LZ1

Well as it happens, a lot of poor VPN services dish out freebies - including one year, two year and "lifetime" awards. It's tempting, surely, but that doesn't mean it's automatically smart to follow up on. As for whether you do any shady stuff or not, is up to interpretation by whoever is watching; which is, incidentally, why surveillance of any kind, VPN or otherwise, is so dangerous. Because the watcher can always change the meaning of "shady" or "suspicious" to fit their purpose. It could for instance, be considered shady that you're even using a VPN to start with.
 
In a sense, I don't think you can *know* a provider is safe. But instead only say that you are very *certain*, based on what you know about them and their practices. That's why this VPN business is so tricky - a bad VPN is a fantastic backdoor into your activities and there's so many grey areas and ambiguities to consider. For instance, you say they do not log anything. Well, as Air Staff pointed out, you can say you don't "log", yet still do real-time analysis and be speaking the truth, technically. So it's kind of up to you to make sure you pick a provider that *you* think lives up to whatever standards you set for yourself. Personally, I find it a little strange that you claim to want "a bit" of anonymity, but then go on to state that you're not willing to pay for it anyway, as it's "not worth the price". If you don't care, there's little stopping you from creating a VM, installing AirVPN in it and then starting to use that 1 year sub you got from that other VPN.
 
I think it's honestly difficult to recommend other VPNs. Most of them are different shades of poo really - even if wrapped in the most attractive of marketing, with their buzzwords and sexy images. Like a really beautifully wrapped up Christmas gift that comes in a big cool box, but turns out to be a pair of power-ranger socks, aww damn. Or worse, power-ranger underwear    Why? Because there's no actual *Official Standards* for VPNs. This is why Air has such a strong following, because Air is absolutely uncompromising about security and thereby sets the standard, while most other VPN services are more concerned with selling a finely tuned product that markets "anonymity" or "100% privacy". Also, in case you haven't noticed, these are AirVPN forums and so if you want to decrease the chance of bias, you shouldn't be looking for reviews about other VPNs, on the forum of one of their competitors, as being associated with the question often isn't so smart . Air sets very high standards, so I don't think it's strange at all if other VPNs don't meet this standard. It doesn't always mean that they're bad or useless, it just means that for people around here, they don't tick all the desired boxes. This is why I said it's up to you and what standards you set. If you only want "a bit" of anonymity, whatever that is, then by all means find a provider that you feel is "a bit" trustworthy in carrying out that task. I must admit however, that I find it quite amusing to think about how you can be "a bit" unknown, as anonymity is defined as:
an•o•nym•i•ty (ănˌə-nĭmˈĭ-tē)
n.The quality or state of being unknown or unacknowledged. n.One that is unknown or unacknowledged. That guy who wrote the song "Purple Rain" was "a bit" unknown to me, hmmm. Haha. VPNs require trust of some measure. By asking for our recommendations, you're also trusting us. But you ultimately need to find a provider that *you personally* trust .
 
I wish you luck .

Hello!
 
That's nice of you .
 
It's hard to reach the top of most review lists, when you don't do bribes lol . Hence why PIA is everywhere - Got to wonder if that's a coincidence ^^. 
 
Jokes aside:
 
Taking a skeptical point of view, one could argue that Air isn't necessarily all that interested in being at the top of every list, seeing as while that means more revenue potentially, it also potentially means more complete novices. Novices which, if coupled with a lack of patience, can become quite the nuisance for Air and people on the forum and thereby leave as angry customers; perhaps ones who'll then actively try to discredit Air, wherever they go, because they couldn't get Eddie to run on their toaster and get a reliable connection to Nigeria, if you know what I'm saying haha. Unreasonable requests.
 
Because remember, Air is quite technical. Or at least quite open about being so. Which means a lot less information is hidden or abstracted from its users; unlike perhaps most other VPNs. This can overwhelm people .It should be said however, that Air already enjoys a very positive reputation and as such will naturally reach those users who are perhaps already in tune with Airs views and methods; uncompromising security, no overselling or absurd marketing fluff and lots of technical features to explore, provided one has the patience and curiosity. Thank you for the links however. I might add my own review eventually.
 
