Universal SwizzVPN: Streaming, YouTube Adblocker, AppleTV, Lifetime

[Whistler Mac]

I apologize for the issues today. Do you remember which version was installed prior deleting it?

For the outcome: I'll soon push another app update with newest OpenVPN libraries which should improve overall stability (as for the random disconnects). By the end of the week I'll enable obfuscation protocol. This should help circumvent some ISP restrictions as some have experienced. This will only need a app restart and reconnect, after that all should work again. I will announce exactly when I'll enable it.

After that I'll setup a TestFlight channel where interested users can test new features, so I can let productive system as it is and announce when changes are needed.

I'll look into the restore purchase issues though, that shouldn't be.

Don’t know which version of app it was. Not interested in beta testing. Thought I bought an app / vpn service that was functional. Sounds like it won’t be reliable until at least the weekend if your testing in a production environment is successful? Hmm.

If it’s not working by the weekend it might be me asking for a refund.

 

[pvalerio]

Don’t know which version of app it was. Not interested in beta testing. Thought I bought an app / vpn service that was functional. Sounds like it won’t be reliable until at least the weekend if your testing in a production environment is successful? Hmm.

If it’s not working by the weekend it might be me asking for a refund.

If you're not happy with my app/service, you're free to ask for a refund from the App Store.

As an independent developer, 3 months since starting this app, I don't have the same possibilities as the big ones (yet). If today's little downtimes are already bothering you, then maybe this isn't for you.

 

[BigMcGuire]

That's unfortunate. I had no problem running speed tests last time I tried (several weeks ago?). I'll give it a try again today and let y'all know. But I do know the last time I tested, I was getting 150-200mbps on my 500/500 FIOS which was amazing compared to other VPNs I've used. And I had no problem with the VPN disconnecting/reconnecting.

I'll do tests with the US Servers when I get to my computer (and test on my iPhone) in about 20 mins.

My experience with VPNs (other companies) - it's pretty regular to get servers that have almost no throughput (we're talking 2g speeds). I had one time where I tried several _______VPN servers and got no internet. Gave up and just did a hotspot on my phone.

VPNs are probably low profit so they probably run the servers very loaded. I guess that's why most VPN companies have 20-30+ servers?

Anyway. I'll test it here in 20 mins - will report back.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Oh wow - SpeakEasy is now Fusion Connect? Interesting.

iPhone 14 Pro Max on WiFi (FIOS 500/500) (All Defaults On (Apple Privacy Connect, etc)):
US West: 318.8MBPS - No Disconnects.
US Central: Started at 180mbps but ended at 49.6mbps - No Disconnects.
US East: 144.9 mbps. No Disconnects.

I've been using it lightly over the last several months and it has been better than NordVPN (which I have a multi-year subscription to).

<shrug>

I've accidentally left this on for 24 hours on my MacBook and noticed NO difference to my home wifi using Discord and playing WoW Classic and an entire work day (heavy Teams, screen sharing, etc).

I've never had an instance to my knowledge where the VPN disconnected.

 

[jjk454ss]

After a couple small hiccups last night everything seems to be running great today

 

[pvalerio]

Thanks for your tests @BigMcGuire !

I'm also regularly trying to do improvements on the VPN connection, as there are lots of parameters to tweak with. Though I'm not focusing so much on speed, more on security, privacy and reliability. When my service gets more users and I can afford better/bigger servers, the speed then will automatically rise too.

On a side note: App Store approval process is really a lottery. They can approve the Mac version of an app, while complaining about 3 parts on the iOS app, even though it's exactly the same app/code lol.

Version 3.2.1 is on the way:
- Updated OpenVPN libraries to newest 3.7.2 (from 3.6.1) which helps stability and also bumped speeds a bit.
- Enabled access to the built-in OpenVPN log, so you can see what's happening.
- Went from AES-256-CBC encryption to modern AES-256-GCM encryption. Previously I had performance issues with GCM, now with the newest libraries and also running OpenVPN 2.6.0 on the server side, everything seems fine.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Thanks for your tests @BigMcGuire !

