Okay so with all the good reviews surrounding Astrill, I decided to get it before coming to China. To be fair, it did work well the first week I came. However, afterwards, things just spiral. I don’t know what is happening with them right now, but I have gone from using OpenWeb protocol to StealthVPN which is VERY slow to connect and disconnect. And those who says that you don’t have to connect or disconnect because there is a Smart mode, I think you would have noticed a difference between browsing Chinese apps, like Taobao, with the VPN and without the VPN. It is just much slower.
At this point, I am honestly disappointed with the VPN. The customer support did not help much either as I have indeed followed their suggestion to use StealthVPN instead, but it is NOT working well right now. I always have to disconnect and reconnect to new servers so often that it is making me consider getting a new VPN. Honestly, maybe I should not have been that prepared. I know some of my friends who got a pretty VPN here for MUCH cheaper prices. So my advice for people coming to China, just get to know the local first and ask what they are using. They know best.
Again, I would like to reiterate. As of now, this VPN feels like a scam to me. Especially with the no-refund policy. You know, just to rant on reddit where I am seeing all these good reviews, I literally spent 20 minutes trying to get it connected :).
For those who may comment that I am using it wrong. I would very much welcome any suggestions because I have literally used all my brain cells on this and the thoughts of wasting $180 does not sit well with me.
Edit: I am sharing a VPN with my friend right now (tbh, I am not sure what it is, but high chance is that it is a private IP) and it’s been working really well. I think it is pretty cheap as well (about 400 rmb for a whole year subscription, but since I am sharing it with my friend, it’s cheaper). A good tip for anyone looking for VPN is look for your Chinese friends first. They know best about what to do.
Run a speed test and see which servers consistently work. Then add those to your favorites or remember their names. Recently, many servers have had errors connecting whereas before, every server at least connected even if speeds/ping were bad.
Those that never experienced any issues probably just connect to the first server on their list (which is usually USA 1/2/3 for China) and use internet very lightly. But I’m not paying $180 for 2-5 Mbps daytime speeds when I have 1000Mbps at home, there has been a significant degradation in Astrill service quality this year. I would previously reliably achieve 50+ Mbps speeds in daytime peak hours and 200+ in off-peak hours. Now, I’m lucky to find a server that can give me 10MBps.
I’ve been using Astrill for 8+ years and paid about 250rmb per month on internet fees and have had sporadic issues. I’ve experimented with other VPNs and Astrill is always the best one. You should see if it’s something up with your ISP first
I use Mullvad and it’s pretty good for me, although speeds aren’t as fast as Astrill. Yes, I have the same connection issues as you. I always use Los Angeles (for both VPNs) and it works best.
Any VPN in China is going to have issues. Smart mode is a good option, but it only works in the browser. You can choose which apps are excluded in the application filter, which will help your speed issue.
And while a VPN will slow your connection, the ISP is a bigger issue. Occasionally my connection will be super laggy and I’ll have to reset my connection and restart my router to bring it back. Yes, it’s frustrating as hell.
I use the Supercharged servers and have pretty good luck with those.
As others have mentioned, Astrill is consistently the best in China, but when holidays approach, VPN gets really bad. You may want to wait until after the October holidays and see if things improve.
You may also find that one server works better during the day, and another server works better in the evening. You may also find that the internet slows to a crawl in the evenings when people get home from work and start watching videos or playing games.
Hi there, I just wonder that do you still use it currently? And do you mind sharing your Astrill vpn with me and I can pay for it , it’s a little bit expensive for me to afford lol, I just wanna use it by myself and in a reasonable price .
Astrill is the best. I’m not a shill just?being honest. As we get closer to October 1st all vpn will work bad as internet companies get more aggressive.
If you have a better option please do share. I will say this, the"local" vpn are often in cahoots with the government and shadow sanctioned. They will collect all your dats , it’s not a good option if you are looking at anything not allowed, it’s only a good option for specific use cases such as gaming.
I would not say its a scam as much as it is incredibly expensive and difficult to communicate with competent customer service at times. Yes, their server base is ever changing and sometimes a pain to play around with to find what you are looking for. If you are still with them, let me know and I can maybe help you salvage a bit of hope with my limited knowledge of your particular situation?
My issues are thinking it is connected, the app saying it’s connected, but nothing is getting through. Has to be disconnected and connected dozens of times during the day. This is on both WiFi and mobile. Seriously annoying.
Yup I have run speed tests and switch around the servers. The problems are less bad on PC than on phone. I am not sure if you are experiencing similar things, but I cannot seem to access overseas application at all on my phone (most noticeably Google apps because I use them a lot).
Also, have you tried Taiwan for China and Japan server etc? From experience, those seem to have less ping and better internet speed than the US Supercharged servers.
Probably. I am not knowledgeable enough about these things so I cannot say for sure. But I have tried to use mobile data (4g) and my friends hotspot as well and it does not seem to change much.