Craigslist Slow and blocking PIA

MurbyMurby
in Feedback
Craigslist is slow when using PIA... a 56K modem would be faster. Its the only website that is acting like this. When turning off PIA, craigslist is fast and speedy.. turn on PIA its its so slow its useless. Takes almost a full minute for a page to load. What's going on?

Comments

  • Omnibus_IVOmnibus_IV
    What PIA server are you using? I access Craigslist through a local server and have no issues. At one time Craigslist block groups of IP addresses that PIA used, but I got around that by using a different PIA server.
  • MurbyMurby
    I've tried severs East, Midwest, Atlanta, Florida, Texas and a bunch of others... occasionally, after trying about a dozen of them, I'll find one that works like its supposed to..    out of 10 attempts, 1 or 2 will just be blocked, the other 8 will just be so slow as to be useless.   Got fed up and gave up today.. none of them worked.. even after going back through the list three times.
  • Omnibus_IVOmnibus_IV
    I don't think it is PIA. I can ping Craigslist and get fast responses. But I think Craigslist is detecting you are using a VPN and is slowing you down. I have just noticed it now myself. Try TOR (if you have it) and see if the same thing happens.
  • MurbyMurby
    What's the point of using PIA if websites block it? I think what's happening is that spammers are using PIA and PIA isn't doing enough to stop them and websites are blocking VPN's because of it. How does a website even know I'm using a VPN? Isn't it because the IP address was abused at some point? Shouldn't PIA be fighting this problem better?
  • Omnibus_IVOmnibus_IV
    Good points abound, but how do you propose PIA fight spammers? Websites know VPN owners and can easily get IP Address that belong to those owners. Then they block the entire range. I have reported a few blocked websites to PIA and a few weeks later the block was lifted. So PIA does reach out to websites. It is up to the website to allow or continue to block. In a perfect internet there would be no spammers, but just look at the number of spam posts PIA moderators have to delete every day.
  • MurbyMurby
    Doesn't PIA know when someone sends out thousands of emails? I would think there would be some way for them to know that the traffic is different from a normal PIA user.
  • Harry2Harry2
    Murby said:
    Craigslist is slow when using PIA... a 56K modem would be faster. Its the only website that is acting like this. When turning off PIA, craigslist is fast and speedy.. turn on PIA its its so slow its useless. Takes almost a full minute for a page to load. What's going on?
    Free site. When something is free YOU are the product!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    Murby said:
    Doesn't PIA know when someone sends out thousands of emails? I would think there would be some way for them to know that the traffic is different from a normal PIA user.
    Actually, we would not know as we do not log any customer data. We also do not attempt to look at or analyze the traffic.We are currently working on a new set of policies for enabling the whitelisting of outgoing email servers
  • MurbyMurby
    PIAJerry said:
    Murby said:
    Doesn't PIA know when someone sends out thousands of emails? I would think there would be some way for them to know that the traffic is different from a normal PIA user.
    Actually, we would not know as we do not log any customer data. We also do not attempt to look at or analyze the traffic.We are currently working on a new set of policies for enabling the whitelisting of outgoing email servers
    Are you guys doing anything to fix the craigslist problem?
  • Omnibus_IVOmnibus_IV
    It is not PIA that is causing the problem. It is Craigslist.
  • Harry2Harry2
    edited May 2018

    Murby said:
    Are you guys doing anything to fix the craigslist problem?
    You tried logging on with another server. Too many users not protecting their computers with virus/malware detection and have become a "Bot"getting PIA IP's listed/blocked (If Microsoft Windows Defender is available to you you need to  use it or a working detector of choice) I just tried Craiglist using a NZ server worked fine?
  • MurbyMurby
    Harry2 said:

    Murby said:
    Are you guys doing anything to fix the craigslist problem?
    You tried logging on with another server. Too many users not protecting their computers with virus/malware detection and have become a "Bot"getting PIA IP's listed/blocked (If Microsoft Windows Defender is available to you you need to  use it or a working detector of choice) I just tried Craiglist using a NZ server worked fine?
    My computer is secure.  Unneeded Windows services are turned off, I use Defender and Avast, block all email attachments, use firefox with NoScript and AdBlocker.     I also build my own PC's so I know my hardware.   

