Smart DNS

[steveo73 0]

Hi everyone,

 

I really like AirVpn however I stream some sport once per week in season that is geo-blocked. The vpn gets me around the geo-blocking however the VPN also slows down my download speed and that sometimes makes the stream stutter.

 

So to get around this issue does AirVpn offer Smart DNS now or intends to in the future ?

[OpenSourcerer 1360]

We appreciate a bit of work from your side, paste your logs so we know what setup we're dealing with.

[steveo73 0]

We appreciate a bit of work from your side, paste your logs so we know what setup we're dealing with.

 

I'm sorry but this doesn't make any sense to me. It's not a problem that has anything to do with technical errors.

 

The negative of any VPN is that it can slow down your Internet access. This is fine in most situations and I don't notice the difference however when I stream one sport that I watch the speed can be too slow to watch in HD over the course of the game.

 

My understanding of smart DNS is that it doesn't encrypt anything. It just handles the authentication with the server that you are accessing and then the stream remains as per your current connection. A VPN encrypts all your traffic. VPN's are a lot better in 99% of situations. This is one small situation where it would help if there was a Smart DNS option.

 

Truthfully I'm not sure how much I would pay for it and it's not a big deal however it'd be good to know if AirVpn were looking to implement this option.

[zhang888 1065]

This would be impossible to implement without permanently storing your IP server side, and allowing access to the DNS nodes strictly by that IP.

For billing purposes, since DNS as a protocol offers no authentication, all those services require you to submit your IP address in order to use their

DNS servers for the time of your subscription. Not only that it defeats the purpose of privacy, it would completely break the current model of work

which is simple - an authenticated VPN user can access Air's DNS servers regardless of the server location, and without any extra 3d party logging.

[OpenSourcerer 1360]

I'm sorry but this doesn't make any sense to me. It's not a problem that has anything to do with technical errors.

 

No? Please take a look at the first few lines of your logs. What does it tell us?

• Your OS. If you're running on Windows, Linux or a router does make a huge difference.
• Client and its version. Although "just a wrapper", Eddie 2.8 is a bit different than vanilla OpenVPN and can also make a difference.
• Which server you're connecting to. This is self-explanatory.

We also could need your output after all this. No errors? No warnings? Fine for you, but that's only the surface. In programming, if a compiler doesn't produce errors it does not mean the program will run exactly the way you want.

 

The negative of any VPN is that it can slow down your Internet access. This is fine in most situations and I don't notice the difference however when I stream one sport that I watch the speed can be too slow to watch in HD over the course of the game.

 

In this case, information about your router and ISP (maybe advertised speeds as well) might be interesting.

 

My understanding of smart DNS is that it doesn't encrypt anything. It just handles the authentication with the server that you are accessing and then the stream remains as per your current connection.

 

There is no "Smart DNS". If you use AirVPN's internal DNS servers for resolution and you access a website supported by it, you get rerouted through one of the double-hop servers. Rerouted means, all traffic to the supported website will be redirected through it. I use this to access ZDF and it doesn't kill a HD stream. (By the way, you also don't mention the website you try to use this with to have a chance for others to reproduce the issue.)

[steveo73 0]

I'm not trying to be difficult but I don't think that you guys are understanding what I am stating. This has nothing to do with the way I use AirVpn. Just to clarify for me personally I use linux, I open a terminal and I type in sudo openvpn and then I use a config file that I generate. It works great.

 

Maybe a better way to explain this is as follows:-

 

1. I do a speed test when I am connected to the AirVpn Hong Kong Server Phecda and get the following speeds:- 245 ms ping, 5.92 Mbps download (this is a little up and down but pretty good) and .71 mbps upload speed.

2. I do a speed test when I am connected to the AirVpn Lithuania Server Baten and get the following speeds:- 392 ms ping, 5.03 Mbps download (this is a little more up and down but still decent) and .68 mbps upload speed. I have to use this VPN to watch the sport I want to watch.

