Log-in issues with a VPN.

[Anna Nova]

I started to use a VPN (ProtonVPN, 'cos I get it bundled as a ProtonMail account holder).

Now, whenever the VPN changes the exit node, I get the 'Despite all our best efforts...' at log-in, and thrown back to Firestorm's log-in page.  I immediately try again, and everything now proceeds normally up to the point where the viewer is 'waiting for the region'.  It hangs there forever, well until I run out of patience anyway (yeah, not my best thing).  I have to close firestorm and reload it, and then the log-in proceeds fully and normally.  So second time is a charm....

I tried exit nodes in the USA, and it's the same as the London ones for log-in, but sometimes much faster for SL.

I think ProtonVPN is using Wireguard, and I have also tried using Wireguard directly using ProtonVPN exit nodes rather than using the Proton desktop application - with similar results.

Now this isn't a biggie, and I can live with it, but I'd really like to understand what is happening?  Any ideas?

and yes, I know I asked this before a couple of years ago, but no one knew...  I was hoping we had some new wizards.

Edited August 30 by Anna Nova

[belindacarson]

Why do you need to use a vpn to access second life?

 

Ll don't like proton anyway, you can't sign up with a proton email address, might be related to that.

 

I have avast vpn (came with the Internet security as a deal) so I tried that one. And it worked.

[AmeliaJ08]

Yes, most of Proton's servers are blocked as far as I know. All the free ones used to be, I think I had some success with their Canadian servers but that was a while ago and this will always be changing.

I use another VPN and some are still open but some of theirs are blocked as well. I choose to use a VPN and could easily split-tunnel SL but find I don't need to, it just sometimes takes switching servers. They also become unblocked after some time since IP blocking is a pretty pointless way of keeping a misbehaving user out but LL apparently persist.

 

Edited August 30 by AmeliaJ08

[Anna Nova]

23 hours ago, belindacarson said:

Why do you need to use a vpn to access second life?

Ll don't like proton anyway, you can't sign up with a proton email address, might be related to that.

I have avast vpn (came with the Internet security as a deal) so I tried that one. And it worked.

I need a VPN to prevent the misgovernment monitoring my on-line actions.  I use ProtonVPN because it is free to me, and fast - uses wireguard.

I don't use a protonmail address, I have my own domain, but it does map to a protonmail account - I can't see how that can be a factor though, since I always get in on the 3rd attempt.  If protonmail email addresses are banned, I won't be a LL customer any more.

Can you point me to an official LL announcement on this?

[belindacarson]

2 hours ago, Anna Nova said:

I need a VPN to prevent the misgovernment monitoring my on-line actions.  I use ProtonVPN because it is free to me, and fast - uses wireguard.

I don't use a protonmail address, I have my own domain, but it does map to a protonmail account - I can't see how that can be a factor though, since I always get in on the 3rd attempt.  If protonmail email addresses are banned, I won't be a LL customer any more.

Can you point me to an official LL announcement on this?

Try and sign up with a proton email or search the forums, you'll soon find it.

 

Also look for a good tin foil hat and bubble wrap on amazon.

Edited August 31 by belindacarson

[MarissaOrloff]

On 8/31/2024 at 2:59 AM, Anna Nova said:

I need a VPN to prevent the misgovernment monitoring my on-line actions.

I tried to use Proton (paid) when I was in Thailand and it just plain did not work. This was on my M3pro MacBook. ExpressVPN had little annoying problems, not all of them solvable, but SL connections would always connect first try. I know people have some strong and warranted feelings about ExpressVPN, but it has always worked the best Linux, Mac and Windows.

[Anna Nova]

3 hours ago, MarissaOrloff said:

I tried to use Proton (paid) when I was in Thailand and it just plain did not work. This was on my M3pro MacBook. ExpressVPN had little annoying problems, not all of them solvable, but SL connections would always connect first try. I know people have some strong and warranted feelings about ExpressVPN, but it has always worked the best Linux, Mac and Windows.

I always get it to work in the end.  In fact, since I posted here, I have tracked my issues down a bit.  Let's just say it has more to do with the latency of the rural farm house to ISP connection than the VPN per se.  I would suspect that the Thai local connections have very high latency.  Note 'latency' isn't speed, it's the average time it takes for a response to a data packet - we are in the gory technical details of a connection here.  With a VPN the latency of the initial connections can be very high while the connection is being established - this is what hits me when I change exit-node, but subsequent traffic might be almost as good in latency as the ISP connection.

[MarissaOrloff]

8 minutes ago, Anna Nova said:

I always get it to work in the end.

Glad you got everything to work. Thai internet is excellent (when it's not censored but that's a different story). The only problem is that it's on the other side of the world. Latency of 250 - 300ms to western servers is quite common. ProtonVPN just did not want to work for me. ExpressVPN was just fine