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VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-25 | 02:34 · 10 Antworten · · Übersetzung:

Has anyone else experienced a high false-positive reaction from Norton VPN recently?


I've been using it without problems for years, but over the last few months a lot of completely legitimate, benign sites are being blocked.
It's more than just annoying (having to turn the VPN off to access them after realising that this is why I can't see some BBC sites or selfridges.com to name just a few). It also means that the 'world class' security Norton supposedly offer has to be turned off just to allow a lot of normal web activity to be possible.

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-25 | 10:01 · Permanenter Link

VPM's do not block or filter any web traffic.

Many web sites do not allow access from known VPN IP addresses. They do this for copyright, legal, security, and political reasons. There is nothing a VPN provider can or should do to circumvent these legal protections. 

You can contact the web sites you have connection issues with to see if this is what is happening. I have seen may reports of BBC not allowing VPN's.

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-26 | 04:34 · Permanenter Link

Then the claim that VPNs "transparently" redirect your origin are basically false. And the whole thing is just a scam?

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-26 | 12:12 · Permanenter Link

Then the claim that VPNs "transparently" redirect your origin are basically false. And the whole thing is just a scam?

How can you say that? If you use any of the sites that check your IP address, you will see that your IP address will not show your actual location. That is one of the features of a VPN.  

The issue you are running into is that a site, such as BBC, is protecting their content by blocking access from known VPN IP addresses. Usually it is users outside of Britain that would be blocked from accessing the content because of geographical blocks that would need to try to bypass the block by using a VPN. And a VPN service provider should not be trying to bypass this legal protection of content. 

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-26 | 18:22 · Permanenter Link

I don't have a problem accessing sites with Norton VPN, it blocks my applications like outlook desktop and google drive desktop from being able to access the internet, so I have to disconnect the VPN in order for them to start working again.  I have yet to be able to get to live technical support to try and resolve the issue.  Frankly I'm unsatisfied with both the Norton 360 product and the customer support service levels.  I'm switching to something more reliable.  Unfortunately, I'm past the 60-day refund so now I'm out close to $200.

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-27 | 02:06 · Permanenter Link

One of the main claims of most VPNs is that they hide your address transparently. I.e. nothing else about the connection is changed.
This is clearly not the case. I have to disconnect the VPN to get to completely legitimate sites, thus potentially exposing myself to the very threats that the VPN is claiming to help me from. It's useless!

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-27 | 06:14 · Permanenter Link

JBLT:

I don't have a problem accessing sites with Norton VPN, it blocks my applications like outlook desktop and google drive desktop from being able to access the internet, so I have to disconnect the VPN in order for them to start working again.  I have yet to be able to get to live technical support to try and resolve the issue.  Frankly I'm unsatisfied with both the Norton 360 product and the customer support service levels.  I'm switching to something more reliable.  Unfortunately, I'm past the 60-day refund so now I'm out close to $200.

Those apps are connecting to the internet connection on your device. So what you are seeing is the email provider you access from Outlook, and however you are connecting to the Google drive, are getting blocked with the VPN active because those providers are detecting the VPN IP address and blocking your access to protect your Account. When they see access from somewhere they do not expect for your Account, they need to verify it is you before allowing access. Sometimes they just block access, and others they will prompt for your security question/answer.

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-27 | 06:23 · Permanenter Link

Mr P Reeves:

One of the main claims of most VPNs is that they hide your address transparently. I.e. nothing else about the connection is changed.
This is clearly not the case. I have to disconnect the VPN to get to completely legitimate sites, thus potentially exposing myself to the very threats that the VPN is claiming to help me from. It's useless!

For sites that allow VPN access will not know your actual location. All they know is that you are using a VPN, and they see your location as being where the VPN server is located.  

It is not the fault of the VPN provider if a legitimate site decides to block VPN access for the reasons I noted above. 

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-27 | 06:44 · Permanenter Link

If that were the case, then why wouldn't the same thing happen when I access these providers through the web while connected to VPN?

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-27 | 07:58 · Permanenter Link

"It is not the fault of the VPN provider if.. "

Fine, and I accept that based on the technical reasons you've explained. But this wasn't my point.

It IS the fault of VPN providers to mislead people about what their capabilities are.

I'll need to re-read the small print. But there are certainly companies which exploit this. And in an industry largely based on trust, this just isn't acceptable.
 

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Re: VPN blocking legitimate sites?

Gepostet: 2022-11-27 | 08:09 · Permanenter Link

"And a VPN service provider should not be trying to bypass this legal protection of content." Let me point you at a whole bunch of online advertising which claims exactly that this is what a VPN offers you.
From people who up to now I completely trusted. Including some BIG internet names.
Obviously the problem I have is trusting anything at all said on the internet. Maybe even you. But then with your "38,125" posts you are probably legit, right? No. That's just too many posts to trust. Most are probably bots. 

And so it goes on...

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