#1 2016-08-06 12:14:49

Kaokao

Member

From: The Netherlands

Registered: 2015-12-04

Posts: 6

[NOTABUG] Forums inaccessible through Private Internet Access VPN

I usually access the interwebs through Private Internet Access' VPN service, but forums.bunsenlabs.org returns a page saying

403 Forbidden
nginx

when I access it through this VPN. This probably has to do with the public IP address of the VPN server being blacklisted because some of the VPN's users partake in malicious behaviour. Since using this VPN a lot of websites have required me to tick a I'm not a robot checkbox, and sometimes check all the images in a 3x3 grid displaying trees, cars, storefronts or lakes.

Is it possible to enable something like this instead of straight out blocking PIA VPN users?

By the way, this only goes for the forums, I can view the main BunsenLabs website through the VPN.

Two of the public IP addresses that resulted in the 403 page:
109.201.138.248
46.166.190.216

Of course PIA has lots of IP-addresses, but most will be on a blacklist somewhere since they are used by thousands of different users.

Last edited by Kaokao (2016-11-15 15:25:09)

nobody

The Great

Registered: 2015-08-10

Posts: 3,655

Re: [NOTABUG] Forums inaccessible through Private Internet Access VPN

Yes. Only the forums use three blacklists: stop-forum-spam, nixspam, and firehol_webserver. I do not intend to change that because they are the most potent measure against spam posters since the dawm of time; bypassing the captcha to registration is not a problem for spammers anymore.

There is no way around just stating that PIA is overused and abused, that their IP addresses are poisonous; you should pick a different service, like this guy. Personally, I'd just get a low-cost jump box or two and make a SSH socks proxy tunnel through all of them using this nice feature. Low-cost as in 3€/month or so. You could also try using IPv6 if PIA supports it; most blacklists do not include (many) IPv6 addresses (yet).

Not really a bug; this is by design.

kabotage

Member

From: ::1

Registered: 2015-10-03

Posts: 71

Website

Re: [NOTABUG] Forums inaccessible through Private Internet Access VPN

Try a different VPN service or better yet follow twoion's suggestion. Kimsufi is just  $3.49/month  while DigitalOcean is $5/month which I'm currently using.

---

Keeping an empty milk jar is great for piss break if you can't stop the game!

willieaames

New Member

From: Houston, Texas

Registered: 2016-10-21

Posts: 4

Re: [NOTABUG] Forums inaccessible through Private Internet Access VPN

VPN Ips are black listed or spammy, try to change the vpn dedicated ip address

Last edited by willieaames (2016-11-02 11:22:48)

Kaokao

Member

From: The Netherlands

Registered: 2015-12-04

Posts: 6

Re: [NOTABUG] Forums inaccessible through Private Internet Access VPN

Thanks for the excellent suggestions guys. I'll mark this thread as NOTABUG.