Hello AirVPN, Goodbye NordVPN :D

[catman7 3]

Well, I did it , I finally signed up and paid for a month which is more than enough time to get a good idea how AirVPN works for me and early indications are excellent, though I am tired tonight and have only had an hour or so to "play" around with it since I signed up .

 

When I first ran the software I wanted to test the famous "kill switch" everyone rates so highly but I forgot I disabled windows firewall a long time ago in favor of Private firewall only and hadn't realised that your kill switch depends on WF Rules to work . Took a bit of messing about with services but got there eventually and the kill switch then worked ok. Then I could no longer connect to a new server    so a swift reboot and I can now change servers at will with the kill switch in place.

 

If anyone saw my other thread (moved to off topic) about my problems with my real IP address being revealed on https://ipleak.net/ (I won't bore you with it just have a read if you can be bothered), then I can confirm that with the kill switch in place, AirVPN DOES NOT appear to reveal my real IP address on the site or to the rest of the known world    despite many server changes and refreshing the page as I did before! Superb!

 

I then went to ookla a ran a speedtest.....Um, wow, I have an 80 Megabit connection and on an AirVPN NL server I got a d/l speed of 65 Megabit so approx 6,5 mb/sec Astonishing!

 

Fastest I ever saw with NordVPN on ANY server was approx 1.3 mb/sec, yes, I did mean 1.3 mb/sec .

 

Further thorough testing will continue but so far it seems to be looking good! If that's the case, I will be signing up for a 12 month package after my month ends. Btw, in the end I had no choice but to pay with my debit card as paypal will not work it seems Ah well I guess in the great scheme of things it doesn't really matter as one's ISP may not be able to see/read your packets, but they know you're connected to an IP address that belongs to a VPN Company/server.

 

As the title says, Hello AirVPN, Goodbye NordVPN

 

Catman7

[LZ1 672]

Hello !

 

This is good to hear. I can tell you with 99% certainty, that you won't be disappointed :].

 

Welcome to AirVPN. Take a deep breath. Now exhale. Ahhhh .

 

Don't worry about PP. As the americans like to say, we don't cooperate with terrorists, lmao.

[zhang888 1066]

Fastest I ever saw with NordVPN on ANY server was approx 1.3 mb/sec, yes, I did mean 1.3 mb/sec .

 

I think I found the reason for your slow speeds with them.

 

[S.O.A. 83]

Welcome to AirVPN! Something that could improve your speed even more so you can get your full 80 mb/s is go into preferences in the AirVPN client, click the advanced tab, and change the

​TCP/UDP socket send AND receive buffer sizes to 256kb. This was recommended to me by the staff and it worked great. Try this method and do another speedtest. I bet you'll get very close to 80mb/s.

​

​Again, welcome and enjoy AirVPN!

[catman7 3]

Ok, after a bit more testing earlier I got my real IP address leaked to AirVPN's test page ipleak.net again , but I think I know why.

​

​I start Eddie with Windows with the killswitch in locked position but not to connect automatically. I always shut the PC down with PrivateFirewall in the locked "Red traffic light" and change it to filtered "Yellow" after the PC fully starts.

 

Btw, nothing has ever leaked past PF's lock in all the years I have been using it and I have let Wireshark sit on my second monitor whilst playing a game etc, or just sat there doing nothing at all for hours many times over the years and Wireshark has never once recorded a single packet in all those times......Period!! Full Stop!! Whatever!!

​

​Anyway, back to the plot haha. If I start Windows, wait for Eddie to fire up, switch the NETWORK LOCK to OFF, then once off, switch it back to ON again, change PF to filter traffic, then refresh the ipleak.net page, my Real IP NEVER gets revealed it seems . So for some reason, the network lock (killswitch), is NOT activating itself properly at first boot with Windows. Problem is I would like to find out why in case I ever "forget" to turn it off, then back on again. Unlikely as I am always extremely careful with such things and have a very good memory most of the time........still, ya never know, one moment of tiredness or distraction is all it can take to forget to do it .

​

​Any ideas as to why the killswitch rules don't appear to be applied to WF automatically on first boot? Further investigations are going to be needed it seems.

​

Catman7 ​

[catman7 3]

Welcome to AirVPN! Something that could improve your speed even more so you can get your full 80 mb/s is go into preferences in the AirVPN client, click the advanced tab, and change the

​TCP/UDP socket send AND receive buffer sizes to 256kb. This was recommended to me by the staff and it worked great. Try this method and do another speedtest. I bet you'll get very close to 80mb/s.

​

​Again, welcome and enjoy AirVPN!

