OpenVPN Connect – OpenVPN App 4+

Whilst a little tricky to install, or at least tricky for my older generation(!), like READ ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS before you proceed, when set up it works exceedingly well. Our rental this year, in France, is owned by Germans and the TV would have been a problem, as their satellite reception is, of course, in German, but, with this app I was able to watch all the football and tennis on UK TV! Not best thing since sliced bread, but, very near to it! Now used this EXCELLENT service for the second year (2017), and, and it really is exceptional! If you want to watch UK TV abroad it really is the very best option!

I use this app 24-hours/day with a paid VPN (NordVPN). The only things I would change is (IMPORTANT) have an option to block all internet traffic (different than the current option that only works during a connection/reconnection process) when the VPN disconnects. Every so often, an authentication error occurs and instead of retrying to connect, the VPN disconnects and displays a notification. In this case, I’d like an additional option to have the app connect as an internal VPN and prevent traffic until the user manually restarts the VPN (and, in the case of authentication error, block traffic and delay a few seconds and continue to retry connecting automatically until reestablished). Also, an option to “keep connection alive when asleep” would be useful too... not sure if that’s possible with Apple’s design, but maybe send a phantom packet when the screen is off to keep the connection alive (at the expense of battery life/data plan).

As Apple does not fully support the OpenVPN protocol I have to rely on this third-party app. In fact, I have been relying on it now for about a year and a half and can confirm that until the profiles I was using began insisting on passwords I was actually relying on Apple Settings UI to be able to switch between locations, now I have to do it in the OpenVPN app :(

In order to get profiles onto your iPhone you have to pass them through the open VPN app via iTunes, and it as always been such an ugly process, I wish I could still use the Apple provided UI for on phone operations. However, the OpenVPN app does provide clinical data for those more concerned.

One of the most frustrating things is having to keep an eye open to see if a VPN connection is actually active (clearly visible in the status bar), as it can sometimes drop and that is not what you want. I wish there was a way to block Wi-Fi unless an active VPN connection was established, and also automatically rotate between uploaded profiles.

It is clear that the developers come from another platform, possibly another time: like Blackberry? It is a really out of place UI and I don’t believe anybody would use this app unless it was necessary.

OpenVPN has had enough time to revamp their UI by now, yet haven’t bothered, I doubt they will before WireGuard inevitably takes its place.