Guide To Getting Started + Links For Advanced Users

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Microsoft is venturing into the world of AI. Sure, they make mistakes like the Twitter chatbot, but they are building their products around it. Cortana for example needs data, so Windows (Phone) 10 and of course most of the companion software is built to compliment it. Edge will be no exception. It's not only closed source, it's also doomed to be the same privacy nightmare as Windows 10 is. Do not use it, period.

 

(Sent via Tapatalk - this generally means I'm not sitting in front of my PC)

[LZ1 671]

Updated: Added Index, changed some formatting and added new answers + links.

​Thread also got moved from General to How-Tos by Staff; haha, thanks Staff.

[LZ1 671]

Updated:

Two more bullet points added in the "Getting Started" section, regarding the new experimental/beta release client, where it is and why it's worth using. Especially for Linux users.The above includes pictures, to aid in finding out where to download the Beta version. Thanks Staff. Appropriate warning/info signs also added in some places.Added point regarding the new ipleak.net sub-forum, especially as there's been many recent posts about the errors on ipleak.Added point to Network Lock question, which mentions that WFP is the new standard in the Beta release.Added appropriate warning message in the "First Questions" section, in two of the questions, detailing why people shouldn't be alarmed if they get notices of having been "hacked".Added a link and explanation to two questions (first and last ones) in the "First Questions" section, linking to the discussion Air Staff had with the oneprivacyguy, in order to both raise awareness and help preserve it as an easy-to-find "permanent reminder", as Staff said.

 

This will hopefully accomplish the following:

1. Help Linux users out more and anyone else who's having odd problems with the current Stable.
2. Lessen the amount of people asking where they can download the Beta version.
3. Lessen the amount of people asking what's going on with ipleak.net, in the event of a problem or at least confine it to ipleaks own sub-forum.
4. Make people aware both where they can find information on the Beta, but also that Air is constantly developing their software and isn't ignoring bugs.
5. Avoiding other people responding with panic when online services tell them they've been "hacked" (due to changing VPN IPs).
6. Provide a quick link to Airs Official replies to posts which suggest that Air is engaged in less-than honest or ideal forms of advertising/marketing, which Air isn't.
7. Help future-proof the guide, in case I'm unexpectedly assassinated by the time the Beta turns into a Stable release.

[JamesAK 0]

Thanks for this. Full of useful stuff for AirVPN newbies.

[LZ1 671]

Thanks for this. Full of useful stuff for AirVPN newbies.

Heeeey, well you're certainly the first to post in this thread for a long time ! I really appreciate your kind words. If you run into any trouble feel free to ask us for help .

 

Welcome to AirVPN!

[LZ1 671]

Updated:

 

- Some links.

- Added note about the Beta always downloading the latest version. People were asking how to get updates.

- Added update to servers list, regarding the state of French servers.

- Added How To Autostart AirVPN As Root With No Password(Linux) Security issues have been noted by Staff & zhang888.

- Added How To Setup The Eddie Client On Raspberry Pi 3

- Added Mini-guides On How To Improve Torrent Speeds

- Added some history on VPNs, as some prominent people posted

- Added Staffs comment regarding thatoneprivacysite.

- Added An AirVPN review that I think is good.

- Added links to Rule 41 & Snoopers Charter laws (hey they have their own site!)

- Added Staff Comment on multi-hop VPN use.

- Added How To Port-Forward & Use A Torrent Client

- Added Staff Comment on IKEv2 and why it's not supported.

- Added Link regarding Black Friday, for questions related to sales.

 

That felt productive. See ya!

[trev 1]

Wow, so much information to digest!

I've been using Air for a while, but want to say thanks for such excellent guides to this service.

[Shamerock 1]

Wow LZ1 thank you for the myriad helpful information you have compiled.  I'm really just getting back up on securing my self and info as well as enhancing my privacy and anonimity with the worsening climate we all must acclimate to.  I spent much time researching JUST which VPN to potentially go with, and I'm only lucky I bookmarked a post on medium I came across some months back that spoke so highly of the Air service and community.  So now, I  can resume with researching my potentially questionable behaviour, depending on which state level actor may be concerned, with just a bit more grit and knowledge under my belt.  Kudos again to you and all the wonderful people helping out on here.

[Antipodean_Gypsy 0]

Greetings All,

I'm only a few hours old in the world of VPN and AirVPN but I'm glad to be here,....

