WARNING - PIA DATA CENTERS ODD IP CHANGES
As of approximately 10 minutes ago, from the date/time of this post, it seems there is either some type of weird IP thing going on from the gateway/data centers, or some type of changes being made, or something has failed somewhere, within the PIA VPN network. I tried other gateways also, same basic results. If you disconnect then reconnect and run a dns leak test from one of the various leak test sites (and have dns leak protection enabled), you get something like this below now (I used the ipleak.net web site where its clear to see).
This change happened suddenly with no warning or notification, the IP for me changed while I was still connected. There were no changes on my end for configuration or anything else, just the IP suddenly changed. Things slowed down for a few seconds, so I happen to notice the app I have running that checks the VPN public IP address and for DNS leaks every 30 seconds and it was in an alarm status and showed the 'new' public VPN IP and with further checks it kept coming back with this address, once the IP changed things went back to normal speed.
In the below notice the IP address at the top vs the one at the bottom assigned by the gateway. Notice it still says "DNS Address - 1 server" which indicates no DNS leak (because it indicates that the gateway assigned IP is making the queries), however, the IP address at the top is the IP address web sites will see when you visit them (for now at least - the IP at the top belongs to LogicWeb Inc which is something that PIA has used before I think). The difference between the 'new' public VPN IP and that resolved for the DNS are different with the lower IP (162.216.46.117) being the IP assigned by the gateway but the public IP on the internet side of the gateway is different. Normally this would indicate a DNS leak because the gateway assigned address and the Public IP address on the internet side should be the same for no DNS leak to exist. Thus DNS leak tests, all of the commonly used web site tests, are either failing (unlikely) or there is something wrong/different in the PIA VPN network, maybe with the PIA dns servers used while using DNS Leak protection which points back to part of an issue I posted about before here > https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/23789/pia-intentionally-breaks-windows-10#latest, so maybe PIA is making some changes but we should have been notified of this by PIA I think if they are making changes that affect what the public IP change would be vs the gateway assigned IP. The 'new' VPN public IP (in the example below 173.239.232.117) still seems to point to the gateway as geo-location remains the same as the gateway, if one plugs this new IP into the PIA speed test link it comes back to the same gateway indicated as being connected to (e.g. http://173.239.232.117:8888/speedtest) so maybe we are seeing an exit node IP with this. Maybe PIA is making some changes, who knows at this point as with this screwy VPN anything could happen. Some of you may or may not see this same thing depending on the gateway and data center. Before anyone jumps in and starts diverting this thread from its notification and same subject discussion intention - NO, it is not an anomaly, or a DNS leak caused on the user end, or anything to do with the OS, this one is pure PIA caused. Before anyone gets excited over this lets see what PIA has to say about it. I suspect we will not hear anything about it from them real soon.
This change happened suddenly with no warning or notification, the IP for me changed while I was still connected. There were no changes on my end for configuration or anything else, just the IP suddenly changed. Things slowed down for a few seconds, so I happen to notice the app I have running that checks the VPN public IP address and for DNS leaks every 30 seconds and it was in an alarm status and showed the 'new' public VPN IP and with further checks it kept coming back with this address, once the IP changed things went back to normal speed.
In the below notice the IP address at the top vs the one at the bottom assigned by the gateway. Notice it still says "DNS Address - 1 server" which indicates no DNS leak (because it indicates that the gateway assigned IP is making the queries), however, the IP address at the top is the IP address web sites will see when you visit them (for now at least - the IP at the top belongs to LogicWeb Inc which is something that PIA has used before I think). The difference between the 'new' public VPN IP and that resolved for the DNS are different with the lower IP (162.216.46.117) being the IP assigned by the gateway but the public IP on the internet side of the gateway is different. Normally this would indicate a DNS leak because the gateway assigned address and the Public IP address on the internet side should be the same for no DNS leak to exist. Thus DNS leak tests, all of the commonly used web site tests, are either failing (unlikely) or there is something wrong/different in the PIA VPN network, maybe with the PIA dns servers used while using DNS Leak protection which points back to part of an issue I posted about before here > https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/23789/pia-intentionally-breaks-windows-10#latest, so maybe PIA is making some changes but we should have been notified of this by PIA I think if they are making changes that affect what the public IP change would be vs the gateway assigned IP. The 'new' VPN public IP (in the example below 173.239.232.117) still seems to point to the gateway as geo-location remains the same as the gateway, if one plugs this new IP into the PIA speed test link it comes back to the same gateway indicated as being connected to (e.g. http://173.239.232.117:8888/speedtest) so maybe we are seeing an exit node IP with this. Maybe PIA is making some changes, who knows at this point as with this screwy VPN anything could happen. Some of you may or may not see this same thing depending on the gateway and data center. Before anyone jumps in and starts diverting this thread from its notification and same subject discussion intention - NO, it is not an anomaly, or a DNS leak caused on the user end, or anything to do with the OS, this one is pure PIA caused. Before anyone gets excited over this lets see what PIA has to say about it. I suspect we will not hear anything about it from them real soon.
