*With regard to the Surfshark app on my Windows PC.
About a month ago, I switched to OpenVPN following the instructions on the Surfshark website. Especially when I am at work and using the company’s WiFi but not exclusively, the Surfshark app will often hang on “Trying to connect to Surfshark servers…” preventing me from establishing a VPN connection for more than five minutes. But it will eventually load.
OpenVPN loads immediately on boot, I select my Surfshark VPN connection, and it connects in seconds. I was wondering why? And more importantly, am I losing any security features by not using the Surfshark app? I did DNS and WebRTC leak tests on the Surfshark site and none were detected.
Hi, thanks for asking!
Generally, manual connection methods through apps such as OpenVPN, Wireguard sometimes work better in restricted environments such as workplace networks or restricted countries due to blocking of VPN services and their apps.
However, it is also possible that you’re using the Automatic protocol option in our app and it might be using a protocol that is more restricted by the network. I would suggest trying all available protocols (especially OpenVPN protocols themselves) in Settings - VPN settings of our app as by doing this, you might find our app performing as well as the OpenVPN app.
You do lose some security features such as KillSwitch (disables your internet connection if you lose connectivity to one of our VPN servers, so unencrypted data doesn’t leak), Rotating IP (constantly changes your IP address for additional security), for example. So we do suggest using our app instead for additional security benefits.
No, he is right. The surfshark android app with updates is becoming slower and slower to connect. On firestick it is practically unusable, always connection errors or disconnections. with wireguard or OpenVPN it connects always without any error
Sorry, to clarify I am referring to the Windows application. The Android version works fine for me.
I’ve a similar experience and would really love for Surfshark to publish the specific ports/protocols etc that are used to connect tot the surfshark app authentication servers.
That way we can add in firewall exclusions etc as needed and try to delve in further.
I think many of the windows users seem to have a similar experience.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I recommend trying steps from this guide as they can help with connection issues with our Android app:
https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021634180-How-to-fix-unable-to-connect-issues-on-Android
However, if you find that the issues persist even after trying these possible solutions, we would like to take a better look at your specific case. Please let our support team know at [email protected] or via chat on our site - they’ll gladly help you out.
It’s okay, my answer still applies regardless of the operating system, but thanks for clarifying!
We use these protocols and ports with our servers:
- IKEv2: 4500/500
- OpenVPN/UDP: 1194/1443 (Windows uses 3433)
- OpenVPN/TCP: 1194/1443 (Windows uses 8443)
- Wireguard: 51820
- Browser extension: 443
Thanks.
Is there any way to expose the logs from Surfshark from the moment the apps starts to including the authentication efforts for a user to login?
I’ve permitted all traffic from my router, given surfshark an exclusion in Windows firewall, shutdown malwarebytes and still get this error where the app won’t authenticate my username.
However, it will still let me connect to the VPN from within the app, but the constant need to add my user/password and wait 5+ minutes for it to get to this point is ultra annoying.
There’s no direct way to expose logs from the app I’m afraid. Since you’ve already tried several steps, I’d recommend reaching out to our support team at [email protected] or live chat. They’ll be able to provide more detailed assistance and hopefully help find a permanent solution for this issue or forward it to our team if it can’t be fixed by troubleshooting.
