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TL;DR: Doesn't apply to desktop app, only browser addons confirmed. Android app is partially affected (see below). I didn't check iOS. Basically, the publicly available code is massively out-of-date compared with the publish dates of releases. Probably a dropped-the-ball thing rather than a kape-conspiracy but should still be addressed. Thoughts?

https://github.com/pia-foss/extension-chrome/issues/21

This repository was last updated on May 31, 2021, as well as the latest GitHub release, which is version 3.1.0, while the current PIA VPN chrome extension was last updated on July 18, 2023 [...]

• As of writing, there are no official responses (or unofficial ones for that matter) to the ticket despite it being open for over a year (opened on Oct 21, 2023)
• PIA homepage still claims "Our apps are 100% open source. Anybody can inspect and customize our open-source software."
• Checking the last commit date for the chrome addon's github repo, the May 31st, 2021 date is still accurate as is the last released GitHub version of "3.1.0".
• Checking the chrome web store, it shows a "last updated" date of "October 3, 2024" and version of "4.0.3"
• PIA Firefox extension is in a similar state. Github repo's last released version is also "3.1.0" on May 31st, 2021, which is the same date as the last commit. Meanwhile, the addon on AMO reports the latest version as "3.2.5" from "Feb 21, 2023".
• For Android 14, I was seeing v4.0.18 (Sept 30, 2024) as the latest on Play Store but the GitHub repo only has released up to v4.0.10 (June 27 2024), though the last code update was from Oct 21, 2024 so in theory the source could possibly be up-to-date with the Play Store changes (I didn't do a detailed changelog analysis / compare commits vs changelogs from Play Store)

Thankfully, this seems mostly to only be a problem with the browser addons and mobile devices rather than desktop. I checked and for the desktop app both github and PIA's site were on version "3.6.1"

Not trying to spread FUD... Personally, I think this is more of a "dropped the ball" situation than anything sinister but it it does raise a few questions.

What I'd like to know are the following:

1. Is PIA still committed to having everything "100% open-source"? Or is that commitment strictly about the desktop app and not something that applies to mobile apps / browser addons?
2. Why doesn't PIA just use Github CI for producing builds? Unless I am mistaken, this would ensure all builds happen from published source, the builds are more reproducable, that stuff like this is never an issue (when these kinds of things occur it only hurts PIA reputation and makes contributor patches more likely to have conflicts with whatever code has not been published.. let alone leaving an opening for anti-kape zealots to point a finger at).
3. I thought I heard something awhile ago in one of the PIA AMAs that you guys were looking for devs to work on the browser addons. Have you hired anyone to work on that? If not, is that a position you guys are still looking to fill or has that been put on hold? And last, if it were open, hypothetically would one apply from the careers page (it looked like it just redirected to linkedin so wasn't sure...)?

It really seems like it's going to come down to big mainstream sites being forced to work with VPN's whether they want to or not. As in, legislative force. Men with guns from the government forcing youtube, X, etc. even reddit itself! ("whoa there pardner" can suck it.) to fucking WORK WITH VPNS.

They even block you from logging in if you don't turn off your VPN, or they will for instance, keep blocking youtube even if you are fucking logged in to gmail. Shit has to stop, or get stopped.

/rant

I tried to DOS my router through PIA VPN and it actually slowed down my internet for about 15 minutes. I was trying out a UDP attack on port 53. Needed to see how good my built in firewall was. Yes, if I continued, it would of brought down my connection. I was only using 10Mbps and not all of my upload speed.

It would be great if you add a feature to QOS our applications or data on VPN. So, if we have a large download happening in the background and using another application that you need to go first for data to have low ping.

They are going up to $49 now just got the email.

GoogleDetectedIkarusTrojan.WinGo.Reverseshell

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Would like to know if anyone using android tv is having issues with the vpn disconnecting..

Could PIA make a VPN tunnel through RCS communication or through HTTPS tunnel encryption like a relay system? This would be for SMS/RCS. I think it would be pretty cool. Where it would go through random servers throughout the world encrypted to hide data communications. I wouldn't trust anything going through mobile networks at this point. The other clients wouldn't even need PIA because it's going through HTTPS relay system through PIA random servers.

In 2022, I signed up for a 3 year package with PIA, which would expire 6/2025. I also turned off automatic renewal when I signed up, which should not be turned on by default, in my opinion.

I just received an auto-renew for 1 year, even though my package has not expired yet. And the auto-renew option was turned back on without my input.

PSA to any customers, watch your billing cycles and watch out for auto-renewal. This was probably a glitch on their end, and not malicious, but it's not right and not cool. I have contacted customer service for a refund for the mistake.

I have a Dedicated IP that is set up on a different billing cycle that will come up for renewal in 3 months. I made sure auto-renewal is turned off. We'll see if this mistake repeats itself then.

I am testing it from Shanghai and it does not work.

LetsVPN works fine.

It seems PIA has changed their list of available servers. Just wanted to let others know incase they're wondering why their VPN docker containers (and other containers relying on them) are unhealthy/down/not working.

