LZ1

... and you can help us helping you by appending OpenVPN logs here...

Hello !
 
Would AirVPN be interested in supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation and/or the Free Software Foundation? No specific project or technology as such.
 
It seems a bit remiss of AirVPN to not support these, in my view .
 

About The EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF champions user privacy, free expression, and innovation through impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism, and technology development. We work to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows.

Even in the fledgling days of the Internet, EFF understood that protecting access to developing technology was central to advancing freedom for all. In the years that followed, EFF used our fiercely independent voice to clear the way for open source software, encryption, security research, file sharing tools, and a world of emerging technologies.

Today, EFF uses the unique expertise of leading technologists, activists, and attorneys in our efforts to defend free speech online, fight illegal surveillance, advocate for users and innovators, and support freedom-enhancing technologies.

Together, we forged a vast network of concerned members and partner organizations spanning the globe. EFF advises policymakers and educates the press and the public through comprehensive analysis, educational guides, activist workshops, and more. EFF empowers hundreds of thousands of individuals through our Action Center and has become a leading voice in online rights debates.

EFF is a donor-funded US 501©(3) nonprofit organization that depends on your support to continue fighting for users. 

About The FSF

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonprofit with a worldwide mission to promote computer user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.

As our society grows more dependent on computers, the software we run is of critical importance to securing the future of a free society. Free software is about having control over the technology we use in our homes, schools and businesses, where computers work for our individual and communal benefit, not for proprietary software companies or governments who might seek to restrict and monitor us. The Free Software Foundation exclusively uses free software to perform its work.

The Free Software Foundation is working to secure freedom for computer users by promoting the development and use of free (as in freedom) software and documentation—particularly the GNU operating system—and by campaigning against threats to computer user freedom like Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and software patents. 
Why should AirVPN do it? Because:
Both organisations routinely make new technologies available which help to enhance peoples freedoms. Not just software-wise either, but hardware too. Both organisations comply with AirVPNs mission on multiple levels. Many kinds of freedom form the basis of free societies. Free speech, freedom of assembly, etc. So what about free software/privacy? The EFF fights the required legal battles that come before or after new technology or laws that limit, constrict and/or endanger us all in more ways than one. The FSF provides a completely different philosophy/approach to hardware and software; namely that it should be completely free. Not proprietary & closed. Eddie being open helps us all. Support will also mean even more support for software like HTTPS Everywhere, which both the EFF & The Tor Project made. AirVPN already supports The Tor Project, so why not add the EFF? Because the FSF is a hardcore supporter of free software & freedom of software provides a range of benefits for everyone:
As a software developer, free software lets you build and improve on the work of others, as part of a social community — built on the principles of sharing.
As an artist, you can do things with free software that proprietary software does not allow. All free software allows you to use it for any purpose.
As a user, free software removes you from the power struggle of proprietary software, where you are able to help yourself and are not dependent on a single developer or company to help you.
As a student, you can study and modify the software you use, learning from and enhancing the tools that you use for education.

I think it's one thing to support various technical means of opposing state & company control, closedness and censorship, but quite another thing to oppose these things through legal means.
Because while technical tools are great, one could argue that we shouldn't, in an ideal world, even need them. But we do, because various laws force us to, if we want to maintain
a shred of privacy and security. But whether or not these organisations do battle legally, they both still provide a wealth of different tools and technologies which help advance
AirVPNs mission. So in a sense, it's like a package deal !
 
Even the best VPN in the galaxy won't have much to say in the face of running on a compromised system.
Even the best combination of security practices, software & hardware can come under attack when governments give themselves permission to do things that are illegal & immoral for everyone else to do.
 
In addition, supporting organisations which fight the necessary legal battles, could perhaps have direct implications for AirVPNs server locations, as Air writes:


Of course there's many parameters to take into account when it comes to server locations; not least cost & infrastructure availability. But I'm sure we can agree that it's easier to set up a server in a
country that doesn't have laws or systems hostile to AirVPNs mission statement; perhaps one of the major reasons we haven't had many Iranian and Mainland Chinese servers, hmm?
For a primer on what the FSF is really about, you can watch this.
 
Thank you :]

Hello !
 
OP did you ever complete your mission? I think it would be interesting to get an update and perhaps see how you experienced things :].
Maybe you'll have some tips for others to share as well.

That's quite cool ! Although it's funny to think that some of their greatest help didn't actually come from a member then, haha. People in Texas are such rebels aren't they?! No wonder you got that independence movement going strong still!