Thanks for this info and after trying it and testing I can confirm it works.....I am now getting a Down/Up almost as fast as my ISP itself on good servers at least. 75MB Down /18.5MB Up....Pretty amazing when connected to a VPN with all the encryption/decryption to handle. Thanks for the great tip

[zhang888 1066]

​Any ideas as to why the killswitch rules don't appear to be applied to WF automatically on first boot? Further investigations are going to be needed it seems.

 

This is what happens when you install other 3d party bloatware. check your event log, you will see that your Windows Firewall

was most likely disabled (service stopped) during boot. The network lock requires this to function.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

though I am tired tonight

 

Buying something under the influence of tiredness, with tiredness having a similar effect as alcohol, is counterproductive. Ergo, you subscribed to AirVPN drunk. What can you tell about things you buy in such a condition?...

 

A warm welcome to AirVPN. It's stories like yours that make me smile. Feel free to open threads/tickets or ask people privately if you run into issues again.

[snapz 37]

Welcome to AIR!

You will not regret to be a AIRVPNER!

[catman7 3]

@zhang888 I assume you mean "bloatware" by PrivateFirewall? Well, I like it anyway lol. It's still very highly rated even after several years of no major updates and I like it's "small" footprint and tons of options. I will admit that WF can be a very powerful firewall indeed in the right hands though, so I will just use both together for now.

​

​I seem to have found the soloution myself anyway. I exported AirVPN's "killswitch" rules as a *wfw file and imported the rules directly into the Group Policy Manager and now the rules are applied every time I boot the PC without having to disable/re-enable them in Eddie. I have run the same checks many times since that kept revealing my real IP address to ipleak.net and not once has it shown my real IP since so hopefully it's now solved permanently! (I still quickliy check at ipleak.net every time before going off browsing etc though as the whole episode has left me a little paranoid about it now . Ah well, pays to be a little paranoid and triple check everything in my opinion. As for AirVPN, so far I very much like their mission statement about no logs and maximum individual privacy, I like the eddie client with all it's very helpful options and the speed and system as a whole so far seems to be very good indeed. All being well and continuing that way, I would have no problem in signing up for a 12 month stint after my first month expires .

​

​Well, it's been fun, but unless there is another issue that I can't solve myself I prob won't be back for a while as most of your users I suspect ​ . I don't do/get the whole "social media" nonsense and this is the first time I have written anything anywhere online in many years but these smilie things are kinda amusing lol.

​

​Take care all and be safe out there.......Catman7

[LZ1 672]

I would've thought you'd make ipleak your browser startpage lol, so you never forget.

 

You've got a pleasant persona. Maybe you should write more Haha.

 

Glad you like it. Take care.

[314TR 1]

I'm a new AirVPN user myself, having switched from NordVPN. My experiences with NordVPN were similar to that of the OP. Terribly slow speeds, unstable connections, many servers almost constantly down. And that for a full year. Now with AirVPN I've had a stable and fast connection all day long. It's only been a day of course, but the first impression is very good. Looking forward to many more days like this.  

[specimen151 0]

I tried NordVPN for an hour or so. What I found was shocking.

 

With several servers/countries my IP address leaked easily - I could see my real IP in regular sites as whatsmyip.org. With other countries my IP was hidden, but the country was all wrong. e.g. for Sweden it was using DNS in Germany, and for Iceland I was placed in Scotland. 

[333_half_evil 6]

Ya i tried a trial of Nord, the speeds were way slower than Air. The only thing i really liked about Nord was their Server locations in many many countires. but as you see i'm an Air member and have been for over a year =)

[cm0s 118]

haven't tried nord but have tried few others

not too many doin the openvpn/ssl the way air does

[LZ1 672]

good bye airvpn

 

hello someone else

Sad to see you go bro. I hope you take care of yourself!

[d3liriu5 1]

I also switched over to AirVPN from NordVPN.. not only were the speeds inconsistent (with NordVPN), the IP leak issue was real and baffling.

 

I've also used Private Internet Access and ExpressVPN. No complaints with either.. they are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of cost and user interface, both have their niches.

 

For me, AirVPN sits in a sweet spot of cost, reliability, security, and speed.

[astell 0]

this is my first vpn service and I like it

already subscribe for 1 year

[LZ1 672]

this is my first vpn service and I like it

already subscribe for 1 year

Then Welcome To AirVPN!

A belated welcome, but a welcome nonetheless.

[rootsecure9797 1]

Nordvpn is really slow and unusable after eddie client. Just checked it on this week, air vpn is best for security and speed.

