My review on FN, we should all help AirVPN get noticed

[Oldkrow 4]

I just wrote a review on TN (torrentfreak.com) about AirVPN after reading a good article by Ernesto. The article talked about important features to look for in a VPN followed by a list of the top VPN's for 2016 they reviewed and asked questions to. AirVPN didn't even make the list which was really surprising me. They did get reviewed nicely, once I found that article.  

 

After noticing AirvPN on the sidebar in the user review section, I noticed it had 5 stars reviewed by the user at the end of TN's take. However, it was only reviewed by one other user.

 

I decided to add to my opinion with a detailed review I'm posting below. I'm also going to provide a link to the original article I read and a link to where we can all add our reviews. Let's help get AirVPN put on the list; if not possibly the top 10 at the very least.

 

Here is the link to the original article: https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/ 

Here is the link to where we can add to the review: https://torrentfreak.com/review/airvpn-reviews/

 

Below is review. Let me know what you think.
 

 

After several days of intense research to find the right VPN fit for me, and opinions from leading experts in online security, I chose to go with AIRVPN as my first and only VPN I have been with.

 

Since I have not done business with any other VPN, I may have a biased opinion but I want to give all the readers here a very honest and detailed review.

 

The biggest reason I chose AIRVPN is because it had all the features I really wanted.

 

Number one, they claim to have absolutely no logging and invited experts to run tests to prove it. Another more important feature I thought was important; many VPN’s don’t offer the ability to tunnel through your VPN and then connect to TOR for another layer of security. Not only do they have this feature, but they coded the protocol specifically to play nice with TOR.

 

I realize it isn’t an option many will need. I myself have only used it a handful of times, and only when I want to use TOR. However, I also am not an activist in a hostile country who needs this layer of protection.

 

AIRVPN also has supports other options of security such as port forwarding. However, I think their most underrated feature that stood out was security preventing even your local ISP from being aware you’ve logged onto your VPN.

 

If you were not aware, many providers frown on the use of a VPN and some will even try and force you to stop using it, stating it breaks the user agreement policy you agreed to.

 

I promised a honest review so in keeping with my word, I have experienced a few technical issues that did frustrate me. One in particular that created an issue where I had to use a different client than their own, client “Eddie”.

 

This issue didn’t occur until part way through my second renewal. Their client stopped working correctly which prevented me from getting online using the VPN. I was forced to use another client which I knew was not as secure and lacked the options “Eddie” has as well as the ease of use it provides.

 

The frustration was based on how long it took to resolve the issue. The important part I want to convey here, is that the support staff member continued to work with me until I was able to resolve it.

 

Like the above review mentioned, even if you don’t file a support ticket in, the forums are a great resource for learning and assistance from a very active and knowledgeable community.

 

Since I have not experienced speed benchmarks with other providers, I can’t tell you definitively they have the fasted speed. What I will say, from what I have read about other providers, their speed is extremely competitive especially for the price.

 

Speaking of price, it is one of the lowest on the market and if that were not enough, their price is outstanding when you consider all of the features their service provides.

 

In the end, the clincher was the story behind how the company came to be. A group of Hacktivists and some lawyers who met at one of the largest conventions of its kind, all came together to build a VPN based on their committed fight for internet privacy.

 

What I didn’t know until I read the article above by TF is that they will give free service to activists without the resources to get a VPN in war torn countries or those with stiff regulations enforced by the law. It tells me how committed they are to their cause. AIRVPN isn’t driven by their revenue like many other providers. This abundantly clear by their cost of service; instead, the company is still driven by the values which founded the company in the first place. That is integrity and I now have an even larger amount of respect for the company.

 

I hope you found my review to be informative. I have no stock in the company. I’m just an ordinary Canadian user of the internet. Or am I?

 

I only wish more users of AIRVPN reviewed them because they should be much higher on the list, if not #1.

 

 

[LZ1 672]

Hello!

 

That's nice of you .

 

It's hard to reach the top of most review lists, when you don't do bribes lol . Hence why PIA is everywhere - Got to wonder if that's a coincidence ^^. 

 

Jokes aside:

 

Taking a skeptical point of view, one could argue that Air isn't necessarily all that interested in being at the top of every list, seeing as while that means more revenue potentially, it also potentially means more complete novices. Novices which, if coupled with a lack of patience, can become quite the nuisance for Air and people on the forum and thereby leave as angry customers; perhaps ones who'll then actively try to discredit Air, wherever they go, because they couldn't get Eddie to run on their toaster and get a reliable connection to Nigeria, if you know what I'm saying haha. Unreasonable requests.

 

Because remember, Air is quite technical. Or at least quite open about being so. Which means a lot less information is hidden or abstracted from its users; unlike perhaps most other VPNs. This can overwhelm people .It should be said however, that Air already enjoys a very positive reputation and as such will naturally reach those users who are perhaps already in tune with Airs views and methods; uncompromising security, no overselling or absurd marketing fluff and lots of technical features to explore, provided one has the patience and curiosity. Thank you for the links however. I might add my own review eventually.

