I recently added VPN to Norton 360 for desktop. Norton figured out correctly that I'm currently in Argentina so I was assigned a VPN address in Brazil. The border with Brazil is a few thousand miles away, but yeah, I guess that's close enough if you're in California. But now I'm overwhelmed with ads in Portuguese because, well you see they speak a different language in Brazil. And my browser now talks to me only in Portuguese. I want a solution to this now. I want a solution that I can use when I travel to different countries. I don't care what country you put me in as long as it's an English-speaking country. The USA would be my choice if you are willing to give me a choice.
After more experimentation today, I'm more convinced that the VPN has problems if it disconnects from a wifi network without another one to connect to. I created the case where the local end was connected to wifi but without internet, and when internet was restored the VPN reconnected correctly. It only seems to be when the local end loses all available wifi hotspots that there's a problem, and the problem seems to be related to an inability to access the GPS position.
Here in the US I was having a different but related problem: Sometimes the VPN would refuse to connect at all. I'd click the "connect" button and nothing would happen, or the circular throbber would appear for a split second then disappear and the VPN would remain unconnected.
Further experimentation shows that this problem (and possibly the original one) appears to be caused by the VPN app being unable to access my GPS position, likely due to a bug in the software that handles the case where a wifi network disconnects, and there is no other wifi network for the VPN to connect to.
I'm still experimenting, but I just got around it with these steps:
Turn off GPS
Close the VPN app, and delete it from the "Recents" drawer to force it to restart.
Turn GPS back on.
Open the app again.
I'll report back any further information I discover.
Oh and every website thinks I'm in Sweden, but ISP says Denmark (which I selected), hence it's messed up.
Yes same here, Amazon data services.
I had the same problem as everyone else here reported, except with VPN for Android: No matter which country I selected on the Region tab, I connected through Singapore. This started when I traveled to Southeast Asia (not Singapore) recently. Before that, the app worked correctly in the US.
I solved it by uninstalling and reinstalling the app.
In the process of reinstalling the app, I discovered that my previous password needed to be updated, so it's possible that contributed to the issue.
Concerning everybody complaining about Amazon, here's what I get from whatismyip.com:
I am located in Germany and everything works fine as soon as I switch off Norton VPN (I used "Germany" as region in VPN). Thus it is clearly Norton VPN which produces the wrong behaviour. According to this thread I understand, this is because the AWS geolocation service used by Norton VPN messes it up.
In your post above you note the your geo-location is all messed up. How is it messed up? Does it still show in the country you have selected?
As long as the VPN server is still in the same country, there should be no issues for the user. And Norton may have multiple servers for a given country. And they may be leased from different server farms. When you connect to the VPN, the VPN app searches for the best connection at the time. One time you will get one server, and the next you may get another. In fact, if using the auto connect feature instead of a specific country, I have seen my connection to a United States location while I live in Canada.
Amazon does not run a VPN that Norton is using. What Norton is using is the server farms that Amazon owns/runs to provide the virtual locations, along with many other server farms around the world. Many online services rent server space from server farms around the world.
I still fail to understand the reasoning why they changed it. It's messing up everything.
Manfred-muc:I tried to register for a Netflix account in Germany for movies in German language. I always ended up in setting up an account in the US and only have been offered movies in English or Spanish.... and also the User Interface always was English... until I figured out, that I have to switch off my Norton VPN ... I had chosen Germany as region, though ... Unfortunately it took me quite some time to figure out what the problem was... Hope they fix this mess ...
Unfortunately this forum cannot help to figure out this kind of problem, as you first have to get, that wrong geolocation and then VPN is the problem .... only then you come to this forum ...
You want to view Netfilx in German. What country are you living in? If not Germany, and you are trying to access the German Netflix site, it is Netflix that is blocking access. Not the Norton VPN. 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. See this How to Geeks article. https://www.howtogeek.com/403771/why-do-some-websites-block-vpns/
if you turn on norton vpn and go to a site and check ip address it will show as amazon
that would suggest that amazon is the host or source for the vpn servers
I tried to register for a Netflix account in Germany for movies in German language. I always ended up in setting up an account in the US and only have been offered movies in English or Spanish.... and also the User Interface always was English... until I figured out, that I have to switch off my Norton VPN ... I had chosen Germany as region, though ... Unfortunately it took me quite some time to figure out what the problem was... Hope they fix this mess ...
Unfortunately this forum cannot help to figure out this kind of problem, as you first have to get, that wrong geolocation and then VPN is the problem .... only then you come to this forum ...
vBDKv:Yes Norton VPN is 100% garbage these days. They switched to Amazon instead of M247 and geo-location is all messed up because of that. Every website also blocks Amazon vpn. I didn't even know Amazon ran a vpn service until I was blocked from the internet.
Amazon does not run a VPN that Norton is using. What Norton is using is the server farms that Amazon owns/runs to provide the virtual locations, along with many other server farms around the world. Many online services rent server space from server farms around the world.
Yes Norton VPN is 100% garbage these days. They switched to Amazon instead of M247 and geo-location is all messed up because of that. Every website also blocks Amazon vpn. I didn't even know Amazon ran a vpn service until I was blocked from the internet.
edmundpickett:I recently added VPN to Norton 360 for desktop. Norton figured out correctly that I'm currently in Argentina so I was assigned a VPN address in Brazil. The border with Brazil is a few thousand miles away, but yeah, I guess that's close enough if you're in California. But now I'm overwhelmed with ads in Portuguese because, well you see they speak a different language in Brazil. And my browser now talks to me only in Portuguese. I want a solution to this now. I want a solution that I can use when I travel to different countries. I don't care what country you put me in as long as it's an English-speaking country. The USA would be my choice if you are willing to give me a choice.
Are you reporting that you're not able to change VPN region?
Norton 360 for Windows includes Norton Secure VPN. Please explain what you mean by "recently added VPN to Norton 360. Did you install standalone Norton Secure VPN?
Since, you write that you're currently in Argentina. Does not mean...where you purchased/installed Norton 360 - is not Argentina?
Brazil may be the closest server to your "current location".
Are you reporting that you're not able to change VPN region from Brazil to United States?
