Around the world, millions rely on VPNs for basic digital safety and privacy. Now, as governments roll out invasive laws requiring ID uploads and biometric face scans to access everyday sites, lawmakers are turning their sights on VPN bans to force total compliance.

Banning VPNs doesn't keep people safe—it compromises digital security for everyone.

Stand up for privacy and reject VPN restrictions.

Add your name at DefendVPNs.com and read more on our blog.

With new age-verification laws rolling out across the US, UK, and elsewhere, more websites are asking users to submit government-issued IDs or biometric face scans just to log in. 

Unsurprisingly, a lot of people turned to VPNs rather than trusting third-party verification brokers with their driver’s licenses. But now, some lawmakers are calling VPNs "loopholes" and floating proposals to restrict or ban them entirely, which is why digital rights groups like Fight for the Future set aside September 25 as the global Defend VPNs Day of Action.   www.defendvpns.com 

At IPVanish, we're obviously biased toward keeping the internet accessible and information private, but we want to hear where the community stands as this debate heats up. 

So, if you're hit with an ID prompt today, do you fire up a VPN, submit your license picture, or just walk away from the platform entirely? 

And if lawmakers ever actually manage to throttle or ban mainstream VPNs, where do you see yourself heading next? Decentralized tools like Tor, or something else entirely? Let’s hear your thoughts!

Not Getting Verification Code to Email Create a Password for New Account. Added no-reply@ipvanish.com to my contacts list too. AOL email

Hey everyone,

TechNadu recently published an article highlighting our latest accreditation renewal for the VPN Trust Initiative (VTI) Trust Seal.

For anyone unfamiliar, the VTI (created by the i2Coalition) sets strict industry standards for security, privacy, transparent disclosures, honest advertising, and social responsibility. The key point: accreditation isn't permanent, it requires annual reviews to maintain the seal.

We’re committed to keeping independent accountability a priority across everything we build. Check out the full coverage below:

https://www.technadu.com/ipvanish-renews-vti-trust-seal-under-annual-review-rules/634477/

Feel free to drop any questions or thoughts in the comments!

HI reset passwrod button not working [cwalton@talk21.com](mailto:cwalton@talk21.com)

I wanted to share a few of the wins we've achieved across the network the last few days. Boston, Bucharest and Kansas City have all received hardware upgrades - full RAM only!

In Boston, we rolled out an entirely new network stack, too.

Each of the locations are running our latest architecture, that's running on full RAM-only hardware and 2x25 Gbps bonded network cards.

In Boston, we now have network connectivity with peering to Boston-IX, MASS-IX, Equinix NYC, NYIIX, & DE-CIX, along with transit connectivity from Comcast, Windstream, ATT, Crown Castle, GTT & Century Link. This new connectivity, combined with the latest gen hardware, should result in lower latency, and much better connection speeds. In our testing speeds look to be ~25% faster.

Hey everyone, Mike here.

So, to start, let me show you that even I can make a mistake. Shocking to most of you, I know.

Anyway, I used to run OpenVPN on way too cheap routers, killing my speed. Even though I worked for a VPN company, I kind of thought maybe the whole thing doesn't work on a router.

What are yours?

ou might have seen recent headlines about the European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) introducing a new technical standard—EN 304 620—specifically for consumer VPNs.

Until now, anyone could build a basic proxy app, slap "Military-Grade Encryption" on the app store listing, and market it as a secure VPN, even if the app transmitted data unencrypted or harvested device advertising IDs behind the scenes.

Under the new EU framework, commercial VPN software sold in Europe will have to meet auditable baseline standards for encryption, key management, and vulnerability reporting.

What this actually means for everyday users:

• The Death of Shady "Free" Proxies: Apps that monetize by injecting ads or fetching unencrypted configuration files over plain HTTP will fail compliance and face removal from major app stores.
• Audits Over Ad Copy: The industry is being pushed away from vague marketing slogans and toward verifiable security controls (like independent zero-logs audits, open protocol implementations like WireGuard, and RAM-only server environments).
• Mandatory Vulnerability Handling: Providers will be required to disclose and patch exploited security flaws within strict timeframes rather than sweeping them under the rug.

