Let us begin our IPVanish review by noting that they are the only Top Tier VPN provider. This means that they control all of their infrastructure, employ their own network engineers, and write their own custom software. Therefore, your data never has to be touched by a third party. All your Internet traffic is encrypted and securely tunneled from the time it leaves your device till it exits the IPVanish VPN servers on its way to its final destination. The IPVanish staff have complete control of it at all times. This allows them to optimize its flow and provide one of the fastest VPN services in the industry. A veteran of 15 years in the privacy space, they have cultivated a stellar reputation and remain one of the premier VPN providers due their professionalism, attention to customer service, and ability to integrate the latest technologies into their network.
IPVanish is constantly expanding and improving their network of servers to provide the fastest, most secure, and most reliable worldwide VPN service. Their network spans over 40,000 IP addresses on over 500 servers in 61 countries. It includes access to almost every major continent including Europe, North America, Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. It is likely that no matter where you are in the world, you will be able to find a fast and reliable IPVanish server to protect your privacy and secure your Internet transactions.
Pricing and Special Offers
IPVanish markets their VPN service as a single package with three different pricing plans. These plans include one month, 3 months, and one year. IPVanish has generously offered our readers an additional 30% off of any existing discount for the first billing cycle. This means our readers can enjoy a full year of the IPVanish service from just $54.59 which is just $4.54 per month. That is a savings of 63% off the full retail price of $143.88 a year.
So, what do you get for your $4.54 per month? IPVanish offers all subscribers the following benefits regardless of your chosen plan:
Free custom VPN Software for Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone, Android, Ubuntu
2 Simultaneous connections
No Logging of VPN usage
Unlimited VPN bandwidth and usage
Access to 40,000+ IP addresses
Access to 500+ servers in 61 Countries
Choice of VPN protocols: OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP
The ability to bypass censorship and geo-restrictions
Wi-Fi hotspot protection against intruders
VOIP support to save on long distance costs
100% online data security
7-Day money-back guarantee
In addition to these benefits, all IPVanish servers use a NAT (Network Address Translation) firewall to share public IP addresses. This helps protect the privacy and anonymity of their users. It also blocks inbound traffic and protects them from unwanted malware and malicious bots while using the IPVanish service.
As you can see above, IPvanish offers a generous number of ways to pay for their service. You can pay by credit cards which includes VISA, MasterCard, American Express, Discovery, and JCB. They also accept VISA debit cards, Electron and Delta. You can also pay using PayPal or Bitcoin which will only require you to enter an email address. Paying by Bitcoin will keep you more anonymous. Finally, you can pay using iDEAL Giropay, Bolero, Paysafe, and others.
Risk Free Trial Period
Although they do not have a free trial, IPVanish knows that you will want to test their service so they are offering all new subscribers a 7-day money back guarantee. This should be adequate time to test out their VPN service for yourself. If for any reason, you are not completely satisfied with it, they will refund the full purchase price of your chosen plan. You must request this refund within seven days of the purchase date. Requests made later than seven days from purchase date will not be honored.
This reimbursement will be in US dollars and therefore the refund amount could differ from the amount originally paid in variably priced currencies like Bitcoin since refunds using these methods will be assessed at the USD exchange rate at the time of the refund and not purchase.
