VPN for Windows XP

[Dixel]

5 hours ago, D.Draker said:

Don't worry. This one looks 100% alive, it's even better than the one you want, also paid.

https://easy-hide-ip.com/

 

Just a note, not to be confused with Hide IP Easy.

 

 

[Dixel]

UltraVPN Paid Version

"UltraVPN is registered outside of the US"

https://ultravpn.com/

 

[Dixel]

UltraVPN 1.0

Claim to have Free (Trial?) Version

https://ultravpn.soft112.com/

[AstroSkipper]

On 1/4/2024 at 4:18 AM, Dixel said:

UltraVPN Paid Version

"UltraVPN is registered outside of the US"

https://ultravpn.com/

 

 

On 1/4/2024 at 4:18 AM, Dixel said:

UltraVPN 1.0

Claim to have Free (Trial?) Version

https://ultravpn.soft112.com/

I am afraid but as far as I can see, the UltraVPN desktop application is no longer compatible with Windows XP:  
https://support.ultravpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050273852-What-are-UltraVPN-s-compatible-platforms- 
And UltraVPN 1.0 is from 2006 and unfortunately much too old. I don't think it will do its job in these days. 

[Dixel]

VPN in the form of crx for Chrome on XP.

"uVPN has a no-logs policy and is based in Hong Kong, a country that is not a member of the Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances that collectively share surveillance data. So uVPN can truly uphold its no-logs policy."

Honestly, i'm not sure whether it's good or not about it being based in Hong Kong.

https://secureblitz.com/uvpn-review-is-uvpn-safe-to-use/

[Dixel]

Developer site: https://uvpn.me/

crx available at Chromewebstore, also.

uVPN Pros 

Protects users' online identities and hides their real IP addresses.

7 days free trial

100% money-back guarantee

IKEv2 and OpenVPN protocols 

AES-256 encryption technology

No-logs policy

Available on major devices and browsers.

Unlimited traffic and connection stability

Secured torrenting, streaming, and gaming

uVPN Cons

The features are limited in the basic and optimal plans.

There is no information on the number of VPN servers provided by uVPN

Limited payment options

Doesn't include sophisticated security features

https://secureblitz.com/uvpn-review-is-uvpn-safe-to-use/

[Dixel]

3 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

And UltraVPN 1.0 is from 2006 and unfortunately much too old.

Perhaps that's why it's free.

[AstroSkipper]

When talking about VPN for Windows XP, we have to realise that most VPN service providers have given up on protocols like PPTP or L2TP/IPsec which are suitable and compatible with this OS. Even the paid ones. OpenVPN is very often the only option in these days, if offered by the provider at all, but only due to the existence of the special version OpenVPN 2.5.4 for Windows XP. But then you have to struggle with the crappy TAP-Win32 Adapter. The older, official OpenVPN versions aren't supported any longer by many VPN service providers. All that means we have to take advertising of VPN services working under Windows XP with a grain of salt.  IMHO, a lot is promised, but often not kept. 

Edited January 6, 2024 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[Multibooter]

On 12/23/2023 at 9:27 PM, AstroSkipper said:

@Milkinis @XPerceniol and those who never used OpenVPN under Windows XP!

OpenVPN is one of different VPN protocols. The OpenVPN 2.5.4 executable is a VPN client programme to connect to special VPN servers. There are many VPN service providers. Only a few offer servers free of charge, most of them offer servers which have to be paid for. The user has to download special OpenVPN configuration files from these VPN service providers which have to be loaded by an OpenVPN client programme such as OpenVPN 2.5.4. These config files can additionally be edited to match the user's needs if you are familiar with the OpenVPN protocol and the used syntax which in turn depends on the installed OpenVPN version. And here is a link to many different documents about OpenVPN: https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn 
And (actually) just for testing purposes, here is a service called VPNBook which offers free VPN servers: https://www.vpnbook.com/freevpn 
In addition, here is a short guide how to setup OpenVPN to use VPNBook under Windows XP: https://www.vpnbook.com/howto/setup-openvpn-on-windowsxp

Cheers, AstroSkipper 

1) OpenVPN v2.5.4 (schtrom mod)

Thanks , OpenVPN 2.5.4 (schtrom mod) is working fine under WinXP on my SSE2 desktop computer.

Your link to the free VPN server at VPNBook was very helpful for learning about OpenVPN and for testing various parameters in the .ovpn OpenVPN config file.

