FortiGuard Still Blocking Official Lahore High Court Website (lhc.gov.pk)

[Sib6]

Title: FortiGuard Still Blocking Official Lahore High Court Website (lhc.gov.pk)

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone from EE’s technical or network team can help me resolve a persistent access problem that’s been ongoing for several months.

Whenever I try to visit the official Lahore High Court website (https://www.lhc.gov.pk) on my EE broadband connection, I get this message:

FortiGuard Intrusion Prevention – Access Blocked
The page you have requested has been blocked because the URL is banned.

This is an official Government of Pakistan High Court website that I need to access regularly for my pending legal case.

What I’ve already tried

• ✅ Turned Web Protect off via the EE app.
• ✅ Restarted both my EE Smart Hub Plus router and PC.
• ✅ Flushed DNS, cleared browser cache, and renewed IP (ipconfig /flushdns, etc.).
• ✅ Tested with VPN (ExpressVPN) and without VPN — still blocked.
• ✅ Checked for any security software conflicts. I’m currently using Webroot, but even with it turned off, the block persists.
• ✅ Confirmed that the hosts file is clean.
• ✅ Verified through PowerShell and Windows Security that no Norton or Fortinet software is running locally.
• ✅ Tried both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections.
• ✅ Used my phone’s mobile data (non-EE network) — the site opens fine there.

So the issue seems to occur only on my EE broadband line.

Traceroute results

I ran tracert lhc.gov.pk and here’s what I got:

Tracing route to lhc.gov.pk [103.226.216.153]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.254

  2     6 ms     5 ms     5 ms  172.16.18.99

  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.

  4–9  EE/BT international backbone routers

 10–30 * * * Request timed out

Trace complete.

This shows the route is being dropped before reaching Pakistan, which looks like the FortiGuard filter or an upstream EE security gateway is still blocking it.

Related behaviour

• When I try https://www.lhc.gov.pk → I get the FortiGuard “URL banned” message.
• When I try https://data.lhc.gov.pk/case_management/regular_cause_list → I get
  “This site can’t be reached – ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT.”

This suggests the FortiGuard block might also be interfering with related subdomains used by the High Court’s case-management system.

What I’m asking

Could EE please:

• Escalate this to the network security team, and
• Whitelist or remove the FortiGuard block for lhc.gov.pk and its subdomains (particularly data.lhc.gov.pk)?

This is an official government site, not harmful or inappropriate, and it’s essential for legal case tracking.

Additional notes

• My broadband plan is EE Fibre with Smart Hub Plus.
• I access the web via Ethernet connection, not Wi-Fi.
• Other websites work perfectly — it’s just this domain being blocked.

Thank you very much for your time and any help you can offer.
I really appreciate any EE staff or community members who can help get this resolved.

Best regards,
Sib6

[Northerner]

Hi @Sib6 

I am not on EE and this site is blocked for me. 

I would suggest this is another issue not limited to EE. 

Thanks 

[Sib6]

Thanks for checking.

I’ve tested this quite thoroughly:

• The site opens normally on mobile data and on other networks, but
• On my EE broadband it shows a FortiGuard Intrusion Prevention – URL banned message before it even reaches the site.
• My traceroute stops inside EE’s network (never reaches Pakistan).

That means the block is happening at EE’s network-level, not on my PC or the destination server.

I’d really appreciate if an EE moderator or network team could take a look and escalate this to have lhc.gov.pk and its subdomains reviewed or whitelisted — it’s an official government site.

Thanks again for any help.

[XRaySpeX]

I get the same on EE BB & O2 mobile. Implying it is more than just a EE BB problem.

https://pakistan.gov.pk/ is easily reachable. Implying in this case it is a specific https://www.lhc.gov.pk problem.

The Description in this error msg is "URL Source Local URLfilter Block". Could the "Source Local" imply that this page may only be reached from local URLs, e.g. URLs from Lahore or even Pakistan?

To all intents & purposes the block seems to be being applied at the destination end, the Lahore High Court Website, not your end.

Traceroute's last reachable node is beyond "EE/BT international backbone routers" (whatever they are & wherever they might exist) & does reach 195.22.198.89 = "Italy Palermo Ti Sparkle Seabone Palermo Pop" before timing out. So it can't be stopping inside EE’s network.

No "network team" will be answering this on this public user discussion forum. 

[bristolian]

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@XRaySpeX wrote:

I get the same on EE BB & O2 mobile. Implying it is more than just a EE BB problem.

---

I get the same issue on my Virgin Media home broadband.

[Northerner]

@Sib6 

You seem to have issues outside of just EE.

Thanks 

[XRaySpeX]

We have shown it happens with other specific networks outside EE BB. You haven't!

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@Sib6 wrote:

The site opens normally on mobile data and on other networks

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What other networks? With or w/out VPN?

[Schockwave]

It does not work with VPN and mobile data, I also found that it is blocked, so not sure how the OP managed it via mobile data, it obviously will only work when in Lahore for some reason, also blocked when no VPN is on.

[XRaySpeX]

Only Lahore residents may issue High Court actions 😉!