IPVanish Network and Server Locations
The IPVanish network of servers has continued to grow over the years. Their network has over 40,000 IP addresses on over 500 servers in 61 different countries. They have servers on nearly every major continent including Europe, North America, Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. A full list of their servers is as follows:
Africa (6)
Egypt – Cairo, South Africa – Johannesburg (5)
Asia (66)
Hong Kong (10), India – Bangalore (6), India – Hyderabad (8), India – Indore, India – Mumbai (2), India – New Delhi (2), Indonesia – Jakarta, Israel – Tel Aviv (2), Japan – Tokyo (7), Kyrgyzstan – Bishkek, Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur, Philippines – Manila (2), Saudi Arabia – Riyadh, Singapore – Singapore (12), South Korea – Seoul (4), Thailand – Bangkok, Turkey – Bursa, Turkey – Istanbul (2), Turkey – Izmir, Vietnam – Hanoi
Central/South America (4)
Argentina – Buenos Aires, Brazil – Sao Paulo (3)
Europe (196)
Albania – Tirana, Austria – Graz, Austria – Vienna (3), Belgium – Brussels, Bulgaria – Sofia (3), Croatia – Zagreb (4), Cyprus – Larnarca (2), Czech Republic – Prague, (8)Denmark – Copenhagen (3), Estonia – Tallinn, Finland – Helsinki (4), France – Paris (3), Germany – Dresden, Germany – Frankfurt (24), Greece – Athens, Hungary – Budapest (3), Iceland – Reykjavik, Ireland – Dublin (2), Italy – Milan (10), Latvia – Riga,Lithuania – Vilnius, Luxembourg – Luxembourg (3), Malta – Qormi, Moldova – Chisinau, Netherlands – Amsterdam (42), Norway – Oslo (2), Poland – Warsaw (2), Portugal – Lisbon (5), Romania – Bucharest (4), Russia – Moscow, Serbia – Belgrade, Slovakia – Bratislava, Slovenia – Ljubljana, Spain – Madrid (3), Spain – Valencia (2), Sweden – Stockholm (3), Switzerland – Zurich (2), Ukraine – Kharkiv, U.K. – Belfast (2), U.K. – Glasgow (2), U.K. – Liverpool (5), U.K. – London (30), U.K. – Manchester (3), U.K. – Nottingham
North America (192)
Canada – Montreal (2), Canada – Toronto (14), Canada – Vancouver (2), Costa Rica – San Jose, Mexico – Guadalajara, Panama – Panama City, U.S. – Ashburn, VA (16), U.S – Atlanta, GA (16), U.S – Chicago, IL (15), U.S – Dallas, TX (14), U.S – Las Vegas, NV (10), U.S – Los Angeles, CA (17), U.S – Miami, FL (15), U.S – New York, NY (26), U.S – Phoenix, AZ (12), U.S – San Jose, CA (15), U.S – Seattle, WA (15)
Oceania (44)
Australia – Melbourne (2), Australia – Sydney (33), New Zealand – Auckland (9)
It is easy to see from this list that IPVanish has servers worldwide and multiple servers in more popular locations like both the east and west coasts of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and others. Their network defaults primarily to the OpenVPN protocol but also supports L2TP/IPSec and PPTP.
Privacy and Security
IPVanish always has your privacy in mind and thus they are a no-log VPN service. Put simply they do not log any of their users activity while connected to their VPN service. This is supported by the following excerpts taken directly from their privacy policy.
IPVanish does not collect or log any traffic or use of its Virtual Private Network service.
…we do not track user activities outside of our Site, nor do we track the browsing activities of users who are logged into our VPN service.
Many people are under the false belief that the United States has a data retention law but exactly the opposite is true. The US has no rules regarding data retention unlike some countries in Europe, Australia, and others. So although they would have to comply with judicial orders from the proper authorities, because they do not log any activity of their users, they have no information to turn over.
Now for the second half of this section. What kind of encryption does IPVanish offer to their users? IPVanish implements the OpenVPN protocol as its primary default protocol in all but its iOS app. The cipher used for server authentication and control DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA with 2048 bit RSA. Data is encrypted and decrypted using an AES-256-CBC cipher initialized with a 256 bit key. SHA256 is used for HMAC authentication. The IKEv2 protocol, the default for their iOS app also provides excellent encryption. This means you can always be assured that all of your Internet traffic is securely encrypted no matter what operating system or device you use to connect to the IPVanish service.
IPVanish Support
IPVanish provides 24/7 email ticket support for any problems you may have with many support tickets answered in less than thirty minutes but some may take a little longer. Their formal ticketing system has a template to help you formalize and clarify your problem so that the IPVanish support staff can provide the answers you need. Their website has an excellent support area where you can see common questions and support issues. The support area also has well written manual installation and configuration guides for all the protocols that they support if you decide not to use their easy to use custom software clients and apps.
