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EasyVPNConnect Windows User Guide

Installing IronSocket EasyVPNConnect

  1. Visit our download page located at https://ironsocket.com/download
  2. Under Get Started, click on the Download Now button.
  3. When the download completes, find the installation program named IronSocket.EasyVPNConnect.msi and run it.
  4. Click through the installation process:
    • Welcome to the IronSocket EasyVPNConnect Setup Wizard: Click Next
    • License Agreement: Read the license agreement, then select "I Agree" if you agree, and click Next
    • Additional Options: Select or deselect the options according to your preferences and click Next
    • Select Installation Folder: Install it wherever you want for whoever you want. We recommend accepting the defaults.
    • If you want to see how much disk space the installation will use and how much free space you have, click on Disk Cost...
    • Click Next
    • Confirm Installation: Click Next
    • A User Account Control window will open. Click Yes.
    • When the installation is complete, you will see the message, "IronSocket has been successfully installed." Click on Close

Using IronSocket EasyVPNConnect

VPN Quick Start

Here is how to quickly connect to our VPN servers.
  1. Select VPN on the menu bar along the top of the client
  2. Enter your VPN user name and password
  3. Select the country or geographic region you want to connect to from the drop-down menu
  4. Click on CONNECT

Additional Information

Customizing VPN Server Selection
In Application Settings (the gear icon), you can configure EasyVPNConnect to present either a list of countries and geographical regions or a list of individual VPN servers.

Anonymity Protection
IronSocket EasyVPNConnect comes with two important features designed to protect your anonymity.

  • VPN Drop Protection
    Drop protection stops all network traffic if your VPN connection is unexpectedly dropped. EasyVPNConnect will automatically attempt to reconnect to the VPN server and network traffic will resume when the connection has been reestablished.

  • DNS Leak Protection
    When you connect to our VPN network, your computer uses our DNS system. In certain circumstances, there are network functions that still use your system's DNS configuration. This can defeat the purpose of VPN. DNS leak protection prevents this from happening.

    Drop protection and DNS leak protection are both enabled by default.
Saving Your VPN Credentials
If you want EasyVPNConnect to save your VPN credentials, then check the Remember Me box.

DNS Proxy and IP Address Whitelisting

To use our DNS proxy service, your system needs to be configured with our DNS servers and, your public IP address must be whitelisted (authorized). Here is how to accomplish these two tasks with EasyVPNConnect.

DNS Proxy Quick Start

  1. Select DNS Proxy on the menu bar along the top of the EasyVPNConnect window.
  2. For DNS Proxy 1, use the drop-down menu to select the proxy server that is closest to your geographical location. For DNS Proxy 2, use the drop-down menu to select the proxy server that is second closest to your geographical location.
  3. Click on ENABLE.

IP Address Whitelist Quick Start

  1. Go to https://ironsocket.com/ip-authorize
  2. Select an unused slot and click on Edit Slot.
  3. Find the Slot Type drop-down menu, select EasyVPNConnect Token, and click on Save.

  4. The token will appear in the slot. Copy the token.

  5. In the client, select IP Whitelist on the menu bar along the top, paste the token in the Client Token field and click on the Enable button to activate.

Verify Your DNS Proxy Configuration

Wait a couple of minutes after whitelisting your IP address and then check your configuration by going to http://dnscheck.ironsocket.com.
If everything is configured correctly, you will see a green banner.
If you see anything else, contact IronSocket Support.

Additional Reference

Settings

To view the Settings page, click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the client.

Application Settings

Language
Currently, only U.S. English is supported. We'll be adding more languages in future releases.

Update Prompt
Set how often the application prompts you to update when a new version is available.
  • Always (every time you start the client) – We strongly recommend using this setting.
  • Check Once Per Version
  • Never
Startup Feature
Select which function you want to use on client start:
  • VPN Setup
  • DNS Proxy
  • IP Whitelist
Run EasyVPNConnect on Startup
Check this box if you want the IronSocket client to open every time you start your system.

Advanced Server Selection
Check this box if you want to select specific VPN servers instead of selecting by country/region.

Advanced DNS Proxy
Check this box if your system has multiple network adapters and one of them has the wrong DNS.

Enable IP Whitelisting On Startup
Check this box if you want to enable IP address whitelisting (authorization) every time you start the client.

Minimize to Tray on Window Close
When you click on the Application Close button (the X in the upper-right corner of the app) the normal behavior is to exit the app, which you confirm with a pop-up dialog box. Check this box if you prefer to minimize the app to the System Tray on close.

VPN Settings

VPN Protocol
We recommend using OpenVPN because it is the most stable and secure of the VPN protocols. The others are provided for situations where OpenVPN does not work.

Select from:
  • OpenVPN
  • L2TP
  • PPTP
Connect On Startup
Automatically connect to VPN every time the client starts. This option is only enabled when you've saved your VPN credentials.

Enable Drop Protection
Leave this box checked if you want continued privacy protection if your system gets disconnected from the VPN server.

When the application senses VPN failure, it will halt all network traffic in and out of your system. EasyVPNConnect will automatically attempt to reconnect to the VPN server. Once the connection has been reestablished, network traffic will resume.

