This article aims to explain these metrics and how the TCP protocol — the way most data is transmitted over the Internet nowadays — impacts them. 

Sending off your data packets

Accessing the Internet is based on an exchange of information — when you shop online or stream a movie, your IP sends a flow of information in the form of data packets making a request. In turn, the receiver responds by sending back another flow of information, also in the form of data packets.

When using the TCP protocol, these data packets are transmitted in sequential order through a network of lanes to the destination —  when they reach their destination, a confirmation is sent back to your IP. Only a limited number of packets can be sent without receiving confirmation that the prior packets have reached their destination. 

At the same time, the amount of packets that can travel through the lane during a specific amount of time is also limited. The rate at which data packets can travel through the network is called bandwidth. 

However, bandwidth isn’t the only element that impacts your real Internet speed. A number of factors, including the physical distance to the destination, as well as any accidents that may happen down the road can delay the arrival to destination, and, ultimately, the confirmation. The time it takes for your packets to reach their destination is called latency.

Congestion on the highway

When each packet travels through the network, it passes through multiple nodes where it gets redirected toward its destination. When your packet arrives at a node at the same time as multiple other packets, it gets queued. 

Unfortunately, your packet could also drop or get lost at this stage and your IP won’t receive confirmation that it reached its destination. In this case, you will have to resend it, delaying the dispatch of the following packet.

These package losses alert the TCP protocol of delays in the transmission of data. To loosen up the traffic, the protocol automatically implements a mechanism (called the AIMD algorithm) that resends the lost packet at half the speed it would normally be sent.

This not only impacts the speed at which the lost packet is re-sent but the speed of the following packets as well — their speed incrementally increases only as traffic improves. 

Ultimately, this leads to delays in all your packets reaching their destination — even in the case of minor packet loss —, and, of course, getting a response to your request. The final number of data packets that can be exchanged on a network during a specific amount of time is called throughput. 

To calculate the maximum throughput on a TCP connection, you can use the Mathis formula and this online calculator.

VPN Accelerator

VPN Accelerator is unique to Proton VPN and comprises a set of technologies that can increase your VPN speeds by over 400% in certain situations. Thanks to this new technology, you can always enjoy the best possible VPN speeds when using our service.

One of the key technologies used by VPN Accelerator is a TCP delay-controlled TCP flow control algorithm called BBR. On longer paths or congested networks, BBR recovers faster from packet loss and also ramps up quicker (that is, it achieves maximum speed faster when a data transfer begins). VPN Accelerator is particularly effective at improving speeds over large distances.

Learn more about VPN Accelerator

The post How latency, bandwidth, and throughput impact Internet speed appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

What changed?

Proton VPN AG was a wholly owned (100%) subsidiary of Proton AG (“Proton”), the company behind Proton Mail and Proton VPN. 

When we launched Proton VPN in 2017, it was legally prudent for it to be designated as a separate entity so the two products could benefit from different treatment under Swiss telecommunications laws and each get the most favorable legal status possible. However, in 2018, the Swiss administrative authority later ruled that Proton AG and Proton VPN AG are to be treated as the same entity for the purposes of telecommunications laws. As a result, the continued legal separation no longer provides any advantages, while incurring significant additional administrative costs.

Furthermore, as an organization that serves the public benefit and is promoting economic growth within Switzerland, Proton AG benefits from a special tax treatment in Geneva, Switzerland, and it was therefore also beneficial for all of Proton to be consolidated under Proton AG.

Therefore, Proton VPN AG was merged into Proton AG at the end of 2019, and as the legal successor, Proton AG assumed all contractual obligations. There was no change in ownership as Proton VPN AG was already 100% owned by Proton AG, which is in turn controlled by Proton employees. There were also no changes to either the Terms and Conditions or the Privacy Policy as all the terms are exactly the same as before. As such, there was no change to how we handle and protect your data. 

As an organization, we value transparency above all, and we believe that this simplified structure also makes it easier for us to be transparent with the community in the future and avoid confusion about the relationship between various Proton services.

The post December 2019 updates to Proton VPN’s Terms and Conditions appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

The Chinese government works hard to control its citizens’ access to the Internet. The Great Firewall employs a vast system of technical tools, including DNS filtering, URL filtering, and deep packet inspection, that the Chinese government uses to prevent people in China from accessing foreign websites. The government also uses these tools to detect and block VPN servers. 

We are investigating the situation and working on countermeasures that will help us circumvent government blocks in the future. 

Tor is the most effective way for people in China to access blocked content. To bypass the Great Firewall, you will need to use a Tor bridge, or a special unlisted Tor server. Because they are unknown, the Chinese government cannot block their IP address. To evade deep pack inspection, Tor has created pluggable transports that mask Tor traffic, making it look like standard Internet traffic. 

The Tor Project has a Tor bridge guide to help you set up a secure Tor connection.

Updated Sept. 18, 2019

The post Does Proton VPN work in China? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

Below is a list of the oldest versions of the most popular browsers that we officially support. 