Video Review of IPVanish
Hands-On Testing
IPVanish has custom software for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android. You can download these custom apps from the “vpn setup” page of the IPVanish website which can be accessed by selecting Apps in the site main menu. Next, click on the appropriate button for your operating system. Windows has been selected in the image below.
Once you sign up for an account, they will send you a welcoming email with your username and password so that you can connect to their VPN network of servers using your chosen client software.
Connecting with the Windows VPN Client
As we said before, you can download the IPVanish Windows client from the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Apps” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the Windows button (shown at left). This will load the Windows setup sub-page which contains information on the latest Windows client. This page also contains step-by-step manual setup and visual guides for configuring Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP with PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN.
Click on the orange “download software” button to transfer the setup file to your computer. Once this file is on your computer you will need to run it as administrator to install the Windows client on your machine. Once the setup has started, you will see an image like the one on the left below. Click the install button to start the installation process. This installation will create a desktop icon like that shown on the right to launch the client.
The image on the right above shows the final screen of the installation. Click on the “launch” button to start the client. Below, you will see the full client screen with the server selection-map view window active. The main client screen consists of the following static components at the top of the client screen (from left to right):
IPVanish logo
Flag icon of the currently selected server
Dropdown list box to select the VPN connection protocol
Dropdown list box to select the server to connect to by ping value (ms)
State of connection and current IP address (Welcome message)
Red switch icon if client is not connected or a green switch icon if it is connected
Along the left hand side of the client is the menu which consist of the following:
Dashboard – This menu has three tabs: dashboard; diagnostics; and settings.
Server selection – This menu has three tabs: by use; list; and map.
IP Settings – The current IP address, the ability to change it, and information about it.
Account – This window will log you into your IPVanish user control panel on their website and lets you review and control your account from the client.
Support – This option takes you to the support page of the IPVanish website.
The majority of the IPVanish Windows client is a sub-window showing the currently selected menu-tab. The image above shows the server selection-map tab. This window will allow you to zoom into the map and graphically select and connect to servers in the IPVanish network. We will talk more about this later.
There is also a green “send support request” button which will popup a window to allow you to create a support ticket and send it to the IPVanish support staff. The template of this support ticket is shown below.
Providing a template support ticket makes it easy for you to define your problem so that the IPVanish support team can quickly resolve it. Simply enter you username, email address, select the protocol you use to connect, choose a problem type (like connection), provide a brief description of the problem, include diagnostics (to help diagnose the issue faster), and send the request. You will receive an email confirmation of your support ticket number and the IPVanish team will get to work solving your issue.
Now that we have examined the main IPVanish Windows client screen, let us take a look at the menu-tabs that make up its sub-windows. The first menu we will examine is the dashboard. As the image below shows, the dashboard has three tabs: dashboard, diagnostics, and settings. The dashboard tab shows your home position on the map, your true IP address, and indicates that your data is not secured if you are not connected to the IPVanish network. Once connected to one of their VPN servers as we are in the image below, it will show your virtual location, the server you are connected to, your virtual IP address, and the session time as depicted in the image below. Note the message also says connected to server name and shows the virtual IP address and the connect button is green with the word disconnect under it. Pressing this button will disconnect you from your current VPN server.
The first time you connect to the IPVanish server network a popup window will appear requesting that you verify your credentials. This is shown in the image below.
The second tab, the diagnostics tab just shows the commands used to create the current VPN connection and is used mainly to troubleshoot connection problems. Including this in your support ticket can help the IPVanish support team expedite the solution to your connection problem. The last tab of the dashboard is the settings which has general information to control the IPVanish client. The image below shows the top half this tab which allows you to control some of the more advanced features of the client.
These settings are divided into sections. These sections include the following:
Authentication – Allows you to delete saved credentials
Note, if you chose to delete your saved credentials you will have to re-enter them every time you connect to a VPN server.
VPN: Active protocol – Allows you to change the VPN connection protocol
OpenVPN (TCP) – Because this verifies packets , it is slower than OpenVPN (UDP) but more reliable.
OpenVPN (UDP) – This is good for most connections and the default protocol for the Windows client.
