Solved - in a rather strange way...

I was contacted by The UK National Lottery who had been speaking to my ISP - they wanted to forward some instructions for IE (which I don't tend to use) to see if that helped.

Very simple really - just setup IE to point to a proxsy server.
------------------------------------------------------------ 
In Internet Explorer, select 'Tools', then 'Internet Options', then 'Connections' and finally 'LAN settings'. 

Please make sure 'Use a proxy server for your LAN' is checked, 
In the 'Address' box, please type 'webcache.virginmedia.com' and enter '8080' for the 'Port' setting. 
Ensure 'Bypass proxy server for local addresses' is unchecked. 
Please 'OK' settings and Apply. 
------------------------------------------------------------ 


And that was it- IE was able to connect to the site.


What I wan't expecting was that Firefox and Chrome were also then able to connect.


Then I booted into Ubuntu (since IE isn't on Ubuntu for some reason) and both FireFox and Chrome were also able to connect.


The only thing I can think of was that one of Virgin Medias servers had decided that a particular route was my preferred solution, so I thought I would compare a tracert I took earlier with a fresh one - and sure enough there were some differences* in the route that my traffic took in the Virgin Media network.


So there you go - having problems connecting to The national lottery website - set up your proxy server as detailed above.


Simple really I guess, though of course there was no way of knowing this until I kicked up a fuss and someone looked at the issue. 

*if you care:
Here is the route when I was being refused access
  2     7 ms     5 ms     5 ms watf-core-1a-ae1-2985.network.virginmedia.net [80.3.1.37] 
  3     6 ms     6 ms     7 ms brnt-bb-1a-ge-320-0.network.virginmedia.net[212.43.162.138] 
  4     9 ms     9 ms    11 ms nrth-bb-1b-as4-0.network.virginmedia.net[212.43.162.218] 
  5    11 ms    72 ms    10 ms tele-ic-4-ae0-0.network.virginmedia.net[62.253.174.18] 
  6    10 ms    11 ms    11 ms  ldn-b4-link.telia.net [213.248.70.29] 
  7   136 ms    28 ms    10 ms  ldn-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.246.144] 
  8    87 ms    85 ms    85 ms  ash-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.251.207] 
  9   101 ms   102 ms   100 ms  atl-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.247.173] 
10   115 ms   113 ms   113 ms  mai-b1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.58] 
11   115 ms   115 ms   115 ms asurnet-ic-134141-mai-b1.c.telia.net[213.248.72.6] 
12   120 ms   118 ms   121 ms tengige2-1.usa.nmi-edge05.columbus-networks.com [63.245.5.85] 
13   132 ms   131 ms   159 ms  63.245.69.190 
14     *        *        *     Request timed out. 
15   126 ms   125 ms   123 ms  24.244.158.2 
16   133 ms   142 ms   142 ms  208-87-34-15.securehost.com [208.87.34.15] 




Here is a  traceroute when working config: 
  2     7 ms     7 ms    16 ms watf-core-1a-ae1-2986.network.virginmedia.net [80.3.1.41] 
  3     7 ms     6 ms    14 ms brnt-bb-1a-ge-320-0.network.virginmedia.net[212.43.162.138] 
  4    63 ms    61 ms    61 ms  so-10-3-0-xcr1.lnd.cw.net [195.2.9.149] 
  5   135 ms   167 ms   131 ms  xe-5-3-0-xcr1.nyk.cw.net [195.2.25.197] 
  6   140 ms   144 ms   141 ms  xe-0-0-0-xcr1.ash.cw.net [195.2.21.182] 
  7   103 ms    94 ms    95 ms  equinix-ash.epoch.net [206.223.115.52] 
  8   167 ms   167 ms   168 ms  ae3-10.c01.ash.bb.megapath.net[155.229.57.180] 
  9    96 ms    95 ms    95 ms ae8-0.asbnvacz-mxc2.bb.megapath.net[155.229.101.149] 
10   167 ms   167 ms   167 ms ae3-0.lsancagb-mxc2.bb.megapath.net[155.229.57.113] 
11   171 ms   167 ms   167 ms ge-0-1-0-0.c00.lax.bb.megapath.net[155.229.120.21] 
12   178 ms   171 ms   167 ms  gig1-1.e40.lax.bb.megapath.net[155.229.120.98] 
13   176 ms     *      175 ms 209-101-27-70.lax-e100.cust.gw.epoch.net[209.101.27.70] 
14   176 ms   169 ms   165 ms  whatismyipaddress.com [66.80.82.69] 

I have been talking to (ie emailling with) the Register a fair bit about this, but mainly going over the emails.

