Hello, I’m currently stuck trying to find a VPN that has a strong kill switch, specifically for MacOS. I’m currently using ProtonVPN but I found that it leaks my IP whenever I change networks. It also doesn’t block the internet before it boots up, so my IP is leaking for a few seconds whenever I start the computer.
Unfortunately ProtonVPN haven’t been of much help to me (they actually banned me from their subreddit for asking about this ) so I’m looking for a VPN with a confirmed working kill switch (that also blocks the internet at boot).
Any help is much appreciated! (I would also prefer not having to set up a VPN on a router or external device for this to work). Thank you.
Mullvad does all the things you need on MacOS, launch on start, auto connect, kill switch and lockdown mode, kill switch is used for blocking the internet while you are switching servers, lockdown mode will kill the internet if you aren’t connected to a server.
It would not surprise me it that will be true of any VPN on MacOS and maybe on other OSes too. When booting up the network stack comes up in a particular order but the VPN app and control stuff it tied into the application layer start up so it comes up later.
Not a big deal for my threat model so I don’t worry about it. But if you are worried then I’d suggest turning off WiFi, etc. when powering down. That way, if you power up without Ethernet plugged in, there can be no network traffic until the application layer is running.
Even so, just bringing up a network interface typically involves having some traffic on it so you might just have a leak no matter what.
The answer you’re looking for is Mullvad VPN. It works really well. And their lockdown mode is fantastic and better than Proton’s I feel. I recently moved from Proton to Mullvad myself.
Also, if you are moving from proton to Mullvad, be sure to delete the network extension via the Settings app before you install.
I would download the Mullvad app first, remove and fully delete Proton VPN via Pearcleaner, remove the network extension from Settings, reboot your computer, and install Mullvad.
You can try to set a sock5 proxy in your network settings or the browser in addition to running the.vpn app which would act as a vpn kill-switch in any case where the vpn app fails to block connections when switching networks. This has worked for me well.
Not sure if proton has proxy support or not.
On mullvad it should be easy.
For more info refer - SOCKS5 proxy
Unfortunately, the kill switch worked too well and I was able to connect to the VPN but not the internet. Do you think this could be a good insurance policy to ensure I don’t leak my IP at boot with my next VPN (I’m thinking of using mullvad)?
Or would this conflict with the VPN’s kill switch and create problems?
Thank you all for the suggestions, I think I will try Mullvad.
I would also like to say that I did use this website when deciding on which VPN to get, but unfortunately didn’t see any mention of kill switch issues with ProtonVPN on MacOS (with the M series chip).
I think that it would be helpful to add this as a note on the VPN review page - or perhaps someone with more reach could inform ProtonVPN of the issue since they didn’t seem to take note when it was coming from me. Thank you.
) so I’m looking for a VPN with a confirmed working kill switch (that also blocks the internet at boot).