VPN Unblocking

Please find a way to make VPN unblocking a more straight-forward process...

For example, on the "you're banned, motherfucker!" Page, add a button or some other mechanism to submit your IP Address for unblocking, for a user who is logged in.

-page already knows the IP address
-page already knows who to the user is
-it just needs a "submit" button to send these values somewhere or to someone

Otherwise, the user has to determine what their IP address is, then disconnect from the VPN, then get into PAFOA to send a message to Dan

This is happening to me several times per day. Sometimes my VPN works, I drive somewhere else, and without even disconnecting the VPN, it's suddenly banned.

I don't bother to submit IP addresses because it's such a pain in the ass, and the server seems to work again later anyway...I'm really not sure what is going on.

I use ExpressVPN...their servers in NY, NJ, and Washington DC sometimes are banned and sometimes work..and it can go back and forth between the two multiple times per day. Making it easier to report these situations would help a lot.

Another idea, if it were at all possible, set things up to only ban IP addresses for users under a certain post count or reputation level, or subscription level (I realize the forum sw may not give you this level of control).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by free

Please find a way to make VPN unblocking a more straight-forward process...

For example, on the "you're banned, motherfucker!" Page, add a button or some other mechanism to submit your IP Address for unblocking, for a user who is logged in.

-page already knows the IP address
-page already knows who to the user is
-it just needs a "submit" button to send these values somewhere or to someone

Otherwise, the user has to determine what their IP address is, then disconnect from the VPN, then get into PAFOA to send a message to Dan

This is happening to me several times per day. Sometimes my VPN works, I drive somewhere else, and without even disconnecting the VPN, it's suddenly banned.

I don't bother to submit IP addresses because it's such a pain in the ass, and the server seems to work again later anyway...I'm really not sure what is going on.

I use ExpressVPN...their servers in NY, NJ, and Washington DC sometimes are banned and sometimes work..and it can go back and forth between the two multiple times per day. Making it easier to report these situations would help a lot.

Another idea, if it were at all possible, set things up to only ban IP addresses for users under a certain post count or reputation level, or subscription level (I realize the forum sw may not give you this level of control).

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If ExpressVPN and other legit VPN services would show and label which IP ranges are theirs in the DNS registry I could tell which ones not to block. Most of the time that IP is listed as some 3rd party hosting company. ExpressVPN just leases a server from that host, and pays for whatever bandwidth, but the IP address or range still is labeled John Doe's Hosting Service.

Typically, the only way I know it is a legit VPN and/or legit person/member is if the person/member reports the blocked IP. I can then go lookup the blocked IP in the DNS registry to see what that range assigned to them was, then go back into PAFOA's Admin Panel to strike the blocked range.

There is no way to ban IP address for certain users/post count. A banned IP is a banned IP regardless of user. Banning individual IP addresses is a fruitless effort because the spammer will just roll to another IP from the same host. So we block the allotment to that host.


Then I cannot help it if ExpressVPN or other legit VPN services buy/lease additional IP ranges that were previously blocked. I can unblock them once they are made known to be reassigned.

I don't think the Contact Page is blocked when you run into an IP ban.

https://help.pafoa.org/hc/en-us/requests/new

I understand all that about the blocking...my suggestion was to make it trivial to request an unblocking (rather than a multi-step process)....and possibly not block known and established users.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by free

I understand all that about the blocking...my suggestion was to make it trivial to request an unblocking (rather than a multi-step process)....and possibly not block known and established users.

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It would take a 6 months of Sundays to cross check every IP of the assigned blocks versus the users.

It would take less time for you to report the IP that is blocked when you run across one.