I've seen reviews where Air basically gets 10/10, but isn't listed as number 1 on the list. Sometimes the reason is a lack of protocols such as PPTP and such. Other times user hostility is mentioned, in the sense that Air is very complicated to get into for technical novices (which I then sought to remedy). Still other reasons used to include a lack of country servers or device allowances; where other services would allow 5 devices per account, Air would allow 3 or less. Where other services would have servers literally everywhere, Air would seem limited in comparison. So, provided that the reviewers don't go beyond the veil of marketing, it's really not so surprising if Air gets short changed. I mean, which service do you choose: the one with 1000 servers or the one with 200? It's obvious......... Until you discover that the ones with 1000 servers all over the world, are mostly using Fake GeoIPs lol. But unless you take a closer look into what service you're buying, you might not discover these things. Or worse, you might not care. So why should Air care for such customers in return? All I'm trying to say is, don't despair if Air doesn't appear at the top of the chart, because in the end, quality shines through, but Air can't be everything to everyone, as I see it ^__^.
 
Air can try its best to secure its service and provide you with a default level of high-security, but it can't fix stupid .

That's the kind of post I'd like to see from Air. It doesn't have to be as long though
 
Sent to you from me with datalove

Please don't call other people dummies. We all have different opinions, but they're harder to change if insulted. Thank you for the link otherwise.  
Sent to you from me with datalove

I understand. I don't know what you like, but have you seen Black MIrror? That's pretty techy in a freaky way.

Hello!
 
That's scary. I'm sure the British are taking notes furiously - little addition to the snoopers charter perhaps? Like a little treat for Christmas. Politicians exempt, of course! Haha.

Hi nice to meet you. Some well-written posts .
 
Clinton supporters are still protesting, so I'm tempted to think something must've worked. I mean, if your supporters are still campaigning after you ended your own campaign, then something must've been done right, haha. I remember prior to Nov 8 how it was questioned whether Trump would be able to accept the election result. The irony.

Hello!
 
If news media were really about informing people....... They'd hardly be news media now would they
 
Besides, it would be a little unfair if those listed VPNs didn't get into the top 5 now that they've paid the entrance fee

Thanks for the speedy reply LZ1!
 
Well, Java seems to be working through the VPN without the need to puncture a hole through the firewall.
Although I still don't understand why any exceptions I made don't show up in either the Inbound or Outbound Rules in Windows Firewall.
 
Anyway thanks once again.

Easiest way to automatically get a trial is purchasing the €1 plan for 3 days, which is fully refundable.

In closed source software, everything can happen. Eddie has the advantage of being transparent. If you take some time to go through the code you might even find out what those suspicious indicators are all about. You also might learn how to read code...
 
On a not-so irrelevant note: Man, am I glad I switched to Linux... those installers always creeped me out. The moment you opened them you had at least one new registry entry and a couple of files in all manner of system and user directories. If you proceeded, well, your funeral, as they say.

Holy cow.  Look at the difference between the results that Eddie gets in this tool, and for example what PIA's executable gets.  I'll probably add more of these.  But...ouch PIA, what they hell.  They rely on Ruby to set up their stuff...and that's not even the worst part:
 
1.  PIA - https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/44bccf9ce4e6187a9082af23f415e99007e540a33ac97b4373b1aa4ff4291842?environmentId=100
 
2.  AirVPN - https://www.hybrid-analysis.com/sample/f2ee062ddff29be9557100959b752df53d9a7c56e43cc014115d397b0cd720b5?environmentId=100

I love this board precisely because we can have civil discussions about privacy related matters.  You guys are awesome.  Thanks for not getting offended, Ricnvolved1956, because I certainly meant no offense.
 
