Do you want to stay anonymous while surfing the web? If yes, then AirVPN could be the ideal solution for you.
While anyone can declare to be distinct nowadays, when it comes to VPN companies, AirVPN reveals that it really is.
AirVPN stands apart from other VPN services because of its dedication to protecting user privacy. Right from the start, the AirVPN website starts with an appeal for your trust, stating, “A VPN based on OpenVPN and operated by activists and hacktivists in defence of net neutrality, privacy and against censorship”.While anybody can declare to be special nowadays, when it comes to VPN providers, AirVPN shows that it really is.
They have actually been around a long period of time, since 2010, when it was started with the aid of 2 lawyers and a small group of activists and hackers. The satellite communications service provider Iridium formerly ran it, but AirVPN took control of in November 2012. According to the owner’s listing, AirVPN, based in Perugia, is presently owned by Paolo Brini (Italy).
During the last years, it hasn’t been dogged by security scandals like some VPNs have. Nor has it been acquired by a bigger organization either.
Across their About Us and Mission pages, the company’s history is explained and information the privacy projects that AirVPN has developed or supported. These include an online encryption tool, a net neutrality monitor, and other projects such as Tor, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and WikiLeaks.
AirVPN takes the unconventional route and breaks the mold by supplying a VPN developed by enthusiasts for enthusiasts.
So how does AirVPN compare to its rivals with such strong personal privacy credentials?
AirVPN’s Key Features
Servers
AirVPN’s network is much smaller than most, with just 246 servers spread out across 23 nations.
Most servers are in Europe (besides those in the US, Canada, and Hong Kong). A minor concern here is that the lack of variety of servers decreases the number of worldwide AirVPN users who may access geo-restricted services in their home nation while preserving their personal privacy.
That stated, Air is popular for its exceptional performance throughout its server network, with many nations having high-performance physical individual servers.
They utilize transparent bandwidth allocation strategies to provide a precise evaluation of performance, with no overbooking or overselling. Plus, they are entirely unlimited, with no speed constraints or time limits.
To establish a connection between your machine and their servers, they utilize OpenVPN and WireGuard (in beta). OpenVPN is the most secure and reputable method to create encrypted tunnels. It provides more security than the military.
Various ports and protocols are available; they use OpenVPN on the following ports: 80 TCP/UDP, 443 TCP/UDP, and 53 TCP/UDP. Every Air server directly supports OpenVPN over SSH, OpenVPN over SSL, and OpenVPN over Tor. So forget PPTP and other hazardous protocols.
No choice is given to any protocol, application, or service when it comes down to it. Net Neutrality is maintained. Importantly, you can get rid of web constraints such as avoiding censorship, geographic restrictions, and traffic shaping.
The usage is OpenVPN is a big plus as it automatically enhances users’ privacy and security and is highly reliable. However, the absence of WireGuard as standard might show Air isn’t quite staying up to date with its rivals. That stated, AirVPN states it is testing WireGuard, however it will not put the newer protocol fully in place up until some of its technical and personal privacy issues are resolved.
AirVPN has actually also added a lot for power users and tech-savvy individuals who like to experiment with things.
Switching is limitless, so if you do not like one server, you can quickly switch servers as frequently as you like.
You can keep track of the current load on each server, any existing concerns, and a history of previous issues on AirVPN’s network status page (which opens in a new tab).
There is a detailed specifications page for AirVPN’s servers, with information like the offered ports, protocols, DNS server info (AirVPN has its own DNS server), and the IP addresses of each VPN server’s gain access to points.
All of it is nice, but because there is no third-party audit, you need to rely on that what is being used will work. Looking at the active community forum or the detailed open-source clients puts your mind at ease.
A great feature of this is that you can see what other individuals say about the service before signing up. You don’t have to take their word for it or the word of an audit.
Just How Private Is AirVPN, & Does It Keep Logs?
The company is really clear when it comes to AirVPN’s no-logging policy. Online privacy and security are the outright top priority, with security from snoopers, data miners, and other entities that invade privacy. There is no individual info logged by AirVPN, which has a strong no-logging, tracking, or monitoring policy.
AirVPN does not track what you do when you’re connected to the VPN, date/time stamps, or your IP address. It only collects non-identifiable “technical information” to keep the server running and improve services, however you can ask for this info to be deleted at any time. This makes it among the most privacy-friendly VPN services.
As a result, no one can identify you online; not even your ISP can figure out what sort of traffic or protocol you’re utilizing.
There’s no listening in, so you can connect to any wi-fi network without stressing over your computer and the Wi-Fi hotspot spying on your data.
Even the most ruthless surveillance, censoring, throttling, and traffic shaping tactics will fail against AirVPN because your ISP and government will only see TCP or UDP communication on a single port.
