What are /r/Windscribe's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

> We have received multiple subpoenas and court orders requesting subscriber information. Our response was identical to what we send in case of a DMCA related request. We were never ordered to log users (although there were requests), but since we’re in Canada which has no mandatory data retention directives that apply to VPNs, we wouldn’t need to comply.

https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/

https://windscribe.com/transparency

You see, other VPNs will market themselves as SUPER CHEAP PER MONTH.....as long as you buy it for 3 years in advance making the "super cheap" part a bit deceptive.

We decided to one-up everybody and make the absolute cheapest plan that ANY VPN offers at just 1 cent per month. Just pay $1000 in advance and you'll get it for almost 8000 years! GREAT DEAL!

It's obviously a joke but it IS purchasable and some people have bought it. But if you wanna return to the normal plan then you can just click this link and it will remove the "promo": https://windscribe.com/upgrade?promo=nodeal

This wouldn't have happened if Windscribe supported 2FA. I hope Windscribe support at least responds to the idea of supporting 2FA this time!

I posted about this happening 20 days ago with no reply from WindScribe -

Providing us with a confirmed email during registration is the reason why you get 10GB instead of 2GB. We want your email so we can send you promotional material related to Windscribe, and get you to upgrade to a Pro account, since you know, that's how we make money so we can keep providing the service.

When you unsubscribe, we remove your email from the database entirely (something almost nobody does), as we try to keep as little personal info as possible. Since we can't send you promotional emails anymore, you get downgraded to a basic 2GB account. You also lose the ability to reset your password via "forgot password" form, since the email is removed.

This is discussed in the Terms of Service, that you agree to when you make an account: https://windscribe.com/terms

Yeah his windscribe review is complete bullshit. Most every review just points users towards NordVPN. Not suprising to see NordVPN make a smear campaign agaisnt Windscribe since Windscribe undercuts every thing they have

I like windscribe, it's quite transparent (staff are too), they are honest and it's a lovely vpn to use in general. main disadvantages that could be brought up are that it's Canadian and that the clients are not open source.

Fortunately Yegor has mentioned on discord that the desktop apps are going open source. The extension is already open source, but the only thing left is the mobile apps, not sure about them.

As for the Canadian argument it can be valid because the EU has better privacy laws, but windscribe also has a transparency report where they say they do not comply with any subpoenas.

Windscribe also dealt with their Ukraine server seizure very well, which, while it was bad that they didn't encrypt the servers, their response which includes improving OpenVPN security and adding checks was very good.

Generally if I needed absolute privacy I'd go with Mullvad or Windscribe. Mullvad doesn't even require a username or password, instead an 16 digit ID (windscribe does but doesn't require email).

I'll add more to this comment later but this is a summary

Nope.

But you can buy it via StackSocial, it is also legit!

https://stacksocial.com/sales/windscribe-vpn-lifetime-pro-subscription

With code BFSAVE40 it will be just 35,40$

They’ve said that lifetime subscriptions are permanently gone.

Once a service has gained enough early users there’s not much upside to offering a lifetime subscription; it’s a permanent ongoing cost that can be detrimental overall despite the one time revenues.

The 1337 deal is still on though!

No worries mate! Hello from Yorkshire, btw.

We're actually aggressively anti-marketing in general. We would rather industry professionals or our community spread our existence via word of mouth than paying obscene amounts to dominate YouTube etc.

>all I eversee advertised here (In the UK) is ExpressVPN or Nord

Not surprised by how much they spend per month on that lol.

I've found them to be pretty transparent, according to their Privacy Policy.

They're also pretty responsive and seem to have no issues keeping users in the loop.

I consider them to be trustworthy. Do some research, it's up to you to decide.

Edit: I believe them when they say they don't keep logs. Read that privacy policy I linked. It explains exactly what information they collect and why they collect it.

I mean... it started off as largely true and factual, even if the entire article comes off like the author has some kind of axe to grind against Windscribe. Then, of course, you get to the final third or so of the article where it goes completely off the rails and turns into an ad for ExpressVPN and Nord and uses attempts at humor by Windscribe as a reason why people shouldn't use it. Joke's on this asshole I guess... When I was looking around at lifetime VPN subs a few year ago it was the fact that Windscribe had a policy for giant spiders taking over the earth and demanding people's data be collected on pain of being eaten that pushed me to go with Windscribe. I also loved their NSFW language option in the client, which seems to be gone in the 2.0 client. Just little easter eggs -- not sure the NSFW language option was ever officially announced -- that could be found by people who were doing some bored exploring of the app.

It's easy to sit back and play Captain Hindsight, but where was this guy 6-12 months ago before anything happened? Probably getting a massive hard-on writing puff pieces for Nord and ExpressVPN. Actually, come to think of it, anyone wonder if the overall tone of the article has something to do with Windscribe deciding to no longer play the paid review game?