Oh, and your "little act of defiance" is awesome.  The more of us who do this (use AirVPN) the more anonymous we all are.  It's pretty cool to think about it like that.  The more this catches on, the less useful any single data point is.

In case you are wondering why LZ1 responded the way he did, you claimed you are using the latest Beta, but your logs say "Eddie client version: 2.11.5".  The most current beta version is 2.11.8

You can't PM the Staff account directly... Unless you're God . So a support ticket is fine.

I think there's usually different rules for datacenters, when it comes to domestic spying . But of course, the risk is ever increasing. Especially when you make hacking legal. But you can be sure that Air would consider the risks to customers first.

Everyone who is "worth" that kind of operation is not relying only on VPNs, obviously. There are other, lower hanging fruits law enforcement exploits in order to penetrate targets.
Check out the latest Firefox exploit for a good example, although it is not Firefox per se, it was tailored against Tor Browser users mostly, who were using Windows.
Backdooring VPN servers isn't one of them - too noisy, too expensive, too hard to coordinate without a chain of court orders. Out of reach for most "regular" police departments.
If your threat model includes NSA and other "above the law" agencies - read my first sentence.

Hello!
 
It would be nice if Air would make a habit out of making statements about the biggest/worst pieces of legislation, when they're enacted. Even if it's a simple "We know what's happening and we'll report back within X weeks about it". Even if it's a short message saying "Hi, Rule 41 affects us in ways 1, 2 and 3. But not in ways 4, 5 and 6, have a nice day muahhh" hahah. Then we'd all share that around like mad.
 
That would be nice . Then if they were really ambitious, they could have a small 5 question FAQ, with stuff like "Is Air affected? If yes, how?", "Does Air think it may have to close servers in country X?" and so on. It could preempt a lot of the questions .
 
@Khariz
1-3 seem (respectfully speaking) irrelevant to me, as that sort of legislation only serves to legitimise past (illegal) behavior, by for instance intelligence agencies. Besides, I'm sure they could always expand on the legislation if they needed (extended) hacking powers. GCHQ once hacked a Belgian ISP. So I don't see them having issues with Italian Air, legally. As for 5, the methodology can always be questioned. Sometimes all it takes is a little JavaScript to reveal even Tor users.
 
The issue is that these various kinds of legislation pose an increasing threat to people who use the Internet. Thus to stop the spread of FUD, it would be beneficial if Air Staff tried to communicate their thoughts on the matter. People absolutely love it when they do. I think if you only read the exact letter of the law, you risk blinding yourself, as you'll think "if it doesn't say so in the law, then it can't happen". Maybe you won't think it's blown out of proportion, once all other EU countries enact similar or perhaps even worse versions of the UK Snoopers Charter. What then? It's important to deal with things ahead of time, to prevent FUD; Fear Uncertainty Doubt. Not to say "it doesn't affect me, so it's ok". I also think you do a disservice to readers by calling it conspiracy theory - when these past few years have proven many "conspiracy theorists" right, in regards to state surveillance.
 
That said, I have enough trust in Air to think that they'd both act and state their intentions, if they believed it was relevant . It's always nice to hear things directly from the horse' mouth though.

Thank you so much! Speed literally went from 10% of line rate to closer to 90%+ after downgrading driver - I had just accepted this as the status quo, and had been thinking about trying other providers!

PIA is also massively technologically inept compared to AirVPN.  Have you seen how much of a complete mess their client is?  I can't imagine they run their servers much better. You may be asking what my point is.  My point is that PIA isn't really a good model for what other VPN companies should do.   
 
I have a really dumb question:  Have any of you actually read the charter?  I have.  I proposed a list of points in another thread about this.  Here's what I said.  Feel free to pick these apart:
 

Hello!
 
Complete junk, by the look of it . Even before visiting their site, simply due to how their very name is an act of overselling. Just like if you called yourself Unhackable. Then I went to their website and this struck me:
 
 
But then:
 
 
Haha. Interesting. Russia is fine, but not UK and US.
 
