TechRadar Verdict
Amnezia is your every day VPN.
I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Amnezia VPN seems to be taking a totally different approach.
Lets get this out of the way: Amnezia is not a one-click VPN solution.
In fact, the Amnezia team doesnt host their own servers at all.
In theory, you should even be able to host a VPN off of your domestic internet connection.
So, if Amnezia doesnt host a VPN service for you, whatdoesit do?
Well, Amnezia takes a lot of the difficulty of running a secure VPN server out of your hands.
As long as you trust your host, youre in complete control of how your server works.
Does Amnezia VPN offer privacy?
The real appeal of Amnezia is unparalleled control over your data.
I particularly like how Amnezia handlesDNS leaks.
Choosing to install your ownVPN protocolinstead lets you choose between default OpenVPN, OpenVPN overShadowSocks, andIKEv2.
Instead, Ill look at Amnezias obfuscated protocols and how well they hold up.
The most obvious one is comparing against a list of known VPN servers.
Its not a comprehensive solution but its a good start for any authoritarian government.
Curious about VPN protocols?
Or want to figure out which one is your match made in heaven?
Check out our guide toVPN protocols.
An ISP could also block the default port numbers for VPN protocols.
OpenVPN and WireGuard both connect to a fairly unique default port, but this isnt a particularly effective solution.
Both of these techniques are somewhat rudimentary and dont address the actual problem: DPI.
A similar concept applies to OpenVPN.
Its not hard for your ISP to capture this information.
Then, this reveals information about the stream of traffic, even if it’s encrypted and obfuscated.
Neural networks can be trained to accurately identify OpenVPN traffic with over 90% success rates.
Its not all doom and gloom, however.
Security is always an arms race, even when it seems dismal for one side.
Amnezia offers several different obfuscation methods with different levels of success against DPI.
OpenVPN over ShadowSocks is the most well-known… and least effective.
Unfortunately, the behavioral analysis I talked about earlier exposes ShadowSocks.
Thankfully, ShadowSocks now supports plugins that enhance the usability of the project as an obfuscation tool.
Finally, we get to Amnezias custom implementation of WireGuard: AmneziaWG.
Finally, the initial session connection is disguised by sending junk packets at the start of the connection.
Your mileage may vary.
Amnezia VPN setup and configuration
Amnezia makes server administration surprisingly simple, too.
We used Amnezia VPN toset up a VPN server from scratchand the result was pretty awesome.
After youve started up an Amnezia instance, all admin is taken care of inside the app.
It makes tweaking your VPN service shockingly easy and Im impressed with how seamless this process is.
Amnezia’s tool allows access to sites that’d otherwise be inaccessible, thanks to censorship.
Performance testing: How fast is Amnezia VPN?
If thats your takeaway from Amnezia VPN, youre missing the point.
Privacy tools need to be easy to use to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.
This philosophy is baked into Amnezias design all the way through.
I cant speak for how the site reads in Russian, but I can only assume its similarly well-written.
This approach to transparency is really refreshing from a VPN provider.
Normally, this is a setup Id balk at.
However, the Amnezia app and server are both fully open-source.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses.
Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
