Support #25527
openAccess NESRI from Europe
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Description
Via Keeping:
I am a Dutch historian doing research into slavery in the Northeast of the USA. I’m accessing NESRI from the Netherlands. The website itself loads normally, but both the General Search and Locality Search database functions return a 403 Forbidden error.
Could you please let me know whether there are any geographic restrictions, IP restrictions, or known access issues affecting users outside the United States?"
Updated by Raymond Hoh 1 day ago
Hi Marilyn,
The General Search and Locality Search database functions use an external site, Caspio, so this is not related to Commons hosting. It looks like the person that set up the Caspio databases restricted them to be viewable only from the US. See https://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/issues/16509#note-3 for more info about Caspio and the NESRI site. It looks like Ned Benton might be a good contact to ask about the Caspio restriction.
In the meantime, it is possible to access the Caspio links if the user has access to a VPN and is able to use an American location. If the user does not have a VPN, Windscribe is a popular VPN that offers some US locations to use on their free plan. I can confirm that Windscribe works to view the Caspio links, so any decent VPN with a US location should be able to view the database content.