Banned IP

[O2HeN2]

My router sends everything through PIA. Starting about a week ago I can't access this site via my home network, so I'm assuming PIA has assigned me to some IP that has been banned.

Anyway to fix this at your end?

If I need to PM someone, gimme a name and I'll give the IP I'm assigned (ipchicken.com)

O2

Ps. Tried to add this to the existing banned IP note but it's been blocked. Feel free to move this to that thread.

[Little Dutch]

Most of the forums I visit actively block VPN CIDR blocks. For what it's worth, right or wrong, it's typical in my experience.

[O2HeN2]

Don't know if I've got a different VPN IP or someone did something. But in any case, I can get here now!

O2

[theGinsue]

Before we could do anything we'd need the EXACT IP address your router/PIA is using that is getting blocked.

Over the last 4 months we've been getting hit with multiple new spam accounts every day. While this used to run in cycles of a couple of weeks with hard hits then low activity for a couple of months, there has been a steady barrage this time around - the attackers are getting more persistent. Once a spammer has a foothold into the site with an account (even an unactivated account) this opens the door to possible malicious code insertion or hacks with tools that we are not yet aware of - bringing the site down indefinitely. This is why I put in more than 15 minutes a day just addressing these attempted attacks.

We block IP's to protect the site and to ensure our members have a good online experience while visiting the site. [ORIGINAL CONTENT REDACTED FOR SITE SECURITY PURPOSES - NO POINT IN ADVERTISING OUR STRATEGIES] Unblocking one IP within a blocked subnet requires about an hour of work and around 70-100 lines of added specific IP's to the block all of the rest of the subnet, just to allow the 1 IP in. This may or may not be useful to the member we're trying to help if their VPN service moves them to another IP on the block list which would then require all of the work to be accomplished again and open another window to attackers.

We've found it often times the better solution to ensure the site is protected is for the member to turn off their VPN/PIA while they browse the site. I realize that bypassing the VPN is not possible with all VPN configurations, but it is with most. Is this something that you could do on your end? If not, can you configure your PIA to use only U.S.-based IP's?

[O2HeN2]

Thanks Ginsue, if it breaks again I'll contact you. As far as I know, the way I have PIA setup it's only using USA IPs.

...but right now it's not broken, so there's nothing to fix.

If it breaks again I'll PM you the current IP.

O2

[theGinsue]

Copy that.

I've got a LOT going on right now so it may take me up to a day to address any PM you might send. Be sure to include your email address in your PM (if you send one) so I'll have a non-site related way to contact you.

[Gman]

I end up having to turn off my VPN to get here. I just wait until I'm home or on cellular when I come here. This isn't the only site that blocks VPN.

[theGinsue]

For individual users, VPN's are wonderful tools for security - but they're hell for places like this.

While many VPN's claim the IP ranges they use are within the United States, my experience has proven this to be false.

I'm certain we've rejected (aka deleted) many legit new accounts due to our lack of being able to accurately vet them.

Then there are the actual malicious actors who come in from every weak IP they can find - and they find many. It's not unusual for us to find 3 new clearly malicious accounts created from the same subnet or even IP address in one day.

Many of you were here several years ago when our site, along with MANY others across the internet got hacked due to an exploit in the forum software. We were able to get patched, fixed and back online in a decent amount of time, but we'd like to never have to have that happen to the site again.

We try to keep our security efforts as low impact to the membership here as possible while making it as difficult as possible for the bad actors to have any real success. As I recently said in another thread, managing the site can be a difficult balancing act sometimes.

On a side note, I only had to delete 1 spam account today - but those foreign buggers don't celebrate Thanksgiving like we do so tomorrow is another day.

[O2HeN2]

I've got a LOT going on right now so it may take me up to a day to address any PM you might send.

Given the big bucks we pay you, that delay is completely unacceptable!

Hopefully you can detect the sarcasm.

O2

[theGinsue]

No worries brother - I picked up on it immediately, and it brought a grin to my face.

The staff just gave ourselves a 100% Christmas bonus. That, with $5 might, get us a gourmet coffee someplace. Ah, the labors of love.