Some companies are doing this for PR, nothing more. It also makes no sense. From PIA blog:

> China’s new national security law allows law enforcement to seize servers located in Hong Kong without a warrant and otherwise execute warrantless interception of communications.

Why not remove all US servers then? Warrant-less interception was INVENTED there.

• Why did PIA pull their HK servers but not Cyberghost? (same parent company owns those)
• Why did StrongVPN do it but not IPVanish (same parent company)

Seize the servers, there is nothing on them.

"Your Lifetime account will automatically renew at the end of the 10 year term at no cost if it's still active."

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This is from the Support Article in the knowledge base. Initially you had to send support a message before 10 years would pass but it seems they changed it according to this. I still have better part of a decade lol

https://windscribe.com/support/article/17/lifetime-account-expiry

Most of these sites make money by being paid by VPN providers. This is no surprise and anyone who's looked into this would know.

Companies like Windscribe, IVPN, Mullvad, and AirVPN do not pay for advertising by these 'review' sites.

I trust Windscribe more than TB since Windscribe offers IKEv2/OpenVPN credentials for manual setup but they should totally hire Cure53 to ensure that the Windscribe API itself is secure (so my VPN credentials cannot be revoked by a malicious actor).

Most of the security vulnerabilities are in the app and the website for TunnelBear, that's totally understandable since these apps go out of their way to make it "simple" for users while ditching the security/privacy focus. I do not need to use the WS app or website at all after adding my credentials which are usually fixed quickly. I'd love to know which versions of OpenVPN, strongSwan, Dante, etc. Windscribe uses on their servers though.

Bitwarden (an open source password manager) also did an audit with Cure53, they really seem to know their stuff.

There's no reason why you couldn't, but you could just get a static IP instead, since you'd also pay for that monthly, and you'd actually get something out of it.

But really, if you want to support Windscribe, rather than getting a second subscription that you won't use, it's better to show your support by talking about Windscribe. A few large VPNs, primarily NordVPN, have been successfully throwing money around in an effort to overshadow all competition. Since paying hundreds of youtubers to shill their products isn't really an option for a smaller company like Windscribe, it's up to satisfied customers to promote their service. You could even gift a subscription to a friend, if you feel like spending money.

FYI, account sales are forbidden by the Terms of Service:

> Prohibited Uses > > ... > > Rent, lease, loan, sell, resell, sublicense, distribute or otherwise transfer the Service without our prior written authorization.

Your account may be subject to sudden termination if the staff catches wind of it (and yes, they do monitor this subreddit).

That's actually what the firewall should reliably prevent from happening, or it wouldn't be a firewall at all. As Windscribe makes a clear distinction between their own firewall mode and the killswitch of other VPNs, it has to work properly.

Having said that, just activating the firewall in the main interface of the application isn't enough to provide total protection for what you were doing. In order to reliably halt all internet traffic you have to go into the preferences and choose "always on" from the firewall mode drop-down field.

Why? The firewall in the "automatic" only protects you if you are connected to the Windscribe VPN and at some point lose the connection. But as soon as you disconnect (which is what happens when you switch locations), I strongly assume the firewall will be disabled with it until it gets re-enabled upon having achieved the connection to a new location. This is what the FAQ says on the topic:

> What are the firewall modes? > > Choose the mode that suits you best. > > - Automatic (Default) - Firewall will be enabled when you connect, and disabled when you disconnect from a location. It will remain on if your connection suddenly drops. You should leave it in this mode unless you know what you're doing. > - Manual - You can toggle the firewall on or off whenever you want. > - Always On - Firewall is always on, and cannot be disabled unless you change this setting. You will not have any Internet access when you're disconnected from Windscribe.

This is actually really reassuring. Running a security/privacy service, you're going to run into foreign powers that don't recognize those terms and have no problem seizing servers or tapping lines. Knowing Windscribe is actually aware of these things when they happen and being upfront with the customers -unlike some other providers that I won't mention because everyone knows it's NordVPN anyway- keeping it secret for a year, it makes trusting them that much easier. I also like the way you formatted your post. That's some structured thinking right there, almost military in style. What happened, why it happened, lessons learned and steps taken. I like that alot. That's the kind of person I want behind a security/privacy company.

A snippy comment on their website counts as logging? That's their humor, they do the same thing in the installer.

I'm still not seeing where the "shocking" level of tracking or intervention is. Shocking would be collecting browsing data and handing it to the US government despite having a no-logs policy, like PureVPN.

If they're willing to sell that info, who knows what else they sell!!! I found this quote from the article hilareous:

"VyprVPN - Update. VyprVPN removed the Pixel right after this research was presented to them. Well done VyprVPN".

Well done? CAUGHT and THEN took it away. WHAT ELSE ARE YOU SELLING! :-)

Fair enough, so it's more of a "protect ourselves legally from saying something & it backfiring" as opposed to just ignoring other tech that might work.