I wanted to say how much I appreciate this post and how helpful and useful it has already been. I have been steadily perusing for the last 3 hrs or so and I can tell I will be returning to many of the links and topics as I continue on my journey familiarising myself with everything.

Its nice to see the genuine contributions and effort that goes into the forums and community, and of course the service!

Wish me luck !! Ciao for Now........

[LZ1 671]

Updated:

• Added (thanks to many community members various posts on the issue), some Plex Server Guidance.
• Added "Who Runs AirVPN?" question & answers, with associated links, to the First Questions section. Crucially, clarifying that zhang888 is not an AirVPN employee (but still awesome).

• Added info on AirVPN "Micro-routing" & how to use it, as well as info on "Status" page functions, to the First Questions section. As with Plex, there's a steady stream of people asking about it.
• Added Port-forwarding image. Thanks to uscskelly.
• Added note that my intent with this guide is also to collect other peoples' guides & how-tos, to make it more convenient for everyone. Credit is of course given to those authors.
• Added "Turris Omnia" router to security recommendations list, as it's worth knowing about. Kudos zhang888.
• Changed intro, to streamline it a little more.
• Added image instructions on how to share logs & use spoiler tags.
• Added note on Using NL with Tor & Staffs response
• Added NL clarification about being a feature others call a "killswitch". As some get confused between different VPN providers' jargon.
• Added 20% Christmas Promotion. So that people may better anticipate the next sale(s).

EDIT: Added Staffs superb thoughts on "piracy". As well as cleaned up the part about the Beta client and clarified the index a little.

EDIT: Added How To fix Virgin Media Connection Drops/Bandwidth Issues

EDIT: Added AirVPN Staff telling them to get rekt. lol.

@trev, Shamerock, Antipodean_Gypsy

Thank you all. I really appreciate when people like yourselves take the time to post . It's true Shamerock, that things seem to be steadily worsening. I guess we'll just have to get everyone signed up to a VPN then huh . Welcome to AirVPN Shamerock & Antipodean_Gypsy, I hope you'll like it here. If there's anything any of you (or anyone else) has questions about or think I should consider adding to the guide or changing, then as always, please do feel free to post and tell me :]. 

 

Happy holidays and Happy New Year everyone!

[LZ1 671]

Updated:

• Noted release of 2.11.15 version of Eddie
• Added instructions from Khariz and ~Daniel~ on Torrenting with Tixati.
• Added info on free trials, which I assume to be correct: "Trials have unlimited data and full speed. But you can only get a refund if you have used less than 5GB".
• Added info on Glasnost tests for testing traffic shaping. Thanks to giganerd.

Not so much in this update, as I just wanted to make some quick edits due to 2.11.15 being released.

[clubhouse 1]

Very useful tutorial, I'm a VPN novice and having read  through this I've learned a good bit

[QWERTY_666 0]

Hello all,

 

I just created my account in here, but would like to change my account name. 

How do I change it?

 

Kind regards

[LZ1 671]

Hello all,

 

I just created my account in here, but would like to change my account name. 

How do I change it?

 

Kind regards

Hello, welcome to AirVPN!

 

I think you either need to make a new account or submit a support ticket, as you can only change the display name, (what we see) not login details.

[Jefkim666 6]

Hi LZ1,

 

I'm in my second year at AIRVPN but keep returning to your FAQ. (I must lack some tech - knowledge). You might adjust the Glasnost-link, because the Max Planck Institute took it down due to the deprecation of Java.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I must grow really old for Java to get deprecated...

[De Facto Pantalones 12]

Hello all.  I read through LZ's guide (I'm still getting the hang of AirVPN -I had it running smooth, but now it seems to be lagging).

 

So on a Windows 7 Pro install/OS... in Network Connections >Ethernet >Configure >Advanced Tab (the one with Jumbo Packet, Transmit Buffers, e.t.)... is there a guide that helps users Optimize these settings?  I know it's subjective, machine, ISP, gateway, e.t. all play a part... but I can't find any general guide that gives tips on how to optimize these settings w/ AirVPN.  Thanks in advance for any feedback.  My apologies for the Noob question!!   

[CheckMade 1]

LZ1, thank you for the guide.

Still very useful in 2017, especially with the possible (future) prosecution of illegal downloads in the Netherlands.

And of course more importantly; privacy protection.

[Miran2017 1]

Thank you so much for this guide, it was really usefull i would have had to call my brother otherwise!

