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VPNGUI Preferences

Contents

General

Launch when you log in

This starts VPNGUI automatically when you login to your computer. It does not automatically connect to the VPN, unless you also enable the next option below: Automatically connect to VPN up on launch.

Automatically connect to VPN upon launch

Automatically connect to your preferred VPNGUI server when VPNGUI is started.

Log provider interaction

VPNGUI regularly contacts 12VPN to receive new server information. This option will add these interaction to the VPNGUI log.

Log raw protocol transmission

Shows the exact contents of the interactions with 12VPN. Very verbose.

Verbose logging of connection start/stop

Show additional logging during connection start and stop to debug connectivity problems.

Share log with VPN provider

Send the VPNGUI log back to 12VPN. This allows our support team to help you without asking you to e-mail the log yourself. The log is deleted after a few days, used for troubleshooting only and never shared with others.

Display icon on right hand

In older macOS versions this will force the VPNGUI icon to be the most right icon in the menubar. In newer versions of macOS this option is unavailable because you can re-arrange the menubar icons yourself.

Display icon on Dock

The VPNGUI icon is always shown in the menubar. This option allows you to additionally show the icon in the macOS dock.

Show last connected servers at top of list

Shows your favorite servers at the top of the list, allowing you to switch between them more easily.

Alert when switching connection while still connected

Shows a warning when you're switching servers or connection types while already connected to the VPN.

Ping VPN servers

Pings each VPN server to determine latency. Note that VPNGUI does this only once on startup. Also note that a good latency does not always mean good throughput. For detailed speed info, please use our speedtest.

Order servers by ping latency

Put the fastest servers at the top of your list.

Accounts

This shows your 12VPN account connection. You can add connections to more VPN providers if they support VPNGUI.

It's also possible to add additional 12VPN accounts.

Connections

This page allows you to edit the connection parameters for each server. Not recommended, unless at the direction of 12VPN staff.

In addition to using the servers provided by 12VPN, you can add your own OpenVPN servers by importing an .ovpn file.

Import settings

When importing an .ovpn file, VPNGUI will come up with a name for the server based on the filename. You can change this to using the remote server's hostname instead.

Advanced

Proxies

This section allows you to configure one of more proxies that VPNGUI can use to create OpenVPN or StealthVPN connections. This may be necessary in some office or campus situations.

Our recommendation is to try and use a WEB connection instead of OpenVPN. WEB connections are much more firewall-friendly than OpenVPN.

Omit setting system proxy

This allows VPNGUI to create a WEB connection without your apps automatically using it.

Default: disabled.

Block DNS override

In some situations VPNGUI configures a different DNS server on your computer. Enabling this option prevents that from happening.

Default: disabled.

Ignore HOSTS file

Normally VPNGUI will exclude entries found in your HOSTS file from WEB connections. Enabling this option prevents that.

Default: disabled.

Show only...(IPv4/IPv6)

When you connect to the Internet your Internet provider issues your computer an IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or both. With this option enabled, VPNGUI will only show VPN connections that support the address type(s) supported by your provider.

Default: enabled.

Prefer IPv6-only if supported

If you have an Internet connection with both an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address, you probably want to use IPv6 where possible.

Default: enabled.

Automatically disconnect after timeout

When using WEB, timeouts may occur. Some timeouts are caused by web pages or apps trying to reach servers that are down or non-existent. (These often go unnoticed.) Other timeouts may be caused by the VPN connection being unstable or failing. (These may be noticeable.)

Because VPNGUI can't know the cause of a timeout, we use a threshold of 40 events in 120 seconds to determine that a VPN connection must effectively be broken. When this threshold is reached, VPNGUI will disconnect the VPN.

Sharing

The sharing option allows other devices in your home to piggyback on your VPN connection. After you enable the sharing option, you'll see an address and port number that can be used in the Proxy Settings of the other devices.

Do not use this option when you're using public Wi-Fi, as it will allow strangers to use your VPN connection.

Default: disabled.

About

VPNGUI uses various Open Source software components. This page shows relevant copyright and licensing information.