Thanks for the response, I'm glad I found that router tbh because the Invizbox 2 Pro situation is a nightmare.

I don't know why you guys aren't bigger but there's no other VPN I'd use personally, maybe I just got lucky with local advertising when I lived in Toronto because all I eversee advertised here (In the UK) is ExpressVPN or Nord.

Keep doing what you guys are doing, I'm always suggesting people use it.

As has been stated its still not even had a major version release yet and is possibly insecure and subject to change. To write something now to support it could potentially be time wasted which could be spent on other things.

https://www.wireguard.com/#work-in-progress

yeah, signed up immediately! if you are looking for a deal, checkout the lifetime subscription offered at engadget/socialstack

https://stacksocial.com/sales/1-year-windscribe-vpn

1 year for $19

3 year for $24

5 year for $39.99

Lifetime for $69

Usually there's a discount via code available for further discount on these prices towards the end of the year.

In 2016, the year Windscribe was launched, IVPN wrote exactly the same story about affiliates. And yet for nearly 5 years affiliate marketing was fine for Windscribe. So the revelations about VPN review sites read like a tired joke at this point.

While it IS a good thing that Windscribe takes a stronger anti-tracker stance, even if quite an overdue one, it may have been smarter to further cut the commissions down to 20% or even MUCH lower, as Proton Technologies does. It would have been much fairer to some of your true advocates while keeping bad and ugly and 'random' VPN reviewers away.

This is what people at the time failed to realize. "Oh, this thing is going to tank". Okay... but if you get 3-6 months out of it, it was worth it. More than that and it's gravy. I'm over four years in now and ever so happy I made that small gamble.

The whole thing goes down exactly the same with other start up VPNs, too. Slickdeals is full of people crapping on new VPNs offering lifetime with the same, short sighted arguments. "That only means lifetime of the VPN". Well no shit, Sherlock. But if that "lifetime" is even a few months, you've broken even, so as long as the VPN isn't a terrible piece of crap. And in most cases (as was/is with Windscribe), you can test it for free first, if you're that worried. It only gets better once you pay.

So not only is a temporary lifetime sub a great idea to gain traction and funds in a crowded field, it gains long time loyalty. I mention Windscribe any time VPNs come up. I'm advertising for Windscribe because it's in my interest to keep it alive with new subscribers. That just makes my initial investment that much better.

If Windscribe folds tomorrow, that sucks. And I'd definitely move on something like Mullvad/Firefox VPN, if I had to, but I don't. Because in Dec 2016, I decided to spend $25-$30 on a lifetime sub for a startup VPN.

All advertising resolves around tracking. You see VPN ads because you were tracked, and you will see the same VPN ads everywhere you go. How are they doing this? See https://mailchimp.com/marketing-glossary/google-remarketing/

Essentially, they upload emails of their users to Google, and have them track you across the Internet and show you ads. Considering they're paying close to $1/click, this is the only way to get ROI on your ad spend.

This is hypocritical and deceptive, for a privacy service that claims it will prevent tracking while doing it themselves.

Yes, you can use the free version for torrenting, but not on servers that have the "No P2P" flag.

They don't keep logs, except for the one that they need to see how much data did you use (for obv motives). As always, this is an easy thing to say, and we, the user, don't know for sure. Its always up to trust. (And I trust them, so... here I'm)

Here you can see their Transparency Report with how many DMCA request they receive every month, how which "Exactly zero requests were complied with due to lack of relevant data."

Yes. Especially after Winscribe went and changed all their OpenVPN keys, and after the article turned into a shameless shill for Nord and ExpressVPN towards the end. If they had just cut the last third or so of the article, it would have been significantly stronger as an argument and come off more like a bit of reporting than an opinion piece.

One possibility the author doesn't seem to consider is that local regulations meant that they couldn't encrypt those servers. I have absolutely no idea what Ukrainian law is regarding encryption, but it's entirely possible that it's illegal for a foreign company to host encrypted content within the borders of the country.

Every major VPN provider has suffered a breach of some kind if they've been around more than a couple of years and operate on a global scale like Windscribe. So what is important is how the company responds to it. Windscribe put up a pretty honest seeming analysis of what happened and then listed things they're going to do to prevent it from happening again. Realistically, that's all the more you can expect. Companies like Microsoft and Google, who spend more on cybersecurity in a fiscal quarter than you and I will probably make in our entire lifetimes, still get hacked. So, what's important is how they respond to it. Do they sit around pointing fingers and whining about the unfairness of it all or do they do a postmortem analysis of what happened and make changes to try to prevent the same thing from happening again?

So when I have Windscribe set to enable on startup so I can make sure my VPN is on at all times I can't connect to anything. I have to manually enable it myself after windows is booted. This is annoying and I forget to do it so it ruins the purpose of having a VPN.

