My VPN is banned!

[Anders]

When I use my VPN (NordVPN), my IP adress is banned. Is there anything I can do about this apart from 'don't use your VPN'?

[ericbsmith]

Probably not. IP addresses usually get banned when a spammer is using it or, occasionally, when a banned user is sock puppeting accounts from it.


Some VPNs allow you to set up split tunneling, allowing you to run some applications through the VPN while others bypass it. Using that method you could designate one browser to bypass the VPN and another to use it, that way you could use a secondary browser to access these forums while your main browser uses the VPN.

[Anthony]

It's likely that there's a way you can set up NordVPN traffic to/from SJG doesn't go through it (not that familiar with NordVPN, but other VPNs do that).

The core problem is that NordVPN is an anonymizing proxy, and anonymizing proxies inherently make you look like someone with something to hide -- such as being a spammer or troll.

[Anders]

And now it works again. Magic!

[Alden Loveshade]

I don't claim to be an expert on this. But as it was cut off then restored, here's my suspicion.

My suspicion is that the particular IP address NordVPN was using at the time was blocked. That could be because someone else who had used that IP address had caused problems. Wikipedia used to work that way as well. Now, they block an entire range, unless you get personally cleared to use a VPN to edit Wikipedia.

You may well know NordVPN gives the option of choosing a connection or letting the service do it for you.

To me, we live in a weird time. I know this differs by country. But in current America, if you want a secure and private Internet connection, if you don't want corporations spying on you and selling your data--then you look suspicious.

And I remember the first time after COVID-19 hit that I went to my bank to withdraw money. Telling a bank teller to give me money while I was wearing a mask....