[Hexane 0]

Hey I'm a newbie but I'm quite liking Air so far. I have read the guide and used the search feature but I can't find my answer. That doesn't mean it's not there, I could easily have missed it. If it's already here I'd greatly appreciate a nudge in the right direction with apologies for asking a superfluous question.

I have a really awful internet connection, no high speed, 2.5mbs tops on a  good day with a tail wind. Most of the time a lot less. I don't need everything I do to be across the VPN and for some things like, for example, VOIP and cloud services file sync, the extra overhead of the VPN is going to bring me to a standstill. Is there a way to "whitelist" certain apps or services so they have permission to go outside the tunnel?

Many thanks for all you do

[LZ1 671]

• Added the change in allowed connections, going from 3 to 5. Changed references to 3 connections elsewhere.
• Added some guidance on how to get started with cryptocurrencies, to the guides section.
• Added [How-To] AirVPN via SSL/stunnel on Android 6/7/8 to guides section, courtesy of sheivoko. Thank you.
• Added/fixed sentences here and there, for clarity, while deleting references to outdated clients and content.
• Added a little info disclaimer, to put people on notice regarding Airs stance on getting access to geo-restricted content.
• Added links for users of Windows/Linux/MacOS to find out which OS they're running specifically and updated the "Getting Started" section, to correspond better to the Your Setup page.
• Added clarification on Experimental clients, as well as login names not being changeable.
• Cleaned up some points in the "Getitng Started" section, to make it more readable.
• Deleted Glassnost link due to deprecation, courtesy of poster Jefkim666. Thank you.
• Deleted references to Air speedtest. Air took away this feature, due to its unreliability and the many questions and complaints about it. It may or may not be replaced.
• Added a new point to the "First Questions" section about Airs sales/discounts. I thought it was about time this got a question dedicated to it, as it keeps being asked:

 

- Since AirVPN isn't free, is it possible to buy a Lifetime subscription, as with other VPNs? Does AirVPN hold sales at all?

• AirVPN does not sell Lifetime subscriptions, period. Simply because it's too costly and wouldn't make sense for a high-quality service like this.
• There's basically 3 sales a year. Airs Birthday, Black Friday and Christmas; potentially with New Year and Cyber Monday added, to prolong the sale period.
• All sales are typically around 1 week long and discount all subscription plans. The % discount is fixed at the rates seen below.
• AirVPN's Christmas sale has a discount of: 20%. Sometime around the 20th December.
• AirVPN's Birthday sale has a discount of: 25%. Sometime around the 30th May/June.
• AirVPN's Black Friday sale has a discount of: 35%. Sometime around 20th November.
• The timing of the sales is roughly the same each year as well. Simply keep an eye on the announcement forum to catch the sale.
• What if you miss the sale you wanted? Well, then you'll just need to wait until the next one, unfortunately .

 

@De Facto Pantalones: I'm not sure what to tell you. But I'm inclined to think that for someone as curious as you, a single answer wouldn't be as satisfactory as the journey itself . The only thing I could tell you at this point is "Switch to Linux" and "Get a Turris Omnia to fool around with?" . You would adore how Eddie runs on Linux. Just look at that DNS handling, compared to Windows

@CheckMade: Thank you. Here's to hoping it'll be just as useful in 2018.

@Miran2017: Haha, great. A belated welcome to you. If there's any other issues or doubts, please don't hesitate to ask the community or Air support .

@Hexane: A belated welcome to you too! Thankyou. Yes, you may want to look into traffic splitting or otherwise using a virtual machine setup. Then you could run things on the Host machine outside, while using Air from inside the virtual machine. Other similar guides. Simply check ipleak.net to see what your IP is, in the end. Here's another similar guide. But first it would be prudent to find out which servers work for you and perhaps trying out different protocol combinations, by changing things in the Eddie client. Needless to say, other common measures such as using a wired connection and/or a good router are also recommended . Otherwise I don't think there's a super-easy one-click way to whitelist apps as you suggest, no. Unless you want to play around with Eddies Preferences>Routes section; but this quickly gets impractical for some apps I think. You can also check out this small thread on split tunneling.

 

Sorry for the late replies. I try not to post too much in this thread, so that it won't bother too many people.

 

Happy New Year .

[sanpellegrinoaranciata 1]

Thank you very very much. It was very helpful for me.