I'm also regularly trying to do improvements on the VPN connection, as there are lots of parameters to tweak with. Though I'm not focusing so much on speed, more on security, privacy and reliability. When my service gets more users and I can afford better/bigger servers, the speed then will automatically rise too.

On a side note: App Store approval process is really a lottery. They can approve the Mac version of an app, while complaining about 3 parts on the iOS app, even though it's exactly the same app/code lol.

Yeah I was part of a team that managed an app on the iOS App Store back several years ago. The complaints and questions Apple had were insane - several times we had almost no warning about security changes that would break our app - but at least it confirmed in my mind that they actually check a lot of stuff before approving it (at least in our case they did).

Could have sworn I saw the SwizzGPT app on the App Store this morning! I guess I was seeing things. LOL

 

[pvalerio]

Yeah I was part of a team that managed an app on the iOS App Store back several years ago. The complaints and questions Apple had were insane - several times we had almost no warning about security changes that would break our app - but at least it confirmed in my mind that they actually check a lot of stuff before approving it (at least in our case they did).

Could have sworn I saw the SwizzGPT app on the App Store this morning! I guess I was seeing things. LOL

Good to hear it's not on my fault then lol.

Haha you're quick! Yeah SwizzGPT for Mac is in the App Store, but the iOS version not yet. They complain about In-app subscription description, but for Mac they're approved lol. Will start a thread as soon everything is set.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Good to hear it's not on my fault then lol.

Haha you're quick! Yeah SwizzGPT for Mac is in the App Store, but the iOS version not yet. They complain about In-app subscription description, but for Mac they're approved lol. Will start a thread as soon everything is set.

I knew I saw it this morning - but I didn't make the mental note that I was on my MBP this morning (and now was checking on my iPhone). HAH. Nice.

Downloading now.

 

[pvalerio]

I knew I saw it this morning - but I didn't make the mental note that I was on my MBP this morning (and now was checking on my iPhone). HAH. Nice.

Downloading now.

Happy to hear your feedback! Also how the experience is regarding subscription etc., but I'll let you find out. May have to change that though.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Your SwizzGPT app is not working properly. Installed and it said Premium enabled. I take it that was the 7 day free trial. The next thing I know, the screen says free mode has ended. Clicking on the buy premium button did nothing. reinstalled and had the same problem. It took several times of reopening the app before the green premium enabled text showed. Now, the app has decided the free mode is over again and clicking on buy premium does nothing.

 

[pvalerio]

Your SwizzGPT app is not working properly. Installed and it said Premium enabled. I take it that was the 7 day free trial. The next thing I know, the screen says free mode has ended. Clicking on the buy premium button did noting. reinstalled and had the same problem. It took seven times of reopening the app before the green premium enabled text showed. Now, the app has decided the free mode is over again and clicking on buy premium does nothing.

Thanks, I know, it's issues with Apple not approving my In-app purchases yet. Hope they resolve that today or tomorrow. Will start a thread when everything is ready.

EDIT: To clarify, the behaviour you experienced: I implemented a 1 minute testmode, so one can check if it's working (it's for countries where GPT API is blocked). After that it will prompt to buy a subscription including the 7 days trial (which doesn't work yet). Complicated as always lol.

 

[pvalerio]

Version 3.2.1 is online now:
- Updated OpenVPN libraries to newest 3.7.2 (from 3.6.1) which helps stability and also bumped speeds a bit.
- Enabled access to the built-in OpenVPN log, so you can see what's happening.
- Went from AES-256-CBC encryption to modern AES-256-GCM encryption. Previously I had performance issues with GCM, now with the newest libraries and also running OpenVPN 2.6.0 on the server side, everything seems fine.