Something that did emerge was that I was able to access the website using an inventive hack that I spent hours putting together:

Opening a second tab in the browser...

I kid you not - it worked consistently in Firefox and Chrome, on both my main PC and laptop, and in Ubuntu as well as Win7 (on the main PC).
That came as quite a surprise, and I was able to transfer some funds over and buy some Euromillions tickets, which was nice.

A few days ago that stopped working :-(

Spreading the word

So I decided this wasn't going anywhere

Date: 01 May 2012
Subject: Re: Response from The National Lottery (Ref:NL399976)

Good morning,

Thank you for your reply - since it's obvious that the UK National Lottery
is unwilling to sort out their problem with their website not working
correctly then I am forced to take this issue to other organisations.

As an aside I tried some other IP location utilities and they all returned
the expected result - they have no issues with knowing where I am and
neither should the GeoIP software being used by your organisation.

Regards
To which I got a very extensive and polite reply:

Dear

Thank you for your email dated 01 May 2012.

I am sorry to hear that our previous reply to you did not resolve your enquiry.

I appreciate that your specific concern is the method we will be
adopting to identify player location. I must re-affirm that we do
understand that the new enhancements will adversely affect a small
number of players, including yourself, for which I apologise. However,
the fact remains that this will be the procedure moving forward.

The good news is that, based on the information you have given, you
are not prohibited from playing our games altogether. There are a
selection of alternative options that, if chosen, will enable you to
successfully purchase National Lottery tickets (below).

1, You can play by Direct Debit as long as you are a UK or Isle of Man
resident and are physically located in the UK or Isle of Man when
setting up or amending your Direct Debit Account, including buying
additional tickets, changing your numbers or payment details.As long
as you only make these changes while you are physically located in the
UK or Isle of Man, your tickets will be valid.

2, You can play via a mobile network and/or dongle as long as you are
a resident of, and physically located in the UK or Isle of Man. You
may receive a ‘warning’ message, however, if you are physically
located in the UK or Isle of Man, please click the ‘Accept’ button and
you will be able to continue to play.

3, You can buy tickets in advance – up to eight weeks for Lotto,Lotto
Plus 5, Lotto HotPicks and Thunderball and four weeks for EuroMillions
– or you can always buy a ticket from one of our 29,000+ National
Lottery retailers in the UK or Isle of Man.

4, You can also play the UK National Lottery with friends and family
as part of a syndicate whose Syndicate Manager is located and is
playing in the UK or Isle of Man – we provide advice on playing as
part of a syndicate on our website at www.national-lottery.co.uk.

If you’re accessing the mobile-optimised site via a mobile network
(i.e. not through a wifi connection) and you can’t get past this page
even though you are clicking ‘Accept’, please ensure your cookies are
switched to ON in order to be able to continue.

To turn cookies on using an iPhone (4/4S):
Select ‘Settings’
Click ‘Safari’
Under ‘Privacy’, select ‘Accept Cookies’
Select ‘Always or When visited’

To turn cookies on using an Android:
Open your web browser by selecting the browser application on your phone
Push the ‘Menu’ button
Select the ‘More’ option
Select ‘Settings’
Scroll down until you find the ‘Accept cookies’ option.
Click this to make sure a green tick appears on the RHS.

While I appreciate your concerns, I hope that this and our previous
reply have answered your queries. As previously stated, the next steps
for you to take, if you remain unhappy with our procedures, you are
welcome to outline your issues with the National Lottery Commission.

Yours sincerely

National Lottery Customer Care Team


Now please understand that I have nothing against these people (I have removed their names since they are immaterial) and I can understand that they have their procedure to follow, but I on the other hand am being penalised for something that is out of my control. I AM in the UK, what else am I supposed to do? 
Certainly I don't see why it's my problem to fix.


So I replied:

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately your previous reply has done nothing to address the
issue I am facing, which is that your GeoIP implementation is not fit
for purpose - it appears that it cannot do something that other
websites are able to do, ie correctly locate my location.
Your previous emails also introduce a further issues, which is that
you deem it necessary to inspect my previous web site history before
allowing a UK citizen access to your website - this moves your problem
from just a technical issue to also be a privacy concern.

Thank you for confirming something that I am already aware of - that I
am entitled to play UK National Lottery Games, now can you concentrate
on the issue of why your system doesn't work properly.

I already have an account which is automatically debiting my bank
account for the weekly draws, but I now have no way to add funds to
buy euromillions tickets.

If I were house-bound you would be making it very difficult for me to
participate.

I would go through the individual points, but I would like to point
out that we would not be having this discussion at all if the system
you use actually performed it's designed functions correctly.
I should be able to access your website to update my account, play
games etc. but I am unable to do so due to your systems putting
unreasonable constraints on my access.