• Firefox: 78
• Chrome: 84
• Safari: 13.1
• Edge: 85
• Opera: 70
• iOS Safari: 12.2
• Chrome for Android: 85
  
• UC for Android: 12.12
• Samsung browser: 12.0

If you experience any errors with Proton VPN and you are using a browser version older than the ones listed above, please upgrade to the newest version of your browser:

If you are using a browser version that is more recent than those listed above and you are still encountering errors, please contact our Support team: https://protonvpn.com/support-form. 

The post What browsers can I use with Proton VPN? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

As a community support project, user participation and feedback is crucial for Proton VPN app development. Beta testers will be able to give feedback that directly impacts the app. Note that beta builds will have new features which might not have been tested on all Android operating system versions that may cause unexpected app behavior. If you run into any bugs, you can notify us here.

You can sign up for the Beta testing program in two ways:

How to register on your Android device

1. Open the Play Store app and search for ProtonVPN. Scroll down to the Join the beta section and tap Join.

2. Tap  Join to confim that you want to join the Proton VPN beta testing program.

That’s it, you have joined the Beta testing program! If you would like to leave Beta testing program, you can tap on Leave.

How to register via Google Play Store website

While logged in with your Google account, go to the Proton VPN Play Store download page and click Become A Tester.

And that’s it! You have registered for Proton VPN Android app beta. You can download the app or leave beta program inside Proton VPN Android app page in Google PlayStore.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the difference between participating and not participating in beta?

While in beta, you will always get to test the newest app bugfixes and features before they are released to the public. Also, you will be able to report any bugs the build might have, which will allow us to provide a better application to the community.

2. Will I need to install two different apps?

No, you won’t need to install two separate applications, the beta build will replace the Proton VPN app that you have already installed.

3. What’s in it for me?

You will get to use newest app builds and features first and you will be able to directly participate in the app development by providing feedback and reporting bugs.

4. Can I use my Proton VPN account to join the beta?

A Google Play store account is needed to participate in the beta program since the Android application is distributed through the Play store.

5. Can I opt-out any time? Can I get back in?

Yes, you can leave beta testing program at any time and you can return to beta testing at any time as well.

6. How do I use the app?

You can check our in-depth Android app tutorial here: https://protonvpn.com/support/best-android-vpn-app/

The post Participate in the Proton VPN Android app beta appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

OpenVPN uses SSL/TLS to handle its key exchange, has no known vulnerabilities, supports Perfect Forward Secrecy, and is very stable. It also supports both UDP and TCP.

OpenVPN is widely considered to be one of the most secure VPN software solutions. It is also open-source, which means that anyone can verify its code or use it for free. You can read more about how OpenVPN compares to other VPN protocols on our blog post, Which VPN protocol is the best?

OpenVPN is available in all Proton VPN apps. 

• Windows: OpenVPN
• macOS: OpenVPN and IKEv2
• Android: OpenVPN and IKEv2
• iOS/iPadOS: OpenVPN and IKEv2
• Linux: OpenVPN

If you are encountering connections problems, it is often useful to change VPN protocols. Our Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS/iPadOS apps support Smart Protocol, an anti-censorship feature that intelligently probes networks to discover the best VPN protocol configuration required for optimal performance or to bypass censorship.

For example, it can automatically switch from IKEv2 to OpenVPN, or OpenVPN UDP to OpenVPN TCP, using different ports as required.

Learn how to change VPN protocols or select Smart Protocol

Related questions

How do I switch between countries/servers?

How do I change VPN protocols?

Does Proton VPN have bandwidth limit?

DNS leaks and how they compromise your privacy.

The post What is OpenVPN? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

1. Visit our what is my IP tool and note down your IP address and location
2. Connect to Proton VPN server
3. Clear cache and cookies before confirming that your IP address has been changed by visiting again https://ip.me

Related articles

How do I activate DNS leak protection?

How do I check for updates?

How to switch between countries/servers?

Does Proton VPN have bandwidth limit?

The post How do I check that my IP address has been changed? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

• We don’t log which websites you visit
• We don’t log your traffic or the content of any communications
• We don’t log your IP address
• We don’t log your session lengths
• We don’t log or track any location-based information

This level of privacy is possible in part because we are based in Switzerland, which has some of the strongest data protection and digital privacy laws in the world. Data required for maintenance and troubleshooting purposes is secured using full-disk encryption on all our bare-metal servers, over which we have full control.

Full details about the information that we do store (such as account information) are available in our Privacy Policy. Our apps are all fully open source and independently audited so that you can be sure they are trustworthy, and we aim for transparency in everything we do.

Proton VPN’s Swiss jurisdiction also confers additional benefits which are favorable for VPN services. In most countries, VPNs can be forced to log as the result of government orders, even if they are by default no-logs. However, within the current Swiss legal framework, Proton VPN also does not have forced logging obligations.