• first, make sure it's set up in start up in task manager. then, go to windscribe settings, general, and make sure launch of startup and auto connect are checked. go to connection, and set the firewall mode to always on so you can't connect to anything without windscribe on. let me know if this doesn't work.

Second issue is I use this VPN on mobile as well and there are a ton of times where I click on a link or go to a Website and I will get an error, it just won't load until I turn off the VPN and I find myself doing this too frequently.

• this is caused by ROBERT. it's windscribe handy little DNS feature that blocks ads, trackers, malware, and whatever else you configure it to block. in this case it's blocking something. you can either whitelist it on its control page or turn off blocking. you can find it in your my account page.

both of these are configuration issues. trust me, once you figure all of this out, windscribe is an awesome vpn service. if you end up not liking it, Mullvad and IVPN are also incredibly good choices.

The article is nothing but scare tactics, which the author employs to direct users to his affiliates so he can make money. Although it's true that some companies employed shady tactics (Hola, VPN masters), but so have paid companies (Pure VPN, Hotspot Shield, Hide My Ass).

Almost no "free VPN" is a free-only VPN. They ALL sell paid accounts, and the free option is more of an extended trial than anything else. I'm 99.9% of cases free VPN = freemium VPN.

In short, this is FUD.

Warrant canaries are kind of useless from our company. Canada doesn't have the same national police as the US or other places around the world. We wouldn't get a warrant like an American company would so we have no need to have a warrant canary.

I think the page the other user mentioned (https://windscribe.com/transparency) is even better than a warrant canary as it actually gives you some details as to what happens on our end in terms of Law Enforcement agencies.

Hope that clears up some concerns but let me know if you have any other questions or issues and I'll be happy to answer.

We may joke around and post memes a lot but we are also one of the most private and secure VPNs on the market.

>Why don't you update your ip addresses from each location let's say once per week or so?

Cus it would be hella expensive to lease that many ip addresses.

​

> Many of the ips are recognised that they are from a vpn provider (e.g wikipedia) or other site

Buy a residential IP then: https://windscribe.com/staticips

Honestly, it's pretty amazing. My whole life changed when I got a paid subscription. By having more access to Netflix content, I've lost weight, got a promotion, and started a small local charity helping the underprivileged. Probably the best decision I ever made.

You can get it for $50.15 with using the Promo Code BOO15* over at StackSocial. The Windscribe Staff did promote the Lifetime membership for some time here on the Sub but mentioned that they won't offer that Sale for much longer then it currently does run so they stopped actually promoting if here on the Sub.

You can use the Promo Code when you have added the Life Time Membership position to your basket in the upper right corner after you click on Checkout.

*= The code is form the current Halloween 2018 Sale so it might only work over the weekend. Don't blame me if it does stop working suddenly on monday.

I normally don't trust anyone with my data. But I do have a certain level of trust with Windscribe because they don't do any shady deals, they seem pretty open about things. And despite having a server seized, they handled it pretty well. They made themselves better, instead of just saying "well we fucked up, lets just continue what we were doing" like other providers have done (NordVPN, Torguard, Perfect privacy)

Not surprising. After watching some of his vids, he seems to purposely miss information. This "reviewer" has been shilling NordVPN for YEARS. He's also started shilling Surfshark and ProtonVPN (both ranked higher atm).

I guess it makes sense that he rates them higher though, since they have higher commission percentages than Windscribe. /smh

To block your device info I recommend using a parallel space app and to hide browser info just use any browser you want doesn't really matter if you hide it or not...

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Problem is that if it becomes widespread, GFW surely will make it more difficult to work. ExpressVPN has had a remarkable lifetime but since it is so widespread it is now specifically targeted by the GFW. I hope that Windscribe will remain relatively confidential long enough.

As you already mentioned so called "Split-Tunneling" is a feature which was announced to be included long ago and sadly still isn't there. There are different threads with Dev responses where they state it will be included in the next major release but as the past has shown, ETAs from the Windscribe team are .... let's say "wonky".

So I guess, there's not much we can do except hoping, they will implement it in the next release.

To be fair, I think Windscribe did make great progress over the past year and we have to keep in mind that they are a rather small team. If you desperately need split-tunneling I would suggest just using the free version of ProtonVPN in the meantime which supports this, although of course the speeds are slower than with Windscribe when using their free tier.

I recently started using NordVPN, specifically for BBC. Windscribe’s UK Windflix servers worked maybe a little more than half the time. Frustrating. Last time I tried, I kept disconnecting over and over, trying to get a server connection that worked. (It had worked before.) Watching the IP, there were only two servers. Neither worked. I got frustrated and bought a NordVPN subscription. BBC has worked perfectly since, and they have so many more servers to use/choose from. Windscribe is pretty good, really good for the price. It’s just not good enough sometimes.

Simple, but not very helpful.

If it turns out to be true that we will have to pay extra for port forwarding then i will not be happy, i signed up on the premise that it would be available in April, but every month it is delayed, and now we are informed that it will cost extra.

