How are specific servers "chosen" when setting up router with country certificate

[shanksauce 0]

Hello, I configured my pfSense router to connect to canada based servers per the instructions in one of the guides (e.g. https://airvpn.org/topic/17444-how-to-set-up-pfsense-23-for-airvpn/).

It's "working", but I noticed it chooses a server in Vancouver. I am on the east coast. That's obviously a long trip...

However when I use the "connect to recommended server" button on the windows vpn client (instead of using VPN via my router) I am usually redirected to one of the toronto area servers. Thus my performance is much better when I use the windows client simply due to geographic RTT east coast to vancouver.

I could instead configure my router to a specific server rather than canada and presumably increase my performance - but then of course if that server happens to go down, so will my connection.

Is there a recommended solution to this, or am I overlooking something?

Thanks.

[go558a83nk 352]

All that does is choose the least busy server at the time of connection.  It knows nothing of which one is actually best for you.

 

If the connection goes down, then your firewall rules should prevent any traffic you don't desire.   But, check out the stats for those servers.  They rarely go down.

[shanksauce 0]

Thanks :-)

By "that", are you referring to the 'recommended server' button in the windows client, or 'ca.vpn.airdns.org' as configured into the router?

In my experience that button on the windows client tends to pick ones with low RTT that are not in your own country, possibly factoring in the % utilization. Anecdotally, it has *never* picked anything geographically far away from me, so I strongly suspect RTT is a part of the decision, not just least busy.

If 'ca.vpn.airdns.org' just picks the least busy server by % utilization among all Canada servers, it might explain why I tend to get Vancouver based ones. I expect they are less busy than east coast ones just due to demographics.

I am not worried about traffic I don't desire. It simply would be nice to have a simple way to have several nearby servers available. Something like east.ca.vpn.airdns.org or whatever.

That consideration isn't just on my side - I expect AirVPN would prefer to dynamically resolve (for load balancing purposes) rather than folks hardcode one particular server into their routers.

[go558a83nk 352]

Thanks :-)

 

By "that", are you referring to the 'recommended server' button in the windows client, or 'ca.vpn.airdns.org' as configured into the router?

 

In my experience that button on the windows client tends to pick ones with low RTT that are not in your own country, possibly factoring in the % utilization. Anecdotally, it has *never* picked anything geographically far away from me, so I strongly suspect RTT is a part of the decision, not just least busy.

 

If 'ca.vpn.airdns.org' just picks the least busy server by % utilization among all Canada servers, it might explain why I tend to get Vancouver based ones. I expect they are less busy than east coast ones just due to demographics.

 

I am not worried about traffic I don't desire. It simply would be nice to have a simple way to have several nearby servers available. Something like east.ca.vpn.airdns.org or whatever.

 

That consideration isn't just on my side - I expect AirVPN would prefer to dynamically resolve (for load balancing purposes) rather than folks hardcode one particular server into their routers.

 

 

Sorry, the nation config is what I was referring to.