As you can see I ask quite a lot of questions on this forum. I am not an expert like many of you, and sometimes find the answers hard to understand. All I want to know this time is : I seem to have difficulty on some sites using a VPN. Either I cannot even get the login site, or worse a transaction will fail halfway through. I was trying to make a bank payment which involves entering a four digit code received by a telephone call. The code has to be entered within a few seconds. If correct the automated ladies voice says entered correctly, all OK and call ends.This part was OK,but the bank website just hangs and screen says waiting for authorisation, and the payment does not go through. The bank IT service suggested a new ADSL filter (not joking) but account was not blocked. After a few more failed attempts I suddenly thought to disconnect from the VPN. All worked perfectly first time. Amazon and EBAY are OK with VPN. Doing a search it seems a very common problem. Do any of you have similar problems? Is there anything I can do? I am using PRIVATE INTERNET ACCESS with default settings. Many thanks.
I'm using a VPN & I've noticed torrents/magnets don't work. I normally don't use them so haven't bothered researching the issue. With VPN off, they work...
Thanks to both replies. I will just disconnect for these types of transaction. Interestingly I do not have any problems with torrents. I use qtorrent, and I am mainly downloading TV documentaries that I have missed, some are going back to the 90s. Also I can get a lot of USA programs as well. Downloading torrents is the main reason for having the VPN, as UK ISPS are clamping down on torrent downloads. 4 strikes and you are out. I believe that you are safer with a VPN ?
You know that VPN is also used to obfuscate ip addresses by criminals. Most banks have the opinion that the "normal" customer trusts the HTTPS (the lock symbol in most browsers) connection and doesn't have the need for "advanced" security. The "security nut", "tin hat guy", Stallman, etc. persons don't do any business online with them anyway and if otherwise this "problem" would happen so seldom that the risk loosing such a customer (and not get crucified after a real bad guy scammed them with this way) is not a deal for them. So for them only the inexperienced bad guy tries to connect to them in this manner. Any "real good" bad guy uses a botnet for such things and they don't have any privacy concerns of there bots. The bank IT service probably wasn't allowed to tell you that because someone higher up ordered them to no disclose such details to the "bad guy" complaining why he can't scam there customers bank account. The other point is the already mentioned GeoIP-block where content is only licensed in certain areas of the world.