Eddie Problems

[Terry Stanford 11]

Mac OSX 10.12.6
Eddie V2.16.3
No wifi, only ethernet connection.

When my Mac goes to sleep, Eddie sometimes (not always) disconnects from the internet. I don't mind it doing this, in fact I quite like it as I used to unplug the network cable when I left my machine anyway.

However I have a real problem when I sit back down, as it usually won't reconnect again.

Again, it doesn't happen every time (which is a bit strange). Sometimes I leave my computer for 12 hours, and its still connected when i come back, in fact that's probably the norm., But maybe 1 in 4 times I find it has disconnected. I wouldn't mind that if it just connected again straight away, but it can take quite a long time to get it to do so. The least I have to do usually is pull my ethernet cable (for my own protection not for fault fixing), then quit Eddie app. Run it again, plug ethernet in again, and all works perfectly, connecting in just a few seconds. See attached, I decided to video it in case that helps.

Any help appreciated.
 

[LZ1 672]

Hello!
 

Quote

When my Mac goes to sleep, Eddie sometimes (not always) disconnects from the internet. I don't mind it doing this, in fact I quite like it as I used to unplug the network cable when I left my machine anyway.

But why do you do this? It's largely unnecessary to unplug it. Also, of course Eddie disconnects - your Mac is sleeping.

As Network Lock is clearly enabled in your video, the same firewall rules will still be in place and thus prevent any communication to and from your Mac, while Eddie isn't active. Unless you deactive Eddie and/or Network Lock first.

Posting a video is definitely rare around here. But it's not helpful - we need your logs, which are accessible through the logs tab, as seen in your video :). 

You're welcome to try update to a Beta version of Eddie, if you wish to. Instructions can be found in my signature.

[Terry Stanford 11]

"Also, of course Eddie disconnects - your Mac is sleeping." - Oh, I didn't know that was quite so obvious. Maybe you can explain why it doesn't disconnect on 90% of the occasions when my mac goes to sleep? Every time I go for a coffee, take a phone call etc, it goes into sleep mode (5 mins i think), as it does over night. MANY times I come back (even after overnight) and it hasn't disconnected. It's not every time, it's intermittent. Thats probably why I assumed it wasn't a default rule.

The video was my way of showing you visually what I am seeing. I can send logs, what personal information/browsing data will they reveal, presumably none but just checking.

Regardless of why Eddie disconnects, that's fine as I said. The issue is why it can't reconnect when I sit back down, not without quitting and re-running it anyway. I unplug my ethernet cable then because the network lock wont work while Eddie is not running.

thanks

 

[LZ1 672]

Quote

Regardless of why Eddie disconnects, that's fine as I said. The issue is why it can't reconnect when I sit back down, not without quitting and re-running it anyway. I unplug my ethernet cable then because the network lock wont work while Eddie is not running.

We won't have any idea until we see your logs from the logs tab. There's no personal information in them and definitely not anything browsing related. But it's usually the case that when Eddie isn't closed "properly" that errors can thus occur. Since the technical conditions change all the time, you sometimes are able to resume connecting immediately and sometimes not.

It could sound like you've misunderstood something: network lock is a security feature meant to guard against leakage of your real IP address. So in between server changes or during disconnects, the usefulness of network lock is shown, since it's during such times that a less carefully implemented VPN solution would see you disconnect from the VPN, have your real IP revealed, before then re-connecting to the VPN and again hiding your IP. Therefore, it's not necessary to unplug the cable, for reasons of network lock not working while Eddie is not running. Of course it's up to you. 😁

You could try to keep network enabled, but first click on "Disconnect" and then allow your Mac to sleep. Then you might encounter less problems upon trying to re-connect.

[NoiselessOwl 26]

On 12/27/2019 at 10:05 AM, Terry Stanford said:

Maybe you can explain why it doesn't disconnect on 90% of the occasions when my mac goes to sleep? Every time I go for a coffee, take a phone call etc, it goes into sleep mode (5 mins i think), as it does over night. MANY times I come back (even after overnight) and it hasn't disconnected. It's not every time, it's intermittent. Thats probably why I assumed it wasn't a default rule.