Post edited by bgxsec on
Comments
Yep, I get the exact same thing myself.
I'm starting to think PIA actually stands for "Pathetically Incompetent Amateurs". Once you look under the hood of PIA developer programming, it's so buggy that I can't believe they aren't completely ashamed to release this as a final product. I'd even be embarrassed to release this as an early Alpha! But, like I said in my previous post, "You get what you pay for."
basically what they are doing is releasing their client versions and having the subscribers 'alpha or beta test' through their use and the 'feed back' from that. This type of scheme is common for things like this, especially open source based things for which PIA is open source component based, it saves the developing entity time, money, and personnel by not having to test it completely and only responding to things when they get serious and ignoring the rest from the customers. So in a scheme like that being used by a company it essentially turns customers/subscribers into unpaid employees doing the company's job.
In this latest posted above, there is no way to adequately test for DNS leaks because now we don't know which IP is doing the requests, the IP assigned by the gateway or the other IP. Under this condition the real ISP DNS (or the real ISP IP address) could actually be leaking and the user would never know which essentially makes the PIA VPN not trustworthy in this respect because it can not be verified under these conditions. One should not pay for or use a VPN product that is not trustworthy in any aspect.
Regards,
In good news LogicWeb seems to be much faster - I have a 1gbps symmetrical connection and usually top out around 200mbps through Choopa's network. Through LogicWeb I'm getting around 500-600mbps.
No, PIA (actually its London Trust Media DBA Private Internet Access) is a privately held company. If they were a public company they would have probably been sued into oblivion by now via a class action lawsuit for the crap they pull on their customers.
Good question. PIA is really bad at communicating with their customers. They treat their customers as an after thought. Overall, they don't listen to what their customers have to say and appear to not even care. Their treatment of customers is overall pretty shoddy. They tend to want to have customers jump through needless hoops for tech support and tend towards blaming the customer for serious technical issues rather than tackling the actual issue and fixing it despite it being very clear the issue exists because of something PIA did, like the security and technical vulnerability that exists now concerning this issue > PIA intentionally breaks Windows 10
Then there are things like this current sudden IP change thing. It pretty clear from the post by doaks that this was a known planned event. However, nothing from PIA to tell customers it was going to happen. Then we get an excuse post from doaks and have to take his word for it that customers are still protected when there is clearly a DNS leak issue existing in such a manner that its still possible for the ISP DNS or real ISP IP to be leaked and the customer never know it because this change has removed the ability for verifying no leak really exists with commonly used leak detection web sites.
Plus, Its almost like PIA doesn't speak and/or understand real English; For example, a customer says "I have this happening <insert issue here> and DNS leak protection is enabled in the client" - customer service comes back and says "To enable DNS protection in the client do this <steps to enable DNS leak protection in the client>" and that's it. The customer already clearly said he has DNS leak protection enabled in the client, yet instead of tackling the issue the customer outlined PIA comes back with a canned answer of how to enable DNS leak protection in the client and doesn't even bother to address the issue outlined. Customer trying to be patient wants a status on the issue so waits a few weeks until asking again, and explains the issue again, PIA comes back with essentially "yes, we broke it, no timetable to get it fixed and no priority assigned" which basically says in English "we broke it, but we will not fix it so your out of luck. so F&*k you." In the mean time its cost the customer (a business based customer) thousands of real $$$ in time and resources to re-code his software product with a non-native Windows API he had to purchase because PIA breaks the needed native API use in Windows, so his niche specialty software will still work for his customers who use PIA.
