PersonalVPN-FAQ

From Witopiawiki

Here is a list of common (both PC & Mac Editions) questions.

Q. Do I need any special wireless network adapter for your personalVPN?

A. No, it should work with all connection types, including dial-up (although it may be slow).

Q. Do I need to download any special software to use your service? If so, is it resource intensive? How difficult is it to setup and maintain?

A. Upon purchase, we provide a link to download our software. The software uses very little memory and few CPU cycles. When the VPN is up and running, there is some overhead associated with the encrypting/decrypting the traffic, and sometimes you may notice a slowdown in performance, but in general there is very little noticeable slowdown.

As for setup and maintenance, there are a few steps to get up and running. 1. Install the software. 2. Generate a private/public key pair and a certificate request that is sent to us for signing. This is all done in a minute or two and only requires the customer to enter in some basic information. 3. We sign and return the certificate to you with instructions on where it goes and how to activate the VPN. That's it!

Q. Can I use your personalVPN service with any type of internet connection?

A. Yes, it should work with any type of internet connection. We have seen a few cases where ISPs are blocking VPN traffic from their networks, but this is rare. There are also rare cases in which a wifi provider only wants to allow Web surfing -- so port 80 and a handful of other ports are open, but the rest are blocked. personalVPN currently uses port 1194, and if that port is blocked, the VPN connection will not materialize.

Q. Do I need to change different network settings when connecting to different networks?

A. No, there is an icon in your toolbar that you use to enable and disable the VPN connection.

Q. How do I know personalVPN is working?

A. Whether using a Mac or PC, the toolbar icon should indicate when the VPN is active or inactive. You may also perform a "traceroute" which should be different when personalVPN is active. A traceroute shows the path your data takes over the Internet. With Windows, the command is "tracert" followed by a space and then a website address or IP address. If you use a Macintosh, open "Network Utility" and choose "Traceroute" at the top.

Q. What WON'T work with a personalVPN connection?

A. Any type of service that requires a 'listening' socket at the remote end will not work.

  For example:
  1) ftp in non-passive mode
  2) remote access to your computer (via ssh, telnet, ...)
  3) any web services you offer from your computer 
  4) p2p clients which benefit from incoming connection availability
  Such services may still be provided by your computer - outside of the VPN, with special routing tricks.

Here is a list of Mac specific questions pVPN-Mac.

Here is a list of PC specific questions pVPN-PC.