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Hello! We're very glad to introduce a new software suite for Linux. The suite includes the well known Hummingbird software, updated to the latest OpenVPN AirVPN library, and introduces for the first time a D-Bus controlled, real daemon, Bluetit, as well as a command line client, Goldcrest, to interact with Bluetit. New architecture The client-daemon architecture we introduce for the first time in our software offers a more robust security model and provides system administrators with a fine-grained, very flexible access control. Bluetit is fully integrated with AirVPN. The daemon is accessed through a D-Bus interface by providing specific methods and interface in order to give full support to OpenVPN connection and AirVPN functionality, including - but not limited to - quick automatic connection to the best AirVPN server for any specific location as well as any AirVPN server or country. Connection during system bootstrap is fully supported as well. New OpenVPN 3 library features Hummingbird and Bluetit are linked against a new version of our OpenVPN 3 library which supports directive data-ciphers: it can be used consistently with OpenVPN 2.5 syntax in OpenVPN profiles. The directive allows OpenVPN 3 based software to negotiate a common Data Channel cipher with the OpenVPN server,, updating therefore our library to ncp-like negotiation with OpenVPN 2 branch. Hummingbird and Bluetit are already linked against the new library version, while Eddie Android edition will be updated in the near future. The new library also includes a different handling of IV_CIPHERS variable, fixing OpenVPN main branch issues which caused a plethora of problems with OpenVPN 2.5. The implementation, at the same time, takes care of full backward compatibility with OpenVPN versions older than 2.5. ncp-disable directive, which to date has never been implemented in the main branch, is still supported, in order to further enhance backward compatibility with both OpenVPN profiles and servers, as well as connection flexibility with servers running older than 2.5 OpenVPN versions. Please note that if you enforce a specific Data Channel cipher by means of Bluetit configuration file, Hummingbird line option, or Goldcrest configuration file and/or line option, the enforced Data Channel cipher will override data-ciphers profile directive. Changelog 3.6.6 AirVPN by ProMIND - [ProMIND] [2020/11/02] openvpn/ssl/proto.hpp: IV_CIPHERS is set to the overridden cipher only (both from client and/or OpenVPN profile) in order to properly work with OpenVPN 2.5 IV_CIPHERS specifications. The old method of cipher overriding by means of negotiable crypto parameters is still supported in order to maintain compatibility with OpenVPN < 2.5.0 - [ProMIND] [2020/11/24] added "data-ciphers" directive to profile config .ovpn files in order to comply to OpenVPN 2.5 negotiable data cipher specifications. In case "data-ciphers" is found in the .ovpn files IV_CIPHERS is assigned to the algorithms found in "data-ciphers". In this specific case, "cipher" directive is used as a fallback cipher and, if not already specified in "data-ciphers", is appended to IV_CIPHERS Notes on systemd-resolved In Fedora 33 systemd-resolved comes pre-configured to work in "on-link" mode and network-manager works together with it. This very peculiar, Windows-like setup kills Linux global DNS handling, causing those DNS leaks which previously occurred only on Windows. Hummingbird and Bluetit take care of preventing the brand new DNS leaks caused by such a setup. Also note that systemd-resolved comes pre-configured with fallback DNS (Google DNS is a systemd-resolved default fallback DNS, smart choices pile up!) which will be queried if each interface DNS server fails some resolution. In such a case, if and only if you have Network Lock enabled will DNS leaks be prevented. Supported systems The suite is currently available for Linux x86-64, i686 (32 bit distributions), arm7l (for example Raspbian and other ARM 32 bit based systems) and aarch64 (ARM 64 bit). AirVPN Suite is free and open source software licensed under GPLv3. Overview and main features AirVPN’s free and open source OpenVPN 3 suite based on AirVPN’s OpenVPN 3 library fork Version 1.0.0 - Relase date 7 January 2021 Bluetit: lightweight D-Bus controlled system daemon providing full connectivity to AirVPN servers and generic OpenVPN servers. Ability to connect the system to AirVPN during the bootstrap. Goldcrest: Bluetit client, allowing full integration with AirVPN servers, users, keys, profiles as well as generic OpenVPN servers Hummingbird: lightweight and standalone client for generic OpenVPN server connection Linux i686, x86-64, arm7l and arm64 (Raspberry) support Full integration with systemd, SysVStyle-init and chkconfig No heavy framework required, no GUI Tiny RAM footprint Lightning fast Based on OpenVPN 3 library fork by AirVPN version 3.6.6 with tons of critical bug fixes from the main branch, new cipher support and never seen before features ChaCha20-Poly1305 cipher support on both Control and Data Channel providing great performance boost on ARM, Raspberry PI and any Linux based platform not supporting AES-NI. Note: ChaCha20 support for Android had been already implemented in our free and open source Eddie Android edition Robust leaks prevention through Network Lock based either on iptables, nftables or pf through automatic detection Proper handling of DNS push by VPN servers, working with resolv.conf as well as any operational mode of systemd-resolved additional features User documentation (*) and source code: https://gitlab.com/AirVPN/AirVPN-Suite (*) Developer documentation to create custom software clients for Bluetit will be published in the near future. Download links: Linux x86-64: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-x86_64-1.0.0.tar.gz Linux x-86-64 sha512 check file: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-aarch64-1.0.0.tar.gz.sha512 Linux i686: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-i686-1.0.0.tar.gz Linux i686 sha512 check file: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-i686-1.0.0.tar.gz.sha512 Linux arm7l: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-armv7l-1.0.0.tar.gz Linux arm7l sha512 check file: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-armv7l-1.0.0.tar.gz.sha512 Linux aarch64: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-aarch64-1.0.0.tar.gz Linux aarch64 sha512 check file: https://eddie.website/repository/AirVPN-Suite/1.0/AirVPN-Suite-aarch64-1.0.0.tar.gz.sha512 Kind regards AirVPN Staff