L2TP/IPSec – This is good for some mobile devices because they have built-in support but slower than some other protocols.
PPTP – Use this if nothing else works or for low security video streaming because it has known security vulnerabilities.
Automatically reconnect – This along with the startup options lets you always try to keep connected to the VPN.
Enable IPv6 leak prevention – This will allow you to guard against IPv6 traffic leaks.
Often when you visit a site that has IPv6 traffic enabled, they will be able to detect some of your traffic even if you are using a VPN service.
Enabling this will make sure that all request from IPv6 are forced through IPv4 to the VPN tunnel and thus guards against these types of leaks.
Enable kill switch – Enabling this will ensure that if your connection is lost, all Internet traffic will cease. This can help to protect your privacy while using the IPVanish service by keeping your true IP address secret and your surfing habits secure if the connection drops .
Block all LAN traffic – This feature can only enabled if the kill switch is active and allows you to additionally block all LAN traffic between your computer and the LAN.
OpenVPN: Port – This lets you change the port used by OpenVPN.
443 – This is the default client port and the default port used for https traffic.
1194 – This is the port reserved for OpenVPN traffic.
Enable DNS leak prevention – Enabling this will prevent DNS leaks to your ISP.
This will send all DNS requests through the VPN tunnel to the IPVanish DNS servers.
PPTP/L2TP
Enable Split Tunneling – This will allow you to decide which applications use the VPN tunnel and which do not. This is a nice feature that is not available with most VPNs.
The rest of the dashboard settings tab allows you control the startup options, appearance, and closing options for the IPVanish Windows client. These are shown in the above image. They are as follows:
Startup Options – These are mutually exclusive options (only one can be selected)
Don’t autoconnect – Launch the client without connecting.
Autoconnect to last server – Connect to last server you were connected to.
Autoconnect to fastest server – Connect to fastest server based on ping values.
Autoconnect to chosen server – Connect to the sever you select from the drop down list.
Start when Windows Starts – This ensures that the VPN is always connected.
Hide IPVanish on startup – Move the client to the system tray on launch.
Action on closing
Quit application – This completely closes the client.
Hide to tray – This keeps the client open but moves it to the system tray.
Minimize Window – This minimizes the client to the task bar.
Show dialog and ask – This provides a popup window that lets you decide what to do when you close the client as is shown below. We prefer this option because it lets us decide how we want to treat a close action on an individual basis rather that locking us into just one as the other options do.
The second menu item that we will look at is the server selection menu which also has three tabs: by use, lists, and map. Let us first look at the by use tab which is shown in the image below. The IPVanish client makes it easy for you to select the best server for general use or if you want to download streaming media or play games from popular locations.
This screen consists of four selection buttons which are as follows:
World icon – Selecting this icon will connect you to the fastest server from your current location using the latest ping values.
US flag icon – Selecting this icon will connect you to the fastest server in the US for streaming media or gaming from your current location.
UK flag icon – Selecting this icon will connect you to the fastest server in the UK for streaming media or gaming from your current location.
Canada flag icon – Selecting this icon will connect you to the fastest server in the UK for streaming media or gaming from your current location.
Those who want to stream media from providers in these countries or gaming aficionados will find the selections very useful. Connecting to your favorite online game through a VPN can provide you with a reliable connection and protect you from the DDoS tactics employed by some gamers allowing them to take unfair advantage of other gamers.
The second tab of the server selection menu that we want to take a look at is the map tab. As we previously saw, this tab provides a world map with the IPVanish network of servers displayed on it as numbers in circles that represents the number of servers in that area of the map. The map allows you to zoom in and out of it showing more localized server locations as you do. Zooming in can be accomplished by clicking on the + icon (in the top left corner) or selecting one of the numbered circles which shows a number two or greater. The image below illustrates this where we have clicked on the circle containing 42 servers at the Amsterdam, Netherlands location. The spiral array of single servers shows that there are 42 servers in Amsterdam. Clicking on a circle containing a one will connect you to that server. Clicking on any of the servers in the Amsterdam spiral will connect you to that server. We will examine a better way to choose an Amsterdam server in a moment.