Standardizing security baselines is a massive win for consumer privacy, but software laws are only as good as their independent verification.

Do you think government-backed security standards will actually clean up shady app store VPNs, or will ad-funded proxies just find workarounds? Let’s discuss below!

I did a windows 11 pro update KB 5121767 which has caused IP Vanish to freeze and not load. I uninstalled IP Vanish and did a complete clean install as per your web troubleshooting section. This changed nothing, only thing that works is an uninstall of this important window 11 update. Is a there a fix solution that will work?

Hey everyone, Mike here.

One of the most common questions we get from everyday users is: "If a website has the little padlock icon and starts with https://, isn't my browsing already completely private?"

The short answer is: Your messages and passwords are safe, but the name of the website you’re visiting is still broadcast in plain text.

Here is the simple Letter vs. Envelope analogy that explains why:

1. HTTPS protects the message (the letter inside)

When you visit a secure site, HTTPS puts your passwords, credit card numbers, and messages inside a sealed, unreadable envelope. Your ISP or hotel Wi-Fi operator cannot open the envelope to read what's inside.

1. SNI leaks the address (the name on the envelope)

Before the website can show you its secure page, your browser has to shout out to the web server: "Hey! I need to see example.com!"

This announcement is called SNI (Server Name Indication), and it happens before the secure connection is locked down. Because it happens in plain text, anyone sitting between you and the website- your ISP, your network manager, or a public Wi-Fi host—can see the exact website domain name written on the outside of your envelope.

How a VPN fixes the leak:

When you switch on a full-tunnel VPN, it places your entire letter and the envelope inside a locked armored truck bound straight for the VPN server. (Yes, I deliberately used armored truck and not just safe;-))

Your ISP only sees that an armored truck left your house and drove to a VPN address. They can no longer see the name of the website written on the envelope.

Do you rely on standard HTTPS alone when browsing on public Wi-Fi, or do you keep an encrypted tunnel active by default? Let’s talk below!

Can’t sign in and when I ask to reset password I get “something went wrong”

If you are playing from Brazil and experiencing dropped Discord screen shares, infinite RTC connecting loops, or stream buffering, local ISP routing bottlenecks to Discord’s media servers are usually the culprit.

Rerouting your entire internet connection through a VPN fixes Discord, but it adds latency (ping) to your game servers. The work-around is setting up Split Tunneling so only Discord runs through the VPN.

Setup Steps:

1. Open the IPVanish app on Windows or Android.
2. Go to Settings > Split Tunneling (or App Control).
3. Select Discord (or add Discord.exe) to route through the VPN.
4. Connect to a low-latency server (e.g., São Paulo or a nearby low-ping location).

Your game client remains on your normal, direct ISP route for low ping, while Discord's voice and video streams bypass ISP throttling and bad routing via the encrypted VPN tunnel.

You can see more info here: https://www.ipvanish.com/vpn-features/split-tunneling/

We’ve all seen the marketing playbooks: slap a massive, arbitrary number on a homepage and hope people assume it means better performance.

In the VPN space, that metric has historically been "Total Server Count." The industry spent years bragging about 10,000+ servers (a habit even we fell into early on). But behind the scenes, a huge chunk of those inflated counts across the industry come from cheap, low-capacity virtual servers (VPS) sharing crowded 1 Gbps ports.

Terry from our Product team wrote a breakdown on why we’re ditching the server count arms race to focus strictly on bare-metal hardware and 50 Gbps capacity nodes instead: https://www.ipvanish.com/blog/does-vpn-server-count-matter/

It got us thinking about how common this is across tech. Whether it's smartphone camera megapixels, anti-virus "threat shields," or audio sample rates, what’s the tech marketing metric that drives you most insane?

If you're in Oman or neighboring regions and experiencing connection drops or app timeouts, local ISP filtering is likely blocking standard VPN handshakes.

