New user - constant disconnections

[ckit 1]

Hello,

 

I'm a new user.

After reading many positive reviews on AirVPN, I decided to purchase a one year subscription today.

 

Firstly, some feedback on the site... for a new user who isn't familiar with VPN services, I found it very difficult to work out what I needed to do to get started.

 

After having no success getting the VPN working on the router I purchased today to setup a VPN connection on my home network, I decided to connect my PC directly to at least test the service.

 

Eventually stumbling onto the OpenVPN client and getting it working with different profiles for different continents, I found speedtests to be extremely slow..

 

With a direct connection to the internet I am seeing around 17Mbps downspeeds, but once connected to AirVPN, I'm seeing a maximum of 1Mbps, and occasionally 1.5Mpbs, with ping times between 500-700ms.

 

I then found on the forums a link to an AirVPN speedtest; this test took many minutes to run, and the results are attached in an image (I had no success cutting and pasting the text)

 

To determine whether my ISP was throttling the connection, I loaded the OpenVPN client onto my cell phone, and then performed VPN speed tests on my home internet connection and through my cell phone internet data. Again speeds were very slow for both tests, through my cell service, I was seeing 0.3Mbps downloads with a ping time of 700ms!

 

I then realised there was an AirVPN client.

I could not find any guide to installing it but after much searching found a link to a Github site (again unable to past text into here for some reason) but to me it's just a folder structure of files.. which file is the actual client I download and install?

 

So it has been a frustrating day for me trying to get this working.

I would appreciate some assistance.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[zhang888 1065]

AirVPN has one of the easiest setups compared to other providers.

Everything is easily accessible thru the main page : https://airvpn.org

 

All you have to do is go to https://airvpn.org/enter , choose your platform, download the client, and you are good to go.

Which I assume you did as of now.

 

 

Regarding the speed issues, you will have to determine the best server, a good choice will be a server that is physically

near to your own location. So once you determined which one is it, update this thread with a ping information to this server.

 

i.e.

 

ping nl.airvpn.org
PING nl.all.vpn.airdns.org (213.152.161.44): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=0 ttl=55 time=191.338 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=196.263 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=131.901 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=129.439 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=127.333 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=5 ttl=55 time=129.962 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=6 ttl=55 time=128.183 ms
64 bytes from 213.152.161.44: icmp_seq=7 ttl=55 time=125.640 ms

 

 

 

A ping of 700ms is not something you should expect even to the most remotely located

server. A roundtrip from Latin America to Japan via Europe and back (longest route I know)

takes less than that. You should definitely check what's going on with your ISP.

 

The only exception here would be sattelite links, which I assume is not your case.

[nitehawk 4]

try speedtest.net for speedtests or just download a file off http://ovh.net/files/ which is fast

or try https://www.linode.com/speedtest with a file closest to you

thatll show u what speed u get without vpn and with vpn on..

run with vpn off then again with vpn on

i find the air speedtest slightly slow

 

im in australia and these are speeds through Netherlands server

http://pic.nperf.com/r/37643465-BpDc9idN.png

[rickjames 106]

Some additional info about the Client.

https://airvpn.org/software/

https://airvpn.org/faq/software_advanced/

 

zhang is right, 700ms / ping is not normal.

[ckit 1]

Thanks for all the replies.

 

Up until now I had been using the forums and client area for help and for locating the client. While I did click on the Enter page, I didn't realise this page can link me to the client download.

 

I have downloaded the client and am seeing some better (although still not great) results.

Connecting to the recommended server (a Canadian one), I returned the following speedtest result:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4872072112

Ping: 264ms, Download speed: 3.89Mbps, Upload speed: 0.55Mbps

 

Disconnecting the tunnel and running the speedtest to the same server:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4872088847

Ping: 287ms, Download speed: 7.4Mbps, Upload speed: 0.57Mbps

 

Then leaving the tunnel disconnected and running the speedtest after letting it select the best server:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4872093149

Ping: 11ms, Download: 17.63Mbps, Upload speed: 0.88Mbps

 

nitehawk, those are some very impressive speeds you are getting, what is your connection and who are you with?

