I notice some sites straight up won’t load when I’m connected to VPN, and load right away when I turn off my VPN. I’m aware with geolock, it’s not that because when I use VPN server on the “preferred” country, it also doesn’t load.
If more and more site/app implement this, are we seeing the decline of VPN industry?
Some sites, particularly ones like Wikipedia that must adhere to a Creative Commons license that attributes edits to individuals, actively block open proxy VPNs. Physics Forums has been known to block users using VPN because a VPN makes it appear that a single user has multiple accounts. Other sites either throttle or block traffic coming from a known VPN address due to past abuse from that address.
There are paid services that list all known commercial vpn IP ranges.
Some sites/products will consider paying monthly to obtain those lists and ban accordingly for business reasons. Netflix comes to mind.
I’m using paid VPN, but I notice an increase of sites using measures like this. If more and more sites implement it, isn’t it pointless to use VPN?
I would be interested in this answer.
ProtonVPN.
My Podcast app on iOS will not load new pods.
One of my banks on web - same.
It does make a VPN an annoyance rather than a benefit.
Whys this at the top, doesn’t even answer the question.
What are the benefits for business to ban these IPs?
Does your paid VPN include some filtering services, like malware filtering? Some sites may not load if certain assets (like certain cookies) don’t get properly received by the browser, and that could happen if the VPN intercepted them, even if in error. I’m just speculating here, though.
Thanks for sharing. I’m using ExpressVPN, I thought it’s express problem and was considering to switch to Proton
I think your best approach is to ask ProtonVPN about this. There may be a false positive in their automatic ad blocking that is filtering out some critical component that your bank website requires to function.
No idea why it’s at the top, and I agree it shouldn’t be. But it does provide possible reasons why a site may not work with VPN. A subsequent reply suggests that the VPN ad filtering is likely experiencing a false positive and filtering out something critical.
It’s usually Licensing, contracts, copyrights, trade agreements.
Gambling companies can’t allow people gambling from other jurisdictions, otherwise they will have their license removed, which costs a bundle.
Netflix USA should not allow Canadians to see certain content due some company buying distribution rights to Canadians. They could stop VPNs if the contract covers that as a requirement (It’s not)
National sites that deal with certain citizens services, like gun licenses or driving ones.
Some users use VPNs to commit fraud. Ranging from circumventing regional restrictions to using stolen credit cards and worse.
Others use them to directly attack the websites.
All in all the chance of a user acting maliciously is much higher when they are behind a VPN. For businesses, it is a numbers game. They figured out that whatever they lose out on by blocking legitimate users is less than it will cost them to deal with the malicious ones.
Note also that even if a site does not specifically ban VPNs, it can trigger anti-spam or anti-botting filters because there’s a lot of traffic coming from one server. Also, if someone who is using a VPN does something to get themselves IP banned, that will affect anyone else who is using the same VPN server.
Yes it does, including blocking ads. I use expressVPN.
I did this and had the tech support back and forth a year ago - unresolved and a PITA.
Eventually my Black Friday thing with them will expire and I will be reviewing my VPN needs.
In that case, what you’re likely seeing is a false positive in which some critical component of the website is being misinterpreted by the VPN’s filter as an ad or malware. You’re paying for the service, so you should report it to them to investigate.
You could also just not use VPN with your bank. Your bank has your personal information anyway.
We routinely block Anon VPNs because of the large amount of malicious traffic that routes through them.