3. I do a speed test when I am connected to no VPN I get the following speeds:- 22 ms ping, 7.33 Mbps download (this is pretty constant) and .86 mbps upload speed.

 

So if I had a smart dns option I could watch the stream and connect for instance via the Lithuania address but the data would be sent to me via an unecrypted tunnel with a better latency and speed.

 

Here is some information on smart DNS:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_DNS_proxy_server

 

Unlike VPN proxy, a smart DNS proxy does not encrypt communications and does not direct all internet traffic via the proxy. Instead, it selectively directs traffic for certain sites, typically those of popular streaming services, via the proxy. This is achieved by overriding selected DNS entries so that DNS queries resolve to the address of the proxy rather than the real server. Only the relevant information needed for a user to view the digital media content is routed via the proxy. This is information related to a user's geographical location.

 

Basically a smart DNS is a little different to a VPN and it has it use cases like what I have posted above.

 

So if I had a smart dns option I could watch the stream and connect for instance via the Lithuania address but the data would be sent to me via an unencrypted tunnel with a better latency and speed.

[Khariz 109]

A loss of 20% (7.3 to 5.9) while connected to VPN isn't very bad at all, especially when you take distance, latency, encryption etc. into account.  In fact, latency probably makes up a majority of that loss. You should be able to connect to the server closest to you and still view the sporting event through AirVPN's micro-routing.  If it doesn't work, you can post about it in the applicable area, and they can attempt to fix that.

[steveo73 0]

A loss of 20% (7.3 to 5.9) while connected to VPN isn't very bad at all, especially when you take distance, latency, encryption etc. into account.  In fact, latency probably makes up a majority of that loss. You should be able to connect to the server closest to you and still view the sporting event through AirVPN's micro-routing.  If it doesn't work, you can post about it in the applicable area, and they can attempt to fix that.

 

The problem with this is that I have to use specific locations to get around the geo-blocking. So most of the time I use a server as close as possible to my location however in this situation I can't because there whole area is geo-blocked.

 

I suppose the question should more be have AirVpn thought about adding a smart dns feature to the products that they offer because there are use cases where this might help.

 

I have no problems with AirVpn's VPN service. It does everything that I want it too. I don't think it's the VPN service that is poor in this instance.

[OpenSourcerer 1360]

So after all, we're dealing with a simple feature request? Next time please create a tag or write it into the header. I feel like I wasted time trying to find a solution to your buffering problem...

[steveo73 0]

So after all, we're dealing with a simple feature request? Next time please create a tag or write it into the header. I feel like I wasted time trying to find a solution to your buffering problem...

 

I did actually state that in my initial post and throughout the thread. I felt like people were trying to find a solution when there was no need for it.

[OpenSourcerer 1360]

The vpn gets me around the geo-blocking however the VPN also slows down my download speed and that sometimes makes the stream stutter.

 

So to get around this issue does AirVpn offer Smart DNS now or intends to in the future ?

 

I'm sorry, but this ^ really sounded like you had a problem you wanted to solve, suggesting Smart DNS could be the solution. This looked like another XY problem to me so I tried to intervene.

 

Anyway, you've got your answer now. Let's be more specific in the future <3

[Khariz 109]

Have you asked AirVPN to add your sports site into the microrouting?

[steveo73 0]

No - I haven't done this. I didn't know that this was possible. I think I will give this a try as well.

 

Thanks for the comment.

[Khariz 109]

Here is more info on that: https://airvpn.org/forum/10-websites-support/

[SodaStream 7]

Hi everyone,

 

I really like AirVpn however I stream some sport once per week in season that is geo-blocked. The vpn gets me around the geo-blocking however the VPN also slows down my download speed and that sometimes makes the stream stutter.

 

So to get around this issue does AirVpn offer Smart DNS now or intends to in the future ?

Does smart DNS work with netflix?

[Khariz 109]

Does smart DNS work with netflix?

The only VPN providers that I can find that are still successfully supplying Netflix access to their clients is through the use of large pools of dedicated IPs.