I was using NordVPN but one downside of a popular VPN is that a lot of websites will recognize the IP addresses they use and I got quite a few sites that would not connect because they recognized I was on a VPN so it was either turn it off or not use that site. Is there a solution to this like saying I’m connecting from Botswana? Should I use a less popular VPN?
If you need servers in specific countries, NordVPN supports that: Best VPN server selection in 2023 | NordVPN
in fact it’s one of their selling points
If the site has blacklisted their servers specifically, that’s a different story; in that case you’ll have to throw a non-blacklisted IP address into the mix. But I doubt some site has it in for NordVPN specifically.
If you’re willing to read tutorials and learn on your own, you can set up your own VPN using a cloud computing service like Google Cloud, Heroku, DigitalOcean, etc. Basically just set up a cheap Linux server somewhere and use a SSH port forward combined with a proxy setting in your browser.
To the websites, it should just look like you’re coming from the cloud computing service, not a VPN. But do note that some will block cloud computing providers as well for this reason.
Note that the “private” in VPN is seriously diluted. Because there is a one-one correlation between you and this cloud virtual machine, quite a few people are going to be able to track you vs. going thru a VPN where your traffic is mixed with a bunch of other people’s.
I was surprised a couple of days ago when I tried to comment on a Wikipedia article and I got a notice saying it wouldn’t accept any edits from a VPN site. This is Wikipedia; they allow anyone to edit articles and to do so anonymously. So why would they care where the edit is being sent from?
I don’t think they care per se, but they want you to log in as a user in that case. Presumably to slow down the rate of automated spam/vandalic edits.
Yes. As an admin there I can say that’s exactly the case.
And I think there’s a confusion over what “anonymous” means. You’re anonymous in the sense that you don’t have to use your real name and scan your driver’s license or whatever. It’s normal internet anonymity. You’re not anonymous in the sense that your contribution history won’t be tracked and possibly investigated if something seems fishy. Obfuscating your IP address through a VPN frustrates that effort.
After all, they have rules and the ability to ban or suspend people for misbehavior, and you can’t enforce that at all if you don’t keep track of anything. (That’s part of what I did there, though I’m mostly retired now.)
But none of this really helps my issue which is getting blocked by sites when using a recognized VPN
What is the error message? Is it a specific IP address (that may have been used by a spammer) blocked, or the entire company blacklisted? In the former case, try resetting your connection or connecting to a different server.
Since I got a VPN I’m no longer able to download torrents from most of my favourite sites. There are a couple where I still can, but most I cannot. The VPN is on my desktop but I have not installed one on my laptop so when I’m totally stuck I use the laptop.
Not an error per se. Some sites it says “You’re using a VPN. Piss off.” other sites just won’t load but when I turn off the VPN it loads fine.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a NordVPN subscription to test this. I’m * guessing* it is an IP block — an error message like “your IP address is blocked” would be a dead giveaway. Preliminary things to try are to log into a different NordVPN server in a different country, and to clear your browser’s cache/history/cookies before accessing the problematic site.
As for some sites not loading at all, double-check your DNS settings to make sure it isn’t an issue.
Amazon hits me with email verification of I forget to turn off my VPN before trying to log in.
I got locked out of another site because of my VPN.
There’s a lot of hostility against VPN.
Good point: logging into an account, like an Amazon account, from 37 different IP addresses may trigger a secondary authentication mechanism like email because it is flagged as “suspicious”.
Okay, this makes sense.
Reported.
Adding my experience, I’ve run into trouble because my VPN was to good at doing what the zombee OP wants. I use express VPN and it works good at geo-relocating me, but that is a problem for some sites, in that they see me here, then there(due partly to different devices), and they think someone in another country has hacked my account, or they accuse me of sharing my account with others. Then I have to re-authenticate it, remember security questions, sometimes contact customer service to fix it.
To revive this thread a bit, a solution to your problem would be use Unlocator. Their DNS service gives a different location only when you are connecting to certain sites.
So if you are connecting to one of their many listed media sites, they will geo-locate you to the appropriate country, but if you are connecting to any other site, like your bank or your normal internet activity, you will still get your real location. So you have the best of both worlds.
You can use their DNS service separately from their VPN if you don’t want both. I’ve had good experiences with them, and they give a week’s free trial without credit card info.