[FrauGrubach 0]

Hi, what do I have to do if Eddie button on my Mac gets grey and nothing happens?

I just can't finish the installation.

OS X ver. 10.11.6

[LZ1 671]

@FrauGrubach Welcome to AirVPN! I already sent you a PM on the same day you posted, but there has been no reply . If the issue persists, feel free to ask Air support directly.

• Merged the two Beta questions in the Getting Started section.
• Put two encryption-related links in the "Other Noteworthy Resources" section. One from Schneier and one from CGP Grey.
• Added that it is expected that Network Lock restores the original firewall rules when Eddie is shut down.
• Added to the First Question sections "Who runs Air and moderates the forums?" that along with zhang888, I'm a moderator too. I became a mod on February 13th, 2018.
• Shortened Guides, First Questions and After Downloading Eddie Sections hugely by taking away huge chunks of now-redundant questions. Any useful links will be put elsewhere - I did sift through them all. For example, TCP/UDP buffer sizes were set to 256kb by default quite some time ago, so there's no need to recommend it. But the Q&As are pasted below in case anyone needs them.
• Added two new questions to the First Questions section. Packed with links so much so, that even the most "paranoid" should be put at ease:

- What does AirVPN do to make it safe to use and does it log or track people? 

 

• AirVPN isn't just safe because it promises to be so in its marketing. Instead, it backs things up with hard technical specifications and high standards, that you can verify yourself.
• AirVPN is logless and can't be forced to log surreptitiously, fully supports P2P on all servers & ignores all DMCA requests. Here's additional things Air does to increase its security and privacy:

1. AirVPNs infrastructure conforms to a high degree of openness & transparency. This helps show that none of Airs locations are fake, but only bare-metal & lets users compare with one another.
2. AirVPNs encryption standards are military grade and so for all intents and purposes unbreakable. It also only uses the most secure VPN protocol too: OpenVPN. No PPTP/SSTP/L2TP/IKEv2.
3. AirVPN doesn't use any third party tracking on its website, such as Google Analytics or Social buttons, because they leak. Instead, it uses open-source analytics Matomo, which is closed loop.
4. AirVPNs website meets the highest SSLabs security standards: A+.
5. AirVPN takes its mission to fight censorship and manipulation of the Internet extremely seriously. This also means being highly willing to help out journalists and human-rights defenders.
6. AirVPN only uses FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) in its Eddie client. Therefore the software running on your system is not a security "blackbox", but can be independently verified.
7. AirVPNs Eddie client supports a wide selection of protocols. Including SSL and SSH. As well as anonymising services such as Tor; so that you can "partition trust" and need not trust AirVPN.
8. AirVPN fully accepts crypto-currencies. Including to the point where it accepts Bitcoin directly. No middlemen. So if done right, you can use AirVPN with Air knowing nothing about you.
9. AirVPN explains how it doesn't need to inspect or monitor traffic in order to check for breaches of ToS.
10. AirVPN is against security through obscurity, including in its client software Eddie and so shows all the information it can; which leads some users to erroneously think there's logging going on.
11. AirVPN uses in-house support technicians and not outsourced third-party technicians and external suppliers such as Zendesk. So as with the website tracking, it's closed-loop. No leakage.
12. AirVPN has a strict location policy, so that it doesn't just set up servers in a new, potentially unsafe or questionable, location. One which can't supply the performance required, either.
13. AirVPN has its own DNS servers and "killswitch" feature. With Network Lock on, any accidental loss of connection from Airs servers won't leak anything about you. Including WebRTC.
14. AirVPN is run by extremely knowledgeable technical people and not just businessmen. So they're easily able to both explain, defend and attack subjects on a purely technical level.
15. AirVPN supports the auditing of some of the crucial security software that underlies different systems and also supports other projects/groups/services such as Tor, Edri and OpenNIC.
16. AirVPN runs this forum, which can seem like a small thing, but it's actually really important, as it allows for the open sharing of knowledge, providing of technical support and mythbusting.
17. AirVPN already acts as a "multi-hop" VPN and takes many other measures to increase security, such as separate entry & exit IPs, Perfect Forward Secrecy and HMAC SHA1.
18. AirVPN has a strong focus on avoiding marketing fluff and overselling. Which means you know exactly what you're getting and don't need to deal with deceptive use of technical details.
19. AirVPN is highly consistent with staying constantly on top of any security issue.
20. AirVPN is based in Italy and is therefore within the EU. This has a range of other benefits too.