  • Kill Apps on Connection Drop
    Checking this box will display the CUSTOMIZE button. Click on the button to open the Kill Apps On Connection Drop dialog box. Select the apps you want to have terminated from the Current Processes list.
Enable DNS Leak Protection
Some systems, such as Windows 10, can route DNS requests outside of the secure VPN channel. This reveals your true location on the network and defeats the purpose of using VPN. Leave this box checked to prevent your system from doing this.

RESET TO DEFAULT
Clicking this button returns all VPN settings to the default.

OpenVPN Settings

These are additional settings for OpenVPN

Data Protocol
UDP is the fastest but it may not work in all locations. In situations like that, select TCP.
Select from:
  • Auto
  • TCP
  • UDP
Encryption Level
Select from:
  • None (no encryption - use with caution)
  • Light
  • Strong (recommended for the best protection)
Logging Level
Determines how much information gets written to the application logs.
Select from:
  • Normal
  • Debug (If you're having problems with VPN, Customer Support may request this to be enabled)
Key Renegotiation
To ensure the security of each OpenVPN connection, the server renegotiates the secret key for the data channel with each client every 60 hours. Setting the key renegotiation to 0 allows the server to control this function. Setting the key renegotiation to anything other than 0, allows the client to control renegotiation.

Select from:
  • Default (0 Hours)
  • 1 Hour
  • 2 Hours
  • 4 Hours
  • 6 Hours
  • 8 Hours
  • 12 Hours
Custom DNS and Alternate DNS
If you want to use custom DNS with OpenVPN, add the IP addresses of the custom primary and alternate DNS servers here.

Enable HTTP Proxy
Check this box if you want to use OpenVPN while running HTTP proxy.

Use system proxy settings
Check this box if you have your Network control panel configured to use a proxy server

Manual configuration
Check this box if you want to manually configure EasyVPNConnect to use a proxy server. If you want to use an IronSocket HTTP proxy, then set Authentication to “None.” IronSocket proxies use your whitelisted IP address for authentication.

Enable persist-tun
Check this box if you want to keep the VPN tunnel active while the application is restarting.
Caution: If you want to use this option, you will also need to enable Advanced Server Selection in Application Settings to prevent DNS problems.

RESET TO DEFAULT
Clicking the button returns all OpenVPN settings to the default.

L2TP/PPTP

An alternative to OpenVPN. Under certain circumstances, Customer Support may direct you to change these settings from their default.

Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
Allows you to manually enter the MTU

RESET TO DEFAULT
Clicking the button returns the L2TP/PPTP settings to the default.

About

This displays the version number of the application.

Uninstalling

Follow these instructions if you want to uninstall IronSocket EasyVPNConnect.

Windows 10
  1. Open the Start menu
  2. Click Settings (the gear icon)
  3. Click on Apps
  4. Select IronSocket under Apps & features
  5. Click on Uninstall
  6. In the pop-up window, click on Uninstall
  7. In the User Account Control window, click on Yes
Windows 8.1, Windows 7
  1. Click the Start Menu button in the bottom-left corner of the screen
  2. In the column on the right, click on Control Panel
  3. Under Programs, click Uninstall a program
  4. Click on IronSocket EasyVPNConnect once to select it
  5. At the top of the window, click on Uninstall
  6. In the Programs and Features pop-up window, click on Yes
  7. In the User Account Control window, click on Yes

Known Problems and Workarounds

Error Screen on Application Start
This is a problem with OpenVPN. Occasionally a Windows update will break OpenVPN. The solution to this is to repair EasyVPNConnect. See below for instructions.

Stuck on the "Loading" Screen
If you try to start EasyVPNConnect without an active internet connection, the application will display “Loading” indefinitely. The solution is to kill the application, wait for the network adapter to connect to the internet, and then launch EasyVPNConnect again.

No Connection when the Application is started
If you start EasyVPNConnect with an active internet connection, the application will display “Unable to connect to the internet”. The solution is to block outgoing connection to a non-existing Geo-location site with IP address 66.171.248.178. Run Command Prompt as administrator and copy-paste the following one-line command and then click Enter:

netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Block IP address - 66.171.248.178" dir=out action=block remoteip=66.171.248.178

Click here for more details on how to run Command Prompt as administrator.

We're working on a better solution for this and it will be available in a future update.

Repairing EasyVPNConnect

Windows 10
  1. Open the Start menu
  2. Click Settings (the gear icon)
  3. Click on Apps
  4. Select IronSocket under Apps & features
  5. Click on Modify
  6. Make sure Repair IronSocket EasyVPNConnect is selected
  7. Click on Finish
  8. When you get the Installation Complete screen, click on Close
Windows 8.1, Windows 7
  1. Click the Start Menu button in the bottom-left corner of the screen
  2. In the column on the right, click on Control Panel
  3. Under Programs, click Uninstall a program
  4. Click on IronSocket EasyVPNConnect once to select it
  5. At the top of the window, click on Repair
  6. In the User Account Control window, click on Yes