They likewise say they adhere to EU privacy guidelines and that any servers outside the EU will be treated with the very same or greater levels of privacy and information protection as those in the EU.
You can get a brand-new IP address to conceal your IP so that no one can use it to find out who you are. You’ll stay safe with the top-level protection provided.
If your ISP or country blocks OpenVPN, you can still connect to an AirVPN server through OpenVPN over SSH, SSL, or Tor.
Open-source clients and a lively community forum allow you to get a sense of what existing users are stating about the service prior to signing up.
All of AirVPN’s software is open-source, which is a huge plus. This means that anyone can check out AirVPN’s security. ProtonVPN, Private Internet Access, and Mullvad VPN have open-source apps, but just ProtonVPN’s apps have actually been inspected by a 3rd party.
Relating to security, AirVPN’s cryptography is arguably the very best offered. It resembles that of some other service providers, but still worth mentioning. The very first exchange utilizes 4096-bit RSA to attain Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) by means of Diffie-Hellman key exchange. Following the first key negotiation, re-keying takes place every 60 minutes, and the user can minimize this value. The main data channel uses AES-256-CBC encryption.
When creating an account, you are not required to input any personal info, not even your real email address. That’s great considering that it lets you prevent leaving any sort of digital footprint. Be aware that you will not be able to alter your account’s password if you don’t utilize one.
Italy, where AirVPN is based, belongs to the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances (a group of countries that share intelligence data). But even if the federal government requested user info, AirVPN would have nothing to give them.
Who Or What Is Eddie??
The Eddie UI is the name of AirVPN’s main open-source application, offered on all significant platforms and OSes, consisting of Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Regardless of Eddie’s substantial ability with OpenVPN, it does not yet support WireGuard, so performance isn’t quite as excellent as those service providers who use it as standard.
Setting up the app is simple, and it has all the info you need to connect to a VPN.
There are no maps or clearly indicated buttons to direct you. While it’s not hard to get things working, it doesn’t have the most easy to use user interface, so it might be a more challenging learning curve for inexperienced users.
With Windows, there are a load of download options. There are builds for different operating systems (from Windows XP to Windows 11), in 32- and 64-bit flavors, and in portable or installable formats. In addition, there’s a changelog to explain what’s brand-new and an archive of past releases in case the most current doesn’t function on your setup.
After launching it, choose ‘Connect to a recommended server,’ and the app will connect to your closest location. When you’re completed, you just click Disconnect. Simple enough for anybody, however Eddie can do a lot more because AirVPN uses more fine-tuned complete control over operations than any other VPN app we’ve seen.
2 essential AirVPN functions through Eddie are its auto-connect and kill switch. AirVPN allows you to connect when your computer launches, but you can’t choose which VPN server it will connect to; it will always connect to the one you picked last.
Despite the fact that it specifies “kill switch” anywhere in the settings, AirVPN has a tab called “network lock” that does the very same thing. The difference is that AirVPN’s “network lock” stops all traffic that isn’t going through its safe tunnel. The majority of basic kill switches only do this when the VPN is on, but you can set up the “network lock” to filter your traffic at all times.
Eddie’s design is easy to understand. Along the top, there are 6 tabs: Overview, Servers, Countries, Speed, Stats, and Logs.
The Overview simply displays the server to which you are connected, the download and upload speeds, the exit IP address, and the connection time. This is where you log into your account.
The Servers page displays all available servers in the network, in addition to detailed details about each one, such as the server’s label, area, latency in milliseconds from your place, and current users and server load. Outstanding stuff!
This tab likewise has an amber/green signal that lets you understand whether a server is recommended for you.
The Countries page shows the number of servers available in each nation at a look, together with a sign of server load and user numbers. Similar to the Servers page, the amber/green indicator is also revealed. Many servers have up to 1000 Mb/s bandwidth, while some smaller ones have a 100 Mb/s connection.
A green checkmark, a red “X,” and a blank box can be discovered on the right rail of the Countries tab. Highlight a country, click the green checkmark, and the servers for that nation will appear on the Servers tab. This whitelist is basically a favorites list; you might pick as many nations as you like.
If you click the red “x”, that country will be gotten rid of, effectively making it a blocklist/denylist. To get rid of the green checkmark from a nation, click the empty box.
By choosing a nation, you are not instantly connected to a VPN server. Connect to a server by marking it and clicking on the “sign out” icon on the right-hand side (a right-facing arrow pointing into a square bracket).
The Speed tab displays a basic throughput graph with thin plot lines. Its temporal resolution can be changed, so you can see traffic from the last 10 seconds to one day.
