on the privacy thing, and actually don't really care about that, my private life does no go online. Mostly I just find it really annoying to have to solve a captcha just to do a search, and even that would not be so bad if the captcha actually worked, another one that can be very annoying is the Google REcaptcha, but so far I have not seen that come up when just trying to do a search. Also I do understand using a captcha, to help keep spambots from registering to a forum or website, but to use a search engine ? What next ?

Hi Garry, on a few occasions google asked me if I was a bot because I was searching a lot of email addresses of suspected bots.

4D696B65 wrote:Hi Garry, on a few occasions google asked me if I was a bot because I was searching a lot of email addresses of suspected bots.

My go-to bot detectors are these two sites:

https://www.stopforumspam.com/search
https://cleantalk.org/blacklists

That helps keep the registrations on the db I admin very clean. Only if someone passes but still feels a little spammy will I try a regular search.

I got another e-mail from the startpage support:

Note:some text cut--name of support person--

Thank you for being in touch with us again.

We are continuing to see why many legitimate users are seeing the captcha and will implement another fix on Monday.

If you don't mind, can you try again late tomorrow and see if you are still asked for the captcha?

Thanks again and we apologize for this inconvenience.

So apparently it is not just me, I will say, the support contact was responsive and polite anyway, ... since I started using one of the other search engines mentioned earlier, I have not had any problems with that one,...I suppose I should give startpage another try and see if there was any change. Don't really have any searches to do at the moment though.
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Re: on StopForumSpam, if I start doing multiple searches on IP /e-mails, some times I will get a captcha, we had to implement one because of DDOS attacks, but the capctha does work, and after solving it, I continue,.. that is what was so irritating with the one startpage is/was using, even though I was careful and sure the type in the text shown, including correct case, and it still made error.
How ever I will admit, the same when SFS started using one, we had some problems as well, especially depending on what browser one was using. It is kind of discouraging though, internet has become so full of criminals, and abusers, that these kind of things are necessary, but that is a whole other topic.

Garry, I've never had Startpage ask me to do a captcha. However, another forum I use requires a Google captcha (the one with all the fuzzy pictures) for every posting. It's a real pain. A while ago the capcha became almost impossible to defeat. I tried every stunt I could think of. Every success was only good for a day or two. Out of sheer frustration I stripped the ~/.[userconfig] out of one of my browsers, Waterfox, and reconfigured it from scratch. I even installed fresh extensions of uBlock Origin and HTTPS Everywhere. It worked! I don't know what I had messed up but it was certainly something I had adjusted for privacy. Moreover, I had done the same for all my browsers by exporting settings.

BTW, Tor Browser makes a good test platform. I keep mine up to date and never tinker with anything. Amazingly, in-spite of Tor's tight configuration and complicated routing, it can often do things, such as captchas, that all browsers should be able to. While it is not a sure thing, if it works with Tor then the problem is in your regular browser.

For years, I had never had that happen either, so I was surprised to say the least, ...probably related, there was some recent discussion at SFS about some bot nets being very problematic, and these bot nets are operating out of Mexico, so I do suspect that has a lot to do with it. .. it will all blow over after a while, I am sure.

Garry, I was having coffee this morning and it occurred to me that I never have had Startpage raise a captcha. Perhaps it's the browser setting. I set Startpage as home, but with an obfuscated URL that I copy to Firefox settings, not letting Firefox do any autoconfiguring for Homepage. Use the generate a URL on the Startpage settings page and then copy and paste it into Firefox for homepage. Also add Startpage to your list of search engines. I've used Startpage that way since the release of Jesse and all the way through Stretch and never had a captcha, and I work with it every day. Not an occasional user.

TC