ExpressVPN 3 Device Test in China-20200909

There will be a test today for Windows 10, Macbook, and IOS. I’ve been worried about a massive upgrade hit to the Great Firewall between late September and early October. That outage last year was really kind of scary, very, very many VPNs and wall-flipping tools were blocked en masse. ExpressVPN was blocked, and just rolled out a new workaround, but was immediately blocked again, and after the block, they were rolling out a new one, and then blocked again. This constant trolling went on for a total of 20+ days before it slowly started to calm back down.

This morning when I turned on my computer and used the IKEv2 protocol on my Macbook to connect to the servers in the US, it went smoothly, with no exceptions. However, I used the Auto protocol on my Windows 10 device to connect to the four officially recommended servers: Hong Kong – 4, Japan – Yokohama, Singapore – Marina Bay, USA – Los Angeles – 5. A quick look at the reader’s comments reveals that there have been 5-6 messages stating that ExpressVPN is currently unable to connect successfully. So today, I’m going to test ExpressVPN on three devices, Macbook, Windows 10, and IOS, using the IKEv2 protocol and the officially recommended “Auto Protocol + 4 Servers”. We’ll let you know how it works so far. I’m sorry, I can’t test the Android because I’ve given my Android away for a while.

The main purpose of today’s test is to see how successful ExpressVPN’s current server connections are, so I’m not going to test too many servers when I’m testing the IKEv2 protocol, but about 5-8.

ExpressVPN Last 6 test reports: [See More]
Checking out multiple test reports can help you understand more effectively how this VPN works in the long run.

• ExpressVPN Win10 Lightway Version Test - ExpressVPN has added Lightway - UDP (bate) to the normal version 9.0.5(16) of Windows 10, although it is still a beta protocol, but to be able to laun…
• ExpressVPN Win10 Test in China-20200928 - Today's Mainland China VPN Flip Test will test the use of ExpressVPN in Window 10. The test will be conducted using the officially recommended "Auto+4…
• ExpressVPN MacOS/IOS Test in China-20200926 - Due to the current method of testing each VPN in turn, all today it's finally ExpressVPN's turn to be tested. Today I'd like to run a test of ExpressV…
• ExpressVPN last version update test-20200911 - Today ExpressVPN upgraded all 4 devices, this test ExpressVPN is only for the officially recommended method: "Auto+4 Servers". Because this morning Ex…
• SurfsharkVPN Win10 test in China-20200910 - Due to the recent large fluctuations in ExpressVPN connections, it is very clear to conclude that the Chinese network firewall has ramped up. Today I'…
• ExpressVPN 3 Device Test in China-20200909 - There will be a test today for Windows 10, Macbook, and IOS. I've been worried about a massive upgrade hit to the Great Firewall between late Septembe…

Local Device and Network: Windows10/200M/WiFi;
Local Device and Network: Macbook/200M/WiFi;
Local Device and Network: iPhone/4G；

Win10 ExpressVPN Connection Test:

Starting Time: Sep 9, 2020, 10:35 AM

This is the official recommended method;
Protocol: Auto

Hong Kong – 4: Failed. (Try two times)
Japan – Yokohama: Failed. (Try two times)
Singapore – Marina Bay: Failed. (Try two times)
USA – Los Angeles – 5: Failed. (Try two times)

This is unofficial recommended method;
Servers: Random;
Protocol: IKEv2;

USA – Santa Monica: First success. (Time efficiency: 23s)
Speedtest Ping: 160ms; Download: 3.43Mbps; Upload: 2.92Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 1.4Mbps;

USA – Washington DC: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Miami: First success. (Time efficiency: 9s)
Speedtest Ping: 225ms; Download: 3.62Mbps; Upload: 1.61Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 74Kbps;

USA – Los Angeles – 3: First success. (Time efficiency: 8s)
Speedtest Ping: 166ms; Download: 12.20Mbps; Upload: 1.08Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 4.5Mbps;

USA – Salt Lake City: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 7s)
Speedtest Ping: 191ms; Download: 17.28Mbps; Upload: 1.56Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 10Mbps;

USA – Dallas – 2: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Atlanta: First success. (Time efficiency: 4s)
Speedtest Ping: 242ms; Download: 17.38Mbps; Upload: 1.33Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 10Mbps;

USA – Los Angeles: First success. (Time efficiency: 30s)
Speedtest Ping: 164ms; Download: 23.17Mbps; Upload: 1.92Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 3.1Mbps;

Windows10 summary: from the above test situation, the officially recommended method: automatic protocol + 4 server method is not available at the moment. But using the IKEv2 protocol is similar to the previous situation, and there is no failure to connect to the wall.

