Any tips on dealing with the increasing number of VPN Blocking sites?

I seem to be finding more and more sites that require disconnecting the VPN connection (like Reddit does). Any advice on methods or tools that can allow access without disabling the VPN protection?

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It largely depends on what method the sites are using to detect and block your VPN, if it’s just blocking IP ranges that are known to be used by VPN providers, you can try different exit nodes, or if your VPN offers it, use their Obfuscated Servers.

If they are blocking known VPN ports as well, then you’d need a VPN that allows you to connect over a different port, which can be a bit trickier to make work.

I don’t have a Reddit account to test if Mullvad works with it and their Obfuscated servers, but I’m sure a quick search for your VPN provider and that will give you some guidance on enabling if it’s supported.

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This website shows a few techniques which are used to detect proxy/VPN: Live Proxy/VPN Detection

These are for circumventing censorship in your connection to them, not for exiting to websites.

What? Ports used here are again just for your connection to the VPN, not to do with exiting from it.

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Here is some basic advice, but its probably not the answer you will like.

  1. Keep trying different VPN servers until it works
  2. Try a different VPN provider
  3. Disable the VPN when using the site
  4. Don’t use the site

In this instance you are talking about Reddit. The best bet in this case is to use a frontend to Reddit (i.e. Redlib) such that it anonymizes your requests. You’ll have to run your own instance or you’ll need to find a public instance.

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  1. For Reddit use Norway servers, they aren’t blocked. If you are on mullvad you can keep your main VPN as another server, then set the SOCKS5 proxy within the mullvad browser to Norway.
  2. For other sites you could make your own VPN on a VPS.
  3. You can use a 4G or 5G SOCKS5 proxy (almost impossible to block) chained together with your VPN.
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The important caveats with this (as I see it) is that you are “a crowd of one” (though theoretically websites can’t know that with certainty), have a predictable/constant IP address, and will probably need to provide more PII to sign up for the VPS than you would for a VPN service. Not saying its always pointless in every context, but those are some substantial caveats.

In this instance you are talking about Reddit. The best bet in this case is to use a frontend to Reddit (i.e. Redlib) such that it anonymizes your requests.

I think you are right about this. For Reddit specifically, a combination of a frontend for logged-out browsing, and logging in to reddit directly only when you want to engage (VPNs aren’t blocked if you login) is about the best you can do. Using a proxy in combo with the VPN if your provider supports that can be helpful also.

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+1

To make your life easier, use LibRedirect (feature-full, MV2) or Predirect (barebone, MV3).

For Reddit, libreddit.tux.pizza works well. For Twitter, there is still xcancel.com left.

On Android use Mull to get add-on. On iPhone, go buy an android phone.

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GitHub - smmr-software/privacy-redirect-safari: A Safari extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and more to privacy friendly alternatives. for iOS. Might be unmaintained though

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Thanks everyone. These are all new to me so I have some learning to do. Again, glad I asked!

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Get a burner phone/tablet and connect to starbucks wifi or its equivalent. You are on an HTTPS connection but still somewhat in a common pool of users.

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Interesting points here.

I use Mullvad on my entire network, save my TV (it has limited functionality if connected to a VPN, various streaming sites simply block the connection).

Setting up Mullvad on my firewall was quite a lengthy process (pfsense) and as such I am reluctant to change my IP despite the fact that it’s blocked by reddit.

For reddit, on my desktop PCs I use my own locally hosted instance of Redlib. Unfortunately on mobile it’s not so easy, I normally connect to old.reddit.com directly (using a different Mullvad IP so it allows the connection) because there’s no redirect extensions like Libredirect available on Vanadium and I normally connect to reddit from duckduckgo rather than type the address in manually (or use bookmarks for that matter). And I normally use duckduckgo to search for reddit because reddit’s search function is not good.

I’ve resolved to simply ignore sites that block VPNs. It would actually be difficult for me to connect without a VPN and that’s intentionally so. I don’t want to give them the satisfaction. The enshittification of the internet is growing, more and more sites block VPNs and I’m really not liking where this is going. I will ignore Youtube’s “sign in to confirm you’re not a bot” so long as I practically can, but it’s entirely possible, probable even, that they’ll force everyone to sign in, and the worst part is I think the majority of people will put up with it.

There’s also a growing number of sites that allow VPNs but will throw captchas and various other bot/ddos protection pages. It’s getting ridiculous.

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Just use RedReader: RedReader | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Apps with an API key, like it, still work over VPN.

Put it in the dumpster.

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What is that exactly? And how do you set it up with eg. Mullvad?

Mull supports extensions very well. I got Tired of chromium being very limited, so despite it being less secure, the extension support make me win a lot of time.

I suggest you try Mull, it will change your life, maybe.

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It can vary a lot depending on the VPN provider. @viktorivpn 's IVPN was awful for IP blacklisting. I told their support, they know it and say they can’t do anything about this without requiring POI, which they are not willing to do.
In the meantime, @yegor 's Windscribe is much much better at this. Sorry IVPN but it was barely usable for me and my wife.
Spotify was disfunctionning, reddit, my university, my supermarket, an online secondhand platform, etc. We talked about this with the support and we ended confirming that this was not related to their ad blocking lists.

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Don’t have any issues with Proton VPN, only youtube.com isn’t working, but that’s only on a server that I use, not on all of them.

I also have problem with Proton from time to time (especially reddit). For now, I just changer server for that website which doesn’t work and then switch back.

But this might become a bigger problem in the not too far future. We’ll see how the VPNs providers handle this.

It seems unlikely that reddit’s ban on certain IP addresses is due to regional or corporate discrimination.

Rather, it appears that the servers of these companies are being used by individuals engaged in activities that violate both reddit’s rules and the law.

As a result, reddit is forced to block these addresses.

As hardware upgrades and rotations occur, this problem will persist, but will also be properly “serviced” at the same time.

That’s BS. Reddit did fine years without blocking IPs. They still have a Tor.service. Also, if you are worried about Ddo, just implement CAPTCHAs.

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The popularity and number of users of “anonymous” VPNs has grown significantly over the past few years. As might be expected, instances of their use for improper purposes have been on the rise.

A comparison can be made between this and the proliferation of the legal possession and sale of weapons.

As the popularity and population of a process increase, so do the number of incidents.


5% of 100,000 people is a lot less = 5 thousand


than 5% of 100 million = 5 million


I don’t think you are thinking deeply enough and turning a blind eye to the fact that the world is not made up of conspiracies, paranoid spy denouements and evil geniuses, however, there is too much of evil and injustice in the world…