The 2 settings with which I was able to get OpenVPN v2.5.4 to work with the .ovpn config file from VPNBook were:
- in Device Manager -> TAP-Windows Adapter V9 -> Advanced tab: -> set Media Status: Always connected
- added the parameter "ip-win32 ipapi" to the .ovpn config file from VPNBook (or later to the .ovpn file from ExpressVPN)

OpenVPN 2.5.4 (schtrom mod), however, does NOT work on my Inspiron 7500 laptop (SSE-only, 650MHz Pentium 3) under WinXP, I have tried many tricks to no avail.

2) OpenVPN v2.3.18

OpenVPN v2.3.18 (last official version for WinXP), however, DOES work OK under SSE-only. Download-link of the Installer (32-bit), Windows XP:
http://swupdate.openvpn.org/community/releases/openvpn-install-2.3.18-I001-i686.exe

Download links of other builds of v2.3.18 for Windows (not tested):
- Installer (64-bit), Windows XP
  http://swupdate.openvpn.org/community/releases/openvpn-install-2.3.18-I001-x86_64.exe
- Installer (32-bit), Windows Vista and later
  https://swupdate.openvpn.org/community/releases/openvpn-install-2.3.18-I601-i686.exe
- Installer (64-bit), Windows Vista and later
  https://swupdate.openvpn.org/community/releases/openvpn-install-2.3.18-I601-x86_64.exe

The .ovpn file from VPNBook doesNOT work with OpenVPN v2.3.18 under SSE-only. The .ovpn file from ExpressVPN, however, DOES work with SSE-only if the parameter "cipher AES-256-GCM" is changed to "cipher AES-256-CBC" in the .ovpn config file
VPNBook apparently doesnot work with the parameter "cipher AES-256-CBC". ExpressVPN has a free 7-day trial.

3) Questions

Question 1: schtrom indicates that v2.5.4 contains a "severe bug"
"OpenVPN v2.5.4 contains a severe bug on Windows XP SP3" https://openvpn-for-windows-xp.sourceforge.io/#topic15
Does this mean that his mod v2.5.4 works OK under Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 (as shown in his screen shots), but not under Windows XP SP3? How serious is this bug?

Does this bug not occur with v2.3.18 under WinXP SP2? i.e. will this bug not show up, for example, if eMule is run under VPN on a Pentium3/SSE-only computer with OpenVPN v2.3.18 under WinXP SP2? i.e. would the non-occurrence of this bug be an indication of a special use of Windows XP SP2. Is Windows XP SP2 the only version of Windows in which OpenVPN v2.3 works, without this bug, with an old Pentium3/SSE-only?

Kai Schtrom indicates as a major benefit of v2.5.4: "new TAP-Driver with a network speed of 1 GBit/s instead of 10 MBit/s". 800 kilobytes/s, however, is a useful speed download limitation for eMule. Faster download speeds may reduce the uptime until eMule crashes, especially after 14+ days of continuous uptime on an old and weak computer. eMule is a constant trickle from a huge pool of old stuff (e.g. 2000+ items simultaneously on the transfer list, even on a weak computer), while bittorrent is a very fast downloader if the file is still around. So the download speed of the new TAP driver for OpenVPN is definitely relevant for bittorrent, but less so for eMule.

Question 2: Any experiences with VPN providers which have servers in many countries (for working around country-specific requirements) AND where port forwarding can be set, so that eMule works OK under VPN? vypr.com? airvpn.org?

Edited April 23 by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

1 hour ago, Multibooter said:

Question 1: schtrom indicates that v2.5.4 contains a "severe bug"
"OpenVPN v2.5.4 contains a severe bug on Windows XP SP3" https://openvpn-for-windows-xp.sourceforge.io/#topic15
Does this mean that his mod v2.5.4 works OK under Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 (as shown in his screen shots), but not under Windows XP SP3? How serious is this bug?

In your quoted link, there is provided an explanation and a solution in terms of this bug. Here is a quote from this topic:

Quote

To solve this problem we have to simply change code line 3672 from

ULONG dev_interface_list_size;

to

ULONG dev_interface_list_size = 0;

This initializes the device interface list size with zero and the returned list size is 1 on Windows XP SP3 for an empty list. The error does not occur on Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2, where a valid list size is returned without any problems.

When looking into the download package, this bug fix seems to have already been implemented. Your question about Windows Server 2003  has been answered there, too.