The next thing to note in the above image is that we have zoomed in to connect to the Nottingham, UK server by clicking on the circle which contains it on the map. Your currently connected location is shown in a red circle. This is also shown by the green switch beside the sever location. The switch at the top right is also green indicating that you are connected to the chosen server. Hovering the mouse over the green circle with the two in it near London brings up a list of the servers at that location. Clicking on either of the red connect buttons beside one of the London, UK server locations will allow you to quickly switch server locations. You could also easily connect to the Brussels, Belgium location by clicking on the green circle near it. Finally, you can disconnect without changing location by clicking on the connected server location or the disconnect button in the upper right. Using the map view will allow you to change between servers in different locations with just a few mouse clicks.
The final way that you can select and change servers is through the server selection list tab. The server list can be sorted by ping, country, last connected, and number of times connected. Each list can also be filtered by the search box above it and has columns for city, country, server name and ping value (milliseconds). The list below has been sorted by last connected which is subdivided into periods like last day, last week, last 3 month, and never. Each subdivision can be expanded and compacted by clicking on the circle icon containing up or down arrows to the left of it. The times connected list which is not shown is similarly subdivided into 1 time, 1+, and never connected.
The image below shows the server selection list sorted by country. This list orders the countries alphabetically. Each country’s list of servers can be expanded or compacted by clicking on the circle icon containing up or down arrows to the left of it. Like the other lists, it has columns for city, country, server name and ping value (milliseconds).
The final way to sort the server selection list is by ping value which will show you the server with the fastest response time from your current location. This list is subdivided by ping rates in milliseconds as is shown below. The divisions include < 25 ms, < 50 ms, < 100 ms, < 200 ms, and > 200 ms. Similarly to the other lists, the servers in these subdivisions can be expanded or compacted by clicking on the circle icon containing up or down arrows to the left of it.
Now that we have examined the server selection list and how it can be sorted, let us look at a practical example of how it can help us find the best performing server for a particular country from our current location. This is where the server selection list shines. We will use the Amsterdam location as an example. This is shown in the below illustration. First, sort the server list by ping value. Next, start typing letters in the search filter for the country you want to connect to. Finally, connect to one of the servers with the lowest ping value. This should connect you to one of the best performing (fastest) servers in that country for you. Repeat this for other low ping rate servers to find the best one for you.
Once you have found the server in the list that you want to connect to, you can select it as we have done for the Amsterdam server above and click on the connect button to complete your connection. Else, you can double-click on the location name in the list to complete the connection. Selecting another server in the list will let you easily change VPN servers.
The last menu item that we want to examine is IP settings. This menu option only has one tab and is shown in the image below.
There are four topics under the IP settings menu. These are as follows:
Current IP address – This shows you current IP address assigned by the VPN server you are connected to.
Change IP address button – This will allow you to change you IP address whenever you want to.
Once pressed this will temporarily disconnect you from your VPN connection, get a new IP address, and reconnect you to the same server.
Periodic IP address change – This has a toggle check box to allow you to periodically change you IP address.
It allows you to set this time interval in minutes with a minimum time interval of 45 minutes.
This will temporarily interrupt your connection while a new address is being assigned.
Taking advantage of this feature will help to make you even more anonymous while using the IPVanish service.
Verify IP Address – This will let you verify that your public IP address is hidden.
It will let you choose from a variety of websites to do this verification.
Install/repair OpenVPN driver
OpenVPN drivers can sometimes become corrupted and this will allow you to quickly reinstall or repair it if this should occur.
As you can see, the IPVanish Windows client makes it easy to select and connect to servers on their VPN network. They have added some nice features such the ability to periodically change your IP address for maximum anonymity while using their service and a way to verify your assigned IP address location. Their Windows client includes some of the most advanced VPN features like an Internet kill switch, DNS leak protection, and even IPv6 leak protection. They have also simplified the connection choice for those who want to find the fastest server for general surfing, streaming media, or gaming. Connecting to a server in their network is as simple as double-clicking on a location in the server selection list or zooming in on the map and clicking on a location. The IPVanish client defaults to the best encrypted VPN protocol, OpenVPN (UDP) to ensure that you are always secure while connected to their service.
