How I «fixed» TrustConnect by installing and using another and similar application…

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  1. Went to the site https://www.privatetunnel.com.
  2. Clicked the «Sign up» button and registered a new user account.
  3. When receiving the confirmation mail and verifying the new account, I selected the desired subscription period and completed the payment registration.

    As I at this point weren't sure if this application would suit the purposes, I selected an initial subscription for one month (US$ 6) only.

  4. When I then reached the step to download the Privatetunnel (hereafter shortened PT) client, I did NOT download this!
  5. Instead I went to https://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html and downloaded the appropriate OpenVPN GUI version.

    Why I downloaded the OpenVPN GUI instead of the PT client, is because the PT client (from informations found on other sites) is an about 30 MB download that will install 50–80 MB of programs and data dependent on the OS and selected options, while the OpenVPN GUI is a 1.8 MB download that will install less than 5 MB of programs and data, while still doing the job of establishing a fully secure connection through PT servers.

    In short:  Why install more than you actually need?

  6. After installing the OpenVPN GUI, I went back to my PT account site and clicked «Download User Profile» found under «Settings».
  7. After downloading the user profile (*.ovpn) for the desired server and moving this to the OpenVPN GUI config folder (C:/Program files/OpenVPN/config unless another install location is selected when installing OpenVPN GUI), I just started OpenVPN GUI, clicked «Connect», and then watched OpenVPN connecting successfully to the desired PT server.

    You can download user profiles for as many access servers you want.
    When more than one *.ovpn file is found in the config folder, the context menu for OpenVPN GUI (when you right-click the OpenVPN GUI icon in the task bar tray) automatically change to directly give you the option to select which server you want to connect to (not as in TrustConnect where server selection is done through a separate settings window).

    NOTE:From informations found on other sites, after the initial PT account registration, and although OpenVPN GUI instantly make a successful connection to PT servers, it may still take some time (usually less than one hour) before the new account registration is validated and propagated to all worldwide PT servers and you can connect to the Internet.
    In my case, I noticed that I couldn't access web sites, use FTP, etc. for the first about 10 minutes after OpenVPN GUI had made the first connection to the PT server.

Why I have to use services like TrustConnect, and now OpenVPN, is because I have home Internet connection through a local open (unencrypted) network.

In addition, that network do also have restricted port access, so without an external VPN service or similar, I can for example not use FTP (e.g. to be able to upload this page).

In total, I currently own seven different domains, wherof some of these also have multiple subdomains, and where I have some larger websites, for example http://trafikksiden.motocross.io and http://worldheli.de.


Although I've only have used Privatetunnel for some days so far, here are some of my experiences and comparisions with Privatetunnel (with OpenVPN GUI) vs. COMODO TrustConnect:

Privatetunnel
(with OpenVPN GUI)
COMODO TrustConnect
OpenVPN version used (latest available download of the application)2.3.17
Build date Jun 20 2017
2.1.1
Build date Dec 11 2009
Access server connection protocolsTCP or UDPTCP only
Remote TCP/IP endpoints opened while connecting13
Remote TCP/IP endpoints open when connected12
Behaviour when access server connection somehow is dropped or lost, e.g. due to poor WiFi-hotspot signal strengthAttempting to reconnect automatically without any popup error messages or other dialog boxes shownUsually disconnect and terminate connection with a popup error message, and where you have to reconnect manually by clicking «Connect» in the «User Authentication» dialog window
Can access servers using UDP ports, e.g. when using time synchronization servers and other services commonly using UDP onlyYESNO
GUI system memory usageApprox. 3.6 MBApprox. 5.2 MB