End-servers; considerations in selection for newbies

[Gobulin 0]

Hello,

Have been using AirVPN for about a month and very impressed after having using two other popular VPNs during the previous 18 months. I have looked thru the forum and FAQ but cannot seem to find an answer to a rather basic question I have regarding end-servers: considerations in selecting and how to select. So far I seem to have stumbled accidentally onto several intended servers but strictly by chance and ignorance on my part; operational qualities conducive neither to safety nor professionalism. So not having confidence in my understanding of how to select a desired server I’ve just left the choice to AirVPN. Is there anything like a step-by-step guide to show a newbie exactly how to volitionally engage with  – and dis-engage  from – a listed country and/or its listed servers? After all, a lot of work has been done just to list them! 

If I were to suggest such a guide, it might start reading something like this:

“AirVPN maintains many servers in many different countries, any one of which is normally available to subscribers. Let’s say for example you live in Toronto Canada and wish to connect to a Latvian server. You would first open AirVPN’s Main Window by double-clicking the AirVPN icon in the taskbar, displaying the tabs “Overview”, “Servers”  “Countries”, “Speed” “Stats” and “Logs”. Now click on the………….”

Here’s where my ignorance begins, folks! lol Hopefully there will be some reader whose eyes may have lit up with excitement because they will have been through the same issue and eager to jump in to complete such a tutorial. Additional commentary that would also be most helpful and welcome might be to include thoughts as to why one might choose a certain country (and choice of server within it), from both political (obvious) and technical (not so obvious) perspectives. If this sounds a bit naïve coming from a VPN user, well, so be it, and call me a student.

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool; avoid him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student; teach him.

He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep; wake him.

He who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man; follow him.

 

 

Persian apothegm, Sanskrit Saying

 

 

[LZ1 672]

Hello!

 

That was a very long post, for what I understand to be a simple question of "what should I base my choice of server on?".

 

Besides just going to the server list and double-clicking the server you want to connect to, you can also just click the big connect to recommended server button. When you click "Connect To Recommended Server" in the Eddie client, the client ranks the various servers according to how good the Ping is. Since Ping changes in accordance with various network-related factors, so too does the recommended server from day to day or hour to hour or whatever the refresh rate of Ping is, in your client. Since all of Airs servers follow the same technical standards, the only variation is in the alotted Mbit or Gbit and location of the server.

 

Since everyone is connected to a different ISP and/or lives in a different area and has different computer and network setups, people's experience with any given server will often be quite different. Thus you need to try out different servers, to find what's best for you. Politically, Air doesn't set up servers in countries where it thinks there's a real risk to privacy and/or security and is prepared to remove servers if they think there is, as they did with the French servers recently. But besides speed, you may want to get access to a specific country's content, which requires you connect to a specific server of the same country, unless the service or content you're wanting to access, is covered by AirVPN's "micro-routing", which you can read more about in my guide.

 

Besides that, you can white or black list specific countries or servers in the client, by clicking the server or country in question and then clicking the corresponding button in the right-hand side pane:

 

Does this answer your questions?