Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
Hi all,
I have VPN turned on on my phone all the time.
To be able to post anything, including to comment, I need to turn off the VPN. To be honest, I'm quite conflicted by this.
Any reason why this is or what to do about it besides turning off the VPN?
I'm using Voyager as a client.
Edit: it seems like the instance is the issue. Moving here from Reddit it's not as simple as j would have thought. Also, VPNs are essential, no VPN is no go for me.
Case closed.
I'm on a vpn posting this comment.
lemmy.world blocks VPNs. If you have anti-censorship features you can use them to post.
Using VPN right now and posting.
What's that anti-censorship feature? Is it like a flag you can get on your account or something?
Solution: Move to a Lemmy instance that doesn't suck
.ml doesn't block VPNs.
I assume some instances have coordinated-attack prevention software that disables traffic from past offender IPs, and VPNs are a common way to centralize and anonymize data. Whether malicious in intent or not, a strike against your VPN server might cause a blockage.
I just use a VPN server from my own country, which is annoying.
Then switch back to elsewhere when I'm not here.
But what for? ISP tracking? If it's because of a built-in adblocker, there are apps that do this locally via a local-only vpn.
im posting from behind a vpn right now
Yet another reason not to use lemmy.world
I had the same problem when I was on lemmy.world. now I'm on this other instance dbzero and it's mostly smooth except for sometimes things glitch so I turn off my VPN to troubleshoot and then it works for a while, especially some thumbnail pictures won't load in the post with my VPN on, but lately I've been too lazy to toggle my VPN off, I usually just give up on posts when the photo won't load.
LW makes an effort to block posting from public VPNs because it also has open registration, and there's not really much else that can be done to prevent a particularly belligerent spammer/troll from just repeatedly registering accounts. This was put in place after a particularly bad spate of it.
I'm not especially pleased about it, but I understand why it's happened
Probably your instance. For example, I'm on a VPN all day every day and I get to post and comment and use Lemmy like nothing happened.
So this is why all my posts never showed!
Just kidding, I just almost never post, but I do use a VPN almost all the time.
That's not all of Lemmy, just your specific Lemmy instance with those restrictions (lemmy.world).
Talk to lemmy.world admins or sign up to a different Lemmy instance that allows VPN usage.
Why is this? Why no VPN for Lemmy.world?
Because it’s backed by CloudFlare. Why is it backed by CloudFlare? Because it has open registration and gets spammed a lot.
The two are unrelated.
Edit: I mean cloudflare and the vpn block.
Probably spam.
that's another good question for the admins.
Lemmy.world, which you log into and is the one that receives your VPN connection, uses Cloudflare in front of their server. So it's actually Cloudflare that receives your VPN connection. It's probably giving you that captcha screen which your app can't display (or being denied entirely). I'm on VPN too and when a link makes me open a .world post it gives me the Cloudflare captcha every time.
Not guaranteed to be this reason but my money's on it. Try logging into lemmy.world from your browser on the VPN, will help you troubleshoot if it gives nonstandard pages when trying to post or especially when logging in.
It's definitely your instance, most probably VPNs are not allowed on it. If you do want to use a VPN on Voyager, try changing the country/server, (or exit point as someone else suggested) you should manage to find one that works. - switch quickly then post, works for me.
Edit: yep had to do it to post this message.
It seems like it. I'll change the instance.
I'm posting from a VPN, no issues. Try a different instance.
Either spam/troll/bot protection or a government honey pot.
Find a new instance.
They explained the four possible reasons it could be happening, and offered a solution.
What do you want them to do, tickle your balls?
Huh, have you tried changing your exit?
Because I'm on a vpn now...
As others have said it is based on instance. I get why some have instances have the restriction though.
I get why some have instances have the restriction though.
I get it too.
Which is why I so fucking hate ppl, companies, govs, w/e who abuse services. When it gets bad enough, it makes the service clamp down. And that means loss of privacy for everyone. Even the ppl not abusing it.
TBF I don't know what will prevent the more open Lemmy instances from that fate. Today, Lemmy flies under the radar. Too small for anyone to notice or care. Too tiny to be target for mass disinfo campaigns. Or shitty influencers to infest and take it over. But if it gets big enuf... it'll have the same probs. There are probs that aren't do to the algorithms on reddit or w/e. Some come from sheer scale. Humans gotta ruin everything nice.
Same. Paid Proton and Voyager, and no bueno 😭
Could be where your VPN is hosted. If your traffic appears to be coming from (for instance) an AWS data center, it might appear to be coming from a known spam source (since there are some spammers which have used AWS). The instance you're on might just be using an overzealous spam block IP list.
I've had this problem with proton, when it happens, i switch VPN exits and then retry posting and it almost always works.
I post from a vpn all the time. Sometimes it'll complain and not let me because of VPN and then I just switch node and it lets me. It's not even country based. Like I can be on a node in Mexico, get blocked, switch to another one in Mexico and be good
I have had the same problem with some VPNs, but sometimes it works. Maybe your instance admin can identify if they allow any VPNs, or you could try to move to an instance that is more lenient?