Reconnection issue

[Jason]

Glad it's finally working for you the way it's supposed to, Fox. Regarding the email, that's totally correct. Many email services will not reject the IP addresses associated with certain VPNs for the reason the support person noted. Instead of having to remember to disconnect and then reconnect again, you can make exceptions in the PIA client:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/helpdesk/kb/articles/split-tunnel-app-examples

Scroll down for the suggestions of where apps (like Thunderbird) are located so you can exclude them from using PIA.

[fox]

Thanks for that, Jason. The link mentioned Thunderbird, but it gave the wrong location for the executable file. It was in the /usr/bin directory. But once I excluded it, I could send a message!!

[Jason]

It does mention that the locations can vary among distributions. How did you find it? Did your just go to edit the icon and then look at the location there? That's usually how I do it when something requires knowing the exact location of an executable for a program.

[fox]

I'll remember that trick next time. In my case I guessed the location because it is a binary. Ironically, I guessed the correct location immediately and put in the exception, but deleted it before trying when you posted the link to that location. There was a file named Thunderbird there, but it was the wrong one and it didn't work, so Iwent back to /usr/bin.

[Jason]

Ah, so you remembered that binaries are in /usr/bin from your Linux filesystem knowledge. Good show!

[Jason]

I wish they could allow exceptions for certain websites, like my beloved Netflix which gets cross with me every time I show up there using a VPN. When I click to play a show or movie, it spits out an error telling me to turn off my proxy or VPN. Very annoying. I turn it off and then forget to turn it back on when I go to other websites! Getting old, I guess

[fox]

This gets more interesting. I had a message that I sent out earlier in the day from my university email; it was in my Sent message folder. I added to it to send out again, and forgot to turn off PIA. The message went out anyway. Would that have gone out because it had previously gone out with my university address? And if so, who is blocking the other messages - Microsoft or my university?

[ssfc72]

Your University IT guy that is responsible for their email, should be able to say if the email was being blocked by them, when you use a VPN.

[Jason]

This gets more interesting. I had a message that I sent out earlier in the day from my university email; it was in my Sent message folder. I added to it to send out again, and forgot to turn off PIA. The message went out anyway. Would that have gone out because it had previously gone out with my university address? And if so, who is blocking the other messages - Microsoft or my university?

Okay, so just to clarify:

   
• You mentioned in a previous post that you sent out email using Thunderbird previously when having PIA connected and it was rejected.
• You added an exception in PIA options for Thunderbird so that it's not isn't used when you use Thunderbird. and it worked so you could send out mail again.
• Now you're re-sending out an email previously sent with PIA connected and it worked, too.

What changed between (2) and (3) that would make you wonder why it shouldn't work? I must be missing something here. It should work now whether PIA is connected or not.

[fox]

Very perceptive, Jason. I missed posting that the exception I put in didn't do anything. I just looked and the exception is still there. At any rate, now thinking about it, it couldn't have been Thunderbird itself that was the problem, as it connects OK to receive mail. So unfortunately I'm still having to turn off the VPN to send messages.

I don't know if this will help, but I got a message today from PIA IT stating that they have whitelisted the SMTP IP/Domain of Outlook, but I will have to replace its smtp with an IP number they gave me. They suggest that I allow 48-72 hours for process completion. So I will try this in a few days and will report back.

[Jason]

Very perceptive, Jason. I missed posting that the exception I put in didn't do anything. I just looked and the exception is still there. At any rate, now thinking about it, it couldn't have been Thunderbird itself that was the problem, as it connects OK to receive mail. So unfortunately I'm still having to turn off the VPN to send messages.

Receiving email is different. It goes through a different server, not necessarily a different physical one, just different server software. Mail is sent using SMTP and usually connects to smtp.yourisp.com while receiving email goes through imap.yourisp.com or pop3.yourisp.com.

Most smtp servers will check to see where the connection is coming from before accepting a connection so there will be blocks. It's done to avoid spammers using their servers to send email. Spammers do this because their own smtp servers built into their own servers have been blacklisted. They used to just accept connections even without a username and password. Then they required authentication. Now they require that and check the IP address of the connecting user. Some go as far as only allowing it if you're connecting from their network (for example, ISPs). Unfortunately, PIA has people using it that don't have the best intentions. So if were on nexicom and tried to send a message from off of their network, they might reject the connection and not allow the email to go through because it's from outside their network.

The servers don't care who connects to receive email as long as you have an appropriate username and password. So you could be sending your email through Microsoft but it's received from a server at the university. Or it's stored on both but Microsoft only filters connections to the SMTP server.

I don't know if this will help, but I got a message today from PIA IT stating that they have whitelisted the SMTP IP/Domain of Outlook, but I will have to replace its smtp with an IP number they gave me. They suggest that I allow 48-72 hours for process completion. So I will try this in a few days and will report back.

It may. I think what it means is that they will receive your emails that you send through their server which will act as a pass through to the actual SMTP server you use. If you get registered as an SMTP server, then other servers will accept email from it which is essentially what they're doing.

[fox]

If Ido this, does that mean I can’t send email unless I’m connected to a PIA server?