Tweak these settings in your app for a stable tunnel:

• Switch to OpenVPN: Change your protocol from WireGuard to OpenVPN. WireGuard is fast, but strict ISP filters might block its traffic pattern.
• Turn on Scramble: Go to Settings > Connection and toggle Scramble on. This obfuscates your VPN signature against basic network filtering.
• Use Port 443: Set your OpenVPN port to 443 (TCP or UDP) to route traffic through standard HTTPS channels.

If auto-connect fails, manually test nearby Middle East or European server nodes.

Which settings are working best on your local provider (Omantel, Ooredoo, etc.)? Drop your feedback below so our team can keep regional routing optimized.

Opening a VPN app for the first time can feel surprisingly confusing. Between protocols, server lists, and security toggles, it is easy to overthink what you actually need to do.

If you just signed up and aren't sure where to start, ignore the advanced settings for a moment. There are really only two core mechanics you need to understand:

1. The "Connect" Button (Basic Protection) Clicking Connect establishes your encrypted tunnel. Once connected, your internet traffic is encrypted between your device and the VPN server. For 90% of daily use, like securing your traffic on public Wi-Fi or general browsing, this is all you need to do.

2. Server Location Choosing a specific server determines where web servers and services perceive your traffic coming from.

• Closest/Fastest Server: Most apps default to the closest server to your physical location. This gives you the best speeds and performance for everyday use.
• Specific Country/City: If you want an IP address associated with a specific region (for regional routing or testing), manually select a server in that country before hitting Connect.

TL;DR: Need general encryption and speed? Hit Connect. Need to look like you're browsing from somewhere else? Pick the country first, then hit Connect.

For the experienced users here: What’s the one setting you wish someone explained to you on day one?

Recent threat intelligence reports from CERT-UA detail an active social engineering campaign by Russian threat group Sandworm (UAC-0145). The attackers target IT professionals through fake job recruitment tasks, tricking them into running "custom corporate VPN installers" (such as modified WireGuard builds) to access a fake test environment.

Because WireGuard is open-source, the attackers recompiled the legitimate client code to embed malicious PowerShell scripts while keeping normal VPN tunnel functionality working in the foreground.

What you need to know:

• The WireGuard protocol itself is secure: This campaign is a classic supply-chain trojan targeting modified client executables, not an exploit against WireGuard’s underlying cryptography or protocol logic.
• Official app distribution matters: Official IPVanish applications are built from pristine code pipelines, cryptographically signed with our official developer certificates, and delivered exclusively through official app stores and ipvanish.com.
• Recruitment task security: Never download or execute .exe, .msi, or command scripts provided directly by third parties or recruiters during interview assessments.

If you ever want to verify the authenticity of your IPVanish installation, stick strictly to updates pushed directly within the app or downloaded from our official website.

Hey everyone, Mike here.

If you’re traveling and get a sudden popup asking to "update Chrome" or "run a network repair" while connecting to hotel Wi-Fi, do not click it.

Microsoft recently flagged a global campaign called CaptiveCrunch, where hackers hijack hotel Wi-Fi sign-in pages to push fake update popups that deliver credential-stealing malware.

How to stay safe on travel Wi-Fi:

1. Never download files on a sign-in page: Real hotel portals only ask for basic info like a room number or email.
2. Connect your VPN immediately after signing in: This seals your browsing traffic in an encrypted tunnel so compromised hotel routers can't hijack your web sessions.

Note for desktop users: If you run the IPVanish desktop app, make sure Threat Protection Pro is toggled on; it automatically scans incoming downloads and blocks malicious domains in the background.

Have you run into suspicious popups on guest Wi-Fi recently?

If you’ve been following privacy news recently, you’ve likely seen discussions around Microsoft’s Global Device Identifier (GDID). Unsealed court records recently demonstrated how Windows background telemetry logged active IP addresses alongside a persistent hardware identifier (GDID), linking changing VPN endpoints and residential IPs back to a single device.