Connecting with the Mac OS X VPN Client
You can download the IPVanish Mac OS X client from the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Apps” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the Mac OS X button (shown on the left). This will load the Mac OS X setup sub-page which contains information on the latest Mac client. This page also contains step-by-step manual setup and visual guides for configuring Mac OS X with PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN.
Click on the orange “download software” button for Mac OS X 10.10+ to transfer the setup file to your computer. Once the installer (IPVanish.dmg) file is on your computer you will need to open it. Drag the IPVanish VPN app icon over to the applications folder in the window that appears. This will install IPVanish into your applications folder. Once IPVanish has been copied to your applications folder, it is installed and ready to use. This will install an icon to launch the IPVanish app on your launchpad.
To run IPVanish for the first time, you need to find IPVanish VPN in your applications folder and double-click it to open it. When you launch the Mac OS X app for the first time, you may encounter a security warning , just click open if you do. Once the app opens, you will be prompted to enter in your IPVanish username and password. Also, when running the Mac client for the first time, you will be prompted to enter your Mac system password to allow IPVanish to install its helper component.
The first screen you will see once the IPVanish Mac app has launched will be the dashboard as is shown in the image on the left below. From this image, we can see that we are not currently connected to the IPVanish network. This is indicated by the red “not connected” message, the red box with the x in it, and the red condition of the connection toggle. Also, no server or connection time is shown. This unconnected screen also shows your true IP address, location, and the protocol that you are using to connect. To connect to the currently chosen server (Atlanta , GA: US), all you have to do is click on the toggle beside the location name.
Once you have pressed the toggle, you will see a screen similar to the one shown on the right above. You can immediately tell that you are connected by the green connection message, the green box with a check in it, and the now green toggle switch. The app now shows the new IP address assigned by the VPN server and our virtual location. The app also shows the following as part of the dashboard menu:
The Public IP – This is the virtual IP assigned by the VPN server.
Protocol – The protocol used in the current VPN connection.
Time connected – The time since this session started.
Server – The name of the server that you are connected to.
The bottom third of the connected dashboard screenshot shows the instantaneous download speed in green and upload speed in red along with a graph of them over time. The menu is displayed along the left of the client. It has the following items on it.
Dashboard – The main connection screen for the app (described above).
By city – This shows a list of the VPN servers ordered by city.
By map – This shows the servers graphically depicted on a map.
Settings – This allows you to set both the general and more advanced features of the app.
Account – This screen will allow you to log in to your account and manage it from within the app.
Support – This menu option will take you to the IPVanish support page on their website.
Now let us take a closer look at the two ways of selecting servers in the IPVanissh Mac OS X app: by map and by city. These are depicted in the images below.
The first image shows the by map screen. This map screen represents the IPVanish servers as circles with numbers in them. These numbers represent the number of servers in that area. The map screen lets you zoom into it to increase the detail and localize the servers to make it easier to select and connect to them. Clicking on a circle with a one in it will select that server for you connect to. Once you have selected a server, just toggle the connect button as we did above to complete the connection. Alternately, you can double click on the location and connect to the chosen server. You can also connect to a server location by double clicking on any of the green or yellow dots on the map. Once the connection has been made the dashboard will show us the details.
The second way that you can connect to a server in the IPVanish network using the Mac app is to use the by city menu option. The screen for this is shown in the image on the right above. This screen will show you a list of the VPN servers in the IPVanish network by city. You can order this list by city, country, continent, servers, and starred (favorite) by clicking on the appropriate column heading. Clicking on the country and then the city will order the list alphabetically: first by country and then by city. This will make it easy to find the server that you want to connect to. By default, the app will connect you to the sever it thinks will provide you the fastest performance. However if you double click on the number in the servers column it will show you a list of the servers in that location and allow you to pick your own. Additionally, if you connect to a destination regularly, you can click on a star by the location in the list which will turn the star solid green and favorite the location. You can then order the list by favorites so that the locations you use regularly are always at the top of the list. This makes it even easier to connect to the servers you use regularly.