While the majority of apps show your existing VPN server location and IP address at most. Eddie’s Stats page also shows fine-grained info, such as the server’s location, load, present user count, protocol, port, encryption algorithm, session start time and length, IPv6 exit address, information downloaded and uploaded, and a lot more.
Power users, in particular, should value the ability to use a VPN with all the information they might ever desire about the different locations, down to the variety of users on a specific server. It’s a valuable resource.
Finally, Logs is a detailed record of connections, routes, and other data.
A million and one other settings are hidden in the app’s Settings menu. This enables you to tweak the setup, such as whether it should always connect when opened, which protocol to use between UDP and TCP, and which port number. Or whether to try an SSH tunnel via more flexible ports such as 22, 80, and 443. Proxies, Tor assistance, custom DNS servers, and routes can be modified.
The truly proficient user can enter into Advanced and Expert Mode settings, which permit, to name a few things, sending orders to the OpenVPN Management Interface via the Logs pane.
If the vast feature list appears scary, even if you are a VPN professional, it might be difficult to find out what specific settings do and how to get the preferred results. In addition, it is unlike any other service in terms of customization.
Do not dismiss AirVPN’s Eddie simply since of its intricacy. Keep in mind that the program generally functions fine on its own, and you’ll never see the settings till you look for them. However, if you sometimes long for power or configurability, the app will supply it.
Suppose you do not want to use Eddie. In that case, you can also set up a router or firewall to send out all traffic through a VPN tunnel. This works with routers running the open-source DD-WRT and Tomato firmware and the FreeBSD-based pfSense firewall.
How Good Is AirVPN’s Mobile App?
Although there isn’t any VPN software for iOS, you can use an extremely feature-rich Android VPN app instead. This software application supplies the same substantial configuration choices as its desktop sibling and helpful status information.
Different pages for nation and server lists are what the Android app does not have that the desktop versions provides. Rather, you can expand a country and choose a specific city on the same page. Some helpful text additions make the details more understandable, however it’s still quite difficult to comprehend in some spots.
Android does not have as numerous settings as Windows. That’s not a significant critique; there are still much more than the majority of people will ever require. The software also tries a little more to help you, with extra text subtitles to explain what each option does.
Speeds/Performance
Using OpenVPN, the Eddie Windows app from AirVPN usually connects quickly and is ready to go in less than 10 seconds.
Online reviewers felt the connection monitoring was great, with the app discovering when the VPN tunnel drops, notifying us with a desktop notification, and reconnecting us in seconds.
In regards to privacy, leak tests showed that AirVPN’s Windows client didn’t have any DNS leaks, which shows that the Network Lock/Kill Switch works well.
Now let’s get to those speeds.
It was always going to be slower than the WireGuard-equipped competition since AirVPN just supports OpenVPN.
Reviewers have reported speeds to be exceptional. One stated there wasn’t a single country where they could complain about the speed. On the contrary, it was actually excellent overall.
While it wasn’t quite at the top tier for VPNs that use WireGuard, it was still more than fast enough for many people, and situations like HD gaming, streaming, and video conferencing certainly will not slow you down.
What AirVPN lacks is a more comprehensive variety of server areas. This may limit the ease of access of nearby servers for some users (which will always lead to much better speeds). As a result, this VPN is an outstanding choice for most people in the United States and Europe, however maybe less so for other regions.
Streaming
Streaming the huge services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, Hulu, HBO, BBC iPlayer, and Discovery+ has actually been a mixed bag for reviewers. Some report that AirVPN is effective enough to bypass the VPN blocks used by Netflix in the U.S.A., whereas others do not.
Indeed, some report that Air is pretty poor for streaming and does not work with any of the major streaming services. It appears to work with less-popular streaming apps like Peacock and Sony Crackle.
Another reviewer says services like BBC iPlayer and US Netflix hardly ever work, and when they do, discovering the best server requires lengthy experimentation. This is most likely because, unlike other companies, AirVPN doesn’t provide servers that are optimised for accessing streaming websites.
Thankfully, on AirVPN’s site, there is a list of ‘blocked websites’ that users can check to see if the situation with these streaming websites ever changes.
Streaming is certainly not an area in which AirVPN excels, merely since that’s not what the service is about, as they are more focused on privacy and security.
Does AirVPN Allow Torrenting?
Yes, it does; every internet protocol, including peer-to-peer, is welcome. Air supports P2P file-sharing on all of its servers. There’s nothing to set up, no hoops to jump through. Merely connect to the VPN server of your option and start.
Plus, you can utilize port forwarding to enhance your file-sharing performance. A number of applications, such as BitTorrent and eMule clients, would run poorly without it, and your computer system’s shares might be inaccessible from the Web.
