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Background: I work a remote employee in the US for a US based company. I log into our company's intranet via VPN to work every day. I also connect to multiple client networks via VPN (as well as using TeamViewer, LogMeIn, RPD, etc).

Plan: I want to work from northern Italy (Bergamo area) for 2-3 months while visiting family. This is a well established commercially developed area with fast, reliable internet access.

Concern: My company has expressed concern about me being able connect to networks, use my VOIP phone, access client servers, or even our own VPN from that location.

Question: Is this a valid concern? Is it possible that certain services or VPN's would block incoming traffic from Italy? I'm almost 100% sure that Italy would not block outgoing traffic (other countries). Is there any way to test this? I'm not even sure where to start.

Anders
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TrailJon
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I don't know about the VPN service blocking the traffic, but some IT Security Defense measures entails only allowing IP's from certain geographic locations. Its possible that either the ISP the company is using or the company itself is using a GEO IP service to determine location and blocking traffic based on it. For Instance a Company based in the US that doesn't employ oversea workers would have no need for any foreign IP connection. Thus filtering traffic based on GEO IP and reducing risk.

Jeff Meigs
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Is this a valid concern?

No, not likely. If you were going to Malaysia, it might be a different story, but you're in a developed area with solid ISP access. You will likely experience high latency VoIP calls, but it should be stable internet access. Some companies blacklist IP's from select geographic areas, but Europe is rarely on that list. India, China, Malaysia, Africa, Romania..... those countries/regions are more likely to be blocked.

Is it possible that certain services or VPN's would block incoming traffic from Italy?

No, not really. Again, it's an established country with laws very similar to the US. There are some additional privacy laws in the EU, but the most you might experience is different Netflix shows.

I'm almost 100% sure that Italy would not block outgoing traffic (other countries). Is there any way to test this? I'm not even sure where to start.

If you wanted, you could use a VPN or Proxy based in Italy and surf. Spend some time doing what you'd normally do on your computer and see for yourself what interruptions you may - or may not - have.

SomeGuy
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