I use a VPN and this site blocks it

[SplishSplash]

Please fix the VPN blocking issue. If I have it on, Nord VPN, this site keeps telling my ip is blocked.
Well I'm not turning off one of my layers of security to use this site. It's the only website I have this issue with.

Thanks.

[K447]

Please fix the VPN blocking issue. If I have it on, Nord VPN, this site keeps telling my ip is blocked.

… It's the only website I have this issue with. …

Can you provide any additional technical info on the error?

Perhaps a screenshot when the error occurs would help the vbulletin team resolve the problem.

[Green Hulk]

Please fix the VPN blocking issue. If I have it on, Nord VPN, this site keeps telling my ip is blocked.
Well I'm not turning off one of my layers of security to use this site. It's the only website I have this issue with.

Thanks.

Please private message me your IP address so that I can have a look. I received this message from Vbulletin support

Hello.

Unless his VPN is routing via an IP Address that we've had a lot of spamming attempts from, we don't block IP Addresses at a server level.



Best regards,


Trevor Hannant
vBulletin Support Staff

[SplishSplash]

Here is the message I get, not all the time, maybe 30% of the time.

[K447]

Here is the message ...

Sooo, what was the IP address in use when that error happened?

The Click to reveal

[SplishSplash]

ASN numbers are not ip addresses, they are the number that BGP (border gateway protocol) uses to connect different networks together. It's how routing tables are built. So the message is I'm blocking everything from a certain network, in this case a network belonging to Nord VPN as that's what I'm using when I get the message.

[K447]

Sooo, what was the IP address in use when that error happened?

The Click to reveal

I suppose what would help the GH team figure out the problem would knowing be what IP address your VPN was presenting to the GH (hosting) server.
From there perhaps the blocking factor could be understood.

Apparently the ASN number shown may not be sufficient information

[SplishSplash]

As the whole point of a VPN is to hide my ip, that's not possible from my end. I suspect what is happening at peak usage times the servers infrastructure is seeing a lot of traffic from that ASN number and it's blocking it as a denial of service attack. Totally understandable. But with more and more people using a VPN, it triggers the firewall at the GH end to block the traffic.
As this does not seem to happen at lower traffic times. I'm on now via Nord VPN, no issues. But in the evening during peak times, I often get the message. So some threshold setting is kicking in, and limiting access based on the ASN number. Typical and correct firewall activity to protect the servers behind it from being overwhelmed.
There are currently 210,466 users on that ASN network.
I used to get this message on the old server too, but now still seeing it on the new platform indicates it's a service issue to the hosting of the gh service.

FYI 30 years as a network engineer building massive data centers and several years as a firewall administrator.

[SplishSplash]

Well if you did something it seems to be working. Have not been blocked for several days. Good job.

[Green Hulk]

Well if you did something it seems to be working. Have not been blocked for several days. Good job.

Awesome!

[TimeBandit]

As the whole point of a VPN is to hide my ip, that's not possible from my end.
<SNIP>...

It is still possible to provide an IP address. I'm not aiming this directly at you, just adding context for the lurkers out there:

VPN's do not hide IP addresses, they swap them. They act as an additional network layer that sits in front of the user's network. So in layman's terms, you could say semantically your IP is hidden, aka your true network's IP is indeed not available to the outside, yet the VPN's IP is being presented. THIS is the IP that the GH server "sees" (and subsequently blocks at times). THIS is the IP the GH admins were asking, and had you clicked on the link on the error page "Click to reveal", that would have simply displayed your VPN's IP (not your IP).

Agree, that using a VPN could lend to these types of blocking issues - it is what it is. Not only the DDOS filters (many connections coming from one source network) but also consider that "bad actors" also utilize VPN's to do naughty things. In this sector, "Adaptive blocking" is becoming mainstream now ... so when bad actors abuse the VPN, the entire VPN network (ASN) can get a "bad reputation" assigned. The technology is adaptive, so eventually the reputation can clear again. End of the day, the responsibility is on Nord VPN - as they need to insure bad actors are not abusing the network, resulting in legit VPN customers (like you) to be blocked by legit sites (like GH).