The final menu option that we will examine in detail is settings. The settings menu has two tabs: general and connection. These are shown in the below image.
The first image shows the settings general setup tab. It primarily controls the apps startup behavior and appearance. It is divided into five sections as follows:
Startup – This controls how and when the app starts.
Start on login – Automatically start the IPVanish Mac app when you log into your computer.
Automatically connect when IPVanish launches which has three options.
Connect to the city closet to you from you current location.
Connect to the city you last connected to.
Choose a city that you want to automatically connect to.
Appearance – These options modify the appearance of the app once it has been launched.
Show the IPVanish app on the dock.
Show your current connection state on the status bar.
Updates – This lets you control how the app handles new updates from IPVanish.
Automatically check for updates – This will check for updates and notify you before installing them.
Automatically download and install – This will let you know when a new update has been installed.
Install beta updates – We do not recommend that you enable this.
Diagnostics – This will automatically send crash information to the IPVanish team.
This can help them improve the performance of the service they provide you.
Alerts – This will hide alerts when you quit the app while connected to their service.
It is probably best that you do not enable this setting so you will always know when you are connected to the IPVanish service.
The image on the right above displays the settings connection tab. This screen allows you to control some of the more advanced connection features of the IPVanish Mac app. This screen is divided into two sections: one for connection control and the other for DNS configuration.
The connection section controls some of the IPVanish apps most advanced features like the kill switch. It is organized as follows:
Connection protocol – This defaults to the overall best VPN protocol OpenVPN (UDP) for most uses but can be changed to:
OpenVPN (TCP) – This will often work if OpenVPN (UDP) does not but can be slower.
The port for the OpenVPN protocol can also be changed
Port 443 – This is the default client port and the default port used for https traffic.
Port 1194 – This is the port normally used for OpenVPN traffic.
L2TP – This provides an alternate way to connect and still maintain a comparable level of security to OpenVPN but will usually be slower.
PPTP – Only use this for low security applications like video streaming because it has known security vulnerabilities.
Automatically reconnect – Enabling this will aid in always keeping your VPN connection up.
Internet connection “kill switch” – Enabling this will ensure that if your connection is lost, all Internet traffic will cease. This can help to protect your privacy while using the IPVanish service by keeping your true IP address secret if the connection drops.
Change IP address periodically – Enabling this will allow you to periodically change you IP address.
It allows you to set this time interval in minutes with a minimum time interval of 45 minutes and defaults to 60 minutes.
This will temporarily interrupt your connection while a new address is being assigned.
If the kill switch has been set this will also make your Internet unavailable while a new IP address is being obtained.
Taking advantage of this feature will help to make you even more anonymous while using the IPVanish service.
The DNS section is pretty straight forward. It allows you to reset your DNS configuration from the Mac app. By default the app uses the IPVanish DNS servers when you are connected to their network but you can change this to other DNS servers such as Google’s if you want. It allows you to enter the primary and secondary IP addresses for your chosen DNS servers and resets them from the client.
The IPVanish app for Mac OS X has the same look and feel of their Windows client. It allows Mac users to connect and disconnect from their network with just a couple of mouse clicks on either the map or list screens. It has a kill switch like thast found in their Windows client. Indeed, IPVanish is one of the only Mac clients that we know of to include this advanced feature. This feature will help to protect your privacy by assuring that you will always be connected to their service while using the Internet. Another unique feature is the ability to periodically change your IP address. The IPVanish Mac OS X app defaults to the OpenVPN protocol so you will always know your connection is secure when you are connected to one of their VPN servers.
Connecting with the Android App
You can download the IPVanish Android app from the VPN setup page of their website by selecting “Apps” from the sites main menu. Once you get on this page, click on the Android button (shown on the left). This will load the Android setup sub-page which contains information on the latest Android app and a link to it. This page also contains step-by-step manual setup and visual guides for configuring your Android device with L2TP and PPTP.
