Speaking of sites blocking VPN connections I mean I didn’t use it not often but TPB doesn’t allow you to use a VPN when trying to use a registered account so it kind of defeats the purpose there. But there is another site did I have went to and it blocks most of the connections both of which are basically saying that the IP address is banned for misuse.
I know you mean well, but I almost regret bringing up my own technical problems, because that’s not really what I’m talking about. They were just what made me notice it. I’ve used PIA for nearly a decade, and it was almost annoying how meticulous they were for the vast majority of that time. They’ve always had an active development cycle.
Now they don’t. Nor do they post any news or on social media. You can easily find plenty of reddit posts talking about how customer service has not responded to them. The only sign that anyone is behind the curtain is their blog, almost entirely written by 3rd parties. And I haven’t been able to find a reason why that isn’t speculative.
Also just as a final side note, I come from a software dev background. I know pointlessly reinventing the wheel is the bane of many people’s existence in this world. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about an internet security/privacy company ghosting its customers. PIA feels like a ghost ship. It would be unprofessional for a trivial product, and I don’t consider internet privacy to be trivial. I think it’s a huge red flag, and should be taken more seriously.
ps. ps. also just for the record, the first thing a developer learns is “it works on my machine” is not an excuse. Plenty of people on this thread alone have had unresolved problems, plenty more if you look at the board. If PIA wants to slow down its release cycle, fine, but why not say that? Why the silence?
You’re welcome 
. I’m not an expert by any stretch, but if you have any questions regarding OpenVPN I might be able to help. It is pretty straightforward though. One tip I can give is to use UDP whenever you can, that typically has better performance, although TCP has a better chance at working on restrictive networks. I usually download ~10 different configurations because of this. Good luck!
I’ve never had an issue like that. SOCKS5 hides your IP address from copyright trolls, and from my understanding that’s how they nag your ISP. The only way I could see it is if your ISP is actively scanning all inbound packets for unencrypted copyrighted content, but that doesn’t seem practical to do at scale.
Maybe your torrent client wasn’t configured properly? On qbittorrent there’s a “use proxy for peer connections” check box you need to hit. Also I know the Windows version of deluge is out of date crap and only uses the proxy for tracker connections.
I use Windows and don’t even remember ever crashing or any issue directly related to the app.
I also use android app and it was a long time without updates but last week or the other before there was one. No issues either.
Maybe they are less committed to mac and you got bad luck with that.
Edit: I also use it in home router, not very user-friendly (have to run a script) but no big issues either.
I’ve never had a crash on Windows or Android client in 5 years. I used it on Windows 7-10 and Androidsb(unsure of versions) S8 and note 20. I’ve also sporadically used it on Linux mint with zero issues. No use on Mac, because I don’t like Macs. Have you tried a uninstall that gets all remnants like Revo it will crawl the registry on Windows, and get all temp files too. I’m not sure if they have it for Mac.
I’m a bit partial to doing vpn with foss protocol and clients, without gui applications at all on mac and linux. PIA provides some nice resources to that end on their foss github page.
In addition to openvpn and wireguard via terminal (through brew), you could also use these configurations with official first party client apps eg. OpenVPN Connect, and Wireguard is on the mac app store.
I’m happy with PIA’s development efforts. Their github resources are frequently updated. I do use PIA’s standalone VPN application for mobile, and that has been maintained with frequent updates as well.
I don’t know the answer to those questions personally, but I would recommend you ask on /r/mullvadvpn! Explain that you’re looking to switch away from PIA and I’m sure people will be happy to help.
I am sure that once they were bought most of the original “going forward plans” and developers were shown the door and shelved. It happens with most buyouts. As for major development there really isn’t a new breakthru in VPN in the last year or so that I know of. Its not like it went from the clunky one-way fitting USB-A to the USB-C transformation and they are still choosing to USB-A with no plans for the future.
As for sketchy owners I agree, however ALL VPNs have logs. Even the ones that claim ZERO LOGs have to have a log somewhere because they track things like the number of devices you can use simultaneously. Maybe they log shift that data to the multiverse trashcan every 5 minutes but there is still a log for a time. No one has zero logs. What you have to look at is privacy track record when it comes to how they react when they are asked for information by someone a government or state. So far they seem pretty solid but anything can change and if you are staking your supreme privacy on someone else’s service you have a point of failure anyways…
I’m still with them. Other than the google stuff which forced me to change search engine, they still have the fastest speeds.
Maybe it’s you. Not the software.
Windows 10 pro. After so e time it will disconnect and while internet stops working. Have to reinstall PIA and sometimes Ethernet.drivers to get it back working. Now I just switch between Ethernet and my USB Ethernet adapter when it goes down. That seems to work sometimes
PIA is most definitely in “maintenance mode.” That is evident by a lack of feature updates, or client updates at all in a while. But then again, there isn’t a lot to update/change/fix. The program works, it does what it advertises, there’s currently not a need for major changes.
Yeah I don’t use Windows for anything but that family PC that is locked down. I run a Linux Docker server so everything is a container. Maybe I didn’t have it configured right, but after getting one or two and then researching it seemed to be my culprit so I moved to the VPN connection with basically a kill switch so if the VPN somehow dies traffic external is cutoff. I tested it several times when I deployed it to see how it worked and liked it. Never had it fail to need the kill switch type option. Since I use WatchTower the container updates on its own every time a new release is posted to GitHub.
Glad it works for you. I got caught back when I used Cox and it was a pain in the ass to accept the warning and move on with them, so it seemed better to find a new solution for me to download my ISOs. Had them for over 20+ years and then switched to fiber when their prices jumped on me so high it was 3x the cost of the new fiber in my neighborhood for 1/3 the speeds
For what it’s worth, I use the Mac client and have never seen it crash. That said, I don’t leave it on, so anyone that’s running it a lot might be seeing issues I don’t.
I suspect that you’re right in that my issues may be somewhat mac specific, but I guess I’m trying to gauge more generally if the community feels like PIA has changed the way I think it has. Their news page was almost redundantly periodical, until recently. Updates/fixes were steady and deliberate, until recently. Their social media was relatively active, until recently. Like other accounts have said, it feels like PIA’s business is being “harvested.” But even then you’d think they’d keep up some base level of engagement.
Can you explain more how you run the VPN on your home router cuz this would be great to use for like Xfinity or Spectrum where they won’t allow you to view some shows unless you’re at home only on your home Wi-Fi.
It’s been so long since I did that on the go I don’t know if they’re even still do that.
+1 on the Win app being rock solid. that’s my experience since day one.
As for that Android update, pheweeee! Android app was fine until that update, ever since it unusabley flaky.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned it in some other comments, but even beyond updates, most forms of engagement they’ve historically used (news about server maintenance, social media, blog posts, customer service) have been cut to the bare minimum (actually less in my opinion, some of these are straight up ghost-towns), and that’s what worries me more than any shiny new features. Learning about the owners was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I did a little research into Mullvad, recommended in this comment, and it seems like one of the more popular privacy focused ones and has a lot of the selling points that I liked about PIA. Seems like they have a lot of community goodwill which is always a good sign. Agreed though, at the end of the day you can’t put 100% of your trust in any particular provider, but PIA is sending out too many red flags for me to ignore.
If I’m able to regularly crash my vpn by using my vpn, that’s a sign that the vpn needs to be updated. I’m not Einstein but I can guarantee you that I’m not doing anything weird or outside the normal use case. And my question is not asking for technical help, it’s asking why a internet security company has gone radio silent.