What is OpenVPN Protocol

When you connect to a public WiFi, it is risky to transmit sensitive data across the network. The best practice is to never log into your bank accounts or enter passwords while on public WiFi.

But with a Virtual Private Network using secure OpenVPN technologies, your data is encrypted. If a hacker monitors your network, he will not be able to break through this secure tunnel. Your ISP or government won’t be able to read your data or spy on you as well.

OpenVPN is one of the most widely used types of open-source encryption technology. It uses a custom security protocol with SSL/TLS for key exchange, creating secure point-to-point or site-to-site connections. OpenVPN can run over User Datagram Protocol (UDP) or Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) tunnel transports. This makes your web traffic indistinguishable from the traffic using standard HTTPS over SSL, and it is therefore extremely difficult to detect and block.

Features and Technical Details

Due to its strong features, ease of use, and extensive support, OpenVPN became one of the most popular VPN software solutions. Here are more characteristics of the protocol:

• High level of security and configurability
• Uses 256-bit encryption
• Support for dynamic IP addresses and DHCP
• Scalability to hundreds or thousands of users
• Portability to most major OS platforms through a third-party software

VPNs tend to support the OpenVPN protocol, since it’s quite streamlined, offers compelling benefits to both users and providers, and thus has become increasingly mainstream. To many paid VPN providers, it is the default protocol.

OpenVPN Security and Speed

One of the reasons for OpenVPN's popularity is its security. It uses custom OpenSSL-based security technologies, providing encryption similar to that on HTTPS sites. OpenVPN can be configured to use any port, which makes it indistinguishable from normal internet traffic, allowing it to bypass VPN blocks. OpenVPN also supports a number of encryption algorithms, from Blowfish to AES.

TCP and UDP Ports in OpenVPN

VPN Unlimited supports OpenVPN both via the TCP and UDP ports. These are two Internet protocols that have a huge impact on performance.

While OpenVPN can work on any port, it works best over a UDP port. UDP does not allow the receiver to acknowledge receipt of data or request a resend. Due to this, connection and data transfer speed increases. But when using unreliable networks, it is better to switch to TCP.

TCP is a transmission control protocol. Unlike UDP, it makes sure that the data is received in the correct form and order and re-requests the data if it is lost. This improves reliability by increasing latency.

If the choice between OpenVPN TCP and UDP isn’t clear, it is suggested to try UDP first. If you face connection or stability issues, you can switch to TCP anytime. To increase security on your iOS devices, we recommend you enable our special technology, KeepSolid Wise that operates via the UDP and TCP ports as well.

The downside is that all this encryption and security negatively affects users’ connection speed. This makes OpenVPN a sub-optimal option for speed-sensitive services, e.g. video streaming.

How to Use OpenVPN Protocol in VPN Unlimited

It’s much easier to set up OpenVPN as part of a VPN Unlimited subscription service. In this case, our VPN provider will do the massive part of the installation work and provide you with clear instructions on how to use the OpenVPN protocol on your device.

With VPN Unlimited the install process is elementary. You just need to:

1. Download our VPN Unlimited application.
2. Install and log in to our VPN app with KeepSolid ID. If you don’t have a KeepSolid ID you can create a new one.
3.  After you installed the app, go to the Settings tab and select the OpenVPN protocol.
4. Start browsing the web, playing games, streaming videos, communicating with friends, or participating in any other online activity. 

With a secure OpenVPN protocol, you can be confident that your data is private and your connection is safe. With our VPN client, you can use the OpenVPN technologies and get access to any content you want without geographical limitations.

Note: VPN Unlimited offers an OpenVPN protocol option, a 7-days trial period with 30-days money-back guarantee.

OpenVPN Protocol Pros and Cons

Pros

• Extremely secure
• Goes through firewalls
• Open-source
• Uses a wide range of encryption algorithms
• Highly configurable

Cons

• Uses third-party software
• Support on mobile devices needs improvements
• Requires technical knowledge to configure manually (though in VPN Unlimited it's already configured for you)

VPN Unlimited and OpenVPN Supported Platforms

OpenVPN protocol is available in VPN Unlimited for:

• Android
• Windows
• iOS
• macOS
• Linux

“OpenVPN” is a registered trademark of OpenVPN Inc.

What Other Protocols VPN Unlimited Supports

VPN Unlimited suggests the set of available VPN protocols. It makes our application more adaptable and allows you to choose a necessary option. VPN Unlimited supports the following VPN tunneling protocols:

• IKEv2
• L2TP VPN Protocol
• TLS
• WireGuard
• KeepSolid Wise TCP/UDP