• So that's 20 good reasons why Air has such extremely high security "by default", that doesn't require you to do much of anything. If you want more, there's a simple 3 step guide for that.

 

- When will AirVPN add country or server XYZ?

• AirVPN frequently adds new countries/locations. This can be seen in the announcement forum, so please try to check this before asking.
• AirVPN Staff do not usually tell the community when a new country or server will be added. They simply add them. So it's easy to miss. The Eddie client will automatically show new additions.
• Requests for a specific location or addition to an existing one, are fine. But demands to know when something will happen, are futile, since AirVPN follows a strict location policy.
• The technical specifications regarding security/encryption for Air servers can be found here. Further, those technologies and standards allows Air to pursue its Mission.
• Please remember that even if a country you want hasn't been added, you may still be able to get access to the web-content of that country, thanks to Airs micro-routing feature.
• Here's some old posts regarding different locations, so that you may not need to ask. Please note that some, such as Japan as of 2018 & Austria, were already added:
• Italian Servers?
• Japan/Korea Servers? [staff Comment]
• Russian Servers?
• Danish Servers?
• Middle-East/North African Servers?
• Indian Servers?
• Panama Servers?
• Australian/New Zealand Servers?
• Latvian Servers?
• French & Belgian Servers?[uPDATE: French Servers Momentarily Withdrawn]
• Austrian Servers?
• Central/South American Servers?

 

- Questions about AirVPN Logging, Policy & Sales

• AirVPN Warrant Canary?
• AirVPN tells "ICANN" That It Can't
• AirVPN For Blind/Visually Impaired Users
• AirVPN & Your IP?
• ​AirVPN Server Location Policy
• Clarification of monitoring policies
• Black Friday
• New EU Law & AirVPN 2015
• P2P & Safe Server Countries
• Explaining AirVPNs No-Logs Policy

 

- Questions about privacy & staying as anonymous as possible

• About Funding Firefox Extensions
• Why We Should Abandon Google
• AirVPN & Torrenting Privacy Help
• AirVPN & Tor Killswitch?
• Paying For AirVPN Anonymously
• Hiding The Use Of A VPN
• Can Other Users Connect To My Machine?
• Use Own Country Servers Or Not?
• Forcing All Traffic Through VPN On Linux
• 3 Privacy Questions
• Buying AirVPN Anonymously
• Should A US User Not Use Canadian Servers?
• Can My ISP See My VPN Use?
• uTorrent Leaking PC Name?
• What Can A VPN Do?
• Can My ISP Find My Location?
• AirVPN vs PIA
• What Payment Info Does AirVPN Keep?
• Avoiding Tracking
• How Was The EarthVPN User Identified?

 

- Questions about security features and in-depth technical issues

• AirVPN Technical Specifications
• AirVPN & SSL
• Is Running A Tor Exit Node over VPN Discouraged?
• Best Anti-Malware Together With AirVPN?
• Are IP Leaks Affecting VPNs?
• An AirVPN Proxy?
• AirVPN & Implementing L2TP/IPsec
• SHA1 vs SHA2 & AirVPN
• 90% Of VPNs Use Insecure Encryption?
• Security Of AirVPN Account?
• VPN Insecurity Research Results
• VPNs Are So Insecure
• IPv6 Leakage & DNS Hijacking?
• Network Lock On Android
• AirVPN Inside A VM + Linux?
• Hardware Tunnel?
• Control Channel Cipher Okay?
• Windows XP & Blocking Non-VPN Traffic
• Port-forwarding Help
• Windows 10 DNS Leaks
• VPN Location Spoofing

 

- Questions about using AirVPN & certain products

• AirVPN & Chromebook
• Eddie For Android?
• Best AirVPN Router?
• Asus RT-AC68U Router & AirVPN
• Best Router For AirVPN?

- Is there anything in the Eddie Client I should change?

A lot of the things mentioned in this troubleshooting section will either be fixed in the case of a bug or made the default, in case of things such as the send and receive buffer sizes, in the upcoming Eddie Beta release client

•  I recommend opening Eddie, then clicking the AirVPN logo in the top left corner and going into Preferences/Settings.
•  In there, I recommend doing things such as setting AirVPN to connect during startup and during Windows/System startup as well, so it all happens automatically.
•  Click on the AirVPN logo in the top-left of the Eddie client, then go to Preferences & then the Advanced tab. Then set both TCP & UDP buffer size entries to 256kb, for faster speeds.
•  If you're a Linux or Windows user, you can try the so-called "mssfix". If an experimental client is ready though, then it's recommended to try that first.

