Blanket Ban on VPNs ... How do they do it?

Hi,

I just read a post like this at StrongVPN’s support forum and found the site referred to in it is this one.
It seems like they have blocked all access via VPNs. Can anybody tell me how they do this?

Fortunately, I don't live in a country with internet censorship like China or UAE and no websites I am interested in or I regularly visit have been geoblocked so far. So, I don’t have to use VPN for circumvention and this is not my concern right now.
However, considering most AVs often flag Hide IP tools as malware, I’ve been under the impression that many site admins are not pleased with access via VPN and so this could be a serious threat to all VPN users in the near future.

Anyway, I’d like to know if it is true that no VPN can get you to access this website. Has any VPN provider including SteveTX’s one already found a way to get around this kind of block or been addressing this issue?

Any response to this. would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

- Katelyn

 

The world is such a wonderful place, a "greedy place" is it not Katelyn.

Sorry to hear that and i fear this will happen to top sites in the USA like Hulu, National Geographic, PBS which block non us citizens. Problem is vpn's give you an ip address to make you appear from 1 country though you live in another and unless they were capable of spitting out an individual ip for every single user and a new one every 24-48 hours, would fail it appears against this software. Don't think xerobank would help you here if those claims you posted are indeed true and accurate. As that 1 UK guy said, he was military and still pays UK taxes but is being b locked. Really sucks.

 

I just tried it from one of XeroBank's unpublished UK nodes, and it worked fine. They are likely using Maxminds GeoIP Lite system, which contains a massive set of known proxy IP addresses.

 

They are required to do so. So, they will follow suit when the technology becomes available to them. I’m sure that Chinese and UAE Governments will look into it, too...
In my case, I am afraid that forums and shopping sites use it for IP detection. In my country, many forums have already blocked anonymous posting via TOR and many shared IP addresses. Also, I’ve been aware that more and more shopping sites are blocking through VPNs like Hotspot Shield... So, let’s hope that the technology will stay inside them .

Thanks for the reply Steve.
Is that so? Do they just block the IPs in the blacklist? If so, it is not very new!
I wonder why other VPN providers haven’t been able to figure it out. Some of them even came up with a crazy idea like this!
They might indeed be that stupid, as most VPN providers seem to use the same datacenters and the same ISPs to host their IPs.
I'm no expert on this, but since folks at the VPN forums at dslreports.com often advise VPN seekers to rent a cheap VPS and set up their own VPN server, I’m assuming that it is not very hard to start VPN provider business, right? As far as I read threads to promote VPN services in Digital Point Forum, many of them look pretty unprofessional and amateurish...
BTW, according to this, they seem to have also blocked dedicated IPs, which are uniquely assigned to each user. Do they blacklist even such an IP?

 

In addition to services like MaxMind, which lists Anonymous Proxies, but not very many; they just manually compile a list of IPs used by VPNs and then block access by those IPs. One of the best source of lists of VPNs to block are forums like this one. You'll find that some VPNs can access certain sites and others can't. Same with Tor servers. It's not very difficult to block dedicated IPs either.

This is how the commercial porn filters work too,as well as filters created by subversive governments. They have full time employees scouring the net for things to block.

 

I have tried and/or used several VPN providers and with some of them (and I hate this) everytime I access Amazon.com or eBay they lock my account and make me reset my password due to a "security breach" that they believe has compromised my account. I'm sure it's using these lists because people use these IPs to, so often, try to get away with fraud.

 

Really? Can you tell us how? Can they even detect our own VPN that we set up by ourselves?
BTW, I think this info is helpful.
After I disabled this feature, many proxies and VPNs that previous failed now pass WIMIA's Advanced Proxy Test!

I've never make a credit card purchase through a VPN as I don't trust a VPN provider that much. However, I'm very uncomfortable to give my credit card info to a shopping site while not connecting through it, as I think it is the same thing as giving away info to identify me from my real IP.

 

I completely agree... That's why I've never purchased a VPN service... it because I use VPNs to just hide my real IP, though...

 

I use Visa gift cards purchased with cash at a local mall. Using SSL to make (mostly digital) purchases, am I not protected from even VPN snooping? I've always assumed so, maybe I'm wrong. Steve?

 

How do you make purchases with a prepaid Visa? Don't they have to verify a name and address?

 

Hi Caspian, You can register the cards with any name and address you like. I make mostly digital purchases (mp3, ebooks, etc). If I need to give a physical address, I can register the card under an address I could receive mail.

 

Yes but don't they ask for a social security number?

 

I'm talking about dedicated IPs issued by commercial providers. If you put Squid proxy on your own server and configure it properly it will not be possible to know that it is a proxy unless you tell somebody, or post somewhere, that you are doing it.

 

Sorry Caspian, I just now saw this. The Visa giftcards don't require a SS# - the re-loadable Visa pre-paid cards do.

 

Wow that is great! Have you had any problems using them to buy stuff online?....software etc.?

 

https means the connection is encrypted end to end, and the VPN can't watch your information, it can only see an encrypted stream.

 

Never. Just don't try American Express gift cards.

 

That's what I thought. Thanks for the confirmation!