Astrill VPN for television streaming

VPN
1

How exactly does this work on laptops? I recently moved here currently residing in Yichang. I do a lot of streaming using Hulu, Peacock, Disney+, HBO Max etc. Unfortunately before getting here, everyone told me to download Express which turned out to be a bust. Astrill was the next recommendation which seemed to be a big hit but for the life of me, I just can’t get it to function on either my laptop or phone. I also paid for the year plan so I have a non-functional vpn fully paid that I can’t get a refund for as I am unable to contact their customer support.

Any recommendations or solutions to a way forward?

2

Anecdotal but everyone who’s ever recommended expressVPN to me have been very tech illiterate

3

A few things to try: Use OpenWeb option, and in the settings choose “OpenWeb Options” and then Tunnel ALL apps. OpenWeb often works to a server which will not connect via Stealth.

Disable the “Smart Mode” option (found it to be very hit and miss and often had more connection issues with it enabled).

If you feel you need to use StealthVPN, then in the settings (StealthVPN options) change from UDP to TCP mode (called Reliable). If that does not help, then reduce the MTU by about 80 (subtract 80 from whatever value is currently there. Leave port to Auto.

Run a ping test to all the servers in the area you want to connect to, and try the ones with the fastest ping (ping and connection speed is not always closely related)

4

Its great for us. It must be something with your connection or setup

5

Echoing this 100% – ExpressVPN is trash and has never connected for me in China.

6

A few things to try: Use OpenWeb option, and in the settings choose “OpenWeb Options” and then Tunnel ALL apps. OpenWeb often works to a server which will not connect via Stealth.

My astrill is working yet I can’t get to work with the option ALL apps.

Once turned to ALL apps should I reboot ? Disconnect/reconnect from network ?

7

Your post has been removed as it’s not relevant to the subreddit/original post.

8

If you go through their customer service it works great. . .but it’s a pain in the ass to set up.

9

Definitely need to disconnect and reconnect (or probably better disconnect first, then make the changes, then reconnect). Also make sure the option for “Tunnel Browsers only” is not selected.

If you are on Windows 8 or later then your success may be limited. Can only say it worked on Windows 7, and works currently on Linux systems. (And android).

10

That’s interesting, what do you have to do to get it to work within China? None of the default configurations worked at all for me.

11

If you are on Windows 8 or later then your success may be limited. Can only say it worked on Windows 7, and works currently on Linux systems. (And android).

windows 10 here

12

Literally, contact the helpline. Sometimes you will have to change the IP to a particular address that works. Sometimes, just reset to factory settings. Sometimes update. Sometimes, they will give you one server to use and it alone works. Every time I’ve used them it started working again.