PEC-SUB-0002 IP address error and possible solutions

VPN
1

PEC-SUB- 0002 error IP address

You will see this error when you log in to your Prolific account or when you try to accept a study on Prolific.

If your ISP uses dynamic IP addresses, the error may go away when your IP address changes.

If your ISP uses static IP addresses, you may have to instigate an IP address change.

Make sure you are not using a VPN or proxy when accessing Prolific. Also make sure you are not using any bandwidth sharing apps like Honeygain, which can get your IP address blacklisted and flagged.

Be aware that changing your IP address may change it to another IP address which is also flagged.

Things you can try:

Unplug your router for several hours, even overnight.

Reboot your router. This may take more than one time.

Contact your ISP and ask if they will change your IP address.

Use a hotspot.

If you are using a laptop or tablet, try using it at another location, such as a friends’ house. I advise against using public WiFi as those are more likely to be flagged.

If you are using a phone, turn WiFi off and use data.

If you are using a mobile device (laptop/tablet/phone) try restarting the device.

You can also try contacting the blacklist directly and submit a removal request.

One work around is to accept the study on your phone, then go to your laptop/desktop to complete the study.

Edit to add: On your phone, set it to Airplane Mode for a few minutes. That should get you a new IP address although that IP address may also be flagged.

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This is so infuriating. I got this a few months ago but I got around it by changing my router to modem mode, which gave me a new IP. Now this one has also been flagged. I can see it’s the same one site (dnsbl.sorbs.net) which has blacklisted me. My IP is clean on the hundreds of other checkers. It’s so incredibly unfair to stop people taking studies because of one site flagging you. And as a virgin customer there’s nothing I can do about it. They flatly refuse to change my IP and the router won’t change IP unless it’s off for ages, if at all.

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Shouldn’t it be bloody obvious that people who have been with you for years and completed thousands of studies are not ‘spammers’ or bots?

3

I’ve had this for days now. Countless router restarts and calls to my ISP later, I’m still unable to work on Prolific.

4

I get this error on my phone every now and then and restarting it has always worked. Usually once is enough but occasionally I have to restart 2-3 times.

5

I get this error doing studies on my phone sometimes (T-Mobile is the spammers paradise, apparently) and it’s been enough to just switch airplane mode on for 30 seconds.

6

I just got this right now, immediately after I finished one survey. It’s so frustrating as I checked my Ip is not blacklisted, i don’t use vpn or proxy or Anything like that. Prolific is my main source so im pretty sad about this.

7

The condo association we are staying in for a week has WIFI for the entire complex. It is password protected, so you think that is safe? If not, this is just an error message not a ban?

8

I just started seeing this in the afternoon. I was able to complete surveys this morning no problem, but then this started popping up frequently in the afternoon. I was able to accept studies when connected to mobile, but not anything on my WiFi. I cloned my router MAC which prompted an IP address reset and now everything is working again.

I’ve been doing this for about 4.5 years and I can’t imagine what would cause this issue. The only thing that changed is earlier this week I was accepted to Cloud Connect and I had that open and would sometimes take some of those studies when Prolific didn’t have anything for me. I certainly wasn’t actively doing studies at the same time, only one or the other (but switching back and forth). Might this have something to do with it? It could totally be coincidence, but curious to know if anyone else might be able to comment on this.

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“One work around is to accept the study on your phone, then go to your laptop/desktop to complete the study.”

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This is what I have been doing and it’s worked for months, however, suddenly I got up this morning and apparently my verizon phone has been flagged???

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Has anyone else had this problem? To top it off I went to log in to mturk today and my account has been suspended with no reason given?

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When it rains it pours I guess. Definitely the worst day I’ve had in ages…

10

Starting getting this same thing yesterday. Has anyone tried forcing a new IP on your pc via the command prompt?

I’m in a meeting so can’t atm but here you go

Click Start

Click Run

Type cmd

Press Enter

Type ipconfig /release

Press Enter

Type ipconfig /renew

Press Enter

Wait for the DHCP server to assign a new IP address

11

Doesn’t make sense this still doesn’t work with mobile data

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I can NOT recommend to contact Prolific via Help centre (https://participant-help.prolific.com/).

I asked them why I don’t have access to surveys anymore and if my IP is banned. I even stated that I had to use my company’s VPN to access their database in Poland from my home laptop in Germany which might have caused the IP ban (well, my company’s request not even my own decision …) and their reply was a simple: “Thank you. After reviewing your account, we have decided to close your account. This is the final decision.” - WOW!

Amazing authentic platform which excludes honest participants for no reason. I even sent a copy of my ID to verify that I am a 100% real person but I guess now it’s too late and they don’t give a s**t.

Really frustrating. I should not have followed the suggestion of messaging them. Fk it.

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I had this error about 30 minutes ago. I just closed my browser and reopened. that easy.

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I’ve been getting this for a few days now. It happens on my home laptop and also on two laptops at work, all of which worked fine a few days ago. scamalytics.com shows my home machine at a moderate fraud risk level, but both work machines show a low risk, but are still getting blocked by Prolific. I’ll contact my ISP about my home machine and see if they can give me a new ip address. In the meantime, the only thing that works is to use my iphone as a hotspot. That works fine at home, but the office I have at work gets no cell signal at all.

15

I just checked my score and it’s ranked as 100/100 very high risk lol. Wtf. Virgin are useless.

16

Could using a plugin like Nielsen Rewards on my browser cause my account to be flagged?

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Shouldn’t it be bloody obvious that people who have been with you for years and completed thousands of studies are not ‘spammers’ or bots?

No, because so many things could happen that there is no way to know if it is actually you on the other end of that IP address. Someone could be using a VPN or proxy or what have you to appear to be coming from your IP address. If your ISP uses dynamic IP addresses, you might end up with an IP address which has gained a bad reputation, not from what you have done but some other person who had that IP address before you did.

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I can see it’s the same one site (

dnsbl.sorbs.net

) which has blacklisted me.

Have you tried contacting that site to ask them to take your IP address off the black list?

Also, Prolific says they run their own checks, so it may not just be because your current IP address is black listed.

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Have you tried the other suggestions on the list?

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If your IP address is not black listed, then contact Prolific and ask them to review it. Tell them you can’t find it on a black list. You may have to wait awhile as they may not review it right away.