ExpressVPN Windows10 Version：7.12.1(2)；    Protocol：Auto/IKEv2
Today’s Test Score：★ ★ ★

Macbook ExpressVPN Connection Test:

Starting Time: Sep 9, 2020, 1:51 PM

This is the official recommended method;
Protocol: Auto

Hong Kong – 4: Failed. (Try once)
Japan – Yokohama: Failed. (Try once)
Singapore – Marina Bay: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 5: Failed. (Try once)

This is an unofficial recommended method;
Servers: Random;
Protocol: IKEv2;

USA – Santa Monica: First success. (Time efficiency: 8s)
Speedtest Ping: 166ms; Download: 177Mbps; Upload: 4.8Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 43Mbps;

USA – New York: First success. (Time efficiency: 10s)
Speedtest Ping: 246ms; Download: 35.2Mbps; Upload: 3.27Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 3.3Mbps;

USA – Chicago: First success. (Time efficiency: 65s)
Speedtest Ping: 223ms; Download: 16.8Mbps; Upload: 3.66Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 2.7Mbps;

USA – Chicago: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 3: First success. (Time efficiency: 55s)
Speedtest Ping: 164ms; Download: 13.1Mbps; Upload: 3.51Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 1.4Mbps;

USA – Denver: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Atlanta: First success. (Time efficiency: 5s)
Speedtest Ping: 218ms; Download: 12.2Mbps; Upload: 2.92Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 6.5Mbps;

USA – Los Angeles: First success. (Time efficiency: 4s)
Speedtest Ping: 183ms; Download: 28.5Mbps; Upload: 3.75Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 5Mbps;

Canada – Toronto – 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 7s)
Speedtest Ping: 245ms; Download: 13.3Mbps; Upload: 2.71Mbps;
Netflix Fast: 6.5Mbps;

Macbook Summary: From the above wall-climbing tests in mainland China, the officially recommended method of using ExpressVPN in Mac is temporarily unavailable. However, the IKEv2 protocol can be used to connect, and its effect is still very good.

ExpressVPN Macbook Version：7.11.3 (2)；    Protocol：Auto/IKEv2
Today’s Test Score：★ ★ ★ ☆

IOS ExpressVPN Connection Test:

Starting Time: Sep 9, 2020, 3:37 PM

This is the official recommended method;
Protocol: Auto

Hong Kong – 4: Failed. (Try once)
Japan – Yokohama: Failed. (Try once)
Singapore – Marina Bay: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Los Angeles – 5: Failed. (Try once)

This is an unofficial recommended method;
Servers: Random;
Protocol: IKEv2;

USA – Santa Monica: First success. (Time efficiency: 7s)
Speedtest Ping: 238ms; Download: 52.8Mbps; Upload: 4.02Mbps;

USA – New York: First success. (Time efficiency: 7s)
Speedtest Ping: 323ms; Download: 5.11Mbps; Upload: 4.58Mbps;

USA – San Francisco: First success. (Time efficiency: 13s)
Speedtest Ping: 225ms; Download: 11.7Mbps; Upload: 2.98Mbps;

USA – Miami: First success. (Time efficiency: 67s)
Speedtest Ping: 353ms; Download: 6.73Mbps; Upload: 4.24Mbps;

Note: The above two server tests had a problem with that time web page when I passed it to my computer’s Word to take a screenshot, the time of this web page will be stuttered/time stopped, but you can see the exact time in ExpressVPN and SpeedTest at the top of the time. So after that I will use that previous web page for expressing the time.

USA – Hollywood: Failed. (Try once)
USA – Tampa – 1: First success. (Time efficiency: 20s)
Speedtest Ping: 298ms; Download: 52.2Mbps; Upload: 4.71Mbps;

Canada – Toronto: First success. (Time efficiency: 8s)
Speedtest Ping: 287ms; Download: 69.7Mbps; Upload: 4.94Mbps;

Japan – Tokyo – 2: First success. (Time efficiency: 43s)
Speedtest Ping: 179ms; Download: 2.19Mbps; Upload: 5.85Mbps;

IOS Summary: The above test is to wall over ExpressVPN in iPhone, similar to Win10 and Macbook, you can’t connect and wall over through the official method. However, it is possible to do wall-climbing via the IKEv2 protocol.

ExpressVPN iPhone Version：8.3.0 (12474)；    Protocol：Auto/IKEv2
Today’s Test Score：★ ★ ★ ☆

Finally I would also like to talk about the wall over situation for Android devices. I have some feedback from some users and I can’t get the Bate version of ExpressVPN to go over the wall with the new protocol, lightway, and there is no IKEv2 protocol in Android. I don’t have an Android device in my hand, so I can’t test the actual situation, but I think it’s possible to manually configure OpenVPN Gui to do the wall-climbing, but you may need to try a few more servers. Between ExpressVPN’s past credit history and recovery time record, it’s usually alleviated within 24 hours, after which they’ll tell you about alternate solutions.

    Do you all think I need to get an Android machine to test it? Leave a comment and let me know! Thank you.