Recent Quicken update created a new problem with VPN

sploosh

I use a VPN for various reasons, and have it set to use split tunneling so that Quicken bypasses the VPN when I update financial data. This worked perfectly, until a very recent update to Quicken itself. Now it refuses to open the data file unless I manually turn off the VPN first. Oddly, this seems to be connected to Quicken's check for the validity of my account (i.e., periodically one has to log into one's Quicken account), which ought to bypass the VPN because of the split tunneling. Any ideas on why the Quicken update does this, and suggestions on how I can get it to return to its previous behavior?

Chris_QPW

Because of all the hacking on financial institutions they have started looking at the IP addresses of clients trying to connect to them and if they think they are "foreign" they reject them.  I suspect this is one of those "security" processes that someone thought up that doesn't really do much, but you aren't going to convince the IT people to change.

Quicken Inc deals with financial information.  If you use Express Web Connect some of your transactions are stored on their servers, and also on the Intuit servers (Quicken Inc pays Intuit for the "aggregator services").  As such they have always claimed that their servers use "bank level security measures".  As such it doesn't surprise me in the least that the same thing is popping up when you try to access your Quicken account information.

Chris_QPW

Because of all the hacking on financial institutions they have started looking at the IP addresses of clients trying to connect to them and if they think they are "foreign" they reject them.  I suspect this is one of those "security" processes that someone thought up that doesn't really do much, but you aren't going to convince the IT people to change.

Quicken Inc deals with financial information.  If you use Express Web Connect some of your transactions are stored on their servers, and also on the Intuit servers (Quicken Inc pays Intuit for the "aggregator services").  As such they have always claimed that their servers use "bank level security measures".  As such it doesn't surprise me in the least that the same thing is popping up when you try to access your Quicken account information.

sploosh

Thanks for the explanation. Jacking up the IP check from data download to merely opening the file sounds like plain silliness -- the split tunneling ought to be sufficient, and I wonder what happens if you really are in a foreign country -- but in any case it seems I'm stuck with having to turn the VPN on and off from now on. At least the file still opens when you're completely offline.

Chris_QPW

sploosh said:

Thanks for the explanation. Jacking up the IP check from data download to merely opening the file sounds like plain silliness

I might have something to do with the way they verify the subscription, they keep that a complete mystery.

sploosh said:

and I wonder what happens if you really are in a foreign country -- but in any case it seems I'm stuck with having to turn the VPN on and off from now on. At least the file still opens when you're completely offline.

That has come up and ironically the advice is exactly the opposite, get a VPN that has a server in the US.

The whole notion is stupid given how easy it is to spoof an IP address.

sploosh

> @Chris_QPW said:
> That has come up and ironically the advice is exactly the opposite, get a VPN that has a server in the US.
>

Shaking my head....