Forum Discussion

agentorange's avatar
agentorange
New Contributor II
11 months ago

Cox webmail blocking Surfshark?

Anybody else seeing this? Since the turn of the year I've been unable to access my Webmail using a laptop equipped with Surfshark. I've tried changing my apparent location to no avail. Clearing cookies and restarting the machine did not help. This is going to be a royal pain should I travel as Cox does not allow webmail access from non-US IP addresses. Could it be a configuration issue on my laptop? Don't know why as I've never had the issue before.

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    11 months ago

    Can't you turn off your VPN when you want to check you email? Also, I wonder if this will change when the transition to Yahoo mail comes. RI and VA have already began.

    And it's not that Cox thinks your a hacker, they just want to make sure you are logging in the US and there are some DNS prerequisites that most VPN IP don't have. As for overseas, request a whitelisting of your IP for webmail access. See here.

  • Darkatt's avatar
    Darkatt
    Honored Contributor
    11 months ago

    It's the vpn that's causing the issue. Using a VPN to hide your connection is what hackers do, so most vpn ip addresses will be blocked from Webmail to actually protect you. 

  • agentorange's avatar
    agentorange
    New Contributor II
    11 months ago

    I'm sure the IT department of the DoD contractor I worked for will be pleased to hear that their use of a VPN is an indication of their hacking activities. 🙄

    • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
      WiderMouthOpen
      Esteemed Contributor
      11 months ago

      Can't you turn off your VPN when you want to check you email? Also, I wonder if this will change when the transition to Yahoo mail comes. RI and VA have already began.

      And it's not that Cox thinks your a hacker, they just want to make sure you are logging in the US and there are some DNS prerequisites that most VPN IP don't have. As for overseas, request a whitelisting of your IP for webmail access. See here.

    • Darkatt's avatar
      Darkatt
      Honored Contributor
      11 months ago

      FYI, it's not the DoD contractor they are worried about, it's the real hackers, who use the same VPN service, or use of vpn to hide their location. 

      Reminds me of what an old combat instructor of mine once said, "If someone wants to complain, they will find no shortage of things to complain about". 

      "Why do they block VPN's?" vs, "Why can't they do something to block those hackers?".

  • agentorange's avatar
    agentorange
    New Contributor II
    11 months ago

    So how long do you think it will be before VPNs are banned in the US? Unfortunately, it seems the US along with much of Western society is sliding towards an attitude of "if you could be getting up to something, you must be", so ban everything. Is that a free society? The continual 2nd amendment witch hunt is but one example.

    • Darkatt's avatar
      Darkatt
      Honored Contributor
      11 months ago

      So, why would you use a VPN?  To pretend to be elsewhere? To hide your activity? Quite frankly, a VPN slows you down, because your traffic is NOT, your device to internet to the VPN system, back to the internet to your destination, which then goes back to internet to the VPN system,  then from there back to you! BTW, I ran across a hacked VPN, where the hacker had access to everything and everyone using the vpn. That sounds peachy and safe.