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Anonymous User
Not applicable

VPN not working

Hi folks.

We use a VPN to access banking, work and studying. None of the VPNs will connect. This is not an issue about accessing things like Netflix, the actual extension will not connect.

We have only just started with NOW Broadband and the extensions were working fine with previous Broadband provider.

Thanks

16 REPLIES 16
flavione
Scholar


@Anonymous User wrote:

Hi folks.

We use a VPN to access banking, work and studying. None of the VPNs will connect. This is not an issue about accessing things like Netflix, the actual extension will not connect.

We have only just started with NOW Broadband and the extensions were working fine with previous Broadband provider.

Thanks


Have you configured your Broadband Buddy to work with your VPNs? 

 

https://help.nowtv.com/article/broadband-buddy-troubleshooting

 

You could disable it, if it's quicker.

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

my account makes no mention of it. It has a age rating but that's switched off.

 

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

I suspect you won’t be able to use a VPN without having Broadband Buddy on.

 

Switch it back on, set the age rating to 18+, which means it will not forbid anything, and then follow the steps on the link above to enable VPN.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

That doesnt work.

There is no Buddy. It pops up on the screen but I am then taken to settings where all I can do is change age restrictions, which makes no difference.

Less than 1 day with this lot and I already want to find somewhere else. Customer services are impossible to contact, all I get an annoying Bot that sends me round in circles.

 

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@RoyB wrote:

@Anonymous User 

 

I suspect you won’t be able to use a VPN without having Broadband Buddy on.

 


Are you suggesting that VPNs will be blocked, even with Broadband Buddy switched off?

JohnH1_0-1650575650372.png

 

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User @Anonymous User 

 

Nothing I know definitively, just an observation based on VPNs sometimes requiring some router tweaking, and Broadband Buddy being the only thing that is likely to do this transparently for a user.

 

On the other hand, though, it looks as if all that Broadband Buddy may be doing is letting you whitelist a server that it would otherwise block.

 

And if so, it isn’t the case that you always need to teach Broadband Buddy your VPN, and Broadband Buddy isn’t blocking VPNs until you set them up; it’s just that maybe the website at the other end of the VPN that you are trying to emerge from is one that Broadband Buddy happens to block, according to its unfathomable rules; especially if, even with 18+ set, it guards against unknown websites for safety, rather than sticking to a blocklist.

 

So there’s nothing especially VPN-ish going on here, and maybe Broadband Buddy doesn’t even know this site is the exit point for a VPN, and can’t tell it from a site you want to override Broadband Buddy over just so you can browse it…..

 

Can you shed any better light on this?

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

@RoyB wrote:

@Anonymous User @Anonymous User 

 

Can you shed any better light on this?


Not yet, as I'm not on Now at the moment, probably joining in early June.

But if it says it's possible to turn if off it should be the same as any other ISP when it is off.

When I was on Sky, they had the same thing, but they called it Sky Shield. However it was possible to disable it, and it then had no effect.

Let you know for sure in about 6 weeks. 😉

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Anonymous User 

Have you actually turned Broadband Buddy off?

You mention extensions, so are you just using the VPN in your browsers?

Which VPN are you using? You do realise they don't actually increase security, they just obscure your traffic from the ISP. The VPN vender can, if they want, see all your traffic. You have to be sure you trust the VPN provider.

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User 

 

Seems to me there are at least two things going on here; seeing your traffic, and seeing how your traffic is routed. If you are talking to a website over https, then I don’t believe anyone can see the content of your traffic, even over open WiFi (i.e. the old precaution against doing your banking in a cafe with open WiFi only really applied to http).

 

And even your ISP can see only who you are communicating with, and not what you are saying, over https.

 

But as regards routing traffic, a VPN protects you not just from your ISP, but from having the site you are accessing, and maybe other people using it, know your IP address.

 

I’m also pretty sure it protects the people at the other end; those work VPNs that Broadband Buddy talks about must be VPNs for a reason; once it may have been encryption, but these days it seems to be authentication; of all the devices here, only my work-supplied laptop can access the VPN to my employer which is the only way I can WFH for them, using a rolling password generated by a device authenticated to me.

 

I don’t know if they could do the same thing over https, or if the security would be as good?

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.