Eddie cannot maintain a connection while the computer is sleeping. How long does it get to the desktop when you wake it from sleeping? If it takes about 30 seconds or so, then Eddie likely attempt to re-connect in the background once it was awaken while you are waiting to get to the desktop. Eddie don't wait until you log in or you get to the desktop. It reestablish the connection once you wake your Mac and it will attempt to connect to the same server you are connected to. It the same for my Windows. So it doesn't have to go through the cold-startup connection process (doing the latency test, find the right server based on the scoring then attempt to connect from there). From there, it re-connect fairly quickly. If that is not the case, then it is likely your Mac is not sleeping but only the screen is off assuming you are using Macbook.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Hi LZ1, no I do fully understand network lock. That's not why I unplug. I do it for various other reasons whic are not important here. One of those reasons is because my iMac has a temp sensor issue and very occasionally it will power itself off when asleep. I cant afford to replace it or fix that issue at the moment. But with the ethernet unplugged I do'nt make the mistake of being exposed (real IP) when I power it up again, IF I forget to run Eddie. I do have it set to launch as a startup app, but it can run after other programs, so JUST in case there is a sneaky second or two where my real IP would leak, I like to unplug the ethernet. But that's not the issue to be discussed here really. I notice Eddie always needs a password to run. I have heard people say that's for security reasons. I get it. But I want it to run without an admin password needed. How do I set that?

For the last three nights running, in the morning Eddie was connected when I logged in. It takes only a few seconds to wake the machine after sleeping. Eddie is usually connected, but sometimes it isn't.

I can get the logs. Do you think it would be best to clear my logs so I have a clean slate, and then send the logs once I have the issue?

thanks

[Terry Stanford 11]

Coiuld someone please answer my question above about making eddie run without an admin password.

Also, loads more of the same problem. Eddie fails to reconnect after sleeping but not only sleeping, after just screensaver too. Sometimes only a few minutes away, I return to see no connection and Eddie is stick in a loop trying to reconnect. It fails at checking IPV4 route, over and over to all servers, until I force Eddie to quit and restart it. Even then it sometimes repeats (did just now) several times. After a couple of quits of Eddie, I got it working and copied the logs. Where do I send them for review please?

[NoiselessOwl 26]

It is more likely is the security setting in your Mac that required you to put down the admin password. Any program that need root privilege will trigger the OS's security and the prompt is based on the security option. If your Mac kept prompting you for admin password, then it is the setting in your Mac. Eddie need root privilege to run because it is a system-level changes. It is not Eddie's fault for triggering the prompt because your Mac is trying to protect you from softwares making adjustment to your system. This is by design of OS.

You can post your logs here. Attachment or copy and paste.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Thanks for replying. I have asked before about this password thing when Eddie runs. I am sure I was told it's 'a security feature of Eddie' and that I am advised to keep it that way.
I have run many different VPN apps from PIA to Express to Mullvad, and never had a password upon every run, only first time installation. So I don't think my Mac has any extra special security settings activated, no other apps on my machine ever need admin password every time they run. So it looks like Eddie runs with higher priveleges than anything else or any other VPN i have ever run. I don't mind that, but it would be good if I could suss out how to avoid this password thing. However the priority is lower on this now as I realise the network lock kicks in BEFORE entering that password so that's a relief, that was why I was unpliugging ethernet because if my machine crashed and rebooted (as it does sometimes, temp sensor HW issue) then I feared i may be exposed. Anyway, not to worry.

My logs - I have the logs ready but I don't want to post in a public forum. Could you please give me an email address I can use to send them in?
thanks again

[Terry Stanford 11]

PS, I installed Eddie on a Mac Mini I just bought. It has the same problem whereby it gets stuck (permanently until quit and restarted) on "Checking route IPV4", every time machine sleeps or sometimes just due to a random disconnect and can't reconnect. This Mac Mini is completely factory standard except for literally 3 installed apps (Firefox and two other small programs). I know you guys are busy and this is a very nicely priced VPN service, but this does appear to be a bug (as it connects perfectly to same servers after a restart), so I would be really grateful if it could be looked into at all.

[NoiselessOwl 26]

5 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

So it looks like Eddie runs with higher priveleges than anything else or any other VPN i have ever run. I don't mind that, but it would be good if I could suss out how to avoid this password thing. However the priority is lower on this now as I realise the network lock kicks in BEFORE entering that password so that's a relief, that was why I was unpliugging ethernet because if my machine crashed and rebooted (as it does sometimes, temp sensor HW issue) then I feared i may be exposed. Anyway, not to worry.