I have been holding off cancelling my Windscribe account, but if this turns out to be true and there are further delays, then i will have to move to Air VPN, Torguard or one of the many others that do support port forwarding.

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1. Try a different node (some nodes have heavy loads)
2. Make sure your device can handle the speed (probably can since you've had success before)
3. Your ISP may be forming the traffic to slow it down. (some ISP's sell your browsing data and get angry when you deprive them of the lucrative sales)
4. Try a different protocol - like WireGuard - it works, just better! :) (can see you did this already, too)
5. The testing site can play a role too - I think fast.com works better than speedtest.net

SOCKS5 is an unencrypted proxy.

Those two things are not mutually exclusive. It both gives you a new IP address (that's the proxy part) and still sends your traffic completely visible to everyone (that's the unencrypted part).

This is how the SOCKS5 protocol works, it ONLY reroutes your traffic. Nothing else. That's why you see the "SOCKS5 traffic is unencrypted meaning that your ISP can still know that you are torrenting." warning.

You should follow this guide to keep your torrenting safe.

SOCKS5 traffic is unencrypted meaning that your ISP can still know that you are torrenting. It's best to use the desktop app in conjunction with torrent client to prevent snooping by your provider

https://windscribe.com/getconfig/socks

Build A Plan doesn't work on the TV version just yet. Drop them a ticket here and they'll upgrade you to Pro in the meantime: https://windscribe.com/support/ticket

Windscribe Status doesn't work either, same with the login:

> Failed to fetch location list. Something must have went horribly wrong.

Possibly a centralized database/backend problem of some kind.

If you're only using the desktop client, it should only affect that computer. However if you changed your settings in the router from the guide here, it would affect the whole network.

As has been said previously its still not a finished product until then they aren't planning to release anything for it.

"Warning: WireGuard is currently under development, and therefore any installation steps here should be considered as experimental. We are rapidly working toward mainline inclusion, at which point we will consider this codebase non-experimental."

https://www.wireguard.com/install/

I've been using it on my PC, Tablet and Smartphone and no issues whatsoever. Besides, Windscribe advertises themselves that you can use it on unlimited devices.

Source: https://stacksocial.com/sales/windscribe-vpn

I mean, in a perfect world. But not all adblocking can be done on a DNS level, hence there still being YouTube ads and why you’re seeing ads for ExpressVPN even with Robert enabled. uBlock Origin should block the ads that Robert cannot.

Thanks for your opinion. I think that as a customer, I have the right to be in the Discord server and ask questions. All that's okay, but I will not tolerate some loser making such strong but baseless allegations against me in a server with more than 10000 members.

Besides, this is not a rant. I wanted to provide some genuine feedback at

Self-hosting sounds like a good idea, but I don't want to provide the hosting provider my payment details. I could still be tracked. I like commercial VPNs for this reason. Currently looking into Mullvad.

I got it during the lifetime deal a while back

One thing that really impresses me is how well split tunneling works

I had experienced that cheaper services have tons of issues, even normally good ones like Ivacy (despite usually being good) have fucked up split tunneling

With windscribe i had split tunneling working the day they updated it

I went from ProtonVPN to Windscribe and I must say... this was the best decision ever. The VPN is faster and has less **much less** slowdowns than ProtonVPN. I also only pay 5USD per month! Great price. I may up it to the 9USD a month just for the added servers, but am unsure. I am really enjoying the service a lot!

Thanks for your input mate.

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I am not expecting good speed from them as well. Infact my main VPN now is , previous one was Mullvad. It just wanted to get a lifetime backup VPN. :)

May I know where did you buy the lifetime ? Was it from stacksocial as well ?

+1 for waiting until Windscribe takes Wireguard seriously. ProtonVPN announced they would fund Wireguard development today. Mullvad has full experimental support for Wireguard. Would say a lot to do the same as Mullvad, start a server, call it "test - do not use for production" and let people do with it as they please. :)

>I'm really longing to have a lifetime subscription but it's so expensive in Iran where we need a nice VPN like Windscribe the most. It's really the best among other. I install it's free version on all me relatives' phones. Hope to be the winner this month :D

You gave a referral link to StackSocial, right after complaining that WindScribe lifetime subscriptions cost too much (less than $60).

You are quite obviously trying to get enough referrals to cover a purchase of the lifetime VPN service. I suspect it's the only reason you created this account.

If you don't trust a piece of software to make network connections, don't run it on your machine. Personal firewalls are useless.

https://lifehacker.com/why-you-shouldnt-bother-with-an-outbound-firewall-1346112252

Am I missing something?

On my 2600x I set it to 6% and get 27 h/sec . You only need 20h/sec running all month to get a free month each month.....

at 100% usage I was getting 100 h/sec

Since it's mining Monero it should be heavily cache dependant, favouring many cores and lots of cache over raw clock speed.

Still, Monero is kind of dogshit on cpus.

