A speedy VPN from a company you can actually trust. No, really…
Some VPN companies market themselves on features, others on Cost, but AirVPN Heads its site with a plea for your own trust, promising to be”controlled by activists and hacktivists in protection of net neutrality, privacy and from censorship.”
Anyone can say they are different, but AirVPN shows it, too. An About Us section explains the background to your organization, while the Mission page Lists other privacy projects AirVPN is developing and financing (IPLeak.net, an online encryption application, a web neutrality monitor, more), and also highlights other projects it funds (Tor, Electronic Frontier Foundation, WikiLeaks, more.)
The AirVPN network is modest In 22 countries. The business is unusually clear about these, though, using a standing page which lists them up-front, displays their existing load, and presents low-level details like the top 10 users’ rates and traffic.
Wish to try AirVPN? Check out the site here
An expert-friendly Specs page Covers a host of interesting low-level technical details which are often very difficult to locate: encryption forms and criteria, available protocols and ports, DNS server details (AirVPN includes its own), entry IP addresses of each VPN server, and more.
AirVPN Includes an adequate set of apps, covering Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, with guides to get it installed on iOS, routers and more. (There’s support for up to linking up to five of these devices concurrently.)
Even The pricing scheme appears better than most, with programs covering 3 days ($2.26), a month ($7.93), 3 months ($5.66), six months ($5.47) and one, two or three years ($4.62, $3.73, $3.11), with payment approved via cards, PayPal, Bitcoin and more.
And if you’re wondering if there are any hidden catches, good news: AirVPN has some busy forums where you are able to read what actual AirVPN customers are talking about.
Privacy
AirVPN Is upfront about its no-logging policy, saying clearly that it does not monitor or track any of your internet activities. The business also states that it complies with all European Union privacy directives, and any servers located outside the EU will treat your data using the exact same or greater levels of privacy and data protection.
The privacy policy describes more, in this paragraph:
“Technical Information which are strictly necessary for the Internet / media connections that are specifically related to the Air service are managed by automatic systems only in RAM and only for the period being required to provide the service. Activity traffic and/or traffic content and/or IP addresses of the customers or users aren’t inspected, stored or logged into almost any mass storage device.”
So, there’s no activity or Session logging, and any other information which might be necessary – counting busy sessions to authorities the five-connection limit, for example – is just saved for as long as you’re connected.
This sounds great to us, and overall we find no reason for concern. But we would still like to view AirVPN follow TunnelBear, VyprVPN and many others in allowing a public audit of its service to verify what it is doing.
Apps
Than we have seen with anybody else a lot more customer options are provided by airVPN. As an instance, the Windows download page has builds for specific OS versions (XP through to 10), in 32- and 64-bit tastes, and in installable or mobile forms.
The AirVPN Windows client doesn’t have the graphical mode of additional VPN apps. There aren’t any curved windows, no hi-res icons or buttons that are animated. It’s similar to a regular desktop application, with multiple tabs and densely packed tables of data.
The customer remains Simple enough, to utilize. At minimum, tapping on a’Recommended server’ button connects to the server for you and desktop alarms keep you in contact with what’s occurring. Once you’re connected, the client displays your country, town, delegated IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and current upload and download rates.
The place list a Stack of details about every server: name, city, nation, latency, capacity (1000Mbps or 100Mbps in a few instances ), load, and the amount of users that are connected.
The list is a long one, since it contains every available host, but there are ways to customize this. It is possible to add servers to a Blacklist, making sure they’ll never be displayed (all of the Hong Kong servers in case you are never going to link to them, for instance.) Or you can add servers to a whitelist, efficiently a favorites method, where you’ll only see your favorite choices.
Advanced extras include the capability to see the OpenVPN Setup controls for each host. That is a very convenient way for OpenVPN specialists to test out what’s happening under the hood.
There are plenty of stats available, with details on AirVPN’s Load per nation, rate charts, and all kinds of technical information on your existing relationship.
If you think that sounds advanced, Just wait till you find the settings, where AirVPN provides more fine-tuned comprehensive control over surgeries than any other VPN program we have ever seen. Up to now.
Take the kill switch, for instance (a method to block internet access In the event the VPN drops.) Most apps have, at most, a checkbox to turn it and off. AirVPN gives you choices to block or enable incoming or outgoing traffic separately; you will find options to permit local network traffic, pings or even DNS queries; you can add custom IP addresses which will not be impacted from the block; and you can also select the way the kill button will work (by using the Windows Filtering Platform, or the Windows firewall.)
That’s Only the start. Other tabs allow you to configure proxy along with Tor support, Windows routes, customized DNS servers, the system layers you’d love to pass through the tunnel (you can alternatively block IPv6 traffic or send it out the tunnel, for instance), add extra OpenVPN directives, even run specified commands at particular program events (launching an app when you’re connected, possibly, or shut it when a session ends.)
This isn’t always simple to follow along, even if you’re a VPN expert, but if power and configurability is high on your priority list, the customer is well worth a closer look.
Not using the Windows Client? It is a similar story elsewhere. Mobile VPN programs frequently have a bare minimum of features, but AirVPN’s Android offering has more settings than many desktop rivals.
Performance
AirVPN’s Windows customer took a Little longer than average to attach in 15 to 20 seconds, and it gave us several notifications about the startup procedure. We think it’s good to be informed, but when the alarms get a great deal, you can turn them off in Settings.
We Stress-tested the customer by closing the OpenVPN.exe process, and it did not seem to note, telling us that we were connected to the service. That’s bad news, but while the customer also blocked our internet access, there were no data leaks. The sole real-world issue is a user may wonder exactly what was going on, but turning the VPN off and on again will repair the problem.
There was privacy news that is positive From our leak tests, as multiple testing sites showed AirVPN’s Windows client had no DNS leaks.
Website unblocking performance was mixed. BBC couldn’t be accessed by us IPlayer, but AirVPN did get us into some websites, such as US YouTube, and 2 from three of our test servers empowered accessing US Netflix.
Our Speed tests ended the inspection on a positive note, together with UK downloads averaging an superb 65-66Mbbp, and also the finest US servers attaining 60Mbps. Performance tailed off for some of the more remote places – Singapore and Japan averaged 15-20Mbps – but these were quickly enough for many tasks.
Final verdict
AirVPN Is a likeable service — open, transparent, reasonably priced and with Some speedy servers. Professional users will adore its complex settings and High configurability, and the 3-day plan offer a convenient, low-priced Way to try out it.