SurfsharkVPN Win10 Test inChina-20200829

Today I’m going to test two ways to connect to SurfsharkVPN in Windows10, one is a direct connection from the app, and the other is a configuration test via the third-party software OpenVPN GUI. I’ll also be posting information about the third-party configured servers, but of course, they’re all from official sources, so you can go download them yourself and maybe find a faster server than these.

Barry’s: I’ve been hoping to convey a message to my readers that the firewall will be around for the foreseeable future; with it, using any VPN or other tool in China is a dynamic process and there’s no one-and-done solution. That’s why I keep updating the [Daily Test] section. The purpose of the test is to tell you the real usage of the changed VPN at the moment, whether it’s available or not, and I’ll be honest about it.

Local Device and Network: Windows10/200M/WiFi
Speedtest Ping: 9ms; Download: 229.09Mbps; Upload: 23.15Mbps;

SurfsharkVPN Win10 App Connection Test:

Starting Time: Aug 29, 2020, 1:29 PM

Following the test of App Version: 2.6.6

Fastest Server: Failed; (Try once)
USA – Seattle: First success; (Time efficiency: 4s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 945Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 173ms; Download: 4.93Mbps; Upload: 2.52Mbps;

USA – Salt Lake City: First success; (Time efficiency: 6s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 4000Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 246ms; Download: 2.04Mbps; Upload: 1.06Mbps;

USA – Denver: First success; (Time efficiency: 5s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 3700Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 211ms; Download: 12.14Mbps; Upload: 1.33Mbps;

USA – Las Vegas: First success; (Time efficiency: 5s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 1975Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 167ms; Download: 4.93Mbps; Upload: 1.26Mbps;

I used version 2.6.6 for the above test, but I found a problem during the test. After opening the SF App in the device, if you go to connect to the US server, you can immediately connect successfully. In order to test it, so I need to keep connecting/disconnecting the process when I disconnect the server, the app gets stuck and says “Not…”, which is a very short process. This is a very short process, I didn’t read what was written, after this I tried to connect to any server and couldn’t connect successfully, after restarting the device it came back, restarting the app didn’t come back. Since the update prompt for SurfsharkVPN is not perfect, I manually went to the official backend to check the latest version and found that it has been updated to 2.6.8. Therefore I will complete the following test in version 2.6.8. If this issue occurs in that version as well, I will explain it again below.

Following the test App Version: 2.6.8

USA – Chicago: First success; (Time efficiency: 15s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 1800Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 252ms; Download: 3.76Mbps; Upload: 1.04Mbps;

USA – San Francisco: Failed; (Show success, but can’t use the internet)
USA – Boston: First success; (Time efficiency: 70s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 1700Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 210ms; Download: 4.96Mbps; Upload: 1.69Mbps;

USA – Charlotte: First success; (Time efficiency: 26s)
YouTube Connection Speed: <100Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 212ms; Download: 1.9Mbps; Upload: 1.45Mbps;

Taiwan: First success; (Time efficiency: 32s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 150Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 74ms; Download: 3.12Mbps; Upload: 5.03Mbps;

Canada – Vancouver: Failed; (Try once)
Denmark: Failed; (Try once)
France – Paris: First success; (Time efficiency: 6s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 3000Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 247ms; Download: 4.93Mbps; Upload: 1.56Mbps;

France – Bordeaux: Failed; (Try once)
UK – London: Failed; (Try once)

Summary: Today, I tested SurfsharkVPN’s App Direct Connection in Windows 10, using two versions, the old version 2.6.6 and the latest version 2.6.8. However, there are quite a few servers that can connect successfully. As long as you’re willing to look for them and some of the servers you find are reasonably fast for the average user.

SurfsharkVPN Win10 Version: 2.6.6 / 2.6.8;     Protocol: Auto
Today’s Test Score: ★ ★ ★

SurfsharkVPN OpenVPN GUI Connection Test:

Starting Time: Aug 29, 2020, 3:13 PM

In order to speed up the test, the following speed tests I will mainly use the SpeedTest tool as the speed test standard.

Germany_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
YouTube Connection Speed: 3000Kbps;
Speedtest Ping: 227ms；Download: 8.62Mbps；Upload: 1.2Mbps；

HongKong2_UDP: Failed；(Try once)
HongKong_UDP: Failed；(Try once)
Japan4_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 44ms；Download: 28.89Mbps；Upload: 4.62Mbps；

Japan_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 42ms；Download: 10.5Mbps；Upload: 4.63Mbps；

Singapore_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 295ms；Download: 5.45Mbps；Upload: 0.23Mbps；

South Korea_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 245ms；Download: 1.04Mbps；Upload: 0.95Mbps；

Taiwan3_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 71ms；Download: 18.96Mbps；Upload: 4.27Mbps；

Taiwan_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 74ms；Download: 22.52Mbps；Upload: 5.75Mbps；

UK4_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 269ms；Download: 2.98Mbps；Upload: 1.05Mbps；

UK_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 241ms；Download: 4.57Mbps；Upload: 2.72Mbps；

US_UDP: First success；(Time efficiency: <10s)
Speedtest Ping: 221ms；Download: 4.36Mbps；Upload: 1.31Mbps；

Summary: Using the OpenVPN GUI for SurfsharkVPN in Windows 10 for wall-climbing connection tests. Although I omitted the YouTube Connection Speed test in these tests, from the perspective of user experience and SpeedTest, I think it is more suitable to use this method to connect to SurfsharkVPN for wall-climbing. The tests used 12 officially announced servers, and from the test results, the speed using this method is clearly due to its app direct connection, but the Hong Kong server was not tested successfully, and if you wish to download these 12 servers you can find them in this article: SurfSharkVPN Unable to Connect Solution (Chinese).

Windows10 NordVPN OpenVPN Version: 11.12.0.0 
Today’s Test Score: ★ ★ ★ ☆