 

I've seen reviews where Air basically gets 10/10, but isn't listed as number 1 on the list. Sometimes the reason is a lack of protocols such as PPTP and such. Other times user hostility is mentioned, in the sense that Air is very complicated to get into for technical novices (which I then sought to remedy). Still other reasons used to include a lack of country servers or device allowances; where other services would allow 5 devices per account, Air would allow 3 or less. Where other services would have servers literally everywhere, Air would seem limited in comparison. So, provided that the reviewers don't go beyond the veil of marketing, it's really not so surprising if Air gets short changed. I mean, which service do you choose: the one with 1000 servers or the one with 200? It's obvious......... Until you discover that the ones with 1000 servers all over the world, are mostly using Fake GeoIPs lol. But unless you take a closer look into what service you're buying, you might not discover these things. Or worse, you might not care. So why should Air care for such customers in return? All I'm trying to say is, don't despair if Air doesn't appear at the top of the chart, because in the end, quality shines through, but Air can't be everything to everyone, as I see it ^__^.

 

Air can try its best to secure its service and provide you with a default level of high-security, but it can't fix stupid .

[serenacat 83]

One may see categories of VPN user at present.

Some are "pirates" after streaming or bittorrent or ftp content without drawing problems from ISP or lawyers or police, and often interested in raw speed especially at peak evening time and big data allowances.

Some are more concerned with privacy and security for a range of reasons, from dissent with the ever more smothering surveillance state with email and website logging and content retention and scanning and realtime alerting and focussing and ... and ...

Others are in political environments such as China or Myanmar or USA (put her in jail, sue them all, buy a better gun, ...) where consequences of personal expression are uncertain.

Others have reason to beware commercial or criminal mercenaries/investigators.

Some may be doing criminal things, but serious ones can avoid sending out clues and evidence anyway.

[zhang888 1066]

I actually stopped believing that TF list, you should take it with a grain of salt.

Seems like they just interview the providers or send them a simple "Yes/No questions" list and then put everything is as.

[Oldkrow 4]

You all had great points of view and thank you LZ1, your response was detailed, well thought out and written. I share pretty much the same views as you, and yes the technical aspects here are more advanced, but it has taught me how to be more secure.

 

Oddly, I found AirVPN through a lot of research and one very well written review from an author who is a leading expert with an advanced knowledge of the really small but extremely important features to look for when searching for a VPN. At the time, I knew some of the fundamental aspects of what to look for. It was his article that discussed topics I had to do further research on. This led me to believe, he was not writing for your average everyday user but a very specific niche audience of users who really take privacy serious. He placed AirVPN and like 4 others at the top VPN's in his opinion.

 

I ended up choosing this VPN because after reading everything he had discussed and then furthered my research on the topics I hadn't understood, it was AirVPN that had most of the key features which I spoke of in my review. You can't have everything right? Every VPN is missing on thing or the other but from I learned, there were features I knew I couldn't go without.

 

Yes, as you said, they only let us have three different devices vs some VPN's who let you have more. Honestly, looking for a VPN with the most servers wasn't even a thing I was looking for because in his article, he pointed out something I never knew. The quantity of servers is not half as important as it is to know which countries their servers are located and hosted in. The article pointed out, understanding the importance behind why a VPN chooses one country over another is vital because it can have a huge implications on a user's privacy based on laws in place for the hosting country, should it ever come into play. Another reason, why I went with AirVPN.   

 

Thanks again everyone, I'll also try to find that article. It educated me on a lot of things; AirVPN was just a bonus and for the speed and no cap all for the price, is untouchable in my honest opinion. 

[loschans 3]

Excellent posts by OP and LZ1. Good point about the novices who cause an uproar after unreasonable requests. Keep up the good work, Air. We've only been a premium member for a few months but we like the service and the active forum so we'll stick around. 

[Reso 19]

I've always assumed that most sites doing the top 10 VPN lists etc are just lists of the top 10 VPN commission payers for click throughs

 

Sent using Tapatalk

[Old Man Internet 4]

You all had great points of view and thank you LZ1, your response was detailed, well thought out and written. I share pretty much the same views as you, and yes the technical aspects here are more advanced, but it has taught me how to be more secure.

 

Oddly, I found AirVPN through a lot of research and one very well written review from an author who is a leading expert with an advanced knowledge of the really small but extremely important features to look for when searching for a VPN. At the time, I knew some of the fundamental aspects of what to look for. It was his article that discussed topics I had to do further research on. This led me to believe, he was not writing for your average everyday user but a very specific niche audience of users who really take privacy serious. He placed AirVPN and like 4 others at the top VPN's in his opinion.

 

I ended up choosing this VPN because after reading everything he had discussed and then furthered my research on the topics I hadn't understood, it was AirVPN that had most of the key features which I spoke of in my review. You can't have everything right? Every VPN is missing on thing or the other but from I learned, there were features I knew I couldn't go without.

 

Yes, as you said, they only let us have three different devices vs some VPN's who let you have more. Honestly, looking for a VPN with the most servers wasn't even a thing I was looking for because in his article, he pointed out something I never knew. The quantity of servers is not half as important as it is to know which countries their servers are located and hosted in. The article pointed out, understanding the importance behind why a VPN chooses one country over another is vital because it can have a huge implications on a user's privacy based on laws in place for the hosting country, should it ever come into play. Another reason, why I went with AirVPN.   