I also think it suggests a sort of "jack of all trades, master of none" situation, when you have e-mail together with VPN, together with even more desperate services . This is the forum for other *VPN* services and since Air doesn't sell pendrives for instance, I think the focus should be on their VPN service. It looks lackluster for many reasons. They say they allow P2P, but not unlawful activity, yet don't specify if they include filesharing in that definition or not. Doesn't seem like they care for site security either and it seems their site is us-based. Not to mention their privacy policies and so forth aren't as comprehensive as they could be.
 
Just my views, from a brief look.

Hello!
 
In addition to above, you can also try to reset your firewall.

As I have said elsewhere, I have had a similar issue on my 200/20 cable line, with MacOS, Linux and Windows, on SSD and HDD. I have had a play with qBittorrent 3.3.7 and found that I have fixed my issue, so hopefully this helps you also. It's worth a try. 
 
Maximum number of connections per torrent: 100 (50 works too but isn't always as fast)
Global rate limits - upload - 75% of your upload speed
Make sure every other box on that page (including 'Enable uTP protocol') are not checked
 

 
Go to the Advanced section and scroll down to libtorrent settings.
 
Disk write cache size - 30 MiB
Enable OS cache - Make sure you uncheck this
Maximum number of half open connections - 0 (zero)
 

 
Now restart qBittorrent and try an Ubuntu 16.10 torrent download again. I tried settings ranging from large cache sizes (4000 MiB and down) and found that on a standard hdd a setting just above my line speed (30 MiB in my case) worked the best. If 30 doesn't work for you, try 20. I found that the OS cache option just made the torrent spool up slower and it 'crashed' the speed a few times while the disk caught up. This doesn't happen (for me) with OS cache disabled. As zhang888 says an SSD is much more reliable. When I switched my download path back to my SSD speeds were more stable and it didn't matter so much when the buffer wrote to disk, but for a platter HDD it was just too much with such a high network speed. 
 
Worth a try mate and if it doesn't work for you it's easy to switch them back. I've gone from having a speed graph that was way worse than yours (up and down every couple of seconds, 20 MiB/sec to 1 MiB/sec) before eventually giving up and staying around 1-2 MiB/sec permanently. Now I can download at 20 MiB/sec without breaking a sweat.

So one-sided. You need a greater amount of "John Pilger"in your media diet Kepler. Here's an excerpt which challenges your views:
 
 
That's from one of the worlds most illustrious journalists too. It's not to say he's automatically right about everything - but if it spurs critical thought, then that's a good thing.
 
I don't disagree that privacy will probably be even more important under Trump. I just think the constant automatic anti-Trump "journalism" is boring and whatever delusions may be created because of it, dangerous as well. Besides, didn't rule 41 just pass into law? The one giving the FBI extended hacking mandates. To my knowledge, Trump didn't have anything to do with that. That developed under the Obama administration. I think the crucial difference, is that Trumps moves are "obvious" because he's a loud-mouth. Or at least made obvious by media. While Obama's aren't, in the same way.
 
One more from John:
 
 
I like this quote, from the bottom of this post:
 

So one-sided. You need a greater amount of "John Pilger"in your media diet Kepler. Here's an excerpt which challenges your views:
 
 
That's from one of the worlds most illustrious journalists too. It's not to say he's automatically right about everything - but if it spurs critical thought, then that's a good thing.
 
I don't disagree that privacy will probably be even more important under Trump. I just think the constant automatic anti-Trump "journalism" is boring and whatever delusions may be created because of it, dangerous as well. Besides, didn't rule 41 just pass into law? The one giving the FBI extended hacking mandates. To my knowledge, Trump didn't have anything to do with that. That developed under the Obama administration. I think the crucial difference, is that Trumps moves are "obvious" because he's a loud-mouth. Or at least made obvious by media. While Obama's aren't, in the same way.
 
One more from John:
 
 
I like this quote, from the bottom of this post: