airVPN disconnected while I was in my email

I was in an email that had never been accessed without a VPN connection. And suddenly, out of the blue, airVPN disconnected. The icon turned grey and it said airVPN could not connect. I X'd out of the browser and then re-opened it and my bare connection was revealed.

I used Cryptohippie for about 4 years. It rarely failed but when it did, I had to manually tell it to disconnect. Otherwise I would not have an internet connection. The icon turned yellow and all internet was blocked. So when it failed, my true IP was not revealed. Too bad airVPN is not the same. I bought a sub because it was less expensive. But I guess you get what you pay for.

I wonder if there is a fix for this problem? I wonder if Boleh has a mechanism like Cryptohippie that forbids a connection when it fails? Does anyone know? This is just a matter of money for me right now. I can't afford to pay a year up front for CH. I think I will give Boleh a try when this sub runs out.

Has anyone else had this happen?

 

I've never used an AirVPN client, so

What OS are you using? Has that changed too from Cryptohippie to AirVPN?

I wouldn't trust an OpenVPN GUI or settings pushed by VPN servers to prevent leaks. For that you need explicit routing and firewall rules in whatever system you're using.

 

Mullvad's client has a checkbox option to block internet access upon vpn connection failure. That was one of the factors that led me to use them. The client also has a 'stop dns leaks' option which has been 100% effective on my windows 7 machines, which otherwise tend to leak.

 

+1000000000

 

I've created a script to handle disconnects. When openvpn exists or crashes I just put the network interface down. I'm not sure it's as secure as a firewall rule but this script has worked pretty well in the past. Whenever a VPN disconnects I get a big warning on screen and all internet traffic is immediately stopped.

Download script:
https://www.file1.info/vo3UR2N

Source:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Set this to your network interface
ETH=enp0s3

DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
cd $DIR

sudo ip link set $ETH up
sleep 1s
sudo openvpn AirVPN_Europe_UDP-443.ovpn

sudo ip link set $ETH down
notify-send -i dialog-error -u critical -t 10000 "<b>Warning: VPN down</b><br /><br />All internet traffic blocked"
echo "VPN down. Press any key to close this window"

# Wait for user input
read -s -n 1

 

I love Linux

Caspian,

Do you have firewall rules in place? You can either make a "normal" connection impossible without the VPN...or just have application specific block rules. I use app specific (browsers, etc...).

PD

 

Hi Mirmir. I use Vista 32 bit on my laptop and Vista 64 bit on my desktop. This incident occurred on my laptop. And these are the same computers that I have used with Cryptohippie. Somehow with CH when the connection was disturbed, the icon went yellow and there was no connection at all until I right clicked and told it to disconnect. I just assume that this would be standard for a good VPN. I don't know how to set Firewall rules but I guess it's time to learn.

 

Thanks for sharing that. Does this work on Vista?

 

Thanks Paul. So this is all you do? I am going to download and install Comodo free and try this. But I am sure that I will have some questions. I appreciate you posting this.

 

What he said

Comodo rules have been posted here a few times in recent years.

 

Maybe you should try VPN check Pro. It will close out any application connected to the internet when your VPN connection is compromised. I've been using it for a while now.

 

Here's another comodo rule that I use,

http://www.bolehvpn.net/forum/index.php?topic=5798.0

And if you don't mind installing .net framework, here's a free program to shut down applications if your vpn connection drops.

http://vpnetmon.webs.com/

 

I think in this day and age any VPN company without "Block On Disconnect" in their product GUI, is a product not worth using. Its not even complicated code. I would not use a company without the feature, its just too important.

 

I know that Mullvad have this "Block on Disconnect" option, do you know of any others?

 

Caspian,

There is a great thread over at Air's forums on how to lockdown the laptop to ONLY Air connections. You can go over and read around without even being a member there.

On my Vista laptop it works flawlessly and I cannot even go online except via Air and only with their dns as well. Worth a few minutes reading through the thread there.

I will NOT accept the risk of exposing my IP via a tunnel crash or whatever. I might also say that I really don't remember my AIR connection even dropping. I have simulated a dropped connection to verify the machine goes "offline" and it does without exception.

The other nice addition to this thread is that not only are you "blocking upon disconnect" you are going to totally block DNS leaks. I also have Vista on one machine and it leaked DNS like crazy until I used firewall rules to lock the OS down. The leaks are just as bad if not worse than the lost connection risk - my .02.

 

Maybe AirVPN is having growing pains?

 

Mirimir,

If you were responding to me, I meant my post as a good thing. I really like having an OS locked down to "Air" only. I specifically wrote my firewall rules to keep it that way.

As far as growing pains they seem to add servers as the client base grows. i.e. at this moment there are 32 servers up and 1800 users are connected to their "system" of machines.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied and I am really excited about trying some of these remedies. I have been traveling though and haven't had time to spend spend on this. But I will update as soon as I get settled back in. Thanks for the help.

 

Do you know of an inexpensive VPN that will block on disconnect?

 

VPN check Pro looks interesting. And it also changes Computer name and MAC address http://www.guavi.com/vpncheck_pro_computer_id.html. That's pretty cool. Do you use this?