OK are you using a fixed IP address?

I contacted my VPN provider Reliable Hosting but they do not offer dedicated IP addresses. Instead they have a choice of servers around the world and advised to switch away from their Atlanta server which Cloudflare had blacklisted. That solved the issue for me, at least temporarily.

I too am getting blocked no matter which of several VPN services or servers I use. Like others here stated, I need to use VPN for other, non-nefarious security and privacy reasons (ie. not all VPN users are bots and criminals).

Is there any way to keep some of whatever security measures in place but loosen them enough so that actual legit users can still access the forums? I used to visit every few days. Lately it�s once a month maybe due to the blocking. I guess I�m not traveling as much so I don�t NEED to visit FT as much, but I still appreciate the dialogue and sense of community here. It�s a shame to just block out a segment of the population inadvertently or just to do the same to crawlers and bots, imho.

I had them whitelist the IP you sent me. Is that working?

IBJoal what do you need from me to unblock ?? I get the error as well.

Just PM me your IP address of choice

Unfortunately no, I still can�t access the site even when using that particular server. I appreciate you trying and it could be an auto-rotation of IP on my VPN�s side too. Very frustrating because I know you guys don�t want to be blocking us real FTers but also need to prevent the bots somehow. Wish there could be a happy middle ground. I�ve been accessing FT over VPN without issue for years until not long ago.

Pm sent.

Looks like it worked thanks.

In USA using Nord VPN.

Can't access FT.




Why?

Check out this recent thread, especially recent posts by FT Administrator IBJoel

Thank you.

It's frustrating....

Mine is working fine now. Did you give him your IP that's shown at the bottom of the error page or your providers IP??

To be honest whitelisting IP addresses is going to be a game of whack-a-mole. These public VPN providers, unless specifically giving you a static IP as part of the service you have purchased, will be moving their users and infrastructure around between IP addresses fairly regularly.

I get why these public VPN services have some utility to get around geo-fenced content, or local excessive restrictions. But using them all the time for general internet browsing can be counterproductive, as it makes all your connectivity come from an IP address that lots of other people are using, probably has a below average reputation, and can take away a layer of intelligence from some of the sites that you use. For example your bank and your payment card providers will use the device you are using and your connectivity among other parameters to assess the risk presented by certain financial transactions. By logging into sites and services whilst using the VPN can make those providers think you are elsewhere globally, moving around frequently and disable geo-based login security challenges that might otherwise be used to protect your logins or financial transactions.

With any site of any importance using SSL encryption by default these days, what you're doing is already obscured, and uses the similar encryption that you're buying from the public VPN provider. If privacy is really important to you many people would be better off setting up a cheap Linux box and running your own VPN. And if you're up to naughty stuff then you're much more likely to be using other solutions to hide your tracks.

So the point I'm trying to make here is by all means use one of the public VPNs when you need to defeat geo or local restrictions, but I would suggest that just using it all the time can actually impact your security posture to the other sites that you interact with. If cloudflare are taking this stance to reject connections from public VPN providers, you can probably assume that some of the other big names that provide front door services to many sites are going to start adding similar lists of known public VPN IPs and other IPs of below average reputation to block lists.

I just started using Surfshark. I can even access my relatively secure work server without issue. But not FT. I've tried a varierty of servers from safe countries - US, Canada, Iceland, etc. Any ideas as VPN is new to me? Thanks!