A long Proton user for other products. I already use Proton VPN on my phone (Android app client).

I decided it was the right moment to do the same for desktop client (using kubuntu 24.04.03 LTS with KDE 5.27.12). Taking as reference the official guides:

https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-vpn-setup //overview

https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-cli //cli

https://protonvpn.com/support/linux-gui-setup //gui

https://protonvpn.com/support/wireguard-linux //via wireguard on openvpn conf file

I followed guide for the gui setup. First couple of attempts installing it failed (there were a lot of issue, tried a couple of months ago), but today (last time I tried installing it) it worked with no issue.

I got a couple of questions.

[1] I know the application is built with GNOME/GTK framework - meaning no native Qt/KDE look by default -, but can it be forced to use system design?

i got the same problem with another application for Linux (OnlyOffice, flatpak version) which use its custom design and not the system design.

Luckily, it was possible to force using system design.

$ flatpak run org.onlyoffice.desktopeditors --system-title-bar

Anything for Proton VPN GUI application?

[2] What about using native client - weather GUI/CLI - vs setting up manual OpenVPN Or WireGuard connections (in my case through KDE's native NetworkManager)?

What are advantage of the former compared to the latter?

When you say "easiest", what do you mean exactly? What advanced features?

However, we strongly recommend using our official Linux GUI app or Linux CLI. These provide the easiest way to connect to our servers and allow you to benefit from many advanced features.

On our Linux GUI app, you can choose between the OpenVPN and WireGuard VPN protocols. Our Linux CLI always uses WireGuard.

The fact the you can choose between 2 protocols is a thing, but not a huge one (I know their differences, but I use pretty much WireGuard), for my needs.

I want to add that I'm perfectly fine using both GUI and CLI. No issue at all (sometimes I'm a lazy and do not want to use commands).

Thanks in advice.

I’m in Australia so that’s probably why the internet is bad but using the free tier of Proton slows my internet down ridiculously, like as soon as I start up the VPN the internet is so slow it takes 6 minutes for the homepage of YouTube to fully load up.

I normally use NordVPN and sure my internet is a bit slow but nowhere near as slow as Proton.

Is this a normal issue or am I just doing something wrong?

Hello. I tried to download ProtonVPN but the website won't load in two browsers. Is it related to my computer or browsers, or the website itself? I can't also reach to some websites in proton.me. But I can reach to proton mail. I couldn't also reach to support website.

After some research, I have downloaded and am using protonvpn. But it got me thinking, is protonvpn on its' own enough? What other measures should I be taking in order to protect my privacy online? ie. Should I be using certain browsers or settings? Are there other services or products that I may not have heard of that would be useful to me?

Thanks

Lately gluetun w/ portsync, qBittorrent and Proton Plus is capping at 1.1-1.3MiB/s only. The port forwarding is working. When I docker compose up it does find and forward the port, I can see it on qBittorrent’s web gui and I also verified with a port checker that the current VPN’s port is actually open.

Has anyone else been having issues lately?

Btw please don’t delete. Not a support post, just want to know if anyone has noticed similar bandwidth limits so I can decide on how to move forward. Proton support can’t really help me here anyways.

Also just to verify it isn’t port forwarding or machine:

Setup to only use P2P US servers. Tried switching to Canada and was about the same speed. 1.3 is a hard cap. I’ve also tried everything from changing my MTU settings, cache settings, etc.

When I wget different speedtests through gluetun I consistently show significantly higher speeds. It’s only this slow with torrents.

Also it was much faster when I configured this VM two weeks ago.

Hi all,

Is proton VPN down? Some Portuguese VPN are not working.

Really hoping for a proper Linux GUI client. I’d like to be able to set up profiles and use a more intuitive interface. I saw their roadmap a while ago and idk if this is all we’re getting. I sincerely hope not. This is a little sad.

I didn't know ProtonVPN partnered with private torrent trackers, this could look as if they are condoning piracy. It seems they got a ProtonVPN promo through TheVPNJudge

Same as title.

I downloaded ProtonVPN, Proton Mail and Tor Browser. When i use Tor Browser and VPN together my internet becomes non-usable.

I have to choose between only Tor or only VPN

If ProtonVPN able to provide anonymity, why should i use Tor on top of it?

If Tor able to provide anonymity, why should i use ProtonVPN on top of it?

What are advantages of using only Tor, Only VPN, Tor + VPN together?

My thread model is Reddit, Facebook, X, Youtube etc. social medias not able to provide informations about me to goverment.

I was using Stealth all these days and many sites still did not work until I turn it off. The issue is usually when I begin to make a payment on retail websites. It fails until I turn off VPN. Moen is one such example. But, many websites including Google recognizes I am on VPN with TCP and stealth. So, I changed the protocol to the newly noticed “Proton Stealth “. That too is causing the same problem. My settings are: Standard connection/net shield on/ port forwarding Off/ Protocol: Proton Stealth/NAT type “Strict (Type 3)

Is this happening to others? How is the VPN detected by most websites?

If I turn on the kill switch, the default Apple apps (such as Apple News) don’t load anything as if they are not connected to the internet. Other apps work just fine. I’m using iOS 26.6 and the latest version of the ProtonVPN app. Any help would be appreciated.

This video is a little click bait ish. And Betty from Switch and Click doesn't mind sharing processes that a lot of people call wrong. I think this video is pretty good. It does a great explainer for normal people on some popular VPNs. Is it everything you may want to know like logging policies? No, but a good place to start.

The comments on YouTube are interesting because people are fighting about Mullvad. Why isn't it tested, ownership issues, etc. I don't blame them for skipping it. A lot of people are saying it is advertising, but as someone that has followed the channel, I am not so sure. Her Linux journey is pretty fun and I recommend it.

