Anyone having issues with other forums with their VPN?

[i6pwr]

I had joined a few forums to inquire more about some vehicles in hopes to narrow down another used vehicle, and was later greeted with 3 seperate bans.... This was after I had already joined and started a few topics. One forum quickly replied and told me it could have been the VPN as they were seeing an out of country spam but that shouldn't be the case...they had also reinstated my account but still have 2 to go... so is this normal? I have had this VPN for almost a year with no issues so far.

 

[Astro14]

There are a lot of forums that do not allow VPN.

It’s because spammers hide behind VPN. The easiest way for them to keep the spammers out is to simply ban VPN.

 

[OilStained]

What VPN have you been using?
No issues so far, until now?

 

[i6pwr]

What VPN have you been using?
No issues so far, until now?

Nord.

Been absolutely flawless for 11 months.

 

[Merek]

I have Nord which is mostly what I use but also Surfshark and Express, numerous forums block VPN traffic and the only way to connect is by turning it off. I use servers that are around the US.

 

[KCJeep]

There are other forums?

 

[BobsArmory]

I am running Proton, no problems other than a Captcha every now and again.

 

[Rand]

When my phone is on FI vpn at work I sometimes get the OOPS something happened error.

 

[Bailes1992]

I use a VPN regularly as I'm often on public WiFi when working away, or generally out and about.

I was using Nord until around ~6 months ago and moved over to Surfshark. I've had no issues as of yet.

 

[dogememe]

I have a business and any orders placed through a VPN automatically get cancelled and the account marked as fraud. I’ve seen a couple orders that looked legit enough and called the people to see if they wanted to order without a VPN and give some additional information. Guess what? Every single phone number was either fake or the person that picked up had no idea what I was talking about.

 

[Astro14]

I have a business and any orders placed through a VPN automatically get cancelled and the account marked as fraud. I’ve seen a couple orders that looked legit enough and called the people to see if they wanted to order without a VPN and give some additional information. Guess what? Every single phone number was either fake or the person that picked up had no idea what I was talking about.

Exactly.

It’s not that people who use a VPN are bad, it is that so many bad people use a VPN.

 

[uc50ic4more]

If you use a VPN the service ought to allow some latitude in choosing the server location. Choose one in your own country if possible. I administer a lot of websites where a geo-restriction is in place. If they see their new user i6pwr logging in from Finland one day, Singapore the next, it just screams "spam".

There comes a point when trying to mask your identity and location defy the purpose of using a platform where your identity is part of your use of that platform.

 

[4wd]

Nord.

Been absolutely flawless for 11 months.

Use it lots of places - sometimes slow to connect the first time - sometimes takes a reboot etc …

 

[i6pwr]

If they see their new user i6pwr logging in from Finland one day, Singapore the next, it just screams "spam

I agree.....but I pretty much keep the same, I don't bounce around out of country...unless the VPN does it on its own but I wouldn't think it does.

 

[dogememe]

I agree.....but I pretty much keep the same, I don't bounce around out of country...unless the VPN does it on its own but I wouldn't think it does.

nah it's super obvious if you're using a VPN. The easiest way is to reverse lookup the IP and see if it's a traditional ISP or some datacenter or hosting provider.

For example, it will take you one glance to see which one of these is a residential ISP and which one is a hosting provider. No user is going to be accessing your site from a hosting providers IP range. OK, well, almost no users. A few will but it's an edge case.

https://bgp.he.net/AS33651
https://bgp.he.net/AS14061

Of course, there are ways to hide this.. a few shady/niche VPN providers use residential proxies... but these connections are randomized and if you access the site from an IP belonging to Comcast that's geolocated to San Francisco, California, then the next day you access the site from an IP belonging to AT&T geolocated to Austin, Texas and then the next day one from Verizon from Raleigh, North Carolina, it's pretty obvious something fishy is going on.

Yes there is more to it and edge cases like I mentioned, but this is the problem with regular people using VPNs full time on their home internet... nothing will work quite the way it's supposed to and you are likely to be blocked from many places, or at the very least encounter those "are you sure you're not a bot?" things very often. This even affects corporate networks... if I'm at work and try to go on Amazon, Yelp, etc. it often asks me to do a CAPTCHA.

 

[dishdude]

I've read using a VPN will get your ebay account banned.

I have Nord but I only use it when overseas so I can access US sites and on my streaming stick I travel with so I can watch US TV.

A VPN is unnecessary for security, all reputable sites are already encrypted.

 

[BobsArmory]

You can get a dedicated/static IP address from some VPN companies for an extra cost, that would get rid of 99.5% of your issues or you could go an extra step and spin up your own VPN (that would be fun to play with). Hint, if a 3 letter agency wants your data, nothing will stop them from getting it even if you go hard and run Linux tails a vpn and a tor web browser

 

[uc50ic4more]

You can get a dedicated/static IP address from some VPN companies for an extra cost, that would get rid of 99.5% of your issues or you could go an extra step and spin up your own VPN (that would be fun to play with). Hint, if a 3 letter agency wants your data, nothing will stop them from getting it even if you go hard and run Linux tails a vpn and a tor web browser

With not as much technical acuity as you might think you can also set up a (free tier) cloud computer (which'll have its own static IP) and install Tailscale on it; and use that cloud computer as your VPN. This is what I do: I have these "Exit Nodes" set up in both Canada (for when my kids need to access sites or platforms while on their school WiFi that the school does not allow. Don't tell anyone!) and in the U.S. to bypass geo-restriction filters.