Using https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr?HashingPower=50&HashingUnit=H%2Fs&PowerConsumption=0&CostPerkWh=0.12&MiningPoolFee=0

We can see that even if the power bill for this system is 100% free, and there are no pool fees at all... 50h/sec is only $0.83 per month USD.

That's awful. What's worse is that for that amount of Monero, Windscribe is giving you 2 month of premium access each month, which is worth roughly $18 USD. They're losing $17.25 a month for each person mining like OP is (not really but lets make that argument anyways because its fun)

BUT

Let's say you've got the lowest power cost in the civilized world at $0.10/kw/h. Let's also assume that your dual 80W Xeons are only adding an extra 90W for DRAM, board, PSU efficiency loss etc.

https://www.cryptocompare.com/mining/calculator/xmr?HashingPower=0&HashingUnit=H%2Fs&PowerConsumption=250&CostPerkWh=0.10&MiningPoolFee=0

Yikes. You're paying $18/mo in electricity, for crypto that Windscribe values at $18, but the rest of the world only values at $0.85.

Ouch.

Of course the one upside to all of this is that is is coming up on winter and from personal experience I know those old 1366 xeons can provide a lot of heat, which may end up saving you an extra buck or two on your electricity bill, making this not quite so terrible. When it comes summertime if you A/C your house to overcome this heat though, you'll be paying a 25%+ price premium over regular retail for the convenience of running a loud server.

I'm not sure about the Back to School deal, but you can still get the Pro plan for 39 USD a year here: https://windscribe.com/upgrade?promo=XPRSNOPE

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Cheers!

> Refunds

Windscribe strongly encourages to test the free Service before you pay any subscription to commercial plans. The free service differs from the commercial service only with respect to bandwidth limitations and available servers. In case you are not satisfied with the commercial Service, once you have subscribed you have the right to obtain a full reimbursement, provided you purchased the subscription directly from Windscribe, and given that your request is sent within 3 commercial days from the subscription payment. Windscribe accepts only written refund requests sent to our support desk. You have the right to request a reimbursement without giving explanations. The right to be refunded is invalid if You have violated the Terms of Service and/or if you send the request after having used the Service for more than 3 days and/or if you have used the Service for a global traffic volume exceeding 10 GB. Windscribe warrants a reimbursement within 30 days from receipt of reimbursement request.

https://windscribe.com/terms

I don't have any news on that subject, sorry.

But I've had problems like that before. I got fed up with it, and just started using the wireguard configs so i didn't have to use the cli app at all. I also have a script that runs every 15 seconds that checks to make sure my connection is active, and sends me an alert if it fails. I've never had my wireguard connection fail in the last year though, which may be because wireguard has been built into the linux kernel. Yes it is a little jank but like I said, I haven't had to worry about it in the last year.

I'd be happy to share my dumb little monitoring script if that sounds of interest to you.

I'm going to say no they probably cannot. You might check some of the IP leak test websites and see if any see your real IP. Not sure which are recommended but just search IP leak test.

I'd encourage you to use the browser extension for better protection and additional features.

Should have been a little more descriptive with my term 'via command line.' if you want to use wireguard, you will need to use the wireguard program to connect to windscribe via wireguard. windscribe has the wireguard config generator here and you'll need to follow this tutorial starting at this step: Amend WireGuard configuration file, create file /etc/wiregurard. Considering you'll need to download the wireguard config from windscribe, you'll have to download multiple configs if you want to connect to different locations

Yes, Windscribe disconnects all those ports so your system isn't accessible from outside while the VPN is on. You need to set up port forwarding for this which you can do from here: https://windscribe.com/myaccount#portforwards

Like the others mentioned, no you can't. But if you want to always have the same IP when connecting to a specific server, you can get that by paying extra for a static ip.

https://windscribe.com/features/static-ips

https://windscribe.com/staticips

First off, the title is a bit misleading if you have not contacted and heard back from support yet.

Have you put in a ticket? Did they tell you to go scratch you're ass? No? Then no one has taken you're money. Stop being a drama queen and go through the proper channels to get shit fixed for Christ sake.

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Click here

Chromebooks allow you to setup an OpenVPN connection in the settings. You'd have to grab your OpenVPN config from here: https://windscribe.com/getconfig/openvpn

Hi,

The main difference between the browser extension and the desktop client is that the browser extension is a proxy only tool while the desktop client is a true VPN.

The browser extension is used to mask browser level activity only while the desktop client will mask all activity through a Windscribe proxy.

You can find more information about the difference between the browser extension and desktop client on your FAQ page accessible via link below:

https://windscribe.com/faq

Let us know if you have any further questions.

what country do you live in? I'd try a couple of servers (not just destinations, but actual servers from the list) close to you. You can then compare on fast.com which one gives you the best speeds. Just takes a little trial & error in the beginning in my opinion to find some really good ones that you can use long-term - at least that was the case for me in Europe.

iVPN explains it best: https://www.ivpn.net/knowledgebase/165/Do-you-offer-a-kill-switch-or-VPN-firewall.html

Windscribe firewall is inspired by and implemented in a similar manner as iVPN states. This was actually my go-to VPN before Windscribe.