PIA lives in a fantasy world when it comes to customers, they assume that customers have to accept anything they throw out and after all they already got your money. Heck, we can't even get a PIA blog focused on customers that's not a soap box for Rick Falkvinge and Caleb Chen re-framing and regurgitating things they got from other news sources.
If PIA would take some of that money they spend on endorsing and supporting anyone that screams the "we protect your privacy" concept and getting review sites to rate them favorably then put it towards some real development and customer service it would probably be better.
PIA tries to do development as cheaply as possible. Thus they use open source in their client and network, which for the most part is free and is used in a 'one size fits all building block' manner. The issue with that is there comes a point where the 'one size fits all building block' manner stops working completely and the 'building blocks' can only be put together in so many ways so the company customer base has grown and issues become more apparent because the combinations of 'building blocks' has been exhausted and the, what PIA calls, developers can no longer address these issues and they start slapping on bandaid's which cause other issues later. The solution is to get people who know how to really develop from coding the client to the network development and start addressing these issues with some real fixes instead of slapping bandaid's on them with yet more 'one size fits all building block' open-sourced based development. For cripes sake look at the Windows client, it looks like something from a cross between something developed for use in Windows 3 to Windows 95 and looks like it was put together by a partially blind drunk circus clown.
Its not just business based customers, they pull this type of crap all the time on all their customers one way way or another. Its insulting.
Going back to that quoted above from dumdork and my reply to him. Yep, If PIA were a public company they would have probably been sued into oblivion by now via class action lawsuit.
Because that don't look like fixed. It only looks like the appearance of fixed.
Ya know, this is not satisfactory. We should have gotten some information warning of this change and what to expect before the changes were started. We paid for the product, a company can't, according to consumer protection laws in the U.S., make such a radical change in a product without informing customers of the effects before the changes are made and thus giving them a chance to opt out of continuing to use the product and seek refunds if necessary pro rated for the remainder of the subscription period before changes. I think I'll file a complaint with the FTC over this, its wrong, we paid for it and have a legal right to be notified of such radical changes before the changes are made. Now all we have is some company staff minion named 'doaks' (AKA Daniel O) giving us the same company line of "...you’re still protected by our network and totally safe" yet indicators scream the VPN is possibly untrustworthy at this point. Does anyone here even know 'doaks' personally? All we know is he's presumably PIA staff and is a paid employee to give the company line. Does anyone here have any real indicators of his integrity? Not saying he is a bad person but overall he's a perfect stranger to us (or at least most of us) paid by PIA who has a financially vested interest in continuing to say "...you’re still protected by our network and totally safe" and painting a pretty picture for us. Now we are left with no way to verify that we are actually 'still protected' in all aspects we expected and paid for. It depends on who you trust, some faceless person on the internet you don't really know who is giving out the company line when there are clear indicators of the VPN being possibly untrustworthy at this point, or do you trust your instinct and think that 'if it sounds too good to be true then it probably isn't' or 'Caveat emptor'.
I've been with PIA for almost a year. In the past, they've ALWAYS sent emails in advance if something strange was going to happen. I've got several (likely) unnecessary hours into this.......
I spent hours back and forth with Real-Debrid yesterday trying to sort this out.
They are IP address, or range, specific and if you haven't got the same IP you had when you signed with them then your out.
This is done to stop hackers stealing accounts. After finally getting it sorted the next time I rebooted it started all over again.
I suspect I wasn't the lone ranger on this, after many hours they finally got it sorted with PIA.
A lot of this could have been avoided if PIA had of let us know what was going on, not necessarily an email but even a post at the top of the forum letting us know what was going on and the new range of IP addresses that they were using.
Anyway back to the grindstone and wait till the next stuff up.
No, its not suppose to be that way. Its true that the leak detection sites, with the conditions you describe (public VPN IP matches that of the DNS IP), will indicate no DNS leak. However, at the IP at the client when you hover over it should also match the same IP the dns leak detection site gives and it doesn't. All three of them should match.