Issue Can only connect to Plesk and hosted websites using VPN

[Gideon Cresswell]

I have just discovered that I can now only connect to my websites and Plesk control panel when I am using a VPN. I was setting up some SSL Let's Encrypt certificates recently on a new sites and old and soon after noticed that they were not working on certain devices. I switched to my iPad and noticed they were working so I thought at first it was a temporary thing. However, I then realised I was running NordVPN on my iPad so I switched it off and the sites no longer worked.

Does anyone have any ideas what I've done wrong - if indeed I have!?

 

[Kaspar]

Can you access your server over SSH without using a VPN?

 

[lunule]

To readers facing the same problem: when this happens, it most probably means that Plesk automatically banned your IP address, for some reason.

The fix is easy:
1. Deactivate the VPN and verify your IP address (for instance type My IP in a Google search) - write out the IP to a note, or just copy it to the clipboard
2. Reactivate VPN and visit your Plesk backend
3. In the top service search, type `ban`, then select `IP Address Banning (Fail2Ban)`
4. Then, on the Fail2Ban screen, paste your IP in the top right search field, and check if it's banned
5. If it's banned, you can easily unban it from the same screen - I also recommend that you add it to the list of trusted sites (by using the `Trusted IP Addresses` tab/button) to prevent another lockout.