Let's all celebrate with some Vodka! Russia's one true contribution to the world
However that PIA logo with the family on bikes will continue to make me cringe.
Meanwhile, our Italian chefs at Air can cook us a nice meal, maybe with an ein berliner, yum.
We'll meet up at your ranch, Omni. But I want to try lasso Mr.giggles first, lol.

Someone here has the signature "Friends don't let friends use consumer networking equipment." That quote sums up this entire ideal.
 
pfSense is a game changer for you once you get it setup. You can do basically anything with it. And that cannot be said for the best consumer routers.

Thanks,
 
your guide / tutorial has been promoted to How-To section. The delay is perfectly normal, nothing wrong in your guide or lack of time or anything else, it's just that we always wait for several feedbacks before putting anything in the How-To section. This usually requires some weeks and we normally should have waited some more time, but given your reaction we have moved it right now.
 
Kind regards

Great, congratulations LZ1

Thanks for the professional response.
 
By no means my comment was to discredit the quality of the service or to get into a phylosiphic discussion about privacy.
Please understand that, and I really appreciate your responses, unlike other servers that will usually tell you "if you don't like it, get another provider".
 
Yes, I can assume that the RAM of the Air servers, is a potential logging facility, not because I don't trust Air, only because of
the latest revelations of Mr. Snowden made me, and probably many other users, more natuarally aware.
My assumption is that there will always be a circle of what we "Don't know", just like the latest heartbleed bug.
That means we cannot trust our software (OpenSSL) providers - See heartbleed, Nor hardware - See Intel's RdRand saga.
My only point is that, the less data we all keep, the more safe we are. Without going much into Turing machinery, because this is really off-topic.
 
Thanks again for the great service,
I just opened this discussion because I think I can speak on behalf of many other users that share the same thoughts like me, i.e.
"How they allow us using 3 connections but still keep no logs".
 
 
Regards,
Zhang888.

Hello !
 
When a website is blocked or things aren't working so well somehow, that sucks. But posting a new topic will not automatically help.
 
So before posting a new thread/topic, I recommend that you try these things first, to help yourself and everyone else out:
 

Things To Try First

Try check out the AirVPN Route Checking tool. Put the name of the website, such as www.netflix.com into the search field. Click search. Then refresh the page & look at the HTTP column. Try and change the server that you're using; especially to servers from other countries, rather than just servers from the same country you were first connected to, as sometimes the servers of 1 country are all having issues. Especially if the Route Checking tool shows a red color in the HTTP colum or codes like 403. The HTTP Codes mean different things. Try check out ipleak.net and make sure that the IP & DNS address fields only show 1 address each: those from AirVPN. Otherwise your ISP could be blocking you. For Windows, try going to your Control Panel>>Internet Connections>>Change Adapter Settings>>Right Click each adapter>>Properties>>Untick IPv6>>Click Ok. Similar steps for MacOS/Linux. Try use the AirVPN forum search field in the top right corner, to see if a similar thread exists already. It's better and easier if all the same posts are in the same thread. Try click the "Most Viewed" button, on the horizontal blue line, under the black "Start New Topic" button, in order to see the most viewed threads easily & quickly. Try and check that your ISP or country isn't listed here. Because these ISPs block various things. Try and check if the website is listed here. Sites listed here should be automatically unblocked, regardless of which server you use. (This is called "Micro-routing"). Try and see if the content you want, is available via a torrent site, if you wish. You could then use qBittorent to download it using P2P technology, which AirVPN fully allows. (Not all VPNs do)
Does AirVPN Care About Blocked Sites?

Yes! AirVPN Staff routinely reply to all kinds of different threads on these forums. This includes replies to threads about Netflix. Moderators do too! However due to there being a lot of new threads, they don't always reply to each one. Especially if the thread already exists; such as the many threads about Netflix. This is why it's important to keep all posts about the same website, in the same threads, instead of just making a new thread, which won't get any attention. But the problem is, that AirVPN or even any other VPN provider, can't always do anything about blocks. That's the truth. Because sites like Netflix actively try to block VPNs. It's in AirVPNs Mission Statement to fight all kinds of blocks or attempts at censorship; so it's not because Air isn't trying to fix things.
When You Post A Thread, Consider This

If you absolutely have to post, then please include: a link to the blocked website, the AirVPN server you used, any error messages you got & any replies from support staff from the blocked site. You get bonus points if you also tell us that you already tried the route checking tool and other things listed in the first section. . Double the bonus if you post in an existing thread instead. Posting also doesn't guarantee that the problem will be fixed. But if you follow the suggestions here, then you will make fixing the problem both quicker and easier for Air & everyone else :].  
If you have questions or suggestions, please do not be afraid of posting them here or sending me a PM. If you're new to VPNs, then please feel free to check out my New User guide.
 
