Live · Spain · updated 11 November 2026
Live: example.com is blocked on Orange and MásMóvil in Spain
example.com is the domain the internet keeps for examples in documentation. It shows only a short notice from IANA, which manages it; no real service runs on it. Yet customers of Orange and MásMóvil in Spain cannot open it: the secure connection is cut as soon as the browser sends the name example.com. Public measurements show the block on 1 October 2026, and it was still there on 10 November. On 10 November, forum users on DIGI, O2 and Vodafone mobile could open it. No authority has said that it ordered this block, and the providers have not explained it. This page follows the case and shows what our own checks see right now, provider by provider.
Sources: IANA, Example domains · OONI measurement, Orange, 1 October 2026 · BandaAncha forum, 10 November 2026
Status now, by provider
Loading the latest results of our checks…
What happened, newest first
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We started checking example.com every 6 hours through home and mobile connections of six Spanish providers. The first check matched the public reports: on Orange and Jazztel and on MásMóvil and Yoigo, home and mobile, the secure connection was cut as soon as the name example.com was sent. On Movistar, DIGI, Vodafone and Avatel the page opened. The status above shows the latest result.
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A user of the Spanish broadband forum BandaAncha reported that Orange blocks example.com. On plain http (without the padlock), Orange shows its usual notice that the page is blocked "at the request of the competent authority"; on https the connection fails. The same user found that RedIRIS, the network of Spanish universities and research centres, answers with a private address that leads nowhere. The same user said MásMóvil was blocked too. Other forum users could not open the page on mobilR (which uses Yoigo's network) or on one Simyo home line, and could open it on DIGI, O2, Vodafone mobile and Simyo mobile.
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A second OONI measurement from Orange's network shows the same: the address is right, the secure connection is reset.
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An OONI measurement from MásMóvil's network (also used by Yoigo) shows the same reset.
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The earliest public measurement of the block we found. OONI, an open project that measures internet censorship, tested example.com from Orange's network. Orange's DNS gave the right address and the connection to it opened, but the secure connection was reset when the name example.com was sent. Over plain http the answer was not the example.com page, though OONI did not mark that test as blocked. From mid-August to the end of September 2026, OONI's measurements of example.com in Spain all came from DIGI, where the page opened, and we found none from May to mid-August, so we cannot tell when the block started.
Sources: OONI measurement, Orange, https, 1 October 2026 · OONI measurement, Orange, http, 1 October 2026
Why would anyone block example.com?
Nobody has said. The forum user who reported it ruled out two usual sources of blocks in Spain. It is not a football block: those come and go with match broadcasts, and this one holds all day. It is not a Ministry of Culture block either: those send visitors to the Ministry's own notice page, and here Orange shows its own. That points to a mistake, either by the provider or in a blocking order. One guess on the forum is that the name came in with the configuration of the filtering equipment, where example.com is the usual placeholder. Another is a mistake in a blocking order. Neither is confirmed.
Source: BandaAncha forum, 10 November 2026
What our status shows, and what it does not
- https only. We open https://example.com/ the way a browser does. The status shows the cut secure connection, not Orange's notice on plain http.
- Main providers only. We check home and mobile connections of Movistar, Orange and Jazztel, MásMóvil and Yoigo, DIGI, Vodafone and Avatel. RedIRIS is not among them, so its answer is known only from the forum.
- Changes are confirmed. A provider's status changes only when two checks in a row agree. One odd result shows as "Re-checking".
- Football weekends. example.com is served from Cloudflare addresses, and during football broadcasts Spanish providers block some Cloudflare addresses. If a check falls into a broadcast, another provider may briefly look blocked for that reason. We will note it here if that happens.
What it means for site owners
A block can be wrong and still last for weeks. This one hit the most harmless domain on the internet, on networks of one of Spain's largest provider groups, and was talked about only when a customer posted it on a forum, although public measurements had shown it for weeks. Errors like this tend to come from a shared list or a shared filter, so they show up on one group of providers and not on others. Checking from a datacenter, or from a single home line, would have shown nothing. If your site has visitors in Spain, test it through the providers they use; our Spain page explains how blocking works there.