Best setting for droidvpn

We started by downloading the Windows client. Initially, this looked very interesting. It's a tiny 1.2MB ZIP file with no installation required, a very unusual touch, which could allow you to run it from a USB stick on any convenient PC.

Signing up with DroidVPN starts by entering a username, password, and handing over your email address. Email validation is a little more fussy than usual, with addresses of the form name@accountname.isp.com not allowed, but enter a more standard address and you'll have a welcome email within moments.

The document suggests that although DroidVPN doesn't log activities normally, it may collect session logs including "IP addresses, times when connected to our service, the total amount of data transferred, and transfer speed information."

Network experts will love all the geek-level tweaking available in the Settings page. You can set local and remote ports, choose operating modes, define the HTTP headers sent (if any) with TCP connections, set MTU size, configure a proxy, even load and apply settings from an existing file (ECF/DCF).

"If we receive complaints regarding copyrighted materials such as music and movies being shared over our network, we may be forced to take some measures to prevent legal actions towards our service. Such measures include filtering traffic in order to determine what account is misusing our service, and to terminate that specific account."

Curious about protocol support? We were, too. Digging down to an old revealed that DroidVPN uses its own proprietary VPN protocol. Worryingly, there's no information on how this works or what level of protection it gives you.

The structure of the document isn't as successful. Logging is covered in two sections, for instance, each with slightly different information, leaving you to piece together the details and figure out what they really mean.

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There were occasional problems with connecting to some servers, as we watched the client displaying repeated ‘trying port x’, ‘trying port y’ status messages. But you can easily switch protocols between TCP, UDP and HTTP with a tap, even ICMP if you have a rooted device (a very rare feature which could help you get connected where everything else fails), and this generally helped us get connected next time.

Our performance tests* showed positive results all round. The free service managed 10-14Mbps on average, more than enough for general tasks. The commercial service maxed out at 35-40Mbps for UK to UK connections, reached a capable 24-28Mbps with US servers, and even the Singapore server managed a peak of around 20Mbps.

There's a more general privacy issue in the lack of detail about DroidVPN's custom VPN protocol. Is this some brilliant invention that's even more secure than OpenVPN, or a feeble effort, full of security holes? There's no way to tell, and that would make us nervous about using the service for anything important.

Our final privacy tests also showed solid results, with DroidVPN giving us IP addresses in our requested locations, correctly blocking DNS leaks, and shielding our online activities from potential snoopers.

The service has a free plan available, but it limits you to locations in the US and Netherlands, and by default allows you only 100MB of data transfer a day. Fortunately, there are ways to extend this. You can activate an extra 100MB from your control panel, and earn more bandwidth by watching videos or completing offers (install and play a game, make an in-app purchase, and so on).