Hello 
I signed up for an account on a VPN and the next morning I was not able to sign in. I’ve been the target of some cyber harassment after I got an instructor fired from the IT Department at Madison College and it’s been a frightening journey to try to get life back (things like this happen to me constantly online). So I try to adapt security measures to keep myself safe online.
The only thing your VPN may be helping with is preventing your ISP from seeing what sites you are connecting to.
All traffic to the Straight Dope is TLS encrypted (https:// at the beginning of the URL), so no one can see what you are reading or posting here
Thanks, A VPN can also protect you on public networks, like coffee shops.
A VPN can protect you from others seeing what you’re sending / receiving while it’s being sent/received.
The entire planet can see what you post here. I for example know that you’ve gotten an instructor at Madison College fired.
A VPN is utterly a useless & stupid thing to use to access a public message board where you’re posting. If you just want to read in secrecy, the VPN won’t add much, but it also won’t hurt.
Some IT pros are big believers in this, I’m not one of them.
One of my staff triggered our internal alerts, showing she was connected from an unusual location. Turns out she was at a coffee shop and using a consumer-grade VPN to “protect herself”. In reality, there is no benefit. You are trading giving the person who controls the router connected to the WiFi some limited info about what you are doing with giving that same info to the VPN provider.
The main value of VPNs was back when lots of public websites were http, not https. Nowadays, with near universal https, VPNs are a belt-and-suspenders kind of precaution.
They do have some value for bypassing government censorship. But that’s probably not the OP’s issue.
Good to know, thanks.
We do not prohibit VPNs here, but there are certain VPNs that are basically on our ban list due to excessive spam/trolling/etc. You probably used one of those VPNs.
My advice is that if you do choose to use a VPN, don’t use the same VPNs that the spammers use.
I was using BitDefender VPN. A bit of a package deal with my anti virus.
Part of the way I got this guy fired was posting about what he was doing in forums like this. The next day my post disappeared. I’m not sure what happened with my account here. But these guys are like corporate penetration testers acting like internet protectors for the PR department. I have to post things in a way were people see it immediately or it disappears.
Whatever happened between you and Madison College does not concern the SDMB. We have no affiliation with them and whatever happened there is no business of ours. Do not bring issues with other sites here to the SDMB. That is not permitted.
As for what happened here, according to our logs, your registration IP belonged to a VPN which is on our list of banned VPNs. Your IP did not show up as BitDefender.
Ok, sorry man I didn’t know.
I just connected the Bitdefender VPN and the IP is 193.37.252.250.
Your IP as it shows up here is 2a0d:5600:6:94::2
That’s my ISP. I turned off the VPN and re-registered with another email. If I log out and try to log back in with the VPN connected I think it will block me.
2a0d:5600:6:94::2 is a VPN.
The IP you registered with is AT&T internet.
The only real value of a VPN is to make websites believe that you are in a different physical location than you really are. It has no significant security benefit.
Yes, sorry I just connected the VPN and checked my IP. Sorry man they’ve been dealing with this for 5 years and when I start to think (cyber harassment) about it its like my brain scrambles with fear. I’ve tried to contact everyone and no one listens, or is willing to help.