Let's be clear on the feature request so that we don't get confused with all these comments.

For u/frs92:

Windscribe already makes this data available so "hackers or someone that wants to harm the service" can already do whatever you fear they would do. Which doesn't really make sense to me, but whatever.

For u/rpx1234:

Clearly the information is valuable enough for Windscribe to publish it on their site, so OP's request to have it published in the app (where latency is already published by server) is just, as flair-ed, a feature request. Even if it doesn't affect speeds, if it makes a user feel better and it's easy to do-- why not?

Potential Reasons for bandwidth expiring early:

• Background software downloads like Windows updates, game downloads, etc.
• Torrent clients left seeding after the download finishes
• You or someone else is using the account elsewhere. Deleting all sessions and VPN credentials can help with this. Do a password reset too in case the account was hacked or leaked.

It's on the Upgrade Page!

The minimum is $2 so you can get the Windflix option and Unlimited bandwidth + ROBERT. Or you can stay on your limited bandwidth plan and get 2 Windflix servers. Or one Windflix server and one regular server. All for $2...so much customization!

This is the current guide on windscribe.com that describes how to set up uTorrent to work with Windscribe. https://windscribe.com/guides/utorrent

If they have a tough stance against it, posting a how-to guide is a funny way of showing it. It would be kinda like a father telling his children don't do crack but if you do, I'm going to show you how to do it properly.

I've had this issue before on win 10 and it turned out my hosts file was set to read only

Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

Locate the hosts file, right click it and choose Properties from the menu.

Untick Read-only and click apply and OK

If that's not the problem I'd suggest submitting a ticket on the site

https://windscribe.com/support/ticket

Windscribe completely down.

https://windscribe.com/status

"Oops, that shouldn't happen.

It seems someone tripped over the power cable and broke everything. Please stand by while we fix it.

You can check our Twitter for updates."

Anything you do on the internet constitutes data, even if it's just text. These days websites are loaded with images or even videos that consume lots of data, including in the form of adverts. Your operating system and other programs installed on your computer will also use up data. Updates can consume huge amounts, and on Windows 10 you don't even get a warning before it downloads them.

If you need more bandwidth, there are a number of voucher codes you can use, I think REDDIT50 is one. Just go to https://windscribe.com/myaccount and click claim voucher to enter it. If you need more than you can get from vouchers then there's always the Pro subscription, that gives unlimited amounts of bandwidth usage.

You get up to 10GB of data per month on the free plan. However, if you want more data per month, you can either use the new "REDDIT50" voucher on the My Account page to get 50GB p/m or if you want more than that you can upgrade to the PRO version.

Here's the problem: https://windscribe.com/status

Only 1 POP online for thew whole of Australia. There's normally 2.

This is not good enough Windscribe.

Thinking of changing to another VPN, don't really want to since I bought the Lifetime Licence.

I really like the software and support here and feel that overall WS is brilliant, but VASTLY under-servicing the 20M Aussies compared to other countries.

Please Windscribe reply. Is there a roadmap for improvements for Australia?

According to Windscribe's knowledge base: https://windscribe.com/support/article/17/lifetime-account-expiry

"Your Lifetime account will automatically renew at the end of the 10 year term at no cost if it's still active. "

Why don't you give him the proper link? -> https://windscribe.com/download

There is an application for Mac, just install it and turn it on. All your traffic will be routed through the VPN (including jDownlaoder Traffic).

Could be 2 reasons:

1 - your ISP is messing with you.

2 - free servers are crowded.

I've used 20GB (PRO) and currently connected to the Mexico server and speeds are good. Seriously, jump on this deal - https://stacksocial.com/sales/3-year-windscribe-vpn

.... glad i did!

Stack Social almost always has a lifetime subscription up for grabs. I vouch for it. Might want to get it now as I've only ever seen the price for these go up. https://stacksocial.com/sales/windscribe-vpn

The deal on StackSocial is legitimate, yes.

There's a couple other vendors that sell the Lifetime license as well. If you wanna verify if another one is legit, just reply here with the link and I'll let you know.

I don't use the browser extension, I use the windows program. I get good speeds, nearly the max my ISP provides. Torrents are also super fast. I can't compare to Nord or Express, but Windscribe is way faster than IPVanish for me. I connect to IP's in my country (Canada).

They've always said they want to deploy the new server stack before doing an audit. They've been working on that for a while. This includes their own fork of WireGuard and good implementation of OpenVPN to fix security issues, including one that most other VPNs have. There's one security issue which according to Yegor only IVPN has fixed based on his testing. I don't remember what exactly the issue is since I've forgotten but I can take a look in a few hours.

