blog.vpntunnel.org

We have performed some necessary upgrades on our Blackhole servers. This means that it is not possible to connect anymore if you use an “old” (meaning downloaded from our controlpanel before 1:st of may) software / conf file.

Getting back online is easy. The new conf is included in the softwares and in the conf folders on the controlpanel, so simply download what suits your OS.

You are also able to update your existing blackhole.conf by changing the “dev tap” line into “dev tun”.

Users who use our own developed Win client don´t need to do anything since it updates the conf automatically.

A few weeks ago, the swedish parliament decided to implement the EU data retention directive 2006/24/EG. In basic terms it means that phone and internet providers are obliged to store data about the user, about the assigned ip, timestamps etc. etc. The new law will enter into force on 1:st of May 2012.

The question you probably ask yourself now is in what way this affect you as a VPNtunnel.se user, and that is what this blog post will clarify.

It is quite clear that due to the way our network is setup, VPNtunnel.se do not qualify as an actor that is obliged to store data. This means that VPNtunnel.se will continue to provide the service without keeping logs just as usual. However, we will follow the development and see how the legal practice plays out in the future. Our ambition is to continue to provide a safe and anonymous internet. If we for any reason were to be forced to start keeping logs, we will update the privacy policy and inform all users by E-mail.

Best regards / VPNtunnel.se

Update 2012-03-22

Problems have now been fixed and the service is running smooth. We will extend all active user accounts with 5 days as compensation for these past days of troubles. US and UK servers might still be hard to connect to, but that is a different thing. The reason is  simply that they are full most of the time. We have ordered some additional capacity in these countries in order to supply the demand, it might take a few days though.

Update 2012-03-20 GMT 13:40

As you probably have noticed, everything is not ok. Currently only around 70-80% of our swedish servers are running, the rest is down (meaning that all servers in other countries than Sweden also are down). We are working on this and are planning that everything will be running smooth by tomorrow night.

We will compensate all active users as soon as the problems are fixed.

Update 2012-03-18 GMT 20:47

The service has been down today due to an unexpected electrical problem in our datacenter. Problem has been fixed and the service is now up and running. We will doublecheck everything tomorrow and provide you with another update within the next couple of days on the blog that the service is 100%.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience

Additional swedish servers have been running smooth for some time now. We have placed an order on one more server each in Germany and The Netherlands.

We are planning more servers in a few more countries aswell. However, since the countries are not yet decided we are looking for your suggestions on where you would prefer to have a VPNtunnel server.

Edit 2012-02-05:

Servers: Thanks for all your suggestions. Servers in Russia, Romania and the Netherlands are now up and running. Very soon an additional german will be up to. Unfortunately we are having troubles with our UK server provider. Servers are getting shut down from time to time which is  the reason for the message “server is full” that appears in the client from time to time. We are very sorry for this. We are currently looking for a more “reliable” provider in the UK to get this problem solved on a long term basis. If you have special needs for UK accessibility and feel disapointed about this, contact our support and you will get some days on your account as compensation.

Accessibility: Due to some comments we feel that there is a need for us to clarify the way we see our “server accessibility policy”. Around 90% of the servers in our network, are servers that we own and manage ourselves in a datacenter in Sweden. We keep no logs on these servers, and our policy is to guarantee connection to these swedish servers 24/7. Here, we always try to keep a buffert of about 2 or 3 servers, and in case we get any signal that connection to our swedish servers were to be impossible beacause of overload, we would increase the server capacity on the spot.

We are not able to give the same guarantees concerning the servers that we provide connection to in other countries, current UK situation is an example of why. This is more to be seen as an extra value to our service. However, we try to keep up. If we see that a certain country is requested from our users, of course we will as quickly as possible look for the most reliable local provider we can find so that we can provide a sufficient amount of VPN connections in that country. Our ambition is to constantly increase the amount of servers in as many countries as possible.

Privacy: Here is the link to our privacy policy: https://www.vpntunnel.se/en/privacypolicy.php

And here is the link to a blogpost where we clarify our privacy policy: http://blog.vpntunnel.org/2011/06/29/privacy-policy-comment/

Here is how it works. If, and when, after investigating the situation we decide to move a country from the logging policy, and place it next to Sweden under the no logging policy, we will clearly state the exact country which is concerned in the privacy policy. So, always check the privacy policy to see exactly which countries that under each given time is subject to our no logging policy.

Dear VPNtunnel.se users,

once again we are launching our popular one and two year packages discount campaign.

This means that the prices on these packages are reduced with:

33% discount on the 1 year packages – 40 EUR

41% discount on the 2 years packages – 70 EUR

Some news:

Our swedish servers have been quite loaded lately during peak hours, as some of you have noticed. This have been related to our hardware and not our bandwidth. In any case it is unacceptable.

