About namebio.com

[tom365]

I discovered that Namebio has set up the strictest access restrictions, solely to encourage people to purchase their website subscriptions. For instance, Cloudflare verification is difficult to pass, and VPN access is not allowed. I hope they can unblock my VPN IP visit, but they refuse to do so. They insist that I must purchase a membership. Isn't that the case?

I paid for two years fees to namebio.com, but the reason I'm not paying now is because I feel like I'm paying to remove VPN restrictions. I have submitted a fixed IP, but there is no restriction lifted; it only requires purchasing a membership. Without this access restriction, I would actually be more willing to pay.

 

[Future Sensors]

@NameBio @Michael

 

[cooljub]

Hi,
I get the "verify you are human", which is annoying, but I can still get on.
It might be a browser issue. Is yours up-to-date?
There was what might be a similar thing discussed here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/ge...uman-on-namepros-forums.1356219/#post-9412359

 

[tom365]

Hi,
I get the "verify you are human", which is annoying, but I can still get on.
It might be a browser issue. Is yours up-to-date?
There was what might be a similar thing discussed here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/ge...uman-on-namepros-forums.1356219/#post-9412359

This is just one issue. The most important one is why I have to purchase a membership to access the website through a VPN. I believe many users worldwide have encountered this VPN access issue. I have already spent over $100 on membership before, and now I don't want to continue paying for VPN access issues

 

[cooljub]

The most important one is why I have to purchase a membership to access the website through a VPN.

Perhaps that was suggested as a workaround?
I'm not sure about these things, but maybe logging in as a paid subscriber is one way to show you're not a bot, even with changing IP addresses?

 

[Mediaorb.pro]

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ .

 

[tom365]

Perhaps that was suggested as a workaround?
I'm not sure about these things, but maybe logging in as a paid subscriber is one way to show you're not a bot, even with changing IP addresses?

This is a way for Namebio to force users to purchase membership. I can access Namepros without any issues using VPN.

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

I discovered that Namebio has set up the strictest access restrictions, solely to encourage people to purchase their website subscriptions. For instance, Cloudflare verification is difficult to pass, and VPN access is not allowed. I hope they can unblock my VPN IP visit, but they refuse to do so. They insist that I must purchase a membership. Isn't that the case?

@Michael ?

 

[Michael]

I discovered that Namebio has set up the strictest access restrictions, solely to encourage people to purchase their website subscriptions. For instance, Cloudflare verification is difficult to pass, and VPN access is not allowed. I hope they can unblock my VPN IP visit, but they refuse to do so. They insist that I must purchase a membership. Isn't that the case?

This is a way for Namebio to force users to purchase membership. I can access Namepros without any issues using VPN.

The obvious and free solution is to turn off your VPN when you visit the site, it's really not that complicated. If that's too much effort and you insist on a VPN, then you can pay the $60/year, which gets you many other benefits as well. If that's too expensive, then, well... frankly, it sounds like you just want to be difficult.

That being said, if you're blocked at the Cloudflare level a paid membership won't help.

NamePros is not a scraping target, except from search engines and LLMs, so that's not a reasonable comparison. We don't face the same challenges, and thus don't require the same layers of security. Go try to use a VPN on DomainIQ. I get blocked there even on my residential ISP, with a paid membership... talk about strict.

A paid membership is a non-disposable way we can monitor for abuse when people want their browsing to otherwise be anonymous. We're primarily a free service, it's about security, not forcing paid memberships.

 

[tom365]

The obvious and free solution is to turn off your VPN when you visit the site, it's really not that complicated. If that's too much effort and you insist on a VPN, then you can pay the $60/year, which gets you many other benefits as well. If that's too expensive, then, well... frankly, it sounds like you just want to be difficult.

That being said, if you're blocked at the Cloudflare level a paid membership won't help.

NamePros is not a scraping target, except from search engines and LLMs, so that's not a reasonable comparison. We don't face the same challenges, and thus don't require the same layers of security. Go try to use a VPN on DomainIQ. I get blocked there even on my residential ISP, with a paid membership... talk about strict.

A paid membership is a non-disposable way we can monitor for abuse when people want their browsing to otherwise be anonymous. We're primarily a free service, it's about security, not forcing paid memberships.

Some home networks' IPs are mistakenly identified as VPN

I believe many users are unable to access websites due to being misjudged as VPN users. You are aware of this, which is why you explicitly state that purchasing a membership allows VPN access. It would be fine if you could openly acknowledge this, but you know it can bring you income yet refuse to admit it.

 

[Michael]

Some home networks' IPs are mistakenly identified as VPNs. Do you dare to say to God: "You didn't set such strict access restrictions just to increase the number of subscriptions purchased by users.

I believe many users are unable to access websites due to being misjudged as VPN users. You are aware of this, which is why you explicitly state that purchasing a membership allows VPN access. It would be fine if you could openly acknowledge this, but you know it can bring you income yet refuse to admit it.

