I have PIA and SkyVPN on my phone. I work at a school and there’s zero cell signal in the building. The free SkyVPN app connects to the school WiFi without issue (although occasionally the free tier is “busy”). I pay for PIA, and it can never connect. I’ve tried every protocol and every combination of handshakes and encryption and everything. It never connects.
Any idea why?
No idea without more details.
Are they using the same protocol & port?
With PIA are you turning on obfuscation? You need it to hide the fact that you are using a vpn because schools usually block VPN connections
I would try OpenVPN as some have said…
OpenVPN + Shadowsocks for PIA…. Use tcp and maybe port 80 or 443 (try one and then the other end see which works)
Hope this helps
Sounds like a Firewall is preventing authentication
OpenVPN with TCP and port 80 is the most reliabel way to use VPNs in networks where VPNs are blocked in my experience.
How would I find that out? SkyVPN has zero settings or config. It’s just a single button. Don’t even pick a region
I don’t see obfuscation as a iOS feature
Never heard of that feature. Did a search and that looks like it’s worth a try to me. Looks like it may require openVPN tho’
he’s on mobile / iOS which doesn’t support proxy modes
EDIT: *PIA doesn’t offer proxy support natively through their app. You could import a PIA config into the VPN area of the iOS settings and then configure a proxy etc.
443 is what I use at work
A free VPN without any knowledge of it and comparing to a paid service is completely different.
If you are not the customer, you are the product. The free service has to make money and they will off of you by selling your data.
They are based in China, there have been multiple incidents of leaks for web traffic, dns traffic, ip leak, etc. Im doing 10 minutes of searching and they have invasive logging policies, poor user experience, etc.
Sky is probably just rotating ports to find one that can connect out automatically since there is no config option.
If you don’t care about privacy, where your data ends up, who is seeing it etc and all you want is to view blocked / restricted content at school like streaming services, then Sky might be your solution.
If you want to use PIA, you can customize a config online, import it into the iOS settings and even use proxies like shadowsocks. This can’t be done in the PIA app as there are limitations.
You can check the port by setting up a PC you have as a wireless access point and doing a packet capture with wireshark.
I’d try using PIA with a config that’s less likely to look suspicious. Most networks leave TLS/SSL open, a fair few also leave DNS open too.
skyvpn gets a pretty bad review btw - SkyVPN Review: A Slow and Dangerous VPN You Should Avoid
OpenVPN isn’t bad. Wireguard is just better.
Yes, I use Wireguard since I have no need for obsfucation.
Yeah…people have different needs
Yes, that’s why I was addressing OPs needs