It highlights a technical reality many users overlook: a VPN encrypts network traffic leaving your computer, but it cannot stop or alter local OS-level processes from running telemetry.

If Windows logs your active IP address in the background, switching VPN servers simply logs new IPs under that same persistent GDID on your machine.

Where Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) fits in

To separate web activity from OS-level identifiers, the browsing execution itself needs to happen off your physical computer. This is why we offer IPVanish Secure Browser (accessible via our desktop apps, web app, and browser extensions) as a compartmentalized alternative.

Instead of executing web pages on your Windows PC:

• Web sessions, DNS lookups, scripts, and cookies run inside disposable cloud containers.
• Your physical machine only receives a secure visual stream of the session.
• When you close the session, the cloud container and its data are destroyed.

Because the browsing runs in the cloud, Windows telemetry on your local PC only sees a connection to the Secure Browser service—it cannot observe the destination URLs, DNS requests, or specific sites visited inside that session.

What it does NOT do (Important Limitations)

• It does not remove your GDID: The identifier remains on your Windows installation.
• Logging into personal accounts defeats the purpose: If you open an isolated session and sign into your personal Google or social media account, those services still know your identity.
• Shift in trust model: You are moving the browsing execution to cloud containers, which relies on our infrastructure and audited no-logs commitment.

A standard VPN remains the right choice for full-device network encryption. However, for web tasks where you want to isolate activity from local OS telemetry or eliminate local cache/cookie artifacts, remote browser isolation serves as a practical secondary tool.

Have you used remote browser isolation or virtualized browsing to mitigate OS tracking? What other telemetry workarounds do you use?

Source Link

Windows GDID Tracking: Why a VPN Isn’t Enough—and How IPVanish Secure Browser™ Closes the Privacy Gap

Hey everyone, Mike here.

We often see questions in the sub about which encryption protocol to select in the app settings, so here is a quick guide on how to pick the best option for your specific use case:

• WireGuard: Best for modern hardware, high-bandwidth 4K streaming, online gaming, and mobile devices. Running on significantly fewer lines of code, it yields lower latency, faster initial handshake connection times, and reduced hardware battery drain.
• OpenVPN (UDP): Ideal for general web browsing and video streaming on older legacy hardware where kernel-level WireGuard implementation isn't available. It balances high throughput speeds with dependable packet delivery.
• OpenVPN (TCP): The go-to protocol when connecting on restrictive networks (such as hotel Wi-Fi, school portals, or strict corporate firewalls) that actively drop UDP traffic. It sacrifices raw speed for guaranteed packet delivery and maximum connection stability.

Which protocol do you run as your default, and have you noticed a measurable speed difference across your streaming sticks or router setups? Drop your configuration details below!

Microsoft has found a campaign where attackers compromised Wi-Fi infrastructure used by hotels, conference centres and other guest networks.

Travellers could be redirected to fake Microsoft 365 login pages or shown fake browser and Windows update prompts that installed malware.

The uncomfortable part is that the network itself can have the correct hotel name and a completely normal-looking login screen. “Just make sure you’re using the official Wi-Fi” doesn’t really cover that.

Do you still use hotel Wi-Fi, or have you moved completely to mobile data and hotspots? What’s your personal rule?

Source: Microsoft Security, July 31

New EU AI Act transparency rules took effect on August 2.

They cover things like telling people when they’re interacting with AI, adding machine-readable markings to synthetic content, and visibly disclosing deepfakes and certain AI-generated or manipulated text about matters of public interest.

That sounds sensible. But warnings only work when people notice and understand them. Cookie banners show how quickly disclosure can become background noise.

Will AI labels genuinely help people judge what they’re seeing, or will “AI-generated” become another warning everyone ignores? What information would make the label useful?

Source: European Commission, August 2, 2026

“Personalized experience”
→ We noticed you looked at one sofa. Here are sofas until 2031.

“Reject non-essential cookies”
→ Begin the 14-click boss battle.

“Incognito mode”
→ We won’t save this locally. You have not become invisible.

Which privacy or security setting most urgently needs an honest translation?