AirVPN, between us the end is near.

[victorab 12]

Hello,
I've been an happy AirVPN customer during the past year. Howerver, my subscription end in 15 days and It's with regrets that  I announce you that don't think I'll renew it. I was quite disappointed of differents things which I will expose.
First of all, the most disapointing thing is Eddie. The program is very ugly (sorry to say) and looks like a Windows XP program. In top of that, it is very bad coded, it's not smooth, create DNS problems, and the Network lock is not effective for at least 70% of AirVPN users which use an alternative firewall. When I purshased the VPN, I though the program (and the website) will be recoded but it was an illusion and this is 90% of why I'm likely to leave.
The other thing is about "Canary". I know the position of the AirVPN staff ("it's useless"). Maybe i'm just a paranoid guy, but it's not my point of view. When your compagny  is part of a "Fourteen Eyes" country, a canary is not that much asked.
 I'm also wondering about the statistic of AirVPN and how they can show it without logging, but on that point I think my doubts are not justified but because I don't know how it works..

For 6 years, I tested various VPN and AirVPN was for me the best VPN out there, but today I don't really think so anymore.
Maybe I'm just paranoid, maybe the client is not that bad, or maybe VPN is like girls, gread the first days, boring after.

Thank you members of this helpfull forum for reading me.

 

[EDIT]: For new members reading this, the review is no revelant of my global advice on AirVPN, these problems are in fact the only ones (for me) that  can be considered as negatives points. This is why I STAY with AirVPN. To be totally clear, I'll explain the positives and negatives points.

POSITIVES:

- Real and true privacy devotion (this include neutral servers)

- Lot of "customizations": over SSH, SSL, differents ports etc

- Great speed

- a forum alive

- a client (even if for me, it have bugs)

- fast contact with the AirVPN team.

- re-routing

- total transparency

NEGATIVE:

-Bugs with the Client

- no Canary

 

I've tested a lot of VPN (like CyberGost,nVPN, IVPN, NordVPN, PIA etc) and AirVPN  is one I am by far the most satisfied even if as you understand, all is not perfect.

 

[foxmulder 43]

I think  that you are actually complaining on a very high level. You will have a hard time finding a VPN service that is more transparent a more committed to privacy than AIR is. OK, Italy belongs to the so-called "Fourteen eyes - countries". But there is no such thing as a safe haven, nowhere in the world. If "they" want to come after you, they'll get you, regardless under which jurisdiction your VPN operates.

 

Well, about the girlfriend... i cannot help you on that one. But if you're making this experience over and over again, then you perhaps will have to reconsider your attitude towards girls.

 

Regards,

 

Fox

[victorab 12]

I think  that you are actually complaining on a very high level. You will have a hard time finding a VPN service that is more transparent a more committed to privacy than AIR is. OK, Italy belongs to the so-called "Fourteen eyes - countries". But there is no such thing as a safe haven, nowhere in the world. If "they" want to come after you, they'll get you, regardless under which jurisdiction your VPN operates.

 

Well, about the girlfriend... i cannot help you on that one. But if you're making this experience over and over again, then you perhaps will have to reconsider your attitude towards girls.

 

Regards,

 

Fox

I know that and this is why i'm posting this thread. AirVPN is so far the best VPN i've tested. I loved (and still do) the transparency reported on the forum by the staff, the connection is lovely, and the georestriction bypass amazing.

About the security "issues" of course it not revelant of why I want to go somewhere else but it is still negative points. Most of the reason is due to the client but what is the most important, security or design? Both?

 

(For the girls part, it was a joke of course)

[foxmulder 43]

I think the Network Lock feature that comes with Eddie is not designed to work with a third - party - firewall. So it is not surprising that you've run into troubles.

 

I was also joking about that girlfriend thing - sorry, no offense.

 

Regards

 

Fox

[Guest]

Yes the network lock is not designed to work with third-party firewalls, you won't find many VPN clients that do since there are a lot of them and they can't be expected to expand on the code for a single tool to support every single firewall, you can however setup the network with third-party firewall manually they got guides for that somewhere here on the forums, regardless of that it works VERY well with windows firewall since the windows firewall works on kernal meaning once set no traffic leaves your PC to an IP that is not owned by airVPN. With the statistics as fox said they are very transparent, they are open about the fact they can see your real IP but they do not log anything which means once you disconnect any data regarding it is gone. The useful part to it is if you see an IP connected through your account you don't know you can force a disconnect and change your password and possibly report said IP to the staff for blocking, also the statistics on the site are LIVE not logged which means once you disconnect if you are in the TOP that will disappear since you are no longer providing live data besides their servers has the data while it's happening that's just how software works, they provide it on their site and your username is hidden including but not limited to that the traffic between you and the server is encrypted to they can see the bandwidth speed and time you've been connected but not what goes to you, of course if you browse facebook, the request goes encrypted from you to the server then from server unencrypted to facebook and back to server unencrypted and from server to you encrypted.

