[godelski]

I'm a bit curious about how that works. I love Mullvad but routinely I find sites like Reddit completely block it. Even yesterday someone posted a Debian wiki link[0] and I was blocked. It's not all of them but Reddit is a big killer. So I thought China would block all of them (aren't they known?)

Fwiw I'm not switching from mullvad

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46252366

[Karrot_Kream]

Use the Tor Onion Service [1] for Reddit instead. You never leave Tor so you don't have to deal with the usual exit node problems. No need for a commercial VPN.

[1]: https://www.reddittorjg6rue252oqsxryoxengawnmo46qy4kyii5wtqn...

[immibis]

Reddit blocks basically everything - since the 2023 API meltdown it's gone full 1984 censorship and opinion manipulation mode. There are two target audiences for Reddit: propagandists (who are given moderator status, even in subreddits they didn't create) and targets of propaganda (only if Reddit can verify their physical location). You're not in the first group and you don't want to be in the second.

The Tor service does not work. It's been unmaintained for years.

[nenxk]

Yeah reddits weird because last I checked you can access it on TOR but not Mullvad ( though if you server hop enough you can usually slip through )

[mkaic]

perhaps I shouldn't share my workaround, but I've found that Mullvad's Norway nodes consistently get past Reddit's IP-blocking :)

[ryanwhitney]

I use obscura—which routes through mullvad—and the reddit problem is very annoying.

I finally hit the point of searching for mirrors yesterday and turns out, they exist.[0]

It’s really only suitable for lurking or being able to view search results, but it has eased the pain a bit.

0: reddit-viewer.com

[Izkata]

> It’s really only suitable for lurking

If you're not just lurking, log in and reddit doesn't block you.

[dtj1123]

I've found the "visit anonymously" functionality offered by Startpage gets around the problem in a pinch. It tends to break the site you're visiting a little, but masks your IP, allowing you access without shutting down your VPN.

[jwrallie]

How do other providers avoid this issue? Do they keep changing IPs or is the traffic that comes out of Mullvad worse in quality somehow?

[godelski]

I'd also like to know.

I'd also like to ask people not to block this way. It creates LOTS of false positives. There's much better ways to handle bots and this tactic seems particularly dumb for Reddit given they want users from places like China or elsewhere where a VPN might be required. Not to mention people using public WiFi. It's not like VPNs are uncommon these days.

If you must ban IPa then do so with a timeout and easing function. So that each hit results in a longer ban time. Bots want to move fast so even a few seconds ban time will make them switch IPs while not impacting most users (who will refresh)

[timpera]

From my experience, PIA VPN and Proton VPN also get blocked everywhere, from Reddit to captchas on Google Search.

[jb1991]

PIA it’s one of the least trustworthy VPNs, highly recommend getting a different one.

[buckle8017]

They purchase residential traffic exit from botnets.

[nenxk]

Any proof or articles you could link to backup that claim seems unlikely given their size/reputation also would be surprised they’d get blocked this often using botnet traffic

[Marsymars]

The person you're replying to is claiming that providers other than Mullvad avoid the being-blocked-by-reddit issue by using residential IPs.

[otar]

While using mullvad reddit doesn’t block access if you’re signed in.

So, login without mullvad, turn it on after that and it should work.

[panarky]

The question is not "how do you make reddit work over mullvad".

The question is "if reddit can block mullvad why can't China".

[bostik]

There's a corollary to that question: why would China choose not to block Mullvad? We know every large nation with a capable online force maintains a fleet of ORBs, so maybe they consider Mullvad more useful for them as a functioning system?

Some of their own contractors may well depend on Mullvad. Perhaps as long as the overall "civilian" volume and user count remains acceptably low, the cost-benefit estimate may well be in favour of letting it slip by. (And for the civilians that do use a working variant, subject their connections to fine-grained traffic analysis.)

[ThatMedicIsASpy]

my current mullvad endpoint seems to be blocked by flathub (blocking package updates). nixos wiki is also blocked