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 IOS/iPhone Test in China-2021/5/9 - May 9, 2021 VPN Test Report: Today will be a test of ExpressVPN in iOS/iPhone, first went to check its latest version as 10.0.8, which currently supports the protocol options Automatic, UDP, TCP, IKEv2, now in the official version of both Windows and Mac have been introduced its latest protocols Lightway-UDP and Lightway-TCP. The description of UDP and TCP in IOS is a bit ambiguous, whether it is OpenVPN-UDP or Lightway-UDP, or both are combined, before the Lightway protocol was developed, IOS has extremely UDP and TCP. TCP, so I prefer that they refer to OpenVPN.
• ExpressVPN Macbook Test in China -20210506 - May 6, 2021 VPN Test Report, Today I will be testing 4 protocol options for ExpressVPN in my Macbook. Today's first test of ExpressVPN's Lightway-tcp, a connection protocol option that has been released in the official version for some time, but due to a bug, the protocol could not be selected for connection in either Windows or Mac. It has been confirmed that the problem has been fixed in the latest Windows and Mac versions. Since I was testing Mac-ExpressVPN today, I also wanted to test it and see how it was. I'm sure that the protocol is better than Lightway-tcp in terms of connection speed, but Lightway-tcp is much better than Lightway-tcp in terms of packet loss rate, so the choice depends on the user's needs. But the premise is that I need to test if Lightway-tcp is available in mainland China.
• ExpressVPN Win10 3 Protocol in China-2021/04/28 - April 28, 2021 test report, today will be tested in Windows10 devices on ExpressVPN's three connection protocol options, respectively, the officially recommended Automatic, Lightway-UDP, IKEv2. According to the last round of testing has been about 2 weeks, although I did not test the report during the period, but I myself usually have been in the I have been using the Macbook, iPhone, and occasionally Windows 10 for connection or speed reduction problems. However, such a test report will help readers and myself to have a more intuitive and comprehensive understanding of its operation in mainland China. I hope such a test report will be helpful to everyone, if you have any questions, please leave a message to exchange (the message is anonymous).
• ExpressVPN 3 device IKEv2 test in China - April 13, 2021 - Due to an operational error yesterday testing ExpressVPN's IKEv2 protocol in IOS, the test results were invalid. Today, in order to get a comprehensive view of ExpressVPN's testing, a test will be conducted in Windows 10, Macbook, IOS/iPhone via the IKEv2 protocol, and to verify ExpressVPN's "Auto+Official Recommended 6 Servers" In order to verify the current use of ExpressVPN's "Auto+ Official Recommended 6 Servers", this part of the test will be added to Win10, while other devices will only be tested with the IKEv2 protocol. We hope this test will be helpful for you to refer to the use of ExpressVPN.
• ExpressVPN IOS/iPhone 3 Protocol test in China - Today, April 12, 2021, ExpressVPN will be tested in IOS/iPhone for APP direct VPN connection in mainland China. Based on previous tests and today's normal use of the connection in Macbook and Windows 10, it was determined that ExpressVPN currently still works very smoothly in both devices at this time. We first checked the latest version in IOS and determined that the latest ExpressVPN IOS version is 10.0.5 (19359). At the same time, its current optional connection protocol options are still only Automatic, UDP, TCP, IKEv2, a bit disappointed in the IOS version is still to join the latest Lightway protocol. This test will test 5-10 servers for each of the three protocol options Automatic, UDP and IKEv2.
• ExpressVPN Macbook 4 protocol Test in China - March 30, 2021, according to the last test report ExpressVPN currently has four available connection protocol options Automatic, Lightway-UDP, OpenVPN-UDP, and IKEv2. The difference between today's Macbook and the last Window is that this test is primarily intended to understand the connection of each protocol, rather than a speed test of the same server under different protocols. Since this morning has been busy with their own work, so only now began to test, between the time is relatively tight on each protocol option for 5-8 servers. If you have any questions, please leave a message to communicate.

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.