Complete macOS Settings (best setup options?)

SyberKnight

i have a PIA license & have the Mac app installed on macOS Catalina (10.15.3 currently).

below is a complete list of all the DEFAULT settings. i'm wondering if any of it should be tweaked or not. i don't understand what most any of it means & don't necessarily need to - i just want it to work as best it can with general/average usage & with minimal effort ;-)

so here are all the settings & how they are currently set. if anyone has any knowledge/experience with them, please share what would be best to modify & why (in lay-persons terms).

also, not sure if it's normal or not, but if i switch wifi networks, i have to manually turn vpn off then back on again - it doesn't make the switch on its own.

PIA.app > Settings > 

GENERAL
    + Launch on System Startup = checked
    + Connect on Launch = not checked
    + Show Desktop Notifications = checked
    + Language = English
    + Theme = Dark
    + Tray Icon Style = Auto
    + Dashboard Appearance = Attached to Tray

PRIVACY
    + VPN Killswitch = Auto
    + PIA MACE = On

NETWORK
    + Name Servers = PIA DNS
    + Request Port Forwarding = not checked
    + Allow LAN Traffic = checked
    + Split Tunnel = not checked
    + Add Application = none added
    + All Other Apps = Use VPN

CONNECTION
    + Connection Type = UDP
    + Remote Port = Default
    + Local Port = Auto
    + Data Encryption = AES-128 (GCM)
    + Data Authentication = GCM
    + Handshake = RSA-2048
    + Use Small Packets = not checked
    + Try Alternate Settings = checked

PROXY
    + None = selected
    + Shadowsocks (config options) = not selected
    + SOCKS5 Proxy (config options) = not selected

PIAMichael

Good morning Syberknight,

While we typically recommend users stick with the default configuration, these may need to be altered or changed depending on network configurations. You may also want to make changes if you are using the application with specific applications. For instance, having the killswitch set to "Always" will ensure that you experience no data leaks, should the VPN connection drop.

I did notice that you have now mentioned that, on both your iOS device(s) and your Mac, that you are experiencing connection drops when moving between networks. Similar to the questions posed in your iOS thread, can you tell me how the application behaves on your Mac when switching networks and what sort of networks you are moving between? Is it occurring on public WiFi networks or your home network? Both? Would you mind changing the connection type to TCP and the port to 443, then change the killswitch to "Always", per my previous suggestion and let me know if this issue persists.

Ultimately, this may be a scenario where I'll need you to submit a debug log, but for now, give the above a shot in addition to other parts, if port 443 doesn't fix the issue.

avensis18

Hi, thanks for sharing this information.