 

Anyway sorry for the lengthy write but I wanted to cover all the points =) not to mention trust me I'm the most paranoid human being there is, I go crazy about anonymity and privacy (and in my country they made laws to log all traffic and such here and you need passport and whatnot to spend money online lol fun times so I know what I'm talking about)

[zhang888 1066]

Your "Eddie is badly coded and this is 90% why I'm likely to leave" statement is nonsense, sorry.

Can you point to another provider with a better open source client?

 

At best, most of them will tell you to download their propriatery Windows-only junk, which any sane

person would not like to run even in a VM. The other choices in most providers is just telling you to

download an OpenVPN client (Native/Viscosity/Softether/Securepoint) and find your way out.

 

What did you expect from a VPN client to have, 3D graphics?

Who cares how it looks like, as long as you only have to use it very ocassionaly.

This is not a text editor or business application where productivity is important, in this case the client

should have all the features that are available by the provider - and it fact it has many more.

 

 

About the security "issues" of course it not revelant of why I want to go somewhere else but it is still negative points. Most of the reason is due to the client but what is the most important, security or design? Both?

 

What is the security issue you are talking about? In fact, if you come up with a real security issue Air would

be more than happy to gift you a 1 year of service. I am "abusing" this policy myself.

[amair 6]

"Network lock is not effective for at least 70% of AirVPN users which use an alternative firewall"

 

You can consider me as a new user and network lock works 100% of the time for me, infact, sometime I forgot to unlock it and next person can't surf internet.

 

As for the firewall you can give it a try ZoneAlarm Pro 30 days trial , there's a feature that allow Window firewall to dance together with ZoneAlarm.

[victorab 12]

I think the Network Lock feature that comes with Eddie is not designed to work with a third - party - firewall. So it is not surprising that you've run into troubles.

I know why the Network Lock don't works, however 70% of people don't use Windows Firewall.

 

 

Your "Eddie is badly coded and this is 90% why I'm likely to leave" statement is nonsense, sorry.

Can you point to another provider with a better open source client?

 

At best, most of them will tell you to download their propriatery Windows-only junk, which any sane

person would not like to run even in a VM. The other choices in most providers is just telling you to

download an OpenVPN client (Native/Viscosity/Softether/Securepoint) and find your way out.

 

What did you expect from a VPN client to have, 3D graphics?

 

About the security "issues" of course it not revelant of why I want to go somewhere else but it is still negative points. Most of the reason is due to the client but what is the most important, security or design? Both?

What is the security issue you are talking about? In fact, if you come up with a real security issue Air would

be more than happy to gift you a 1 year of service. I am "abusing" this policy myself.

I don't expect from a VPN client to have 3d graphics. Only to work without causing DNS problems, and if the program look nice, yes it's a plus.

As you can see, i'm not English so I don't have this much vocabulary, "issue" is not an issue, you can consider it as an "not 100% optimized protection" if u want.

The fact the Eddie is opensourced is a positive point but not this much important for security: if a VPN provider want to intercept connection or things like that, they just have do it on the server-side.

[rickjames 106]

I loled.

[victorab 12]

I loled.

I'm a funny guy,

But exclusively, I announce you that I will finally stay with AirVPN because AirVPN is still amazing and also because it is really like girls, when you left one you always regret.

More seriously, I've thought about it and nothing can be perfect, I'm still pleased with AirVPN service and I'll renew my suscription.

(To solve the Client problem I'll buy a router)

[slogy 0]

 

I loled.

I'm a funny guy,

But exclusively, I announce you that I will finally stay with AirVPN because AirVPN is still amazing and also because it is really like girls, when you left one you always regret.

More seriously, I've thought about it and nothing can be perfect, I'm still pleased with AirVPN service and I'll renew my suscription.

(To solve the Client problem I'll buy a router)

 

Hi Victorab,

 

glad to hear you will continue staying with  AirVPN family   Quick question: I am not very expert in security so I would like to know more about your concerns about Client Eddie ... you said: "solve the Client problem I'll buy a router".

 

Can you please provide more details on such solution and which security issue will be fixed if you use a router instead of the Client Eddie?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers,

[victorab 12]

 

 

I loled.

I'm a funny guy,

But exclusively, I announce you that I will finally stay with AirVPN because AirVPN is still amazing and also because it is really like girls, when you left one you always regret.

More seriously, I've thought about it and nothing can be perfect, I'm still pleased with AirVPN service and I'll renew my suscription.

(To solve the Client problem I'll buy a router)

 

Hi Victorab,

 

glad to hear you will continue staying with  AirVPN family   Quick question: I am not very expert in security so I would like to know more about your concerns about Client Eddie ... you said: "solve the Client problem I'll buy a router".

 

Can you please provide more details on such solution and which security issue will be fixed if you use a router instead of the Client Eddie?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers,

Hello,

Using a router will not fix any security issue (Eddie does not have any security issue, just "coding" issues which for example lead to DNS problems when disconnecting. When a router is used, Eddie is not used anymore and the VPN is installed directly on the router so all devices is by default under VPN protection. Also, it will fix the connection crash issue when two devices is connected on the same server.