Please do provide feedback on this thread if it helped you or is missing something!
 
Thank you for reading !

Hello !
 
So they let me out of my cell today, which means I have a lot of pent-up nitpicking energy stored, haha
​At the bottom of this post, there's a respectful critique of how Air handles the explaining of this service to newcomers and my proposed solution.
 
My main arguments for improving the Air service are:
 
- This post about new-people seemingly not feeling welcome.
- And this post about Community Mods & more interaction from Air.
 


As the subtext to this forum reads: "Have some feedback and input to share? Don't be shy and drop us a note.
We want to hear from you and strive to make our service better and more user friendly for our guests and members alike."
 
So as they say, Challenge Accepted, Good Sir.




 Time to unleash my inner OCD pokemon!
 
- Introduction & explaining the madness


I'd like to post a series of things which I think need some changes; such as the spelling & grammar of various posts. I understand if English isn't the native language of various Staff members and that's fine; that's why I'd like to lend a helping hand. I don't know if it would be wiser to post all this in a support ticket, because it can amount to a lot of content and perhaps by making it public, more people can contribute and then we can keep it nicely organised in one place. I realise it can sound very condescending, patronizing and/or rude to suggest changes in spelling & grammar, so to be clear, it's just because I currently have an urge to help out; I have the utmost respect for AirVPN Staff & those which contribute positively to the community :]. 
Why does it matter how things are spelled and such? Because appearances, user-friendliness & attention to detail matter, both in terms of technical subjects and non-technical subjects. When I first started, I thought some of the how-tos could use some slight changes, because it was sometimes massively confusing to juggle the technical explanations with the sometimes unclear or vague wording that accompanied them. I like to think that it's AirVPNs attention to security & privacy details which make it so great; so why should the presentational details of the site be any different? :].
 
I hope it'll be satisfactory & easy for the Air Staff to just copy/paste the corrected texts in, if they decide to make use of them. I'll of course not change the spirit/content of anything. If you have any input, please feel free to make a post. These are just corrections based on what I think sounds right; we're all different :]. I'd like it if the Staff could clarify something in the "About Us" section.

Blue text = My changes/corrections. (Sometimes the original isn't wrong, but could just be clearer, hence changes).
Red text = The item should be deleted. (In my humble opinion, thank you)
 



Main AirVPN Pages
 
This should cover the entire AirVPN site, except individual posts in the FAQ and the much-dread ToS
 
- Mission Page Corrections

 
 
 

 
- Technical Specs Page Corrections

 

 
- About Us Page Corrections

I'm not sure what was trying to be expressed at the bottom of the article regarding "harsh contrasts against a project of sharing data, etc. etc." Can someone elaborate? Was there some sort of cross-VPN provider cooperation, wherein user data was or was going to be shared? Or was it meant to say that AirVPN was the opposite of all the other providers? Also, I suggest removing the very last bit "(we'll have some news on that probably within the first half of 2013)." since that's quite old and perhaps shouldn't be on an "About Us" page .
 

 
- Plans Page Corrections

"Accepted" sounds much more natural to me than "Allowed" Payment Processors. Oh and the period at the end of Free Trial access should go away too, in order to conform with the other headings.
Also, on the Enter page, it's not called OS X anymore, as Apple renamed it MacOS.
 

 
- Ping Matrix Page Corrections

I'm not sure I understand this one correctly. Please say so, if that's the case.

 
- Top Users Page Corrections


 
- Config Generator "More Help" Page Corrections

I'm not sure what's meant by "unique download" here. Unique zip archives for each file maybe?

 
- Websites Support Page Corrections


 
- Databases Page Corrections


 
- Client Software Platforms / Environment Pages Corrections


 
- Privacy Notice and Terms Page Corrections

I assume it really was "extra-EU" and not "extra-UE". If not, what's UE?

 
I hope it's okay I skip the ToS
 



Explanatory Posts
 
Here's where I would like to say something. A slight critique.
 

