Eddie on MacOS

[Terry Stanford 11]

Hi, I have a few questions about the Mac app.

1. It's very slow to connect, compared to other VPN apps I have used in the past. Is there anything I can do to speed it up, why does it take so long?

2. It would be nice to have a switch location option in the menu bar item. I used to switch location regularly with my old VPN, but this now needs me to open the window fully, find a server, and double click it. I can live with it, but as a suggestion I think a quick one click option from the menu bar menu would be kinda cool :D

3. I unplug ethernet from my machine when I leave the machine, just seems like good practice to me and I have always done it. When I do it using AirVPN, the machine is pinging messages every second until I plug it back in, if i force it to disconnect before I unplug, that solves the problem, but is there a way to stop these ping/notifications saying trying to connect over and over again? (I know I can turn off notifications but I like those on so I know if it the connection drops out)

4. Every time I start Eddie, I get a prompt for system admin password. Is that a setting I can change to avoid this prompt?

thanks

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

3 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

1. It's very slow to connect, compared to other VPN apps I have used in the past. Is there anything I can do to speed it up, why does it take so long?

We can't know unless you post your logs. Can be anything at this point, really, especially with the other points hinting at possible "modifications" to your macOS.
 

3 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

2. It would be nice to have a switch location option in the menu bar item. I used to switch location regularly with my old VPN, but this now needs me to open the window fully, find a server, and double click it. I can live with it, but as a suggestion I think a quick one click option from the menu bar menu would be kinda cool

As I asked other people before you, what is it that you hope to achieve with this? Who do you want to hide from? Reconnecting every x minutes causes noise, noise is what people and computers alike are noticing. Don't overdo your privacy to the point of utter paranoia, it does not nearly achieve what you hope to achieve. Tor would be a much better option if you want this.
 

3 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

3. I unplug ethernet from my machine when I leave the machine, just seems like good practice to me and I have always done it. When I do it using AirVPN, the machine is pinging messages every second until I plug it back in, if i force it to disconnect before I unplug, that solves the problem, but is there a way to stop these ping/notifications saying trying to connect over and over again? (I know I can turn off notifications but I like those on so I know if it the connection drops out)

Sure, whatever does it to you, but holy hell, that's state-of-the-art paranoia . No offense, though.
Are you an investigative journalist? Or threatened with a death sentence? What is your crime? Calm down, you're not nearly as important to whoever you are trying to hide from than you think you are. Besides, most tracking is done while you actually use the PC (i.e., plugged in), and also not particularly directed at someone. Second besides, if your machine is offline and Wake-on-LAN disabled administratively, waking up your PC will be impossible from the outside, because that's where the attacks come from.

There is an OpenVPN directive to set the number of retries when connection goes down: connect-retry-max. You could try that. In Eddie you can enter custom directives to be appended to Eddie's config, so something like connect-retry-max 3 will do it 3 times max.
 

3 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

4. Every time I start Eddie, I get a prompt for system admin password. Is that a setting I can change to avoid this prompt?

Now you are contradicting yourself. In 3 you unplug your machine, which I carefully interpret as "I want to be safe from outside attacks". And here you want to play directly into the hands of the attackers. You know, if you set the binary password-less, someone with access to your machine can simply replace the binary. Then you unknowingly execute a party cracker. It's just one scenario but crackers can sometimes be more creative than artists.

[Terry Stanford 11]

hi and thanks for such a good response.
 

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We can't know unless you post your logs. Can be anything at this point, really, especially with the other points hinting at possible "modifications" to your macOS

Not sure what you mean re "modifications". I only have user level abilities. modifying things for me amounts to running little snitch or changing my screensaver.
 

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As I asked other people before you, what is it that you hope to achieve with this? Who do you want to hide from? Reconnecting every x minutes causes noise, noise is what people and computers alike are noticing. Don't overdo your privacy to the point of utter paranoia, it does not nearly achieve what you hope to achieve. Tor would be a much better option if you want this.

I see why you assumed i am trying to hide more with these changes. no. the work I do needs me to hop around accounts and geographical locations regularly but not every few minutes. every few hours maybe, sometimes a couple of changes in 5 mins, but rarely. i can work with it as I said, i just remember liking the way on many VPNs you click the manu bar item, then click another location and thats it, it disconnects and reconnects to the new location with one or two clicks. I am not doing this for privacy reasons really.
 

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Sure, whatever does it to you, but holy hell, that's state-of-the-art paranoia . No offense, though.
Are you an investigative journalist? Or threatened with a death sentence? What is your crime? Calm down, you're not nearly as important to whoever you are trying to hide from than you think you are.