[rickjames 106]

Using a router will not fix any security issue (Eddie does not have any security issue, just "coding" issues which for example lead to DNS problems when disconnecting. When a router is used, Eddie is not used anymore and the VPN is installed directly on the router so all devices is by default under VPN protection. Also, it will fix the connection crash issue when two devices is connected on the same server.

 

The only time there would be a dns issue is if you incorrectly close the app while its still connected / or reboot your system before disconnecting. Then it doesn't have time to restore your default dns info and firewall rules.

 

Also they don't allow multiple connections to the same server, with or without the client. Its stated on the site.

[victorab 12]

 

Using a router will not fix any security issue (Eddie does not have any security issue, just "coding" issues which for example lead to DNS problems when disconnecting. When a router is used, Eddie is not used anymore and the VPN is installed directly on the router so all devices is by default under VPN protection. Also, it will fix the connection crash issue when two devices is connected on the same server.

 

The only time there would be a dns issue is if you incorrectly close the app while its still connected / or reboot your system before disconnecting. Then it doesn't have time to restore your default dns info and firewall rules.

 

Also they don't allow multiple connections to the same server, with or without the client. Its stated on the site.

- This does not only happen when I close the app incorrectly. It happened just a minute ago. When I click on "disconnect" when the client have problems (during the connection for example), the connection will stop but the DNS will remain.

- I know this. However I don't think it's  a question of "allowing" or not, but just an "unreasolvable" issue. Anyway, using a router will allow me to do this because it will be considered as a single connection.

[rickjames 106]

 

 

Using a router will not fix any security issue (Eddie does not have any security issue, just "coding" issues which for example lead to DNS problems when disconnecting. When a router is used, Eddie is not used anymore and the VPN is installed directly on the router so all devices is by default under VPN protection. Also, it will fix the connection crash issue when two devices is connected on the same server.

 

The only time there would be a dns issue is if you incorrectly close the app while its still connected / or reboot your system before disconnecting. Then it doesn't have time to restore your default dns info and firewall rules.

 

Also they don't allow multiple connections to the same server, with or without the client. Its stated on the site.

- This does not only happen when I close the app incorrectly. It happened just a minute ago. When I click on "disconnect" when the client have problems (during the connection for example), the connection will stop but the DNS will remain.

- I know this. However I don't think it's  a question of "allowing" or not, but just an "unreasolvable" issue. Anyway, using a router will allow me to do this because it will be considered as a single connection.

 

The DNS issue is something that's happening to you and you alone.

If this was a global issue the forums would be filled with 2/3's of the 8000+ people connected.

 

If you're having a problem with the client submit a support ticket. But my guess it's something to do with your windows setup.

 

gl with the router.

[victorab 12]

This problem happen on both computers I have and a friend that used AirVPN also had problems like that.

https://youtu.be/WdPmnswaIzY

Even if it was an isolated problem, it's due to Eddie that does not works with my configuration.

[rickjames 106]

it's due to Eddie that does not works with my configuration.

This ^

 

Are you manually setting the dns to 10.4.0.1 ?

Or is it set to automatic then not going back to automatic when disconnecting?

 

Have you looked into the Force DNS option?

Search for Force DNS here https://airvpn.org/faq/software_advanced/

 

Its either that or something on your system isn't allowing the client to restore the dns settings to the original.

 

In any case if you're having a problem its best to submit a ticket and get help. Rather than make a rather massive and ill informed post/thread.

Support is there to help you. If they can help, they will.

[Staff 10017]

Hello,

 

we have a pinned topic in the "Troubleshooting" section to solve this issue once and for all. The problem arises (only in Windows) when one or both nameservers of a network card are not set (for the non-Windows readers, remember that Windows has never had and still doesn't have a proper DNS implementation). In these cases, the Air client might be unable to restore them (even if only one was undefined, it will not restore the other one). If you take care to set them, the client will restore them properly. The next client version will be more refined on this issue.

 

Kind regards

[zhang888 1066]

@Staff if this is indeed a common issue there are some "tricks" in Win32 to make a process exit in a clean way, in case it was executed with admin privileges

which is most likely the case. Even a single timer message with an informative screen, like "Preparing a clean shutdown" is supposed to resolve such rare race

conditions. There are no real use cases where the Eddie client should be unable to set or restore proper DNS settings. Malware does it without the user awareness,

a client that is executed with elevated privileges and can have "system" user access, with his full trust on UAC, should not suffer from these issues

[Staff 10017]

@Staff if this is indeed a common issue there are some "tricks" in Win32 to make a process exit in a clean way, in case it was executed with admin privileges

which is most likely the case. Even a single timer message with an informative screen, like "Preparing a clean shutdown" is supposed to resolve such rare race

conditions. There are no real use cases where the Eddie client should be unable to set or restore proper DNS settings. Malware does it without the user awareness,

a client that is executed with elevated privileges and can have "system" user access, with his full trust on UAC, should not suffer from these issues

 

That's a separate issue, although at the subsequent run Eddie will fix everything (even in case of .NET crash) so it's not a critical problem. The issue affecting DNS settings restore in Windows 10 (and maybe other Windows versions) is different, it might occur when at least one nameserver is undefined on the network card, even if the shutdown is clean and/or the disconnection is normal.

 

Kind regards