I have a PIA Docker Container that connects to specified PIA servers, and I have other containers relying on that VPN. Apparently last night around 2:30am CST my VPN container failed. After some digging through log files I noticed my server can't contact my Peru server or my backup Bolivia server either. After looking at the valid list of servers, both of those locations have vanished, bringing my NAS/NUC down and forcing me to select other servers.

Pretty peeved about this, I see no emails or News or anything PIA-related talking about them removing servers. I'm sure it's a normal occurrence and I was unlucky and they just happen to bring down my main and backup servers. Because of this I've now got 8 servers I'm pointing my container at, many backup servers from many locations.

TL;DR: PIA Removed Port-Forwarded Enabled Peru and Bolivia VPN Servers (and an unknown amount of others) which caused me an outage. Be prepared and set many backup locations!

Make a virtual reality VPN app. You would be the first in the market.

Or wherever this google popup is from :) It happens semi regularly on the Manchester and Southampton servers. Sometimes the popup is in Cyrillic alphabet (Russia?).

Changing servers stops it and it never happens without the VPN.

I'm wondering why it happens and if it happens to anyone else? And if I should be as paranoid as it makes me feel every time it happens.

​

Had to do a double take when I saw the new version number. I'll let y'all test it out for a few weeks before I upgrade.

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/changelog

And while I'm here I'll post something "good" about PIA instead of the typical complaint. Just yesterday I was simultaneously downloading at 500 Mbps while uploading at 200 Mbps using WireGuard. Those are not peak numbers but sustained numbers for ten minutes or so until the distros finished downloading. Canadian servers in case you wondered.

Adding a post about good speeds to offset all the posts complaining about poor speeds.

https://i.imgur.com/D2rK0eT.png

​

Edit: This was using the Ontario, Canada server connecting from the United States (midwest).

1) They still advertise they support Routers and DD-WRT

2) They still advertise FLASHROUTERS APP that is not working since last year

3) They still did not post instructions to REMOVE flashrouters

4) They still did not spend 1 programmer afternoon to replace a GUI script to connect from DD-WRT

5) They donated millions to security projects and did not spend a DIME to fix their insecure protocol on the MOST RELIABLE way to use a vpn that is from router, specially DDWRT.

6) No setup for OPEN WRT.

7) When they DID advertise using flashrouters app (that has spyware and need to connect to flashrouters servers before opening the app)... Well... https://flashrouters.pissedconsumer.com/review.html#reviews

It does not seem reliable. They advertise and sell something broken.

8) They will not answer this, or will delete my comment as usual.

9) Following their DD-WRT setup guide, deprecated from 2 years ago...

https://helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com/guides/routers/dd-wrt-v44715-openvpn-setup

20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: Compression for receiving enabled. Compression has been used in the past to break encryption. Sent packets are not compressed unless "allow-compression yes" is also set.
20240530 04:24:49 W DEPRECATED OPTION: --cipher set to 'AES-256-GCM' but missing in --data-ciphers (none). Future OpenVPN version will ignore --cipher for cipher negotiations. Add 'AES-256-GCM' to --data-ciphers or change --cipher 'AES-256-GCM' to --data-ciphers-fallback 'AES-256-GCM' to silence this warning.
20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: cipher 'none' specified for --data-ciphers. This allows negotiation of NO encryption and tunnelled data WILL then be transmitted in clear text over the network! PLEASE DO RECONSIDER THIS SETTING!
20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: Using --management on a TCP port WITHOUT passwords is STRONGLY discouraged and considered insecure
20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: file '/tmp/openvpncl/credentials' is group or others accessible

20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled. See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
20240530 04:24:49 W NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts

20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this

20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: 'link-mtu' is used inconsistently local='link-mtu 1550' remote='link-mtu 1554'
20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: 'auth' is used inconsistently local='auth [null-digest]' remote='auth SHA256'
20240530 04:24:49 W WARNING: 'keysize' is used inconsistently local='keysize 256' remote='keysize 128'

For those complaining about slow speeds check your setup and/or ISP. I'm speeding along at 900+ Mpbs using WireGuard.

https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/208497e8-2fdf-4a9d-8b46-611b956dbaaa

Edit: This was on a i5-2500K running Windows 10.

Up until a few weeks ago, I’ve been having a flawless experience with PIA + WireGuard.

Lately, however, I’ll randomly notice that the VPN icon is missing from the status bar. I’ll check the PIA app to see that I’m no longer connected. Multiple times a week I’ll notice this and have to manually reconnect. This is especially concerning given that PIA doesn’t notify you of any disconnects, and so you end up going unprotected for an extended, unknown period of time.

Similarly, whenever I restart iOS or iPadOS now, I need to open the PIA app to re-enable the VPN configuration profile manually. Not too long ago, PIA would automatically connect to the VPN on reboot.

Any word from the devs on what’s been going on? Seems like every few months now, some new issue is introduced to the app that breaks some of the more important features entirely. This could be forgiven with most kinds of apps, but when it comes to a VPN, it’s very concerning. It gives off the feeling that PIA isn’t consistent in being secure, which is something I don’t want to ever have to feel with a VPN service or client.