Paranoia, not really. Just seems like good practice. I dont put my seat belt on because I expect to have a crash, but i still put it on, cos why not. Same applies for me to pulling out a plug as I leave my machine. I can do it so easily, why not?! But you do have a point. Its more due to my ignorance than anything else. I dont know what you know about computers and networks. so in my super basic approach, pulling a plug disconnects me from the world, so i pull it! If its unnecessary, fine, but it really is no hassle. I know most attacks would take place while i am at the machine, but i might notice something strange then, like mouse movements or processes starting up or whatever. but my answer to that is, when i need to be ON the machine, I NEED to be on the machine! When i dont, I don't, so why leave it connected? I know it probably sounds weird. thats just me i guess. I am happy to own it

OpenVPN retries - not sure I could change that setting without step by step idiot proof instructions, but thanks! That would work. I tried disconnecting Eddie manually today and that solved the problem, I will just start doing that. I just have some new habits to get used to on AirVPN which I am not used to doing on other VPNs. but dont take that as any criticism at all. If i didn't prefer Air, i wouldn't be using it - the speeds are fucken great, and this forum gives me huge confidence in the team behind it. you really know your shit.
 

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Now you are contradicting yourself. In 3 you unplug your machine, which I carefully interpret as "I want to be safe from outside attacks". And here you want to play directly into the hands of the attackers. You know, if you set the binary password-less, someone with access to your machine can simply replace the binary. Then you unknowingly execute a party cracker. It's just one scenario but crackers can sometimes be more creative than artists.

Sorry, you totally lost me there. Bear in mind youre talking to someone who dunno what a 'binary' is! If you're saying that the password prompt is normal, thats now it should be, and if it wasn't there the machine wouild be less secure, thats fine and I will live with it and thank you for making me safer

What a great forum and great people, the tech knowledge on some of these threads is amazing. Good bye Express, PIA, Nord (ugh), and all the rest!

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

1 hour ago, Terry Stanford said:

Not sure what you mean re "modifications". I only have user level abilities. modifying things for me amounts to running little snitch or changing my screensaver.

Ah, okay, pardon me, then. Usually it hints at the user having used some programs or done some configuration changes to get more privacy, like the countless Windows 10 tools or Registry changes.
 

1 hour ago, Terry Stanford said:

i just remember liking the way on many VPNs you click the manu bar item, then click another location and thats it, it disconnects and reconnects to the new location with one or two clicks. I am not doing this for privacy reasons really.

I see. Well, it's definitely a quality of life improvement.
 

1 hour ago, Terry Stanford said:

I know it probably sounds weird. thats just me i guess. I am happy to own it

Probably habit by now.
 

1 hour ago, Terry Stanford said:

OpenVPN retries - not sure I could change that setting without step by step idiot proof instructions, but thanks! That would work. I tried disconnecting Eddie manually today and that solved the problem, I will just start doing that. I just have some new habits to get used to on AirVPN which I am not used to doing on other VPNs. but dont take that as any criticism at all. If i didn't prefer Air, i wouldn't be using it - the speeds are fucken great, and this forum gives me huge confidence in the team behind it. you really know your shit.

In Eddie, go to Preferences. In the Custom directives tab you have two fields, Custom directives and Base directives. Into the left field, paste this:

connect-retry-max 3

Change the three to the number of times you prefer.
 

1 hour ago, Terry Stanford said:

Bear in mind youre talking to someone who dunno what a 'binary' is!

Yeah, it's difficult to notice until you wrote with a user.
Think of a binary as an .exe file on Windows for example.
 

1 hour ago, Terry Stanford said:

If you're saying that the password prompt is normal, thats now it should be, and if it wasn't there the machine wouild be less secure, thats fine and I will live with it and thank you for making me safer

Well, I must admit here that there were users in the past wo had their problems with the password prompt on macOS. Can't fully remember the details, so you mentioning it shouldn't surprise anyone eventually

[Terry Stanford 11]

Binary is an exe (or dmg). Gotcha

Password when start Eddie - not sure if it's correct that I have to do this or not. Will just keep typing it in, no big deal really.

Max retries - 3. I did that, thanks. Unfortunately it didn't work. (I did save, but I didn't quite and restart Eddie, will try that when back to machine). I pulled the ethernet out, and it pinged over and over, retrying at least 8 times before I quit and plugged it back in then restarted Eddie. I seem to have to quit and restart Eddie to get it out of that loop, like it's stuck. Even though network is fully working again, Eddie only escapes the loop if i quit and run it again.

Thanks again, appreciate the help

[Terry Stanford 11]

Took me 20+ minutes to get online today. Even after I quit Eddie and restarted, it just couldnt make a connection. It sticks on "Checking route IPV4" for many minutes before failing and trying to connect again.


The password login is a pain too, any way to prevent that? Surely once I have installed Eddie, it should have authority to run without needing admin password each time it's started? Maybe I need to adjust some settings?

Biggest problem is the loop it gets stuck in. When I leave machine, I unplug ethernet and tell Eddie to disconnect (to prevent the reconnect loop). But when I come back and plug it back in, Eddie can't make a connection again, that's when I got the error above, but I don't always get that error, usually it just keeps trying and failing to connect, stuck on "Checking route ipv4" usually. But today that error came up too.

I could send logs, but can someone tell me how much personal info is included in them? Thanks

[OpenSourcerer 1441]

Hrmm, I really can't help you beyond that, maximum would be to search the forums for you...
 

6 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

I could send logs, but can someone tell me how much personal info is included in them? Thanks

In the Logs tab there's a lifebelt icon which prints out support information. All the real personal info is not included.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Thanks for listening anyway