I contacted the National Lottery Commision yesterday and I will update
them on our email discussion.

Regards




Now is the time to take this beyond a simple back-and-forth between myself and Camelot.


So I contacted my MP:

to:      <my MP>
date:    1 May 2012 21:34
subject:         National Lottery website.
mailed-by:       gmail.com

Good evening ,

This is to let you know of a problem I am having - I am not expecting
you to necessarily do anything beyond being aware of the problems that
crop up when systems are not implemented properly.

I am currently having a dispute with the UK National Lottery
(http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/) about their new GeoIP
functionality, which refuses me access to their website, not
necessarily because they think I am outside the UK (since I can prove
that I am) but of something more insidious.
They block my access because there is an anonymizer on my link
(apparently) which stops them from seeing my web page history (to my
mind that is none of their business) which I feel is going far beyond
their license remit.

I can provide more details should you wish, but I don't expect you
will be interested.


He did reply - which was nice. I'll scan that in when I get a chance - and when I boot into Ubuntu since Win7 doesn't recognize my scanner!


And the Register 


to:      news@theregister.co.uk
date:    30 April 2012 20:20
subject:         UK Lottery geo location doesn't work.
mailed-by:       gmail.com

Good evening,

I don't know if you would be interested but the UK National Lottery
website (http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/) now determines if you
live in the UK or not
<lots of repeated emails as above>
I await their response - have you come across this yet?


And the Lottery Commission - not the information commissioner - my bad...


Good evening,


I wish to raise a complaint against the UK National Lottery website blocking my access.

The UK National Lottery website (http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/) now determines if you
live in the UK or not
<lots of repeated emails as above>
 It turns out that the information commissioner is not the body I need
 but yourselves, oh well..

I can prove that I live in the UK, in the same town as Camelots HQ funnily enough,
I refuse to believe that they have a legitimate need to see my web page history,
I feel that I have right to complain due to their system not working and their attempts to fob me off onto my ISP to fix something that is not a problem for others.
I will now forward this to my MP and Virgin Media (though not to complain about their service) since I hope that some awareness of the National Lotteries behaviour is needed.
I cannot buy Euromillions tickets on the website due to their software not being correctly implemented - hardly the way to treat a customer.

Regards


They haven't got back to me yet, beyond a standard response email, which is fair enough.


From: NLC Consumer Protection <consumerprotection@natlotcomm.gov.uk>
Date: 4 May 2012 09:07
Subject: RE: UK National Lottery GeoIP is broken.

Dear

Thank you for your emails about Camelot's blocking software.

We will try to respond to your correspondence within 20 working days.


In the meantime, if you have any enquiries on this or any other matter
please do not hesitate to contact me on 0845 7125596 or 0121 2306702.

Kind regards

Consumer Protection Manager

Ok - so here is the response form the technical people:

Dear 

Thank you for your email dated 28 April 2012.

A search of your IP address has shown that there is an Anonymizer on
your internet access or computer that would have been placed there by
yourself or your Internet Service provider.

An Anonymizer is something that allows a user to visit Web sites
without allowing anyone to gather information about which sites the
user has visited. This means that our blocking system isn’t able to
trace whether you are trying to access your account from within the UK
or not, therefore access will not be allowed to our website.

In order to access our website this would need to be removed. I would
therefore as you to contact your service provider for further
information.

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely


National Lottery Customer Care Team


Wait you need to read my browser history? isnt' that my personal data - come to that, isn't that also potentially the data belonging to my wife and any other accounts on my PC?


So, going back to the fact that this is supposed to be about where I live, I sent this:


Date: 30 April 2012
Subject: Re: Response from The National Lottery (Ref:NL399976)

Good afternoon,

That doesn't sounds right - if the website (http://whatismyipaddress.com/) that
shows my location from my IP address can get it right so can you, also this
is not my ISPs problem since it is your companies implementation that seems
at fault.

I do feel that an anonymizer is a good idea and I am glad that my ISP has
that enabled one since there is no need for you to know what other websites
I have visited if there is one on my connection it should not be necessary
for it to be removed.

I return to my point that if http://whatismyipaddress.com/ can get it right
so can you.

If you refuse to sort out this problem then I will raise a complaint with
my ISP (over your behaviour), the information commissioner and my MP over
this - it is not right that  you can falsely refuse access to your website
when the very tool you suggest I use to find my location proves that I do
live in the UK (and have done all my life).

Regards


To which, inevitably they respond thusly:


Dear

Thank you for your email dated 30 April 2012.