Hello! We're very glad to inform you that we have just released Hummingbird 1.1.1 for macOS (High Sierra or higher version required). UPDATE: Apple M1 native version is available too. Main features Lightweight and stand alone binary No heavy framework required, no GUI Small RAM footprint Lightning fast Up to 100% higher throughput than OpenVPN 2.5 Based on OpenVPN 3 library fork by AirVPN Robust leaks prevention through Network Lock based on pf - working perfectly on Big Sur too Proper handling of DNS push by VPN servers What's new Remarkably higher performance Hummingbird 1.1.1 is based on the latest OpenVPN AirVPN library version 3.6.6 linked against OpenSSL, and not mbedTLS anymore. OpenSSL latest versions in macOS have reached higher performance than mbedTLS both in encryption and decryption based on AES and CHACHA20-POLY1305 ciphers. By relying on OpenSSL and thanks to highly optimized compilation as usual, Hummingbird on macOS is now able to beat OpenVPN 2 performance as well as previous Hummingbird 1.1.0 performance. According to our tests performed on macOS Catalina and Mojave, and keeping AES-256-GCM as Data Channel cipher, throughput increases up to 100%. Comparisons have been performed against Eddie 2.19.6 + OpenVPN 2.5, Tunnelblick + OpenVPN 2.4.9 and Hummingbird 1.1.0. All the tests consistently show a great performance boost, starting from +30% and peaking to +100%. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you test Hummingbird 1.1.1 even if you run Eddie. Remember that you can run Hummingbird through Eddie comfortably and quickly by setting the proper option. New OpenVPN 3 library features Starting from version 1..1..1, Hummingbird is linked against a new version of our OpenVPN 3 library which supports directive data-ciphers: it can be used consistently with OpenVPN 2.5 syntax in OpenVPN profiles. The directive allows OpenVPN 3 based software to negotiate a common Data Channel cipher with the OpenVPN server,, updating therefore our library to ncp-like negotiation with OpenVPN 2 branch. The new library also includes a different handling of IV_CIPHERS variable, fixing OpenVPN main branch issues causing a plethora of problems with OpenVPN 2.5. The implementation, at the same time, takes care of full backward compatibility with OpenVPN versions older than 2.5. ncp-disable directive, which to date has never been implemented in the main branch, is still supported, in order to further enhance backward compatibility with both OpenVPN profiles and servers, as well as connection flexibility with servers running older than 2.5 OpenVPN versions. Please note that if you enforce a specific Data Channel cipher by means of Hummingbird line option, the enforced Data Channel cipher will override data-ciphers profile directive. Changelog 3.6.6 AirVPN by ProMIND - [ProMIND] [2020/11/02] openvpn/ssl/proto.hpp: IV_CIPHERS is set to the overridden cipher only (both from client and/or OpenVPN profile) in order to properly work with OpenVPN 2.5 IV_CIPHERS specifications. The old method of cipher overriding by means of negotiable crypto parameters is still supported in order to maintain compatibility with OpenVPN < 2.5.0 - [ProMIND] [2020/11/24] added "data-ciphers" directive to profile config .ovpn files in order to comply to OpenVPN 2.5 negotiable data cipher specifications. In case "data-ciphers" is found in the .ovpn files IV_CIPHERS is assigned to the algorithms found in "data-ciphers". In this specific case, "cipher" directive is used as a fallback cipher and, if not already specified in "data-ciphers", is appended to IV_CIPHERS Download Hummingbird for macOS is distributed in notarized and plain versions, both for Intel and M1 processors: Check the download page: https://airvpn.org/macos/hummingbird/ The difference is about how the package is seen by macOS security and it is therefore up to the user to pick the distribution file suiting his or her needs best. The notarized version is compliant to macOS software security scheme and runs "out-of-the-box", whereas the plain version needs to be explicitly granted permission to run by the user in macOS security & privacy settings. Please note that both versions ensure the same functionality in connecting a VPN server, it is however up to the user to decide whether using the signed and notarized version or not. Jump to the manual: https://airvpn.org/hummingbird/readme Kind regards & datalove AirVPN Staff

