Blocking VPN IPs

[Fait]

What’s everyone opinion in blocking VPN Access and only allowing users that use a legit IP Address on to your forum?
On the other hand it might ruin traffic?


I’m debating about doing this especially due to how bad DDOS attacks can be and it might help a little bit since it remove non-legit IP Addresses but I haven’t completely made up my mind so what’s everyone thoughts on this?

 

[Page]

There are other ways of dealing with it rather then upsetting your traffic 😉

I want my members to feel free and if I start blocking VPNs they stop going to the site.

 

[RakeyPoo]

I have a very popular niche forum with exclusive content that you can't get anywhere else.

I block all VPNs, all hosting providers, all proxies etc...You must use a residential IP address to access site.

Why?
Excessive Fraud & daily DDoS attacks
How?
I block 1,000 ASNS in Cloudflare which are hosting and VPN ASNs.

I lose 15% of traffic in the first month after doing this, but I have since gained 20%. People will turn off their VPN to access exclusive, valuable content.

Paid services I have used to block them:

https://www.blocked.com/

IP2Proxy Proxy Detection Database | IP2Location

List of IP2Proxy databases which enable you to detect anonymous proxy, open proxy, web proxy, TOR exit nodes, VPN, SES, BOT and residential proxies (RES).

www.ip2location.com

IPinfo | The Trusted IP Data Provider for Developers & Enterprises

IPinfo delivers fast, accurate, and reliable IP data to power fraud detection, geolocation, analytics, and more. Trusted by over 500,000 developers.

ipinfo.io

In the end, my 1,000 ASN blocklist is free and doesn't require any development costs, so it's easiest and very effective.

How did I make my list?
Take 1 year of logs, filter to only include unique /24 ranges

Convert them to ASN:

Autonomous System Lookup (AS / ASN / IP) | HackerTarget.com

Lookup IPv4 / IPv6 address to AS or ASN to IP ranges. Quickly find the Autonomous System owner using the online tool and the Free API.

hackertarget.com

Plug each one into https://ipinfo.io/

If it says it's a hosting provider or VPN, add it to your block list.

 

[Fait]

There are other ways of dealing with it rather then upsetting your traffic 😉

I want my members to feel free and if I start blocking VPNs they stop going to the site.

that's a good point, I guess for now I leave things how they are, If things ever did get out of hand such as members evading bans, etc.. then I decide on that then but for now things are fine.

 

[Nomad]

I have not deliberated on this topic yet. When I set up the forum I realized that it blocked VPN by default.

 

[Fait]

I have not deliberated on this topic yet. When I set up the forum I realized that it blocked VPN by default.

VPNs can cause so many issues and easier for ddos attacks to take place so not bad that it does.