Edited April 13 by AstroSkipper
Update of content

[Multibooter]

1 hour ago, AstroSkipper said:

In your quoted link, there is provided an explanation and a solution in terms of this bug. Here is a quote from this topic.

Thanks , so there is no major issue using OpenVPN v2.5.4 on my SSE2 desktop computer. I wasn't sure whether "OpenVPN v2.5.4 Windows XP SP3 bug" in schtrom's article refers to the official v2.5.4 or to his modded v2.5.4. So the severe bug of the official v2.5.4 was resolved by schtrom's modded v2.5.4.

Does OpenVPN v2.3.18 under WinXP SP2 (i.e. on an SSE-only computer) have the same severe bug "the returned list size is 1 on Windows XP SP3 for an empty list" as the official OpenVPN v2.5.4 under WinXP SP3 (i.e. on an SSE2 computer)?

Edited April 13 by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

4 minutes ago, Multibooter said:

Has OpenVPN v2.3.18 under WinXP SP2 the same severe bug "the returned list size is 1 on Windows XP SP3 for an empty list" as the official OpenVPN v2.5.4 under WinXP SP3?

Look at its source code, and you will definitely know!

[Multibooter]

2 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

Look at its source code, and you will definitely know!

I have checked the source code. openvpn-2.5.4.zip does contain the string "dev_interface_list_size", while openvpn-2.3.18.zip does not contain this string.  The source code files of OpenVPN are located at https://build.openvpn.net/downloads/releases/

So this bug of official OpenVPN v2.5.4 under WinXP SP3, or something similar, will very likely not occur with v2.3.18 under WinXP SP2. An actual test, however, would confirm whether eMule using OpenVPN v2.3.18 does work OK under WinXP SP2 and also under WinXP SP3.

Edited April 13 by Multibooter

[AstroSkipper]

Here are the important lines (3579 - 3605) from the tun.c file inside the source code of OpenVPN v2.3.18:

static const IP_INTERFACE_INFO *
get_interface_info_list (struct gc_arena *gc)
{
  ULONG size = 0;
  IP_INTERFACE_INFO *ii = NULL;
  DWORD status;

  if ((status = GetInterfaceInfo (NULL, &size)) != ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER)
    {
      msg (M_INFO, "GetInterfaceInfo #1 failed (status=%u) : %s",
	   (unsigned int)status,
	   strerror_win32 (status, gc));
    }
  else
    {
      ii = (PIP_INTERFACE_INFO) gc_malloc (size, false, gc);
      if ((status = GetInterfaceInfo (ii, &size)) == NO_ERROR)
	return ii;
      else
	{
	  msg (M_INFO, "GetInterfaceInfo #2 failed (status=%u) : %s",
	       (unsigned int)status,
	       strerror_win32 (status, gc));
	}
    }
  return ii;
}

I assume the mentioned bug won't appear there. When using this OpenVPN version, you can check the connection logs and then you will see whether there is such a bug or not.

Edited April 13 by AstroSkipper

[Zorba the Geek]

I wonder if people could share their experiences of getting port forwarding to work under OpenVPN.  First I would like to emphasize that port forwarding in a router using the usual rules does not work under OpenVPN and attempts to make it work using iptables to manipulate the routing table under DD-WRT, for instance, will probably reveal you IP address which defeats the whole purpose of using a public VPN.

I have finally succeeded in getting port forwarding to work using PureVPN after they revamped their VPN servers and provided a number of servers dedicated to port forwarding.  You have to buy a port forwarding addon in your members area of their website, and then obtain the appropriate OpenVPN config files from the Manual Configuration section of your members area.  The selection of config files can be filtered by various types including QR (Quantum Resistant), P2P, OBF (Obfuscation*), and PF (Port Forwarding).  P2P is basically port forwarding by servers in countries with permissive policies about file sharing.

There is no need to configure NAT port forwarding in your router, but you do have to open this port in the firewall.  The problem with this is that the TAP Windows Adapter is assigned a new IP address by the OpenVPN server every time you log in so you have to enter a probable range of IP addresses from the pool reserved by the server.  I monitored the IP addresses assigned to my TAP Windows Adapter by the Netherlands server and entered a range of destination addresses in the firewall between 172.111.247.1 - 172.111.247.224.

I use the PFPortChecker tool to verify that the port is open.

*Obfuscation masks VPN traffic so that it looks like regular traffic and stays hidden from anybody trying to detect it.

Edited Monday at 06:13 AM by Zorba the Geek