After reading the capabilities of WiFi Privacy and the associated VPN it all sounded really good. What I discovered though is that a number of the sites I go to, e.g., angies list, some banking sites, investment sites, etc. recognize the VPN and reject my access, that is I select the site it grinds on it for a while and then I get "We can’t connect to the server at www . googleadservices . com." or something similar. Called Norton on this and the answer is turn VPN off. Yep, that works great, but then what good is WiFi Privacy if I can't use the VPN feature.
Do others have this issue? Am I missing something? Is there another solution?
I also found that sites that either exclude VPN connections or sites that use flash are not candidates for Norton WiFi Privacy. I was on support for an hour and found out that my issues with AOL email were being caused by the VPN. I removed WiFi Privacy and my AOL email issues disappeared. I've used other VPN tools but never kept it on all of the time. I only used it when I was out of the US.
That is a good point. So I tried turning NWP off and on again with nothing else going on. It works fine. I was not able to turn it back on when I was still connected to the site that wouldn't let me in with it on. So now I think that site was interfering with turning it back on. (I did wait about 30 seconds before giving up on it coming back on.) I can live with that since it doesn't happen very often.
I realize there are sites that detect VPNs and will block access to their site. Your find about being able to get into the sight and they turn NWP back on is new piece of the puzzle. Thanks for that.
My reply was more related to your comments about not being able to turn NWP back on with the switch on the NWP page.
My problem is that I have to shut the VPN down ("Quit Norton WiFi Privacy" from the menu) and restart it to turn it back on.
When I open the VPN from the tray, there is a switch at the bottom that lets me turn it off. I have never had a problem turning it off. That same switch is there when it is turned off, but it doesn't respond. So I can't use it to turn it back on.
Does anyone know how to turn the VPN back on without "Quit"ting it and restarting it?
NWP has always operated this way. According to the Norton Tech I talked with some sites detect that you are using a VPN and won't allow you in. Appears to those sites that are using a Google App to run their site. Try going to Angie's List with NWP running with VPN on. I get a something wrong error, then I pull up NWP, disable VPN and I get in fine.
Has NWP always behaved this way for you, or did it start recently?
Sometimes when I click on the switch, it seems it did not do anything, but if I wait, it does start the VPN. Maybe 5 to 10 seconds.
You may have some kind of corruption of your NWP installation. I would start with uninstalling NWP, then restart your computer and install it again. Then test to see if you still see the same issue. with not being able to just use the button to restart the VPN.
I am using a Dell XPS L702X, 64 bit OS, Windows 10 Pro version 10.0.17134, Norton WiFi Privacy Version 1.4.9
When I encounter a site that won't accept the VPN, I turn the VPN off to access that site. Once I have accessed the site, I turn the VPN back on. So the VPN is only off for seconds. All of the sites I have encountered with this problem work properly with the VPN on once I have opened them and they are active. It seems to only be a problem with the initial handshake.
My problem is that I have to shut the VPN down ("Quit Norton WiFi Privacy" from the menu) and restart it to turn it back on.
When I open the VPN from the tray, there is a switch at the bottom that lets me turn it off. I have never had a problem turning it off. That same switch is there when it is turned off, but it doesn't respond. So I can't use it to turn it back on.
Does anyone know how to turn the VPN back on without "Quit"ting it and restarting it?
Have you tried any other VPN product with those sites? If the site does not allow VPN access, then there is nothing any VPN vendor can do about it. There are trial or free products you can use to test this.
Have you contacted the support for the affected sites to see if this is what is happening?