I sorry to hear of your frustrations regarding this matter however I
regret to inform you that if your Internet Service Provider is using
an Anonymizer on your internet access, our location software will be
unable to to determine if your are physically located in the UK or
Isle of Man. Therefore you will be unable to access your National
Lottery account.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and if you require any
further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Yours sincerely

National Lottery Customer Care Team


So that wasn't going anywhere - what to do....

So having been denied access I sent an email to find out why, I was a little miffed:

To: help@national-lottery.co.uk
date:    27 April 2012 21:04
subject:         I am inside the UK - your GeoIP functionality is broken.
mailed-by:       gmail.comGood evening,

Your GeoIP function is broken - I live in Watford so I am definitely
in the UK and yet you are deciding that I can't access your website.

I wanted to buy some tickets for the Euro draw, but due to you
sub-standard system I am unable to.

Turn it off or make it work - it's your problem not my ISPs, after all
they had nothing to do with you using it in the first place so don't
pass the buck to them.

I look forward to your unhelpful stock reply.

Regards

And of course I got a response:

Dear

Thank you for your email dated 28 April 2012. I am sorry to hear of
the difficulties that you have experienced logging in to your account.

Please may I ask you to confirm which internet service provider that
you are using and if I may also I ask you to provide us with your IP
address?

If you are unsure how to find this, please copy and paste the below
link in to your web browser:

www.whatismyipaddress.com

If you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me.


Yours sincerely


National Lottery Customer Care Team
Ah - I thought, now I can see where they think I am, so I went to the indicated website and found out where they thought I was - needless to say I was not surprised:

So I let them know my results:

Date: 28 April 2012
Subject: Re: Response from The National Lottery (Ref:NL399976)

Thank you for your response Lesley.My external IP address is 80.0.175.nnn

The website you linked to has this information :
'IP Information: 80.0.175.nnn
ISP:Virgin Media
Organization:Virgin Media
Connection:Broadband<http://whatismyipaddress.com/broadband>
Services:None Detected <http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-services>
City:Watford
Region:HertfordCountry:United Kingdom'

Which shows me as being in Watford, I have just tried logging in to the
national lottery website and have once again been refused - so what's going
on?

Regards

And here is their reply:

Thank you for your further email dated 28 April 2012 with regard to
accessing your online National Lottery account whereby you have
advised your IP address.

This matter has been escalated for review by our technical team.

When queries are under review, our scheduled response time is within
ten working days.  However please be assured that every effort will be
made to contact you as soon as possible.

For the moment, I apologise for any inconvenience caused to you while
you await our response.

Yours sincerely

National Lottery Customer Care Team

Excellent I thought - escalated to the technical team, now we'll get some answers...

How it started

Ok - the basics, I am a UK citizen, I was born in England and, aside from a few holidays, live my entire life in England.
I use an English ISP and Open DNS - pretty basic huh?

Well, for some time I had been getting a warning message when accessing the UK National Lottery website (http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/) which stated that they thought I was outside the UK, but I could press accept and carry on.

I thought I would query this since it seemed a silly message to be getting - this is the start!

date:    14 April 2012 21:22
subject:         Why do you think I'm outside the UK?
mailed-by:       gmail.com


Good evening,

I keep on getting the 'we think you are outside the UK' message every
time I log in.

Is it because I choose to use OpenDNS for my DNS provider? It's the
only think I can think of since everything else is down to Virgin
media.

Needless to say I am in the UK - do I need to revert to using Virgins
DNS servers? or can I verify my location somehow and stop these
unnecessary messages?

Regards


And I got a not too helpful reply:


Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your Email dated 14 April 2012.

If you play National Lottery games via a mobile network and/or dongle
you may receive this ‘warning’ message even if you are physically
located in the UK or Isle of Man – as our location software determines
your network connection as unknown. From 23 April, you may continue to
see this warning if you are playing via a mobile network and/or
dongle. However, if you are physically located in the UK or Isle of
Man, please click the ‘Accept’ button and you will be able to continue
to play.

We remind our online and text players that they should only play if
they are physically located in the UK or Isle of Man when they sign
into their accounts or buy tickets, as well as when they initially set
up or purchase their Direct Debit. Our location software identifies if
a player appears to be trying to access the National Lottery website
from outside the UK or Isle of Man or from an unknown connection. If
this is the case, a ‘warning’ message will pop-up reminding players of
their obligations under the Terms and Conditions, which include the
requirement to be physically located in the UK or Isle of Man – and
that if they do not meet these requirement a prize might not be paid.

We hope the above detail has been of assistance.  However if you have
any further queries you can view more information by copying and
pasting the following web address in to your browser:

http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/help/faqs.ftl

Yours faithfully

So all well and good - no issues since I'm in the UK, so all will be well? of course not, around the 25th I was unable to log into the website.