 

Thanks again everyone, I'll also try to find that article. It educated me on a lot of things; AirVPN was just a bonus and for the speed and no cap all for the price, is untouchable in my honest opinion. 

 

 

I'm not sure what expert article you read, some links would be nice, but your experience pretty much mirrors mine. I did quite a bit of research first and I've been a member for nearly 2 years, I have a couple months left on my premium sub and I will certainly re-up before it expires. I've had a few issues, some were my fault, some weren't (bugs in the software the client uses) but have been mostly resolved. I didn't know about the affiliate links at all (read about that in the privacy guy thread, no regrets) but I've referred co-workers to AirVPN and taught a few people how to use it. That said, privacy/security are hard and even technical users can have issues they're not even aware of (Web RTC, UPNP, IPV6 leaks, Adobe Flash, to name a few).

 

As an aside, I've noticed ipleak.net is down a lot lately, an alternative, although not nearly as comprehensive but which I've found useful is dnsleaktest.com. Another aside, I strongly recommend using the VPN inside a VM if you run it on a computer, because then your regular connection is unaffected and you can switch between them as needed (VirtualBox on Linux, VMware Player on Windows are what I use and both are free and have been great, use Bridged network connections as they will be essentially treated as independent machines on the network), it also makes using the Network Lock viable and easy. Also important, reserve Forwarded Ports in the Client Area and configure programs to use them if they need better connectivity. Anyway, should have gone to bed half an hour ago sorry for rambling.

[cm0s 118]

To me one of the best things that can be done Oldkrow and you already did it is just saying hello. I had been with a few other vpn providers and straight up they were all fine. Some had live chat others didn't. Some supported the linux terminal others didn't etc. Sometimes xyz server was good other times it had a bad day. And then to agree with what LZ1 stated my bad linux day can turn into a bad customer day. That's the simple truth. If yer techy and ya like tweaking boxes well there ya have: 'what's this button do'?

 

I live a very loner style life and don't hang too many places. Just had a death in the family about a month ago and not handling it well at all. Add to that dealing with the VA and blah blah yeah, not always happy with myself. All I want and need from my vpn provider is one thing: that they have my back even when I don't. And I got that here. That's not something you can pay for, not something you can sell in an ad anywhere. It's a gut level thing.

 

I like yer nic and hope to read more posts from ya. Good to meet ya. Thank you for your post.

 

cheerz

[garmiste 2]

I agree on getting AirVPN noticed to a point. I live in China and we don't want any VPN service getting noticed too much. Some of the top providers have suddenly found their service totally blocked in China or have been subject to an actual attack. The firewall here is so masterfully designed that no service can really break through it consistently. No, I can't imagine anyone thinking a little company like AirVPN would be able to put a crack in such a sophisticated piece of Chinese engineering.

[Staff 9973]

I agree on getting AirVPN noticed to a point. I live in China and we don't want any VPN service getting noticed too much. Some of the top providers have suddenly found their service totally blocked in China or have been subject to an actual attack. The firewall here is so masterfully designed that no service can really break through it consistently. No, I can't imagine anyone thinking a little company like AirVPN would be able to put a crack in such a sophisticated piece of Chinese engineering.

 

In reality it's quite simple: a pure TLS tunnel. As long as pure TLS tunnels are allowed, no problems (but note that pure TLS tunnel traffic is shaped, even heavily - that's one of the reasons why HTTPS is frequently much slower than HTTP in China residential lines). Whether a company is big or tiny does not matter because the ways to circumvent the blocks, under a technical point of view, are simple and can be achieved even by a single person in a matter of minutes with minimal monetary involvement.

 

And note that "such a sophisticated piece of Chinese engineering" does not exist as a single piece. It's just a set of non-uniform ISP techniques, which are not even coherent between lines and zones. For example, in many residential lines in mainland China OpenVPN is disrupted, but on mobile lines it is not (you can successfully use OpenVPN in TCP most of the time, no need of double tunneling). In Shanghai less blocks than in other areas are enforced. And so on.

 

Kind regards

[Veep Peep 13]

FYI - I never heard of AV via any internet advertising.  I heard about it from the head of our security group.

 

The main basis of his determination was not so much security but trust.  How do you know your information on the proxies are safe?  He thought chat from this group was a good indicator.

For me, distribution of servers, cost, reliability.  I also got a trial.

After further use - European laws are more privacy focused than NA.  

Forums here offer a lot of help.

 

Originally I was going to go with HideMyAss or one of those advertised ones basically because of the advertising I saw.

 

While I understand advertising works, word of mouth is pretty solid too.

 

Personally, the price is reasonable enough that I might get a subscription for my father, but he is less technical than me.  If something goes wrong, he is lost and lives far away from me.

 

My fear is soon everyone will be on a VPN, and there will be many providers (like government, corporate partnered ones) but you just won't be able to trust the servers (and people who support them) they go through.....

 

Thanks,

 

Mr. V