I'm behind a VPN ...

[diy_fun_uk]

... but still can't create an account.

A few years back I was banned from another forum, nothing extreme, I apparently broke their rules around victim blaming.

I used to like engaging with others on the forum so attempted to re-join a while back with another email account I had. Different username. No joy. I concluded the forum admin perhaps had a way to trace the IP and if it matched a banned person's IP, the account creation wouldn't go ahead.

However a few months back I installed a VPN to further protect my online activity. Yesterday I thought I'd retry creating an account on this other forum. It seemed to have worked, however today it's obviously been removed as I can't log in.

At the end of the day it doesn't overly bother me, however I'm intrigued. Surely with me behind a VPN and using different email and username, they'd have no way to trace my IP now, or would they?

I wouldn't have thought your average forum would have measures to that extent to stop people rejoining, unless it was NASA's forum or something!

 

[ReganAndCarter]

Try a proxy server. This one looks good. I believe Himmy uses it all the time.

https://hidester.com/proxy/

 

[teaboyjim]

At the end of the day it doesn't overly bother me, however I'm intrigued. Surely with me behind a VPN and using different email and username, they'd have no way to trace my IP now, or would they? I wouldn't have thought your average forum would have measures to that extent to stop people rejoining, unless it was NASA's forum or something!

I am guessing that you're VPN is banned so if I used your VPN to set up an account with that forum on my computer most likely they would also ban me as well - they can tell what IPs are connected with VPNs

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It could also be a country ban. The VPN will translate your IP as if it originates from another country, some VPN's allow you to set which country you appear to be logging in from.

 

[diy_fun_uk]

Thanks guys. I don't think they can see my IP. Just checked the online blurb from my VPN provider and they state user IP is essentially hidden as it's the IP address of the VPN server I'm connecting through that will show to the public. Also my VPN provider is connecting me through a UK server and I know the forum in question wouldn't ban UK residents. So yeah, it's maybe a case they're removed the account as it's behind a VPN as I can't imagine they'd do that canvas fingerprint thingy?!?

Anyways I'll just forget it ... until the next time ... ha ha HAAaaa (imagine evil laugh)

 

[Dangee]

Where’s Bobby when you (finally) need him? He’ll know all there is about it... eh Teaboy.

 

[Vinty]

Does the IP address show up as coming via an VPN.

 

[teaboyjim]

Well they have lists of what IP addresses are VPN's and which are not so they can just ban someone who uses a VPN which is probably what's happened to diy

 

[teaboyjim]

Thanks guys. I don't think they can see my IP. Just checked the online blurb from my VPN provider and they state user IP is essentially hidden as it's the IP address of the VPN server I'm connecting through that will show to the public. Also my VPN provider is connecting me through a UK server and I know the forum in question wouldn't ban UK residents. So yeah, it's maybe a case they're removed the account as it's behind a VPN as I can't imagine they'd do that canvas fingerprint thingy?!?
Anyways I'll just forget it ... until the next time ... ha ha HAAaaa (imagine evil laugh)

I think you mentioned that particular forum before didn't you diy?

 

[diy_fun_uk]

I think you mentioned the forum before didn't you diy?

Yeah, it's a forum for discussing movies and tv stuff. Has a general chat section like this and it was through a topic in there that I achieved my ban

'I think where possible women need to think about avoiding walking alone at night to mitigate the risk of being attacked.'

'Here's a temp ban, we don't condone victim blaming.'

'Eh?!? In my book I wasn't victim blaming. I'm not saying women should 'have' to do this, however surely it makes sense to try and not walk alone for their own safety?'

BANNED!!!

 

[teaboyjim]

That's the one!! I remember you talking about it.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It's the way of the world nowadays, DIY. The lunatics are in charge of everywhere; not just the asylum.

Common sense is not only rare but not allowed.

 

[Justin Passing]

Free VPN or paid? Paid ones are a lot better. Free ones have far fewer servers.
Bear in mind people wanting to do something bad would use a VPN, which could then get connections to it automatically banned.

Your personal IP is hidden if you use a vpn, but its geo location will tell the site where it (the VPN) is. If it's somewhere like Holland or Sweden, it'll look odd. If you're one of a few people who appear to be at the same IP in Holland, it'll look obvious. You can also see which company the (suspected VPN) ip address is allocated to, from which it may be possible to guess things.

If you clear cookies on your phone, and use your phone as a Wifi hotspot, that would confuse record-checkers to some extent - I don't know what would get through. You could check for yourself, with a suitable app.
The target website would probably see which phone network you're on, which again may indicate things. Sometimes the geo address of the IP would show up as very local, but I've seen mine come up as 100+ miles away. Others will know more than me on that.

You've probably seen warning message from eg Google about "new logins". I think I've had my phone model, browser, etc included in that message. One place I used to email replied with my IP address, location, browser version and model of computer. I don't know how that worked.

 

[Mottie]

Free VPN or paid? Paid ones are a lot better.

We use Nord VPN mainly for the protection we get when using our phones or iPads on free Wifi hotspots - trains - hotels etc and I understand it can stop scammers from nicking your data etc - I don't know if that bit is strictly true though. Its also handy for my firestick when I want to watch sports from abroad that are geofenced. Currently it’s £78 for 27 months (2 years plus 3 months free) but I buy mine through Topcashback who are paying 76.5% cashback on Nord so it ends up costing me less than 70p a month. It’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.

Weird thing is, I cannot connect to NordVPN.com through my iPad unless I’m running a VPN as it must be blocked by my ISP. You can connect through the app when you have it though. To connect via my phone, I had to turn off Wifi and sign up on my phone over 3/4G.

 

[motorbiking]

Use a public wifi or a mobile to connect. You can also just try to restart your DSL service, it might pick up a new IP.