I'm okay with disabling my VPN for FR. I'll probably set up a script to disable/enable as an exception just for FR.
I'm not going to give up PIA as I've been happy with the bandwidth I get.
Nor will I.
However, I'm puzzled that Free Republic can know that I am using PIA. I usually connect with a PIA node in Texas - not from one overseas. And even then, when I test PIA's performance (such as using www.iplocation.net), I get a result for the IP for the PIA node I'm connecting with, as if I were that node with that node's IP.
Can Free Republic be blocking all PIA nodes?? That's a hellava lot of IPs to block!
I just tried and was able to connect to freerepublic from PIA nodes in Israel, Brazil, and Denmark, but not from any North American nodes. So maybe he’s not blocking PIA specifically, just some IP ranges that PIA uses.