VPN Question | TexAgs

Max Stonetrail

Joined: Feb 2, 2021

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I use TorGuard as a VPN. I have recently noticed that if I log on to TorGuard then try to log on to my brokerage account (TOS from TDAmeritrade/Schwab), it will not run the trading platform. It stays on the boot up screen and never even gets to the login screen. Everything else seems to work fine - Browsers, Outlook, SalesForce, etc. My work around is log on to TOS first, then log in to TorGuard and go about my business.

My question is what does that do to my traffic? Does my TOS traffic move over to the TorGuard pipe, or am I using two different routes for traffic? Would TOS have it's own route and everything else through a different route?

IrishAg

Joined: Feb 18, 2003

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8:03p, 5/9/24

They might be blocking the IPs from that VPN for security reasons. One of the biggest downsides to using a VPN as a service is that a lot of sites are starting to block the IP ranges of them to prevent obfuscation from threat actors. Might be a temporary block due to an attempted attack or a permanent one due to the platform being repeatedly used to launch attacks.

They also could be using advanced account protections and notice that you're attempting to log in from a different location. But that scenario usually kicks in a step up authentication method for most of the financial sites.

But, my bet is that they're blocking the VPN IPs since you said it never goes anywhere. You could try switching locations for the VPN and see if that changes anything. Overall though, if you're going to use VPN on a regular basis to where you need to do banking through it (not sure I trust any of them for that), then you might want to just setup your own VPN tunnel.

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Max Stonetrail

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11:48a, 5/10/24

Thanks for the reply. My guess is they are blocking the VPN IPs, which is kind of odd because scenarios like this are why you would have a VPN. I can try other locations. It isn't location or temporary because this has been an issue for months. I used to travel and logging onto financial sites at a hotel or Starbucks network isn't something I like to do. These days, I am on my own network usually so it isn't a big deal, I just use the VPN to cut down on unwanted tracking and advertising.

I was more curious about how the traffic was flowing when I logged on to TOS before logging on the VPN, because TOS works fine if I do it that way.

kb2001

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8:06p, 5/10/24

AG

It would likely hit a different endpoint for the authentication piece, that might be blocking the VPN IP ranges.

Perhaps the trading site is trading.example.com, and the authentication portal is login.example.com, something like that. If they've seen attacks against the login site sourcing from VPN IPs, they might block them.

Try a different VPN endpoint and see.

Pinochet

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9:02p, 5/12/24

The VPN you're using could also be dropping one of the DNS requests that tracks you as part of the login, which could cause the hang. I've noticed that a few seemingly innocuous logins and other websites or emails have embedded ads or other things that are getting dropped by some of my public block lists with PiHole and even the regular old Cloudflare DNS. That was happening to my wife's work computer until I put it on a completely different network in a DMZ. Of course her dip**** IT guy said it was probably our "router" that "didnt have good enough wifi." I digress.

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IrishAg

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In reply to Pinochet • 7:05a, 5/13/24

Pinochet said:
The VPN you're using could also be dropping one of the DNS requests that tracks you as part of the login, which could cause the hang. I've noticed that a few seemingly innocuous logins and other websites or emails have embedded ads or other things that are getting dropped by some of my public block lists with PiHole and even the regular old Cloudflare DNS. That was happening to my wife's work computer until I put it on a completely different network in a DMZ. Of course her dip**** IT guy said it was probably our "router" that "didnt have good enough wifi." I digress.

Did he suggest you reboot the network? That one cracks me up when someone suggests it these days.