To download the app, click on the “Android app on Google Play” button. From the Google Play Store, click the install button to begin installation of the app. The IPvanish app is compatible with Android 4.0 and above. Once installation starts, you will see a screen like the one shown in the middle below. IPVanish VPN is the only VPN app we have installed that did not require special permissions. The screen on the right below is the final installation screen. Tapping the “open” button will launch the app.
Once the installation completes you will see a screen like the one shown on the left below. This is the IPVanish menu screen. Their menu is very simple and easy to use. It has a few settings that the user can change. It can be accessed from any screen by tapping on the menu icon (three horizontal lines) at the top right of the screen or sliding to the right if you are on a menu option screen.
These settings are shown in the second image below. The app uses OpenVPN because it is the most secure VPN protocol. The app will let you change from UDP to TCP if you need to. This could be a good idea if you are banking online and want to guarantee that all data is verified and received. It can also be helpful for making connections in some rural areas. Remember that using TCP can slow your connection due the overhead of this verification. The default UDP is good for general surfing or streaming media. The second setting will allow you to scramble, or obfuscate as VPN services like to refer to it, all of your VPN traffic. This makes it harder for network sensors employed by countries like China to identify that you are using a VPN service. Therefore they are less apt to block it. This is good for those that face such censorship and can even help with some local firewalls.
Now let us take a look at the other menu options of the IPVanish app. The first of these is the server list which we will discuss in detail later. For now, just know that it is a list of all the servers on the IPVanish network. The FAQ, forums, and contact support options will bring up a screen where you can search the IPVanish FAQ support database. It also has links for posting public questions and placing an email ticket with the IPVanish support team. Support is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, on a first come basis. The last image above shows the about screen for the latest app and contains a link to the IPVanish website. The account option displays some of your account info like when it is due for renewal. The final option will log you out and close the app.
Now let us take a look at the servers list option. This screen can be accessed by tapping on the menu icon and tapping server list or sliding to the left. The image below shows the server list ordered three different ways.
The first screen shows the servers ordered by response time or ping in milliseconds. The partially colored circle to the right of the location is an indication of the current % load on the server. Green represents low load values, yellow means near capacity, and red means at capacity. This will allow you to quickly analyze the sever load with just a glance. The second screen shows the servers ordered alphabetically by country and then by city within that country. The last screen shows the servers ordered by % load. Using a low ping, zero-load server could be a good option for some users depending on your location.
Connecting to a VPN server in the IPVanish network is as easy as tapping on the location of the server that you want to connect to. The first time you connect to a server with the IPVanish app, it will pop up a screen like the one shown on the left below prompting you to sign in. Simply enter the username and password that you received in your welcoming email and tap the sign in button. Android will warn you that you are giving the app permission to intercept all network traffic as shown in the middle image below. Since this is the reason you are using the IPVanish service, tap the “I trust the application” box and then ok. You must trust the application for it to continue with the connection.
Once you have logged in and trusted the application the connection process will start. This is shown in the image below. The first two screens show the connection process. First the app verifies the server certificate then the connection process starts. The last screen below shows the connection screen once a connection to a server has been established. This screen shows how long you have been connected, the server you are connected to (Atlanta, US), and the bandwith uploaded and downloaded in Mbits/s. It also has graphs of the upload and download activity over time. More information will show in theses graphs the longer you are connected to the VPN server.
The first screen below shows the session information for an IPVanish connection after a while which you can see by tapping the IPVanish icon on your device. The second screen shows our Atlanta connection again after 1 minute and 5 seconds. Disconnecting from the service is as easy as connecting. Just tap the left-direction arrow at the top left or the red connection icon beside the server name. This will bring up a screen prompting you to disconnect. This will return you to the server list where you can choose another VPN server to connect to.
The IPVanish Android app is simple and easy to use. Just a few taps will have you connected to their network. Their app is easy to download and install. It is for the most part hands off and requires no technical knowledge to use. It does not have any of the advanced features of their Windows or MAC OS X clients but it makes it easy to connect to their service and protect your Internet traffic at your local free Wi-Fi hotspot.
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