>buddy, you're late to the party.

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so ignore it? perhaps this post is not intended for you.

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>It can happen to any VPN provider. They're taking action now. Better late than never.

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and thats great - though what recourse did they have at this point? its reactive not proactive. and yes, better than doing nothing though they will strive to survive their negligence now.

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>Remember, NordVPN knew they were hacked and never told anyone and didn't do nothing about it for a few months.

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ya and even though the "hack" was very different in nature (an expired TLS key from a single server was on the loose) the data was in fact very encrypted as you'd expect.

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in any case you are totally missing the point. nordvpn immediately took steps to strengthen their security ever further and that is what benefits the industry and the consumers. this is what you people should be expecting to happen here. the fact that you only try to find excuses instead of holding them to higher standards is mindblogging.

buddy, you're late to the party.

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It can happen to any VPN provider. They're taking action now. Better late than never.

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Remember, NordVPN knew they were hacked and never told anyone and didn't do nothing about it for a few months.

As both a Windscribe and Mullvad user, Mullvad blows Windscribe out of the water on Linux. The Linux app is miles ahead and feels like Mullvad considers Linux a first-class OS rather than an afterthought. Their Wireguard servers nearly max out my gigabit internet whereas I'll be lucky to get 20% the speed on Windscribe with Wireguard.

I use IKEv2 to get the faster speeds on Windscribe and even that gives me half the speed of Mullvad.

Windscribe is faster for me, but Mullvad doesn't harass me falsely claiming I harass suicidal people. No details, but I do NOT take allegations like that lightly. I will not take it easy when it comes to this. The ban wasn't even what triggered me, it was the allegations.

It depends on what you’re looking for. Both have the same purpose but offer different features. Mullvad is great for lightweight features but strong security. Windscribe is made for streaming and torrenting and offer great security features.

As many others already said: Safety is really quite relative.

It may be safer, but nothing is truly safe. Perhaps you should have a look at ProtonVPN. They not only offer a free VPN service with close to no caveats, but in their paid plans you are able to use so called "secure core" servers and TOR, which basically means a dual-hop VPN combined with TOR.

Their reputation is quite good, too. I don't want to advertise another service here but they sadly have above mentioned easy-to-use systems in place while Windscribe doesn't. I have a WS lifetime sub and they are really friendly, open and also funny at times but solely looked upon from a privacy Point of View, I'd say, give Proton a try. Windscribe may catch up to them some time, but until then, if you really doing political and / or whistleblower stuff and your gov. is watching as others already said too: Beware, there is no full privacy. If a gov agency really wants you and hunts you, no VPN will really be able to protect you.

You can use a third party VPN client like OpenVPN for Android. Configure it for Windscribe and override the DNS with the Adguard DNS servers.

You can't. But you can measure and make your own opinion. This is one reason I made a youtube channel to show actual live speed tests, and real sort of reviews that can't be faked. Go ahead and watch some of the other VPN reviews on YouTube, you'll see the difference in language. For example, NordVPN sponsored channels love to say "this product is expensive, but the quality is so worth it." If something is expensive to me, I say thats a bad thing and it will hurt the VPN significantly in terms of rating.

I second that. I cannot understand the hate for NordVPN here... They are working better for me in every single case compared to Windscribe. Sometime ago I made a post about all the different scenarios I tried Windscribe and NordVPN in. The TLDR is that Windscribe connects but is always 2-10x slower than NordVPN.

In the past I have used WTFast and FlyVPN and both have worked great, though the latter isn't a "Gaming VPN".

Sometimes I have problem playing over 3G/LTE connections because of Strict NAT and for poor packet path (ISP issue) and at this time I usually try to play over a VPN. As I previously said, it used to work great. But I am trying to avoid monthly service since the exchange currency is too high nowadays for BRL and USD currencies, which makes it too expensive to pay montly =/

"Decrease privacy?" I would say 'Yes' for logging and about privacy. They've already logged for 'bandwidth usage' (see: https://windscribe/myaccount. I mean they are not logging privacy for their ads marketing. I only want to monitor the speed of the server am I connected to.

ps. It's a impression from other VPNs (ZenMate, CyberGhost) that had 'bandwidth monitoring' feature.

ps 2. Sorry if I mention to the other VPN provider.

I think it is worth considering，But the ShadowsocksR's author Breakwa11 has given up on Shadowsocks's author Clowwindy is threatened by the Chinese government and also give up the I think WindScribe's team is unlikely to invest in technology that no one maintains

I've started having the same issue after using Windscribe for 6-7 months. Tried to be patient. Did all the troubleshooting required. Even had my work IT guys look into it but got just too annoyed. I'm on trial with NordVPN now and so far I see quite a difference. Of course the price is better with Windscribe when it comes to monthly or annual plans but if I like Nord I might commit to their cheaper 2 years deal. We'll see.