[jean claud 45]

I'm in the same situation than Catman , in march 2016 I suscribed for one year at NordVPN , remains 2 months but I don't use it anymore since I'm with AirVpn.

Eddie under linux is a great software very useful ,  connections are fast,  solid and very clean (no proxies or black list as with NordVPN ) . AirVPN did a great job, very professionnal , impossible now for me to go back to NordVpn

 

Anyway I've a Few remarks :

Aivpn is based in Italy ( not the best country for internet freedom)

There is not a lot of country locations and most of them apart to Nato and the fourteen eyes countries ,

Happily there is some switzeland servers with Private Inc Layer who is an isp based both in switzeland and Panama (Other swiss servers have a UK isp ) . I'm using Austrian servers too

 

Adding some servers in Iceland and Estonia and AirVpn would be perfect !!!

 

Despite these minor remarks AirVpn is definitively the best VPN i've ever used , I've subsribed for 3 months and I definitively won't go back , thank you for the great Job to all of the team

[nekusasu 0]

Same with me, subscribed to 2 years of NordVPN (it was a good deal, I'll give 'em that) 10 days ago but ended up asking for a full refund and just subscribed for 3 months of AirVPN to test it out.

 

Like others have said, many servers were offline, speeds were awful, connections dropping all the time and on top of that, the support itself was NOT helpful at all.

They didn't even bother to ask me why I wanted a refund, oh well...

 

Anyway, I have a 100/20 connection and this is what I'm getting with AirVPN ON: https://www.speedtest.net/result/6048991578.png

 

Can't really ask for more!

 

The only issue I'm having right now is I can't connect to AirVPN on a mac laptop (Windows workstation is connecting fine).

Already contacted support so let's see how it goes...

 

 

Anyway I've a Few remarks :

Aivpn is based in Italy ( not the best country for internet freedom)

There is not a lot of country locations and most of them apart to Nato and the fourteen eyes countries ,

Happily there is some switzeland servers with Private Inc Layer who is an isp based both in switzeland and Panama (Other swiss servers have a UK isp ) . I'm using Austrian servers too

 

That's exactly the reason that made me subscribe to NordVPN in the first place instead of AirVPN.

As a new customer, this worries me a bit.

Would be amazing if they could relocate to an offshore in the future... 

[zagone 0]

I have rather the same thing to say - but there is sometimes confidence in numbers.

 

Currently have both NordVPN and AirVPN.  Currently utilizing Canadian VPN servers near Toronto for both Nord and Air.  In the case of Nord, I do this because I spent hours testing and they are the only sorta-near servers that halfway work!  Nord servers constantly fail to authenticate, and when I am "connected" the DNS server lookup often does not work.

 

When I am able to use Nord, the speeds are faster on both up- and down-link.  But (fingers crossed) AirVPN has been more reliable for the past day I have been testing it.  Really hope it stays this way - good job so far!!

 

So why oh why is NordVPN always rated so highly in best VPN comparison publications??

 

Same with me, subscribed to 2 years of NordVPN (it was a good deal, I'll give 'em that) 10 days ago but ended up asking for a full refund and just subscribed for 3 months of AirVPN to test it out.

 

Like others have said, many servers were offline, speeds were awful, connections dropping all the time and on top of that, the support itself was NOT helpful at all.

They didn't even bother to ask me why I wanted a refund, oh well...

 

Anyway, I have a 100/20 connection and this is what I'm getting with AirVPN ON: https://www.speedtest.net/result/6048991578.png

 

Can't really ask for more!

[zagone 0]

So... should anyone still want to use Nord VPN occasionally for some reason (like, they have servers in Iceland)...  With a VPN-capable router (Asus in my case) try using Nord with the DNS Server settings recommended by Air VPN.  The main problem IMHO with Nord is silliness with their DNS servers not performing.  Having followed Air VPN Asus router directions and set DNS server automatic connection to "NO", DNS Server #1 to 10.4.0.1, and DNS Server #2 to a selection from https://www.opennic.org, Nord now works much better.  Since I'm stuck with two years of Nord service anyway (unless I scream for a refund) I'm thinking I may use this as a backup plan.

[zapoteknico 8]

I joined a month ago. Airvpn has been my first choice after checking prices, reviews, forums etc. I immediately decided to install it on a DD-WRT router (that I bought on purpose) and then. I bought a 1 day subscription and set it up in no time following the how to on the forum. I bought additional 2 day and then a year subscription. I am extremely happy. All my home devices are connected using the router and I use the OpenVPN setup on my mobile.....simply fantastic. Oh...I forgot to mention... The support service is fast and helpful. Grazie AirVPN!