Contributor
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68 Messages
Xfinity Email doesn't like VPN
Tonight I decided to try out VPN for a little while. I tried to download new messages (I don't use web mail), and XFinity temporarily refused to accept my password. It said it temporarily blacklisted my email because it didn't like my IP address. That's stupid. So I turned off VPN and it's working perfectly again. What am I supposed to do?
Accepted Solution
flatlander3
Problem Solver
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1.5K Messages
2 years ago
It's pretty common for a VPN service to be blacklisted by various email block lists. Generally, they are spam sources. There are a lot of hosting companies that are as well. You can check if that's the case by turning on your VPN, then find the exit point on their VPN network with something like whatismyipaddress(dot)com. Then run that IP address through a black list checker like multi-RBL-Check.
If you own the VPN service or CDIR range, you can request to have it unblocked. Your millage will vary.
An adaptive firewall can also wipe out an exit point or entire CDIR range if it is under attack from the network the VPN service uses. We all do that. Xfinity too. The duration of the block could be minutes, hours, months or quite a bit longer. There are hosting companies I accept NO traffic from.
Your VPN service may also not do what you think it does. Your Xfinity location to others is masked (not from the VPN provider), perhaps your DNS lookup too depending on how it is configured on the server side (but the VPN provider sees it), and all you have done is introduce a "man-in-the-middle" that can now intercept your data. Anti-virus / web shield programs can do this too if you allow it, but they also expose private data that they then resell.
Point-to-Point from your browser or mail program, to an encrypted website or service on a server you know and can verify is much more secure than a VPN service you can't audit.
(edited)
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littlepeaks
Contributor
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68 Messages
2 years ago
Thanks. My VPN provider is Norton (I continued their antivirus suite, after Xfinity moved away from them). I think I just won't use VPN. When I want to find a store on line, it thinks that I'm at a different location, and it is hard to find local shops. Also if I get an acceptable IP from my VPN, I think there's no guarantee that I'll get the same IP, if I turn it off and on again, or the next time I use it. I did choose "United States region" when setting up VPN, so I don't think it going through a Chinese server (but you never know). Thanks again.
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