Mine is an ADSL2 connection through TPG.

 

Thanks again.

[zhang888 1065]

OK, So the ~200ms results look much more reasonable. As you saw the server only added about 20ms.

 

Try to follow these steps to fix the speeds:

https://airvpn.org/topic/14401-calling-for-tests/

[ckit 1]

Hello,

 

I still appear to be having ongoing speed issues.

 

This evening I was having constant disconnections (with countries Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland selected in the Eddie client).

 

• Running utorrent I found that the connection would disconnect every 1 - 2 minutes.
• I performed multiple tests over a period of approximately two hours, and at the moment it appears it is no longer disconnecting.
• My testing included running Eddie on two computers testing a few scenarios. Results seem inconclusive but at the moment it has not disconnecting on the computer running utorrent and has been connected for over 8 minutes.

Unfortunately speed through the tunnel is still a BIG issue.

 

I have:

• performed port forwarding on the AirVPN webpage
• changed my protocol to UDP:2018 (amongst others in testing)
• changed my send and receive buffer size to 512kb (amongst others in testing)
• Also tried manual entries to change buffer size in OVPN directives

 

None of my tests seemed to have made a difference to my p2p download speed (I was sure to reconnect the VPN each time a change was made).

 

My p2p download speeds direct to the internet usually average around 1.2-1.4mbps

Through the AirVPN tunnel I am seeing speeds of somewhere between 0-5kbps (Netherlands or Sweden or Canada)

 

As a test, I still had some leftover subscription from another VPN provider.

Using default settings for their VPN client (basically just install and run), I am seeing between 700-900kbps download speeds.

 

This is causing me frustration as I can only keep on changing settings one at a time and testing....

 

Is someone able to provide some guidance on how to troubleshoot this?

 

Thanks.

[ckit 1]

An update...

 

I changed send and receive buffer sizes to OpenVPN default, and then downloaded qbittorrent client.

 

I'm now getting download speeds in the vicinity of 1mb/s! which is very close to my speeds outside of the tunnel.

 

I will continue testing to see if the disconnections are still occurring as I did find some threads about utorrent causing tunnel disconnections.

 

Thanks!

[ckit 1]

I'm still getting some disconnect problems.

 

For what it's worth, although I have setup a forwarded port, when I test it on the web interface, it never returns a green TCP status of OK.

 

 

In my most recent test, I connected to the VPN and let the connection idle. It remained connected for over 10 minutes.

 

I then kicked off qbittorrent and it started downloading with good speed, after about a minute of downloading, the speed would drop to 0, and the VPN client would disconnect (and try to reconnect).

Upon the initial disconnection, the client will then go into a cycle of reconnecting and disconnecting.

 

I'm unable to paste content into this reply box for some reason but I have taken a screenshot of the log.

 

I tried disabling my firewall (mcafee) but this did not help the situation.

 

Is anyone able to help?

 

 

 

[rickjames 106]

Its hard to tell if your issues are @ p2p only or all the time.

 

Imo start from the beginning.

-Setup your connection and make sure its not leaking.

Test for leaks https://ipleak.net/  https://www.dnsleaktest.com/  http://entropy.dns-oarc.net/test/

 

-Use the client dns option.

-Use the clent network lock feature:

Mcaffee could be the cause of your issues.

The Air client Network Lock feature uses the windows firewall.

Mcaffee probably disabled the windows firewall at install or sometime after. Meaning you're not protected from leaks unless you completely setup mcaffee, which tbh isn't worth the time it would take to do it.

 

-Once the connection is fully setup and not leaking do speed tests.

-Imo initially use direct downloads from fast servers, not torrents.

-If you use speedtest.net run multiple tests from several speedtest locations. They can give drasticly different results.

 

-Once you're not leaking and have a fast connection via direct downloads and speed tests, then looking into the torrent client setup.

