Having to switch off my VPN to read British Expats threads whilst at home is not such a big deal but having to do so when on an hotel open wifi connection is a security risk. Why does BE block connections through VPN?

I have a VPN active all the time on my main machine, frequently switching between two countries, I never have any issues connecting to BE

Interesting. This is with Proton VPN which is my primary provider. I do have a Torguard account so I'll switch and try again.

I'm using Nord VPN; I do have access to Proton VPN, not used it as yet, mine is a free bolt-on to email and cloud storage,

that you get it fixed.

Yep, BE started OK with Torguard. Thanks for your input, I'll contact Proton and get them to sort it out.

There was a time, maybe up to a couple of years ago, when I'd forget to turn off my VPN if I'd used it and BE wouldn't let me in. This would alert me to the fact I'd left it on.

Not been an issue more recently.

I'm resurrecting this ... I'll maybe subsequently move it to "Site Issues" but just wanted to check here first.

I use Nord VPN; on my main machine I'm set to Switzerland, on my streaming box I'm set to UK.

Since the last three days, page loading on this site is 13-15 seconds, same for a page refresh. On both machines.

Everything (really everything) is fully up to date etc, etc on both machines.

If I drop the VPN on my main machine everything comes back as it should.

Anyone else seeing any disturbances of late?

+++

Forgot to mention, it's ONLY this site, everything else is hunky-dory.

I was not allowed in again the other day until I switched off my ProtonVPN. I was at home so I just scanned threads and left, swiching the VPN on again afterwards.

Just experimented.
With Hoxx connected, refreshing this page was as instant as not connected.
With Browsec connected refresh was a bit slower but that's because Browsec slows the internet summat chronic.

Thanks for the replies folk.

I'm trying to narrow it down before I question it in Site Issues.

It's not my ISP interfering, as this site seems to be the only one affected.

I bought some stuff from a Dutch site yesterday, the VPN was up via Switzerland, the payment was made through a Belgian bank site, all seamless, no glitches.

Ah that's it then. A 'British' withdrawal from Europe.

I find it depends which server I connect to, not all servers are blocked. Try different servers, I use Expressvpn which offers many....

Does it block you entirely or just slow you (considerably)?

Normally for me using Nord (no matter wherever I point it, multiple servers in multiple countries) I see no difference whatsoever, but these last three days it seems like I've been time-travelled back to 1985 on a dial-up modem.

Drop the VPN, all becomes good.

And it's ONLY this site ...

One example, I'm in Japan, if I use a Tokyo server I'm blocked. If I use another server which is also part of the Tokyo metropolis I'm not blocked, it is slower but acceptable. I also get blocked by other sites, even some Japanese sites using a Japanese server, go figure.

Edit: I just checked a server in another Asian country, connected no problem but slower obviously. If you want to use a VPN, try various servers.

I am using VPN Player and no access or download/refresh issues for this site