You no longer can sign on to Namecheap while using VPN (Private Internet Access)

7 points

9 years ago

I was last in Namecheap in December. I've had a PIA account for years, for public cafes and such, and after Comcast started e.g. injecting Javascript, I started using it at home as well. Today, Namecheap's sign on flow took my credentials and then presented me with a Recaptcha. After checking "I'm not a robot", I received a page telling me my credentials were invalid. Worried, I did a password reset, apparently successfully. But then got the same flow. Namecheap support informs me they now block VPN connections.

I've been concerned for some time that the Internet is becoming differentiated. This appears to be one more sign of it. Let my ISP snoop on and potentially interfere with my connection, or forego doing business. I fear this will only continue to grow worse.

I'm also concerned for Namecheap. Why block this? And the flow was atrocious and uninformative. Also new since December: Once in, www.namecheap.com now redirects to ap.www.namecheap.com that uses a separate certificate from a different root, that uses the obsolete combination of RSA and HMAC-SHA1.

I've liked Namecheap, but I'm not finding this combination of changes acceptable. And I don't like the broader implications, perhaps an encroachment of some form of "true name" prerequisite for TCP/IP level Internet connectivity.

6 comments