I'm really glad that Air Staff have taken the time to put up such nice FAQs. I'm likewise also really glad that they're extremely knowledgeable and can explain things in a technical way. However... As I also said in my new users guide, the main problem with Air is that it's too technical, when it's not needed. This is GREAT for IT-people, but not everyone else. I mean, it's fine to be technical. But I would like to see it either be "toned down" a little in some places, such as the FAQs, where it's very likely that new people will go or: Alternatively, one could provide non-technical explanations alongside the technical ones. Perhaps in spoilers? I LOVE spoilers lol. Case in point, in the FAQ titled "What is a VPN?". The explanations are great and for technical people, it's borderline pornography. But really, if someone doesn't know what a VPN even is,
what are the odds of them understanding what things like this mean:
 
 
I genuinely think that most new users, especially those who don't have an interest in IT, will have a seizure. An FAQ is, I think, meant to leave people with less questions, not more of them. After
reading that, I'm sure many would be asking things like:
What's a default gateway push? Is it dangerous? What's encapsulation? What's UDP & TCP? Which stream? Twitch.com? HTTP? Socks? Proxy??? I of course don't want to sacrifice form or function for the sake of making things ultra-easy for everyone. We can hang a sign on the door saying "Brain Required" if you wish. But it has to be said that attention to things like this, helps us all in one way or another. Air draws in more customers, which means one of the best VPNs gets to keep running. More people see what a quality VPN service is like & perhaps more services like Air will appear. Likewise, more people protected on the internet is a good thing in general. Plus, all the hardwork & passion Air Staff put into this excellent service, won't mean a thing if no one knows how to use it; that's just a fact really. Our aim, in my view, should be to make the service as welcoming as possible, without sacrificing the aforementioned form or function; which is also one of the biggest problems with modern encryption & thus a barrier to mass-adoption. After all, then there'd be no excuse for people to not use AirVPN and we can finally call them on their bluff eh

 
- Original Text


 
- Attempted Example Of Simplified Text

 
What do you think? Sure, it's missing some details and maybe it's not all that accurate, but if it gets the main point across, so what? As I said, we could just make spoilers for both versions.
If Air wants, I'll gladly help make more of such explanations for the other things, since I'm quite good at doing so; mainly because I hardly understand it myself lmao, but shhh

 
Thank you for reading and as always, Thank you to AirVPN & Staff for providing this excellent service, as well as the AirVPN community for keeping this place going strong !
 
I want to know one thing: has Air got any plans on translating the service into different languages? I think it would be so great if they crowd-sourced this.
 
Anyhow, if you spot anything I missed or disagree with a correction, feel free to tell me!
 
Thanks. Now if you'll excuse me, my bed misses me, lol.

Hello !
 
Hard to say, since it depends on the circumstances/specifics. But in general, AirVPN is assumed to have the fighting spirit to resist it as much as possible - evident by their security architecture, attention to detail in their own legal agreements that they tell us they follow and their attention to the various legal realities of the countries in which they have servers. For one thing, they won't even set up servers in a country if they don't think it has a sufficiently good privacy policy, so that's a good indicator.

Let's all celebrate with some Vodka! Russia's one true contribution to the world
However that PIA logo with the family on bikes will continue to make me cringe.
Meanwhile, our Italian chefs at Air can cook us a nice meal, maybe with an ein berliner, yum.
We'll meet up at your ranch, Omni. But I want to try lasso Mr.giggles first, lol.

Well rather than quote a wall of text, let me just say I am sorry @giganerd. I have not used PIA in years, and with good reason. I love AirVPN. As a VPN, they are the best I have used by far. And the PIA forums are a trainwreck beyond compare.
 
Did I get defensive? Yes. Did I say things I should not have? Yes. But allow me to explain.
 
While reading the PIA forums for the last few years, I have encountered an unbelievable number of competitors that come in, spam their service or talk about things that are outright fiction to make PIA look bad. And to be frank, PIA does not need any help looking bad. They are so terrible at PR that they cannot look worse. But right or wrong, I feel the need to be the advocate of the hopelessly lost.
 
In that time I have seen numerous competitors of PIA do this. AirVPN never once did anything like this. You know those "VPN review" places that are probably the literal origin of all shills? As far as I can see, only PIA and AirVPN abstained from smearing mud on each other and the numerous other VPNs.
 
For a while, the USD to EUR exchange rate alone kept me from trying AirVPN. But this year I finally tried it, and have not looked back. And for the record, PIA offered me a free subscription, and for two years in a row I have turned them down. (That is right, I ran for a year without a VPN purely because I could not afford AirVPN, and PIA really was that bad.)
 