You shouldn't worry about that when you have Network Lock enabled. The purpose of Network Lock is to force all traffic to go through one interface which in this case, third-party network adapter. For Windows, it is TAP-Windows Adapter. I think it is Hummingbird for MacOS, I am not familiar with Mac side. By design, only TAP can be communicated via Eddie. I believe it work like this Computer<-->Eddie<-->TAP<-->Internet. TAP only can be communicate directly to and from Eddie. If anything happens to Eddie (such as crashed, computer restart or anything) and Eddie is not active, then TAP will cease all communication to the internet until Eddie is active. That mean no matter how the apps is attempting to connect to the internet via TAP, TAP will report to the app that there is no internet connection. The enabled Network Lock is persistent through sleep, standby, restart, shutdown or anything else until you get in Eddie and tell it to deactivate Network Lock. Network Lock is independent from Eddie, so it will not rely on Eddie to be active to remain the Network Lock. It is superior option over Kill Switch. Kill Switch is only reliable as the VPN app is active. If the VPN app is shutdown or anything else, the kill switch option will go down with the app.
 

5 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

My logs - I have the logs ready but I don't want to post in a public forum. Could you please give me an email address I can use to send them in?
thanks again

Your logs are safe with us because the logs didn't reveal much information about you. The only public information it will show is your OS version, Eddie version and your profile path (you can edit your log to replace your profile folder name to something else). It didn't contain your actual IP address, there is no way to trace it back to you. Any IP address you see in the Logs are AirVPN server IP. If you are worried about that, thousands of users is using the same server IP which make it harder to trace back to you. And users is posting their logs in the forums without issue. I strongly recommend to post your logs here because it will allows other users who are capable to troubleshoot your issue than waiting for Staff to respond.

[Staff 9973]

@Terry Stanford

Hello!

Can you please test Eddie 2.18.6 beta and check whether the same problem occurs or not? To download Eddie latest beta version please see here:
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/45326-eddie-desktop-218beta-released/

Bypassing password authentication to gain root privileges is possible but do NOT do it, it's an important security feature and from your message we suspect that you have no idea of the consequences of what you're asking for.

Viscosity did that for mysterious reasons and it did not end well, with exploits which were soon born to gain total control of systems running Viscosity.

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/20485

A different approach is coming soon which will offer more comfort without compromising security, unlike it happens with some reckless VPN providers. Some of them adopted unacceptable solutions, such as flagging their binaries with x+s flags, so any normal user (even a non-sudoer) could run them as superuser with no authorization, incredibly foolish and dangerous thing and it's even more astonishing that such solutions may be considered in a good light by some people. Stay tuned.

Kind regards
 

[Terry Stanford 11]

Two excellent responses above, thanks both of you - A few replies:

Owl - TAP etc - sounds like you're talking about Windows. I do'nt run any windows machines, only Mac, and I am unsure from your explanation whether what you say applies on Mac too. I thought that if Eddie wasn't running, the machine can access the web. I assumed (having used inferior other VPN providers!) that the network lock runs inside Eddie, therefore without Eddie running I have nothing running to prevent traffic flow. I have just tested on my Mac and WOW, you're right and it applies to Mac too! How brilliant is that?! Shit, Air kicks ass . Even after quitting it, the machine has no connectivity. That's so impressive. I won't ask what I want to "how the f*ck does that work if Eddie is shut down?!" because I won't understand the answer!! I will just remain stupidly impressed!! Great news, I can chill out as you said!

Logs - Ok I understand, I will paste them here tomorrow

Staff - Ok, you're right, I don't understand enough to know what this really means in terms of risk. I will follow your advice there. The ONLY reason I wanted it is because I assumed network lock couldn't work when Eddie wasn't running. So thats no longer an issue anyway.

I will try beta tomorrow and let you know. Thanks so much for the great support here.

[Terry Stanford 11]

Hi all, A quick question I am hoping someone can answer.....

I have never used SSH before. A few friends have mentioned it and it always seemed way over my head, command line etc. I have done a few bits in command line, but I am not confident at all.