File sharing has decent speeds on local servers, enables port forwarding for as much as 20 ports at once (which lets you connect to more peers for faster speeds), and works with top torrenting clients like qBitTorrent and uTorrent.
AirVPN’s integrated kill switch, triggered by default, will block all traffic from exiting your gadget if the VPN connection ever drops. That way, you won’t be sending out unencrypted packets to the Internet. If you are file sharing, a kill switch is very hassle-free, especially if you need to leave your connection unattended.
Reviewers have shown torrenting to be outstanding, smooth running with fast download and upload speeds, and with no issues whatsoever.
AirVPN Plans & Pricing
AirVPN offers a larger range of plans than many VPNs. As standard, each plan lets you connect as much as 5 gadgets all at once, so you can connect your PC, phone, tablet, and a couple of other gadgets all at the same time.
This makes it an excellent option for individuals who live in a household house or want to utilize a VPN on a public network. While 5 really should suffice for most people, other VPN suppliers offer 7 or even 10 if you need more.
Rates varies based upon the membership length, and each plan consists of the same features. A lot of plans offer good value; however, longer memberships provide the very best deal.
The standard pricing is in Euros. They use the European Central Bank to supply real-time exchange rates for those overseas, so it can be easily converted to and paid for in the currency of your option.
The existing plans readily available are:
Three days- EUR2
One month – EUR7
Three months – EUR15 – works out to EUR 5/month
Six months – EUR29 – works out to EUR 4.83/month
One year – EUR49 – works out to EUR 4.08/month
Two years – EUR79 – works out to EUR 3.29/month
Three years – EUR99 – works out to EUR 2.75/month
AirVPN accepts major credit cards, PayPal, Amazon Pay, and a whole load of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Doge. Lots of global alternatives are likewise accepted, such as Alipay and Giropay.
AirVPN offers a three-day totally free trial, which can be obtained by sending a message to the support team and utilizing the coupon code they send you.
There’s likewise a 30-day money-back guarantee, as long as they have not broken the terms of service or used more than 5 GB of data during that time.
AirVPN Customer Support
AirVPN has a different customer support offering than lots of other VPNs. While it doesn’t have live chat, it provides email assistance and frequently asked questions (FAQs) and has an extremely active support forum with contributors from both the service itself and the community.
Importantly, AirVPN’s e-mail assistance isn’t contracted out however can be a little inconsistent with the time it takes to get a response. That said, the e-mail assistance is high quality, and the representatives are friendly and practical, however the comprehensive answers can be pretty technical, which may put off those brand-new to VPNs.
AirVPN’s website has a great deal of info, including a big FAQs section that is broken up by subject.
AirVPN’s community forums cover several subjects, but novices will have the exact same difficulties understanding a great deal of the tech lingo in the posts.
AirVPN Pros & Cons
Pros:
No logging Whatsoever.
Excellent speeds with very little loss.
Unrestricted P2P enabled with Port Forwarding.
Strong security on servers and apps alike, with advanced protocols and encryption.
Network Lock/Kill Switch.
Split tunneling.
Supports Windows, Mac, Linux, mobile, and routers.
Supports Tor over VPN.
Easy app setup and usage.
Many, many advanced settings and customization choices in the client app.
Solid Client Service.
Active Community Forums and Comprehensive Guides.
Good rates, especially for longer-term plans.
Optional block lists shield you from ads, adware, trackers, and harmful sources.
Cons:
Only fully supports OpenVPN.
Client app isn’t really easy to use or pretty like other services.
Client app might overwhelm newer users.
It is really hit and miss with streaming services.
No native iOS or ChromeOS apps.
Maybe there are too many advanced alternatives.
Located in 14-Eyes Nation.
Server numbers are reasonably low.
Rounding Things Up – Is AirVPN The Very Best Choice?
So the bottom line is that AirVPN is a strong, trustworthy, and safe VPN service with great rates. It’s plainly tailored towards more power and advanced users, so those new to VPNs will be better served by a less, shall we say, specialized VPN service provider. Even new users might do much, much worse.
While it could be challenging to use if you’re new to VPNs, you’ll get much quicker speeds and better results than a number of its rival VPN rivals.
When it boils down to it, this VPN service is more concentrated on protecting your personal privacy than unblocking streaming services like Netflix or Hulu.
It might not guarantee the very same level of privacy and anonymity as a service like Mullvad, which appoints you a random account number and enables you to pay in cash, AirVPN is still a great alternative for customers who value their personal privacy.
While it does not hit the speed heights of a WireGuard service, performance-wise, it’s absolutely the best purely OpenVPN service out there. In addition to being an excellent choice for online filesharing.
Highly recommended!
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