[WikiEN-l] How to get around AOL proxies?

[Ilmari Karonen]

There has been some recent discussion at [[MediaWiki talk:Blockedtext]] 
about providing specific instructions for AOL users who find the IP of 
their proxy blocked, similar to how we provide instructions for users 
editing from China.

It seems the German Wikipedia already advises blocked AOL users to use a 
different browser (like Firefox), as this apparently bypasses the proxy 
setup the standard AOL browser is configured to use.  They even held a 
(failed) poll to rangeblock the entire AOL proxy range, forcing anyone 
editing from AOL to do this.

Give this, there are a number of questions I'd like help answering:

1. Does using a different browser really help?  Does it work on both 
Windows and Mac?  If you're on AOL, you can check this by opening the 
link <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Mypage> in an alternative 
browser while not logged in to Wikipedia, and comparing the address 
shown to the list at <http://webmaster.info.aol.com/proxyinfo.html>.

2. Can the AOL browser itself be configured to bypass the proxies?  Can 
this be done for Wikipedia only?  And again, does this work on Mac OS X 
too, since AOL uses a different browser there?

...and finally, something I'm sure is controversial:

3. If a sufficiently easy way to circumvent the AOL proxies was found, 
would you support rangeblocking the proxies permanently (or until AOL 
fixes their proxies to provide XFF headers)?  This would force anyone 
editing from AOL to bypass the proxies somehow, but would also make 
blocking AOL vandals much easier.  And what would you consider 
"sufficiently easy"?

In any case, answers to 1 and 2 above would let us amend the block 
notice to suggest workarounds for AOL users accidentally caught in a 
block.  Presumably there are people with AOL accounts on this list; if 
you're one of them, your help is needed.

-- 
Ilmari Karonen