This notably differs from Swiss regulations for other online services such as email which is generally not no-logs and can require IP disclosure in the event of a Swiss criminal investigation. That’s why if your threat model requires hiding your IP from Swiss authorities when using Proton Mail, we recommend using a VPN or Tor.

Proton VPN’s strict no-logs policy was tested in a legal case in 2019 where we were ordered to turn over logs to help identify a user and we were unable to comply because such logs did not exist. Our no-logs policy has also been verified by external independent experts.

The post Does Proton VPN keep logs? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

Learn more about how VPNs work

WireGuard uses state-of-the-art cryptography to keep your connection secure and, at just a few thousand lines of code, it is extremely lightweight. This makes it faster than traditional VPN protocols such as OpenVPN and IKEv2, especially on lower-end hardware

Originally developed for Linux, WireGuard was officially integrated into the Linux kernel (versions 5.6+) in March 2020, marking it as a secure, stable, and fast VPN protocol suitable for daily use. The main benefits of WireGuard are:

• Fast
• Instant connection
• Lightweight

Proton VPN now supports WireGuard on the following platforms:

• Windows 
• macOS
• Android
• iOS/iPadOS 

Learn how to change VPN protocols or select Smart Protocol

Secure

Although itself new, WireGuard uses proven state-of-the-art cryptographic primitives to secure your VPN connection. 

• ChaCha20 — A symmetric key cipher. Much like AES on OpenVPN and IKEv2, ChaCha20 secures your actual data.
• Poly1305 — A message authentication code (MAC) used to authenticate WireGuard connections.
• Curve25519 — An elliptic curve used by the Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman (ECDH) protocol to secure the TLS key exchange. This ensures your connection to our VPN servers is secure.
• SipHash — An XOR-based pseudorandom hash function used to securely map hash table keys. 
• BLAKE2 – A cryptographic hashing function used to verify data.

Private

Proton VPN’s implementation of the protocol uses double-NAT to dynamically provision sessions. This ensures the same level of privacy when using WireGuard as when using OpenVPN or IKEv2. We do not store your IP address and our strict no-logs policy, which has been verified by external experts, fully applies.

Learn more about how Proton VPN protects your privacy with WireGuard

Fast

Unlike the AES encryption usually used by OpenVPN, where hardware support is often built into processors, WireGuard currently enjoys no hardware support. Despite this, WireGuard performance is comparable to hardware-accelerated AES (AES-NI).

As with all VPN protocols supported by Proton VPN, WireGuard fully benefits from our unique VPN Accelerator technology that can dramatically improve connection speeds over long distances or when there is high packet loss. 

Efficient

Low CPU usage translates into better battery life for users running our apps on mobile devices and laptops. 

Instant connection

On Android and iOS devices, WireGuard takes less than 1 second to establish a VPN connection. 

Open source and audited

Much like all Proton VPN’s apps, WireGuard is open-source software that can be audited by anyone to ensure it is secure. Indeed, the fact that the protocol consists of under 4000 lines of code (compared to over 300,000 for OpenVPN) makes it very easy to audit. 

WireGuard has undergone various formal verifications, and to be incorporated in the Linux kernel, the WireGuard Linux codebase was independently audited by a third party.

Unlike some of our competition, our open-source implementation of WireGuard is 100% compatible with the official version. 

FAQ

Can WireGuard hide the fact that I’m using a VPN?

WireGuard uses UDP, and does not support use over TCP. This makes it less effective at obfuscation than OpenVPN. Although occasionally useful for defeating censorship, the WireGuard developers opted not to support tunneling through TCP because running TCP-over-TCP is hugely inefficient. 

However, it is possible to add obfuscation techniques on top of WireGuard for greater resistance to censorship. 

Does WireGuad support cost extra?

No. WireGuard is available for free to all Proton VPN users in our Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS./iPadOS apps.

Are all features available with WireGuard?

Yes. WireGuard is fully integrated into our apps and can be used with all features supported by them. This includes Secure Core, Adblocker (NetShield), DNS leak protection, IPv6 leak protection, kill switch, permanent kill switch (Windows), alternative routing, and VPN Accelerator. 

How do I use WireGuard?

WireGuard support is also fully integrated into our Smart Protocol feature which automatically switches your connection to the best protocol for your situation. Smart Protocol is enabled by default, so you don’t need to do anything to automatically use the best protocol (including WireGuard) for your needs.

You can also manually select WireGuard if you prefer. 

Learn how to change VPN protocols or select Smart Protocol

The post What is WireGuard? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.

Proton employees hold the vast majority of shares in the company. The remaining shares are held by the Fondation Genevoise pour l’Innovation Technologique (FONGIT), a non-profit foundation established for the public good, with a small number of shares held by Proton users. Proton’s global headquarters and legal domicile is in Geneva, Switzerland.

You can learn more about Proton and why you can trust Proton VPN here.

The post Who owns Proton VPN? appeared first on Proton VPN Support.