But back to the story... I have been fighting a prolonged battle with a few people on the PIA forums. To be frank again, it has taught me some really bad habits. And I unfortunately have yet to unlearn those bad habits.
 
I started getting upset when I saw the blame for what Russia did being shifted off of Russia and onto PIA. Was it their fault? Not in my opinion. Do I believe it? Not one bit. I think that before the law passed, they pulled out entirely and dressed up a token server to be seized at best. They still have not fixed their configs after changing certificates from what I read, but I have no means to check.
 
So please accept my apologies. I would do this in the thread in question, but I think it is best I stay out of there. And thanks to Staff for pulling my head out of my rear. (And that thread.)

I assume that you are still using v2.10.3 of the client. The new version of Eddie (2.11.) will provide the feature you're requesting. At least the experimental version for Linux does. Cannot tell for Windows though as it refuses to start...
 
Regards
 
Fox

You do understand that managing accounts with various preferences from each other means 100% logging?
Otherwise there is no technical way to achieve such "connection upgrades" without keeping a RADIUS server that
holds up each and every user information and shares it among all nodes.
 
The only way to keep a log-free service is making all accounts identical, with the only exception of an expiration date,
which does not require any advanced logging and billing systems, it uses the same logic as SSL client certificates with
expiration dates.
 
Always remember that when a provider offers you extra, sometimes highly marketed "features", this might come in
the expense of your privacy.

Hello !
 
It's a little weird to say perhaps & it's not due to looking to take sides, but I just wanted to mention that I at least have often found your posts both interesting and useful, OP.
 
In case you were tempted to think that everyone uniformly hates or dislikes you and/or your content, leading you to not be welcome here
 
Just a "for the record", sort of thing, so that you know that's not the case.
 
I also already made my thoughts clear in thread 1, so there's no need for me to repeat them here.
 
Have a good day

Thanks again, giganerd. Ever since I joined AirVPN, about a month ago, my download manager has been reporting top speeds which are not far short of the maximum I can expect from my broadband service. If that changes, or if I think I need to do better, I'll run some tests on other servers. I moved here from HideMyAss, so at the moment, I'm still at the "Wow, this is amazing..." stage.

Look into AirVPN client's permissions in Kaspersky, make sure it's marked trustworthy/green. If it is, doubleclick on it, go to the Exceptions tab and select everything. There's no need to disable all of Kaspersky... unless you're using Total Security which just sucks..

Nice!
 
Spoiler alert:

Setting the correct MTU with the command "mssfix" can also improve speeds significantly. You have to add it in the "OpenVPN Directives" section in the Eddie client.
 
See here for more information:
 
https://www.sonassi.com/help/magestack/setting-correct-mtu-for-openvpn
 
In my case, i determined a MTU of 1432 with the ping command, as described in the article linked above. Therefore, in entered "mssfix 1392" in the Eddie client. This improved my speeds even further, along with modifying the buffer sizes, as "LZ1" already pointed out.
 
Good luck!
 
Fox

Well, it's impossible to tell, because the client uses the round trip time between the node it runs into and the VPN servers as one of the parameters for the rating, so it heavily depends on the location of the client. In our previous message, when we said that those three servers became the best servers "for the client", we were imprecise. That was true only for those who picked or white listed the Netherlands only. For anybody else, that was possible, but not certain
 
Kind regards

Hello !
​
​As EdenSpire said: Click on the AirVPN logo in the top-left of the Eddie client, then go to Preferences & then the Advanced tab. Then set both TCP & UDP buffer size entries to 256kb, for faster speeds.
​
​I also recommend avoiding German and Netherlands servers for a little while, as they seem to be having issues.

Hello!
 
You can check the "Status" page. At the moment in the Netherlands we have 3 servers down, out of 44. In Germany we have 0 servers down.
 
The problem arose because when those three Netherlands servers went down, the monitoring system failed in a peculiar way.
 
The servers obtained the highest ranking in the world and one of them became the "best" server for the client software, for the NL domain name, for the Europe domain name and for the Earth domain name. Their rating skyrocketed because their latency was low as usual, they could yell to our monitoring system that all of their bandwidth was available, that their CPU load was 0, and more (and everything was true... because nobody could get their traffic through). In reality they had problems with the OpenVPN clients, but not to prevent completely the connections (so we did not even get one of our alerts, "suspicious low amount of users in a single server").
 
The problem is momentarily patched but we will soon investigate to understand the reasons of this odd (and somehow funny...) failure of our monitoring systems.
 
Kind regards