Therefore, to solve the issue we will add several new servers in our datacenter in Sweden later this week or in the beginning of the next.

Let´s stay encrypted!

Best wishes – VPNtunnel.se

The service has been down for about one hour, but now everything is up and running again.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

We have launched a beta test for our PPTP solution. On the controlpanel, you are able to create a temporary beta account. Try it, use it and give us a notice if there is anything that does not work or that you think can be improved. We appreciate all feedback alot.

As soon as this beta test round comes out with satisfying results, we will launch it.

Edit 2011-11-11: Thanks alot for all comments, they have been very helpful. We still have some work left, increasing the beta, before we launch it.

It is correct that pptp is less secure then OpenVPN. The reason for our launch is compatibility, nothing else. Many users want to connect other new devices like smartphones, pads etc. It is not always possible with OpenVPN, therefore we thought it to be a good idea to provide pptp as a “compatibility backup”.

There have been some upgrades concerning the servers. We have added new servers in the UK and US. To make sure that you always have access to all nationalities, follow the instructions of your OS below:

Windows – In our Windows client, you always have an updated list of countries under “country selection”. If you can not run the new client, you find a classic OpenVPN client on the controlpanel aswell, it is updated with all confs and certificates.

Upgrade – We have released an upgrade for the new Win-client. You can choose to upgrade it when you have launched it. If the upgrade does not go smoothly, make a fresh reinstall. The upgrade is also available on the controlpanel for download.

Edit 2011-08-25 – We discovered a few bugs in the 2.0 version on XP which we are looking at. This is why all of you who upgraded now get the question to upgrade again into version 1.0. If the client works for you there is no reason to downgrade again. The 1.0 version is available again on the controlpanel for you who wants to get back to that. Soon we will release a fully functional 2.0 version.

Edit 2011-09-08 – The 2.0.1 version has been out for a while now. The XP bug is fixed but now some users experience problems with the connection guard. We are looking at this and we expect a solution shortly.

Linux – Each Nationality has it´s own conf file. Under the “configs” link on the controlpanel, there is always an updated zip file with our confs for Linux. Manually add the confs to your OpenVPN folder. You will also need to add new certificates to the “keys” folder, the certificates are also to be found on the controlpanel.

Mac – Our pre-configured Tunnelblick software on the controlpanel is always updated with all nationalities. If you want to add new nationalities/confs to your existing OpenVPN software, follow the Linux instructions.

Edit 2011-08-03 Now all systems runs smoothly.

VPNtunnel.se is based in Sweden and has been providing encrypted VPN connections since 2008. Sweden is a great country, it has some of the strongest personal integrity protection by law in the world. This is the reason that VPNtunnel.se has been able to provide the service without to keep logs, swedish law do not require us to do so. In fact, it is possible that swedish law actually prohibits us to keep logs due to the way our billing cycle is setup. Anyway, to summarize, the fact that we own and manage all our swedish servers ourselves in a 10 Gbps datacenter, combined with the swedish law, is what enables us to provide a qualitative and secure service.

This post aims to clarify our updated privacy policy. A touch of transparency.

Why is the privacy policy updated?
As you can see, we have updated our privacy policy: https://www.vpntunnel.se/en/privacypolicy.php

The update is that we now need to keep certain logs from our non swedish servers. This is because many users have requested us to launch more servers across the world, and this is not a bad idea since it allows all users to bypass geo blocks etc. However, when we have physical servers in other jurisdictions, even though the judicial situation is everything but clear, it is possible that we are subject to these other countries laws, more specific, data retention laws. As it is our ambition to provide the service on a long term basis, obviously it is not an option to systematically break the countries in which we keep our dedicated servers laws.

Our options were, not to launch servers in other countries than Sweden and continue with our no logging policy, or to launch servers in other countries and continue with our no logging policy only on our swedish servers, we chose the latter one.

If you use other VPN providers from time to time who are not based in Sweden, you should ask yourself what their logging policy looks like. If they say that they do not log anything, they probably either lie or break the law. If not, it would be valuable to learn about their setup.

How does this affect your use of the service?
As you can see in our privacy policy, we apply a no logging policy on all swedish servers, and a 30 day logging policy on the other servers. At this point, it is important to remember a few of things:

- On all swedish servers, there is still a NO LOGGING policy.

- We do not monitor any traffic what so ever. On the non swedish machines we store ip addresses and time stamps of login and logout.

- It is not important from where you connect, what is important is to which server you connect. For example: a person from UAE who connects to a swedish server is subject to the swedish no logging policy. A person from Sweden who connects to a US server is subject to the logging policy.

So basically, if you are looking for security and personal integrity you connect to our swedish servers.

Btw: an upgrade to the new client and pptp protocol will be launched very soon.