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When on NordVPN, Thunderbird fails to receive messages and the error is "Failed to connect to server pop-server."

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  • Last reply by Matt

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I can receive email on Thunderbird except when using a VPN (specifically NordVPN). The error I receive from Thunderbird is "Failed to connect to server pop-server." I am on Windows 10 on a desktop computer.

I can receive email on Thunderbird except when using a VPN (specifically NordVPN). The error I receive from Thunderbird is "Failed to connect to server pop-server." I am on Windows 10 on a desktop computer.

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I suggest you ask Nord. They have advertised their products extensively, but they have not really told what I would call the truth. One of the features of a VPN is that you at some point have to exit it. They advertise they hide you IP. SO when your continuations, whatever it is exists their VPN a new IP has to be issued. This is great for those trying to bypass geo blocking for say viewing US TV shows from outside the US, but for other non web protocols where your location is used as part of the security it can be very troublesome.

Major mail providers like yahoo, google and Microsoft all use you IP address to help them decide if the connection attempt to your account is legitimate. So if you phone is getting mail from London and your VPN is saying your in New York city basically at the same time. these providers are likely to refuse the connections.

Then we have the ISP's that refuse connections to their mail servers unless you connect to the server using an IP address allocated to the ISP. So your IP address is allocated by Nord, not your ISP. SO of course connections fail.

The reality is that there is only limited value in using a VPN on the public internet. It is great for creating a secure tunnel across the internet to connect you to say your enterprise network so you can work from home. but the reality on the public internet is it hides your geo location derived from the IP and IP address and that is about it.

This article is Pro VPN, probably paid evangelism. Look at how they struggle with "benefits". Especially if you take out the ones that are technically illegal. Geo location hiding and torrenting. Also be aware that almost ALL internet sites are using encrypted communications between you and them. So the casual snooping on public wifi is not really possible these days. Firefox for example stops loading and offers a warning is the site is not HTTPS. You can click through, but you have been alerted to the issue so would not be sharing anything you considered sensitive.

Nord make a big deal of "military grade" encryption. Seriously, the military use the general internet and yes they use VPN's. To connect remote workers (soldiers) to the local network. Most of us don't have a need for that type of tunneling.

Nord is really only offering a small part of the security that surrounds the dark web. Despite the hype, the "dark web" using TOR was developed by the US military. So it is technically Military grade encryption, and it is very good at what it was designed to do. But it does not cost you anything.

They also make a big deal about no logs. That is not quite the same as it implies. If officials want to monitor you, getting a court requiring Nord to keep logs for you is not hard, and forensically they don't need Nord anyway. There are other ways.

But I have wandered (again) Nord have a help page for email, Try some of their suggestions https://support.nordvpn.com/Connectivity/1047408792/Why-can-t-I-send-e-mail-messages.htm