Version 3.2.3 is also coming the next days, with some small Bugfixes. You may need to reselect your server and re-add your favorites in server-list (if you're using that), had to make some changes to support future additional servers per country. Hope this doesn't bother too much .

Remains only enabling of the scramble obfuscation feature which I'll announce (planned for monday night). After that, everything should stay +/- the way it is. Will focus on the servers backend then (improve IPv6 support, improve security/firewall), but you won't notice anything about that, as I'll test that on a separate server. Pushing the new server configurations + reboot then only takes some seconds.

For "regular" users: Nothing interesting lol.

 

[kaardowiq]

After long time and very stressful weeks I took a look again. I really like the new app icon. Everything else works as expected. Great

 

[pvalerio]

I made a launch on Product Hunt. If one has an account there, would appreciate an upvote. Thanks!

 

[pvalerio]

I have now enabled scramble obfuscation feature, supported from version 3.1.8. Transition went well with some minor hickups. First time now I can fully (100%) utilize my home internet connection speed.

Please disconnect and reopen the VPN app, to connect again. If that doesn't work, reinstall the app. If you previously had enabled TCP-443 mode, you can now try disabling it.

That will be the last "live" change I'll do. I'll also bundle the serverlist with the app and disable live updating of the serverlist, as it's not reliable. I plan also on relying on IP addresses for the servers alone, to circumvent DNS blocking. So for the future, any changes will only occur with a new app update.

Upcoming feature: Sort by nearest/fastest servers and show latency in ms (iOS only).

EDIT: I also enabled TLS-Crypt v2 for the next version 3.2.5. Together with AES-256-GCM and XOR obfuscation, this uses now full potential of OpenVPN. I also made further improvements on reconnecting after reconnect network changes and wakeup after standby.

 

[pvalerio]

Version 3.2.7 is on the way.
Implemented DNS-over-TLS. IPv6 is now always enabled for IPv6 supported servers. IPv6 only mode removed as it's buggy (has anybody even used it?).
Fixed some underlying bugs which could result in UI performance issues and hangs (on Mac).
Further improved app startup time and some localizations, and the latency checks.
I also added a visible check if the current IP is really from one of my servers. Nice to see that way how Kill Switch is working, since it can't check for the IP then while connecting.

 

[pvalerio]

The new version is online now, hope you like it! I also added a new location (Cyprus).

In the meantime i fully secured the servers now firewall-wise (though there wasn't any risk before anyways, since the servers are only running OpenVPN and ssh).
Oh and I have now implemented full IPv6 support (on the IPv6 enabled servers), meaning it's also possible to connect using IPv6.

So nothing much left to do... Maybe I'll look again into integrating a Status Menu Bar into Mac app, but it's rather complicated because of Mac Catalyst.

If you have some suggestions, tell me!

 

[Autokon]

Great job @pvalerio !

 

[pvalerio]

Version 3.3.0 is coming. Nothing new, just lots of optimizations under the hood. Rewrote some code, to further improve stability and reliability.

 

[pvalerio]

Version 3.3.1 is online with all the fixes and some new UI design elements.

EDIT: Pushed 3.3.2 which fixes dark wallpaper and some minor things.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Version 3.3.1 is online with all the fixes and some new UI design elements.

EDIT: Pushed 3.3.2 which fixes dark wallpaper and some minor things.

That new UI design looks amazing. Love the background and the way it looks now. It has really evolved into a pro-looking app.

 

[pvalerio]

Good news: Found a way to unblock (hopefully) all streaming sites. I tested it with Netflix and it works.

What are the most interesting countries with content? US for sure, what else?

 

[Whistler Mac]

Good news: Found a way to unblock (hopefully) all streaming sites. I tested it with Netflix and it works.

What are the most interesting countries with content? US for sure, what else?

UK

 

[pvalerio]

UK

Hope I can find a streaming capable UK server provider, didn't find one yet.

@All: Version 3.3.4 is online, with a new category "streaming" and a revised buy description.