 

 

- What's special about AirVPN? Why not just pick any other VPN service?

• Because you need to trust the VPN provider with your internet traffic. Air is known as a very reputable provider and is operated by people with good ethics; not just businessmen.
• Because AirVPN flat-out turns down DMCA requests, in the event that you download/torrent something you maybe shouldn't. Even AirVPN Staff have a thing or two to say about "piracy"!
• Because AirVPN provides you with many options, so that you can customise your experience, depending on your requirements.
• Because AirVPN uses open-source software and open standards, so that others, including yourself, can make sure they're doing things right from a technical point of view.
• Because AirVPN is one of few VPNs which can easily send your VPN traffic through other anonymizing networks like the Tor project if you wish; which further increases your security and privacy.
• Because AirVPN has many advanced features and always stays up to date on technology: remote port-forwarding, DNSSEC, PFS, etc. (Don't worry if you don't know these terms)
• Because AirVPN takes your security very seriously and is staffed by people with deep technical knowledge. You don't want your VPN provider to sell you out to others, such as advertisers.
• Because AirVPN has servers all over the world, which means if you travel or need access to a specific countrys content, you can do so through Airs servers.
• Because AirVPN is a logless VPN and thus tries to avoid keeping information about you, that it could be forced to hand over to law enforcement. Making it quite safe, as it has nothing.
• Because AirVPN has the courage to stand up to internet organisations like"ICANN" and dismiss them, when they're not doing their job right; which is rare in a VPN I think.
• Because AirVPN allows all kinds of traffic/protocols. So whether you're browsing the web, watching videos or even torrenting things via P2P, it's all fine. Why pay to be limited anyway?
• Because AirVPN servers have no speed limits and all servers follow the same standards, wherever they are in the world.
• Because AirVPN is available on pretty much all platforms. Android, Windows, Macs, Linux, Iphones, Tablets and even routers.
• Because AirVPN is not based in a "Five Eyes" country, which could mean less surveillance for you.
• Because AirVPN respects you. It doesn't even use Google/FB tracking software on its site.
• Because AirVPN isn't just a business out to make money. It actually believes in the ideals of freedom, openness and anti-censorship.
• Because AirVPN doesn't make false and exaggerated promises like "total 100% anonymity!", "surf anonymously" or "military-grade encryption!!!" just to sell a product.
• Because AirVPN takes your security so seriously, that if a country can't respect certain rules for privacy/security, then AirVPN simply won't set up a server there.
• Because AirVPN name its servers after stars, what's not to like? ;]
• Because AirVPN software is superb quality too. The program many AirVPN users use, is Airs own "Eddie" program.
• Because AirVPN is open and honest about it's infrastructure, which can't always be said about many other providers.
• Because AirVPN doesn't pay for biased reviews or use certain kinds of advertising and is open to discussion about it.
• Because AirVPN Staff are not afraid of putting others in their place when they're wrong.

 

- Why should I use or keep using a VPN?

• Because a VPN allows you to use "Public Wi-Fi" without fear of being watched. Public Wi-fi are those wireless networks with no passwords, which you can log into. Such as in Cafes.
• Because your internet traffic gets an extra layer of "encryption", which is a kind of digital lock. You'd lock your house or car wouldn't you? So why not your internet traffic too?
• Because VPNs allow you to access/view/download/watch things on the web which are blocked in your country, by making it look like ou actually come from a different country.
• Because your ISP (Internet Service Provider), government, companies and others are very curious about what you do online and are tracking you; even though it's not their business.
• Because your privacy and security matters; regardless of if you have anything to "hide" or not. Just like you have curtains in a house.
• Because VPN connections can in some cases allow for a more stable and fast connection, due to you using the VPN providers hardware/software.
• YOLO
• Because more and more citizen-hostile spy laws are being enacted worldwide, such as the Snoopers Charter and Rule 41 to name two.

 

 

• Completely remade the answer to speed issues away from this:

- Eddie can't connect or is very slow, what can I do?

