VPN & Downloading : A survival guide

You are using a VPN service moslty to download files. Here is what you need to know.

Anytime you are connected to a VPN service, all the data goes through your VPN provoder's access point and your IP address is not visible on the network.

Usually, you may not stay in front of your computer the all time it takes to download all the files you want. You start it and then go do something else.

Sometimes, network micro-outages or degrading conditions can break the VPN connection.

Depending on the protocol you are using for your VPN coneection, several things can happen that are not obviously noticeable.

In order to understand better, let's back track for a minute.

When your VPN connection is established, in order to reroute your data through the VPN tunnel, the VPN software on your computer changes what we call the "default gateway". In a nutshell, your VPN provider becomes your default destination in order to handle your traffic.

If the VPN tunnel is broken for some reason, the default gateway reverts to what it was before, which is your "normal" connection. But if you have a download in progress, it's just going to keep on donwloading ... which means in turn you are no longer protected!

Depengin on the protocol used by your VPN service things can go two ways:

You are using a "PPTP" VPN:

PPTP is an older protocol and does not support automatic reconnection. It is strongky advised you get one of these little freeware utilities that will reconnect automatically your VPN if it gets disconnected. (VPNguard for example)

You are using an "OpenVPN" VPN:

When correctly configured by your VPN provider, OpenVPN handles the automatic reconnection in case something happens to the tunnel. Your IP address is then always protected. We recommand choosing OpenVPN if you usually have large unattended downloads.

NB: It is sad to realize that more than 75% of VPN providers don't have a clue about OpenVPN configurations. This can be inherently dangerous since it can open the door to various attacks.

VPN & Downloading : A survival guide

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You are using a VPN service moslty to download files. Here is what you need to know.

You are using a "PPTP" VPN:

You are using an "OpenVPN" VPN:

NB: It is sad to realize that more than 75% of VPN providers don't have a clue about OpenVPN configurations. This can be inherently dangerous since it can open the door to various attacks.