On Sale! Avira Phantom VPN: Lifetime Subscription for $39.99

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CyberTech

Level 44
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Nov 10, 2017
3,247
getting tired of this VPN, it takes ages to connect, half the times it won't connect to certain countries at all.
the client doesn't have auto connect on startup.
can't recommend.

lol what? i dont have any problem with it mines takes like 3-5 sec to connect it, all works for me maybe due to ur country :unsure:
 

zzz00m

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jun 10, 2017
248
Here is my balanced opinion of Avira Phantom VPN. I think it's the best option for home use, but needs some work on the auto-connect feature and the Android app.

I love it on my desktop computer! The speed difference between using this VPN, or no VPN is very close, within a few MB/s. So no performance hit, and I can leave it connected even for multi-gigabit downloads.

But it seems hit or miss on auto-connect during startup, which is no problem for me on my (secure) private home network.

But I would be reluctant to use Avira Phantom VPN with my laptop on the road with untrusted Wi-Fi hotspots.

If I boot up and it doesn't auto-connect, my Windows machine is exposed to a potentially hostile network until I can manually connect to the VPN. The 'block all internet traffic if VPN connection drops' feature seems to work great, but this doesn't apply to the first time after boot if the auto-connect VPN doesn't start. I can see TCP/IP traffic using my local IP address, until I start the VPN, then it switches over.

My workaround is to use Windscribe VPN on my laptop. That blocks all internet traffic until it is connected. I don't use as much bandwidth on the laptop, so I can stand the performance hit from their VPN service. The performance of Windscribe at home often left me disconnecting Windscribe anytime I wanted to download files. It was OK for streaming media, no difficulties there, just some software installers have huge file downloads these days.

Finally, regarding Android, I found the reliability of the Avira Phantom VPN app to be rather unstable. It would sometimes disconnect and refuse to re-connect, requiring a restart of the device. So I use Windscribe on my Android.

Bottom line, I would choose Avira Phantom VPN for home use, and use Windscribe for my mobile Windows and Android devices.
 

roger_m

Level 41
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Dec 4, 2014
3,014
My internet speed was quite a bit slower when using this. Of course, the speed will vary depending on what servers you are connecting to and the server load. But in my case, I quickly uninstalled it.
 
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dragongate888

Level 2
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
78
A sniffing app, such as Fling, to detect internet traffic, after VPN is connected. I was shocked to learn that all devices connected to the very same public router are discovered. That means that all other devices users are able to to "see" and "hear" you.
 

zzz00m

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jun 10, 2017
248
A sniffing app, such as Fling, to detect internet traffic, after VPN is connected. I was shocked to learn that all devices connected to the very same public router are discovered. That means that all other devices users are able to to "see" and "hear" you.

I can see all the available Wi-Fi hotspots around me, even when I'm connected to my VPN, although all of my internet, TCP/IP traffic, etc., packets are routing over my VPN tunnel.

I suspect that your sniffing app is looking at the locally available OSI Data Link Layer 2 info, like MAC addresses, which is necessary to negotiate a connection with a Wi-Fi network. That doesn't mean that those devices can 'see' and 'hear' your internet traffic.

Your internet traffic is handled using TCP/IP packets utilizing Network and Transport layers 3 & 4.

Airheads Community

Wi-Fi and the OSI model | Control Engineering

Different things. If your computer is routing all internet traffic over an encrypted tunnel, you have nothing to worry about, as long as your VPN is not leaking.
 
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dragongate888

Level 2
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
78
I can see all the available Wi-Fi hotspots around me, even when I'm connected to my VPN, although all of my internet, TCP/IP traffic, etc., packets are routing over my VPN tunnel.

I suspect that your sniffing app is looking at the locally available OSI Data Link Layer 2 info, like MAC addresses, which is necessary to negotiate a connection with a Wi-Fi network. That doesn't mean that those devices can 'see' and 'hear' your internet traffic.

Your internet traffic is handled using TCP/IP packets utilizing Network and Transport layers 3 & 4.

Airheads Community

Wi-Fi and the OSI model | Control Engineering

Different things. If your computer is routing all internet traffic over an encrypted tunnel, you have nothing to worry about, as long as your VPN is not leaking.
I do appreciate your informative reply. However, I still have a question hung over my head---if my device is connect to a different VPN, such as Psiphon, then scan the traffic with Fling, the result shows only the router(public hotspot) and my device are visible, others (I mean all other people's devices are invisible). Why is this ?
 

L0ckJaw

Level 19
Thread author
Verified
Content Creator
Well-known
Feb 17, 2018
870
Now officially on the website from Avira

214775


214776


Torrenting is allowed.

This is in the Logging information :

214777


214778


214779


Very clear logging policy : We cannot share what we dont know.
 

numike

Level 1
Verified
Nov 1, 2018
45
I do appreciate your informative reply. However, I still have a question hung over my head---if my device is connect to a different VPN, such as Psiphon, then scan the traffic with Fling, the result shows only the router(public hotspot) and my device are visible, others (I mean all other people's devices are invisible). Why is this ?

Lot of VPN sales out there This is a quote:
Avoid all US and UK VPN's
Set up your own VPN
TLDR; Freedome VPN is really good and located in a country with strong privacy laws.
 
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zzz00m

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jun 10, 2017
248
I bought a lifetime subscription to Avira Phantom VPN. When it works, it works. But it is constantly disconnecting on me, so I had to reconsider whether to abandon it. Unfortunately, that was necessary. I tried contacting Avira support about the disconnect issue, but that was a dead end.
 
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Lightning_Brian

Level 15
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Sep 1, 2017
742
@zzz00m Early on I had the same issues as you. I ended up using Revo Uninstaller v4 with the latest release and uninstalled it and wiped out whatever remained. After reinstalling the software seemed to run fine. Not to sure what all happened when I installed it on the first time, but after taking those steps things seemed to run nice and smooth ever since. Lifetime sub huh!? Nice you were like me when I snagged it when lifetime instead of monthly/yearly.

What a great deal! I use this VPN every-so-often. I use Windscribe and another VPN (o.oooo mystery) more often though.

~Brian
 
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zzz00m

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jun 10, 2017
248
@zzz00m Early on I had the same issues as you. I ended up using Revo Uninstaller v4 with the latest release and uninstalled it and wiped out whatever remained. After reinstalling the software seemed to run fine. Not to sure what all happened when I installed it on the first time, but after taking those steps things seemed to run nice and smooth ever since. Lifetime sub huh!? Nice you were like me when I snagged it when lifetime instead of monthly/yearly.

What a great deal! I use this VPN every-so-often. I use Windscribe and another VPN (o.oooo mystery) more often though.

~Brian
Yep, WindScribe is my main go-to these days. I tried completely scrubbing Avira from the registry, and even tried another computer. No luck.

Don't know what it could be. The conspiracy theorist in me almost suspects that my ISP doesn't like Avira. :unsure:
 
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