A lot of the things mentioned in this troubleshooting section will either be fixed in the case of a bug or made the default, in case of things such as the send and receive buffer sizes, in the upcoming Eddie Beta release client

• There can be many reasons for connection problems. One of them is when Eddie isn't turned off via its own menus, such as if you just turn off your computer.
• I find that one of most common fixes, is to go to Start>>Control Panel>>Network and Internet>>Network & Sharing center>>Change adapter settings>>Right Click Local Area Connections 1 & 2
• After right-clicking an adapter, go to "Properties">>Click Internet Protocol Version 4>>Then click Properties again and check both boxes are set to Obtain IP/DNS address automatically.
• Then click "Ok", to close the box. Make sure you do these steps on both adapters. After this, Eddie will often be able to reconnect.
• These things are largely the same on a Mac. Just find your network settings and set it to obtain both IP and DNS addresses automatically, if you're having connection issues.
• If you're using Windows and you're getting a lot of disconnections or very slow speeds, you should check your "TAP" driver version
• Click on the AirVPN logo in the top-left of the Eddie client, then go to Preferences & then the Advanced tab. Then set both TCP & UDP buffer size entries to 256kb, for faster speeds.
• ​For Windows users, AirVPN Staff personally recommend you do this if you can't connect to the internet, through your browser (Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer etc.).
• ​Sometimes, you just have to change servers. Sometimes to completely different countries. For instance, sometimes all Canadian or German servers might have problems and these problems can be fixed by changing servers. But "Server problems" doesn't always mean it's AirVPNs fault.
• ​You can try to check your routes, if you're getting route-checking errors when you look at your Eddie Client "Logs" tab.
• ​There's times when it's simply not your fault, but instead freak occurrences on some servers. Which means the best option is simply to try a different server sometimes :]
• ​Of course, there's times when you simply need to update your Eddie client, by re-downloading it from this site. Here's the Eddie Changelog.

 

To this, with 1 helpful tip per bullet and links to things that require a longer explanation:

- Eddie can't connect or is very slow, what can I do?

If none of the below solutions work, then it's time to ask the forums or Air support. In BOTH cases, please supply your logs, as detailed before. Otherwise no one can help you.

• First of all, please make sure your client is updated to the latest Stable or Beta release. You can see your version number in Eddie>Top Left Corner Menu>About. Head to download page if not.
• Please try different protocols, at Eddie>Menu>Preferences>Protocols>Uncheck "Automatic">Select a protocol, such as SSL or TCP 443> Save>re-connect to an Air server.
• Please try connecting to not just different servers, but different countries too. Proximity to your location does not automatically mean better connections; due to routing technicalities.
• ​If you're a Linux, MacOS or Windows user and webpages aren't loading fully or there's less than optimum speed, you can try the so-called "mssfix".
• If it's simply a problem with connecting to airvpn.org, then please try the alternate entry: airvpn.info - note that sometimes Air comes under attack from within and so you get an error page.
• If Eddie, such as in its Logs, says there's problems with route checking, please refer here for a solution. Note: disabling Preferences>DNS>Check Air DNS can be tried at the same time too.
• If you enabled Network Lock and can't connect to the web without Eddie turned on, then please disable Network Lock or reset your firewall and/or DNS, as shown in the two posts here.
• If speeds are slow in a torrenting context, then please remember to port-forward and configure your torrent client correctly. For detailed guides on this, please go to the Guides Section below.
• For some ISPs, such as Virgin Media, please check the Guides Section below, for specific tutorials on how to optimize speeds.
• For Windows users, updating or downgrading the TAP adapter may work. But this shouldn't be tried as the first thing, as it's often not necessary now.
• For Windows users, you can try downloading a program called TCPOptimizer.

 

There's still much more I want to do, but this goes a long way towards distilling it into its most useful elements. There's still aspects of Air which didn't get any "coverage". But all in due time .

 

The goal of course being to provide a good place for finding answers to common questions and this change has really helped distill the guide into something better, I think.

[prbrtwl 0]

Hi,

 

Quick question regarding the devices / keys: so far I managed to connect 2 Android phones, using the OpenVPN for Android client, and that works flawlessly.

 

Before creating the .ovpn files, I had created different devices, and I find it very nice to be able to see what sessions/devices are currently active.

 

However I didn't manage to set that up for my laptops... I have an Ubuntu, and a Mac, and I use the Eddie client. I couldn't find any setting to specify which device to use. There is certainly a way to do so? Maybe creating conf files and importing them in the client?

 

Some clarifications would be welcome