I have a need to tunnel into my home LAN when I am not here, to access my CCTV (which is connected to LAN but not to WAN for security/privacy reasons, it's Hikvision !!)

I have just bought an EdgeRouterX, as my ISP router is crap with no configuration options and I felt it was time to change it. I also learned that EdgeRouter can provide me a way to VPN into my own LAN. However, if I am running AirVPN on my phone, I would need to disconnect, then connect to custom VPN to tunnel into my home LAN, and it all sounds quite complicated especailly when I would need to do that every time I get an email alert of motion being detected at home on my driveway.

I found this page   https://airvpn.org/ssh/ - I am still not completely sure what it's for or what it does (ssh), but I wondered if this might give me a better way to do the above, and tunnel into my LAN. Could anyone comment please?

SSH - does this just give command line access, or would it connect an entire machine, so for example would it mean I could view my home computer (full Mac OS GUI) from my iphone? Or am I even more confused than I thought I was?

Grateful for any comments. thanks

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

3 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

I found this page   https://airvpn.org/ssh/ - I am still not completely sure what it's for or what it does (ssh), but I wondered if this might give me a better way to do the above, and tunnel into my LAN. Could anyone comment please?

It's another way of connecting to AirVPN. OpenVPN is encapsulated into an SSH connection, so it would look like SSH traffic. It's not what you need.
 

3 hours ago, Terry Stanford said:

SSH - does this just give command line access, or would it connect an entire machine, so for example would it mean I could view my home computer (full Mac OS GUI) from my iphone? Or am I even more confused than I thought I was?

SSH itself is a protocol. You can tunnel anything through it, be that command line access or OpenVPN traffic ( = AirVPN over SSH). Yes, even viewing your home computer, the right application or configuration provided.

[Terry Stanford 11]

thanks. i think i understand. So it wont offer me any way to connect to my home LAN. That's fine, will use the EdgeROuter. Just trust Air more than most other people

[Terry Stanford 11]

On 1/21/2020 at 5:53 PM, Staff said:

@Terry Stanford

Hello!

Can you please test Eddie 2.18.6 beta and check whether the same problem occurs or not? To download Eddie latest beta version please see here:
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/45326-eddie-desktop-218beta-released/

I have yet to try beta. Having loads of trouble with Eddie on Mac OSX. Another machine playing up, constantly refusing to connect. My main machine also had major trouble this morning, giving a strange error i haven't seen before:

"

Unexpected error. Please contact our support staff. - Object reference not set to an instance of an object -   at (wrapper managed-to-native) ObjCRuntime.Messaging.nint_objc_msgSend(intptr,intptr)

  at AppKit.NSAlert.RunModal () [0x00018] in <58224b8ff0b84c28ac0d1519cd5ba621>:0 

  at Eddie.UI.Cocoa.Osx.GuiUtils.MessageYesNo (System.String message, System.String title) [0x0002a] in <16c8ca8a376b4a4db39fe416ec86193a>:0 

  at Eddie.UI.Cocoa.Osx.GuiUtils.MessageYesNo (System.String message) [0x00000] in <16c8ca8a376b4a4db39fe416ec86193a>:0 

  at Eddie.UI.Cocoa.Osx.MainWindowController.Shutdown () [0x0000d] in <16c8ca8a376b4a4db39fe416ec86193a>:0 

  at Eddie.UI.Cocoa.Osx.MainWindowController.<AwakeFromNib>b__18_57 (System.Object sender, System.EventArgs e) [0x00000] in <16c8ca8a376b4a4db39fe416ec86193a>:0 

  at AppKit.ActionDispatcher.OnActivated (Foundation.NSObject sender) [0x00010] in <58224b8ff0b84c28ac0d1519cd5ba621>:0 

  at (wrapper managed-to-native) AppKit.NSApplication.NSApplicationMain(int,string[])

  at AppKit.NSApplication.Main (System.String[] args) [0x00040] in <58224b8ff0b84c28ac0d1519cd5ba621>:0 

  at Eddie.UI.Cocoa.Osx.MainClass.Main (System.String[] args) [0x000be] in <16c8ca8a376b4a4db39fe416ec86193a>:0 "

I am ready to try the beta version, but as it has been a while since these posts were made so hopefully it's still ok to try it. If there are any new updates or things I should know before I try it please reply below. Thanks v much