No, as I already said, I didn't block VPNs to have a reason to get people to subscribe. We're actually not even specifically blocking VPNs, we're blocking all the major hosting companies, and that just happens to also block a lot of VPNs which use those hosting companies.

After I started blocking those hosting companies, a few people asked me to whitelist the IP of their self-hosted VPN, or to whitelist an entire hosting company because their VPN of choice happened to use it. So I put up that message on the ban page to make it clear that if you're blocked and it's because of a VPN, we're not going to whitelist it, but you can get around it with a paid membership if you insist on using it.

We could get more strict and use a third-party service to block VPNs that use residential IPs (probably what @MediaOrb thinks is some kind of a state secret). But I don't really care all that much since it's not a big source of abuse, and I don't feel like dealing with the false positives. Wasn't targeting VPNs to begin with anyway.

So as I said: turn off the VPN (or find one that gets past it), pay for a membership, or don't use the site. It's up to you and makes no difference to me. One thing is for sure though, making false accusations and completely uninformed assumptions about how many false positives there are, isn't going to solve anything for you.

 

[tom365]

No, as I already said, I didn't block VPNs to have a reason to get people to subscribe. We're actually not even specifically blocking VPNs, we're blocking all the major hosting companies, and that just happens to also block a lot of VPNs which use those hosting companies.

After I started blocking those hosting companies, a few people asked me to whitelist the IP of their self-hosted VPN, or to whitelist an entire hosting company because their VPN of choice happened to use it. So I put up that message on the ban page to make it clear that if you're blocked and it's because of a VPN, we're not going to whitelist it, but you can get around it with a paid membership if you insist on using it.

We could get more strict and use a third-party service to block VPNs that use residential IPs (probably what @MediaOrb thinks is some kind of a state secret). But I don't really care all that much since it's not a big source of abuse, and I don't feel like dealing with the false positives. Wasn't targeting VPNs to begin with anyway.

So as I said: turn off the VPN (or find one that gets past it), pay for a membership, or don't use the site. It's up to you and makes no difference to me. One thing is for sure though, making false accusations and completely uninformed assumptions about how many false positives there are, isn't going to solve anything for you.

deleted

 

[Future Sensors]

Why do your posts always read like there's a conspiracy lurking behind everything.

 

[URL Stream]

This is a timely reminder and a great opportunity to thank @Michael for the outstanding, truly unparalleled service he’s provided to the domain name industry.

 

[URL Stream]

you still don't dare to say to God: "You didn't set such strict access restrictions just to increase the number of subscriptions purchased by users.

I don’t know Michael or his business model, but it’s fair to say that if he actually wanted to, he could easily increase the monetization of the service in a multitude of ways. ("I cannot say them here as i dont want the namebio owner to use them. Lol")

 

[Michael]

you still don't dare to say to God: "You didn't set such strict access restrictions just to increase the number of subscriptions purchased by users.

I swear by the Almighty’s flaming beard, by the seven trumpets of Revelation, by a Mount Everest of fire-and-brimstone Bibles stacked to the heavens, and upon the very sandals of the saints: I dare not blaspheme before the Lord of Hosts, “O Great I AM, Thou didst not decree these cruel access restrictions solely to multiply subscriptions, fatten NameBio’s coffers, and tempt mortals into monthly tithing for Thy divine wisdom!” Nay! May my life be smitten with holy lightning and cast into the outer darkness if such heresy ever escapes these lips, for the paywall is sacred, the limits are just, and the subscription tiers are the very hand of Providence! Amen, awomen, and aServerError429.

Happy now, weirdo?

 

[katerleonid]

NameBio is such an amazing tool (and it even has a free version, which is also great), but I’m using the paid one.

Turning off the VPN feels like nothing compared to the size of the database that’s there. I

had a similar issue in the past, one of my mobile connections was blocking access to NameBio, so now I only use my Wi-Fi.

I never thought about any conspiracy. Back in the day, when I was trying to block bots from taking down my network (I used to have 100+ websites), I was banning certain IP address classes.

 

[Brandisity]

I swear by the Almighty’s flaming beard, by the seven trumpets of Revelation, by a Mount Everest of fire-and-brimstone Bibles stacked to the heavens, and upon the very sandals of the saints: I dare not blaspheme before the Lord of Hosts, “O Great I AM, Thou didst not decree these cruel access restrictions solely to multiply subscriptions, fatten NameBio’s coffers, and tempt mortals into monthly tithing for Thy divine wisdom!” Nay! May my life be smitten with holy lightning and cast into the outer darkness if such heresy ever escapes these lips, for the paywall is sacred, the limits are just, and the subscription tiers are the very hand of Providence! Amen, awomen, and aServerError429.

Happy now, weirdo?

Best read ever!

 

[jberryhill]

I'm unhappy with the free service, and I demand a full refund.

 

[katerleonid]

I'm unhappy with the free service, and I demand a full refund.

Or a coupon for a free year on NameBio.