Maybe you already know it. When a country consistently has more than 65-70% allocated (used) bandwidth, we consider the expansion. When a country has consistently more than 90% allocated bandwidth, expansion is mandatory. Currently Canada is around 55% while Sweden less than 50%. However, in Sweden, we have much stronger demand in Stockholm (better peering with various residential ISPs) than Uppsala. If you consider Stockholm as an area of its own, or equivalently Sweden as a country relying essentially on Stockholm, then you have consistently 70% allocated bandwidth. That's why expansion in Stockholm is now under evaluation with higher priority than Canada. Kind regards

Oh no....that is reserved to/for government officials and corporate rats only. Covid-19 does not apply to them apparently.

I live in a city but that whole thing didn't change my habits at all. Only change is that I work from home (so I both go to bed and get up later) and that I don't see some people as much anymore. Grocery shopping is still possible and both delivery services and the internet all work as normal. So I don't die of hunger, and there's tons to do here I can imagine living in a more remote area to be somewhat more difficult, especially if one's disabled. May your path lead you to warm sands.

@BlueBanana Hello! Check the stats about used bandwidth on the total infrastructure day by day: As you can see, the used peak bandwidth has increased remarkably in the last days, up to 80200 Mbit/s. On the whole infrastructure, it is still slightly more than just 1/3 of the total available bandwidth (236900 Mbit/s). We will closely monitor, on top of that, used bandwidth country by country, of course. About the countries you mention, even the last peak usage does not exceed 60% of total available bandwidth in each of those countries. We are still well within the range of the quality of service ensured by the terms of service and actually most available bandwidth has not ever been used. That said, we will not hesitate to add servers when it is really necessary, of course. We are monitoring closely, as usual, peak demands country by country. Kind regards