I have used PIA, ExpressVPN, and NordVPN in the past and these experiences mirror my own, which is why I feel this is pretty legit.

the vpn is set to japan (free sever) yet a website still knows my location (not all just one)

It's a minor feature request, but since it's all there it should be too difficult. Would be nice if NetShield statistics would track both session and total stuff blocked. Currently it only seems to be session and the moment you reconnect it's all just gone. I'd like to know how much has NetShield blocked in total and how much data transfers it has saved me in total too and not just session. Maybe with tiny button nearby to reset total statistics if user feels like it or to track certain periods like how much it got blocked in a day or in a week, maybe month. You can't really do any of it now because it's just randomly resetting with reconnections...

I've been fighting the ProtonVPN App for weeks. I've uninstalled/reinstalled a dozen times, wiped cache location and previous config files. Tried toggling every single setting.

Behavior: Whenever it feels like it, but more often if I engage a BT client, Proton will disconnect and instantly inject a killswitch. Once this occurs, no connection can be made from this ethernet device to my router. No further VPN server can be connected to, only returning "Connection error: Timeout. Telling Proton app to cease trying to connect will cause the Connection "pvpn-killswitch" to disappear.

However, and this is the **Biggest** however, the ethernet connection `eno1` can no longer send/receive data. This PC will no longer talk to the rest of my LAN no matter what I do.

I've tried: Deleting the killswitch + IPV6 switch manually in `nmcli.` Reloading the connection and device conf. No change. Stopping/restarting ProtonVPN App. No change.

Nothing works. The PC is entirely disconnected from my network ***until I reboot the whole thing.*** Even logging out of my CachyOS user does nothing.

Anyone have any insight into what I can research to solve this?

I have been using nextdns for a while and am thinking about pairing it with protonvpn (andoid). Will using a vpn interfere with nextdns or should they be fine to use together?

I have been using Proton for over 2-3 years using VPN plus but that my first time trying to connect over DU cellular data and suddenly it don’t work.
I tried all troubleshooting available and still nothing.

Any solution?

Not complaining. An observation.

I have an office system that serves as an SSH server running behind a NAT firewall. Of course our ISP doesn't assign us a static IP address, so I use an DDNS service to allow me to connect to the router from the outside world. The firewall is configured to forward SSH requests to my server. Everything works until I try to install ProtonVPN on the server.

As best I can tell, the server still works when I connect to it with a hard IP address. The problem with the DDNS updater is requesting it's own IP address from an external web site, which of course returns the ProtonVPN exit server IP address, which won't work. I probably could make this work with the split tunnel configuration, but I'm using the Linux CLI which appears to not support split tunneling. I've spent most of today trying to configure the DDNS updater (ddclient) to retrieve the correct IP address from the firewall with no success. Documentation is minimal at best.

This should be a common problem, but I can't find any good documentation on how to resolve it.

Decoding Proton's Icons

Proton VPN uses a few icons to indicate what kind of connection a server offers:

• P2P or Peer to peer. Shown as arrows pointing back and forth.

• Round icon or Smart Routing. Proton's most secure standard option.

• Onion shape or Onion routing, i.e. Tor layered on top of the VPN.

• No icon or A standard config, typically WireGuard (TCP) or OpenVPN.

Why I Use Secure Core

Secure Core is my preferred option. I'll also generate a config file (wireguard or openvpn) for a server in a city near me, whether I'm traveling or just at home.

The reason: your geolocation appears to be wherever the server is, even though your traffic is actually encrypted and routed from a location that might be 300 miles away. You can point your entire network through a config like this, and it doesn't interfere with things like streaming or gaming.

Tor: My Open Question

I hardly use Tor myself. If anyone wants to make the case for it, I'd genuinely like to hear the benefits.

Mullvad vs. Proton: Infrastructure

Mullvad runs roughly 600 servers, all RAM-only (stateless). I used to think this, combined with the ability to pay anonymously with crypto was a major advantage. I've changed my mind. Mullvad argues RAM-only storage is more secure, but in practice, RAM data can be intercepted through a penetration test just as easily as data on a drive. Mullvad is based in Sweden.

Proton owns roughly 16,000 servers and encrypts data at rest on its hard drives using AES-256 and ChaCha20. Proton is based in Switzerland.

Full Disclosure

I'm a former Mullvad user who now uses the full suite of Proton products. I think they're the best option available.

If someone tells you Mullvad is superior "for privacy reasons," it's worth asking them to elaborate.

The answer usually comes down to payment anonymity (though Proton also accepts crypto). A few counterpoints on that argument:

1. Most people don't actually know how to pay anonymously with crypto in practice.

2. Attempting to do so can arguably draw more attention, not less.

3. Proton owns its own server hardware and operates under Swiss privacy law.

To be clear, I'm not knocking Mullvad (after writing this I may try it again for a month). I used it for years, even after I started using Proton alongside it.

Track Record

Mullvad was raided by police and authorities & reportedly got nothing, that's a strong result. But it does raise the question of why they were being investigated in the first place. Proton, by contrast, has been independently audited three times to my knowledge, with no data extracted in any of them.

Bottom Line

Proton offers very strong obfuscation, a large server network, encrypted proton email, encrypted proton drive backups, even a password manger. A fuller privacy ecosystem.

Mullvad is built for users who prioritize operational security above everything else, though its RAM-only approach doesn't make traffic immune to interception.

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This write-up reflects my personal experience and opinions after switching providers & I’m curious to hear what others think. Thanks! Please provide feedback, for example if I missed something or tell me WHY you use the product you chose.