    I think the issue is that Craigslist used to block PIA and then PIA would detect the blocks and update their IP addresses..  So then Craigslist decided to try a different route and just slow down PIA to the point where its useless..  PIA detects Craigslist is responding so PIA thinks everything is fine.. but in reality, although Craigslist responds, it knows its a PIA server and will only feed back data at a snails pace.

    PIA needs to change the way they detect these blocks by gauging the page loading response times.. if a Craigslist page doesn't load within a minimum amount of time, then they know there's a problem.
  • Omnibus_IVOmnibus_IV
    If PIA is detecting anything that would imply that PIA is monitoring data connections. I do not think that is the case. PIA is just a path and nothing else. It provides a means for setting up a tunnel between you and their server. What happens after their server is meaningless to PIA.

    I mentioned before and Murby also stated that Craigslist is purposely causing data to go at dialup 9600 speeds. Why? Have to ask Craigslist. Maybe it is to discourage scammers. I don't know.
  • burgessburgess
    edited May 2018
    Just started using PIA and it's sent me back to the stone age for accessing Craigslist. It either blocks me, or throttles my connection so bad that I long for dial up speeds. If this is what I can expect from this VPN, I guess I'll be shopping around for another pretty soon. 
    Edit: By the way, this problem never happened when I've used a free VPN service. Go figure.
  • Harry2Harry2
    edited May 2018
    burgess said:
    Just started using PIA and it's sent me back to the stone age for accessing Craigslist. It either blocks me, or throttles my connection so bad that I long for dial up speeds. If this is what I can expect from this VPN, I guess I'll be shopping around for another pretty soon. 
    Edit: By the way, this problem never happened when I've used a free VPN service. Go figure.
    You emailed them "blocks-codenumber [ at ] craigslist.org" as to why?
    I found a IP that was blocked it contains a coded email address
    Switch to NZ server is one that works at present?
    All VPN's have a problem with users not running virus/malware scanners a good one is Windows Defender .
    Without using such scanners one can run a botnet/zombie computer without knowing it?
    That is why IP's get blocked.
    Free VPN's are browser proxies they do not conceal your identity.
    You need to do a leak test to see this PIA is secure.
    https://www.dnsleaktest.com    do a "extended test" 
  • SunflowerSunflower
    It IS Craigslist! Just recently even without PIA it takes forever to load a page.
  • OiggOigg
    I had noticed this earlier. I believe Craigslist might be adding a cookie that causes future slow downs even with PIA disconnected. I switched from using my regular browser to Mozilla Firefox in private browsing mode when I want to check Craigslist with PIA disconnected. I'm also noticing page errors when trying to load officedepot.com with PIA connected that don't happen with it disconnected.
  • shmut33shmut33
    I've been having the same problem for about an month now.  See some numbers below using cURL to the Chicago home on Craigslist. You can see it seems to connect and start the transfer as expected, but time to the final byte is more than 200 seconds when using PIA as apposed to less than a second when disconnected from PIA:

    On PIA, US Florida:
    https://chicago.craigslist.org
    Name Lookup: 0.252357 
    Connect: 0.326396 
    Pretransfer: 0.587001 
    Start Transfer: 2.443851
    Total: 229.447775
    On PIA, US Midwest:
    https://chicago.craigslist.org/
    Name Lookup: 0.509750 
    Connect: 0.542143 
    Pretransfer: 0.681259 
    Start Transfer: 2.601918
    Total: 229.666273
    On ISP (disconnected from PIA):
    https://chicago.craigslist.org/
    Name Lookup: 0.252501 
    Connect: 0.290815 
    Pretransfer: 0.416542 
    Start Transfer: 0.474110
    Total: 0.600791
  • Omnibus_IVOmnibus_IV
    edited June 2018
    As mentioned above, also, it is not PIA, but it is Craigslist. They are doing this on purpose. Instead of outright blocking IP addresses (which they do at times), they purposely show their data down to 1980's modem speeds. Craigslist must think they are cute.

    Think about it. If it was a PIA issue, then EVERY web page would be doing the same thing. But it is only Craigslist that this issue is observed. No doubt they see the PIA IP block and then run a WAIT algorithm.
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