I only turned it off to verify it was responsible for the issue. Otherwise, yeah, it’s always on. Didn’t realize instances could block VPNs or even identify they were in use.

Gotcha, thanks for the info!

I’m not familiar with Mailbox, but I’ve recently switched to Proton with custom domains, and I’ve made use of their partnership with Simple Login for semi-custom domains and aliases on them. The rest is about that.

I think if you know you need more than 3 unique domains (that being the number offered in the Proton Unlimited plan), then maybe Mailbox is the move?

On security, I’m also a beginner, but from what I’ve read, I’ve decided to setup my addresses so that I’m never handing out an address that includes a stock Proton domain (e.g. @proton.me or @pm.me). I’m basically only using a Proton domain address to login to my Proton account, which collects emails from my custom domain addresses and Simple Login aliases.

Another thing. Setting up a catch-all email in Proton, which you seem to have done, allows any [email protected] address to login to your Proton account. If that is a security concern for you, then I recommend exploring the Simple Login partnership. My threat model has me generally creating one email address for each service I use. This allows me to maintain a single address for professional stuff and other addresses for everything else.

While your custom domain @name reveals your name, like you said, you’ll use it to engage with entities that expect you to relinquish some privacy. I recommend WHOIS protections for you domain if you’re not already doing that though.

I hope this is helpful for understanding your possible options with Proton, at least somewhat! Still on a learning journey myself :)