There's a few really decent guides around here, use the search and toss in the name of your torrent client.

[iwih2gk 92]

I have been reading along and decided to jump on.  I read through this thread and I do not see a hardware focus on HOW you are connecting.  Let me inject some helpful info that was crucial for me when getting started around here.   HARDWARE limits.

 

Before you are tempted to dismiss this, at least consider what I am going to type here IF you are using wireless.  I experienced exactly what you are describing when I was using wireless on my computers and wireless on the router transmitter.  Frankly, the wireless nic/hardware on my computer was "cheap/basic" and that is putting it politely.  You have to remember that Air uses a very heavily encrypted data tunnel.  That is what you want, but it comes at the electronic overhead of decrypting it when it goes through your network in both directions.  My wireless nic and the wireless transmitter in the router just couldn't handle the load and it kept dropping, disconnecting.  I decided to upgrade to Cat 6 straight to the router.  Also, I flashed my mid-level router with ddwrt.  The linux software runs the router like a 500.00 router even though its a 150.00 router.  Using Cat 6 hooked to a ddwrt router and on a "hot" machine I easily get 130 meg raw and 75 meg via vpn1.  I know you are not on such a data line, but I feel the example may apply to you.  In my case the encryption level is insane because I add multiple vpns plus TOR so I need no bottlenecks.  Even with all the relays I still often pull 8 meg on the "distant" exit node.

 

If you have access to a router where you could plug in directly and try it you may be pleasantly surprised.  Even if you cannot remain wired it will still eliminate the uncertainty of why you are disconnecting.  Let us know if you try it.

[ckit 1]

Hi,

 

iwih2gk, thanks for your input.

I have been testing through a wired connection to eliminate any possible inconsistencies over wifi.

 

rickjames,

ipleak and dnsleak returns no leaks, but the entropy site does not load.

I tried disabling the mcafee firewall (which then re enables the windows firewall), and then enabling network lock.

Connecting the tunnel, I let it idle for over 20mins and I did not see any disconnects. I was also getting some reasonable speedtests with around 300ms ping times.

A test p2p download did not cause any disconnections!

 

From the quick test above, it appears that perhaps Mcafee firewall may have been causing the tunnel instability, but I will continue testing.

 

Do you know if the network lock only disables internet bound traffic? The description seems to indicate all traffic is blocked, however I am still able to RDP to that box running the client with Network lock turned on.

 

Thanks for your help.. It looks like we're making progress

[Revelead 16]

Im not 100% sure, but the lock is firewall based on windows. Hope it helps.

[rickjames 106]

From the quick test above, it appears that perhaps Mcafee firewall may have been causing the tunnel instability, but I will continue testing.

 

Do you know if the network lock only disables internet bound traffic? The description seems to indicate all traffic is blocked, however I am still able to RDP to that box running the client with Network lock turned on.

 

Thanks for your help.. It looks like we're making progress

 

You're correct @ the network lock. It should be dropping all traffic other than vpn traffic and localhost stuff.

Here's more info on it: https://airvpn.org/faq/software_lock/

 

Surprisingly the windows firewall is pretty decent once set up, Its just a pain to work with or modify so most people run 3rd party firewalls. The thing is free 3rd party firewalls are free for a reason and the paid versions generally aren't much better. As zhang has mentioned in other threads they're mostly bloatware and bloatware firewalls can often be crashed.

 

I'm unsure @ the RDP thing. Remotely I would think it would be blocked. However if you're testing locally "testing box A from box A" then it may be using localhost and seem open. But I know very little about RDP.

 

If its still stable, completely uninstalling mcafee firewall then rebooting, connecting to air with the network lock on then testing RDP again would be the thing to do. You could also scan your system for open inbound ports with something like zenmap just to make sure.

[Revelead 16]

If i may add, you actually don't need a antivirus if you dont download everything you see. Programms like Malware antibytes are enough to scan your pc once or twice a day.