Softether VPN

Softether VPN is a modern multi-protocol VPN manager and client. The program provides the highest level of confidentiality, independently creating L-2 and L-3 tunnels and professionally encrypting traffic. Open source provides its free distribution, it is provided by a multinational team of volunteers. The difficulty will be caused only by the assembly of the utility from components and its further adjustment in the absence of the Russified interface. The product is intended for connoisseurs and experts and will be difficult for ordinary users.

About the product

The program was created in Japan. In 2003, Daiyu Nobori, a student at a university, developed the first version of the product and immediately came under the scrutiny of the government. The authorities found its development unsafe, suggesting that it could "damage the image of other VPN products." The student offered the program to Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, having lost the rights to it, but in 2014 he again released it to the market, already open source. Now the issue of exclusive rights is not fully resolved.

Softether VPN servers are located only in Eastern Eurasia; this, as well as the creation technology, ensures high speed of work for users from Russia who live close to the localization region, also for customers from Central Asian countries. The program has a built-in firewall. The SSL-VPN proprietary data transfer protocol used is identical in appearance to normal HTTPS traffic, it hides the use of VNP and makes the program popular in China, it can cope with DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technologies that block some protocols. The program works through a rarely used port 433. Traffic is masked very successfully, sometimes for the purpose of data transfer, ICMP (ping) and DNS query simulations are used.

When answering the question of how to use Softether VPN, it should be noted that the program is designed for all operating systems, but requires certain technical knowledge. It is multi-component and consists of the following elements:

• Softether VPN server. It consists of Server, Bridge and VPN Server Manager (in the version proposed for Windows);
• Bridge. The option connects local networks to VPN tunnels;
• Softether VPN server manager. It is installed separately and allows you to administer remote VPN servers; you also need to download the Softether VPN manager separately from other program blocks;
• Vpncmd is designed to administer the command line, it is actually a program management console;
• Softether VPN client - the client is required to connect to the VPN network.

The price of the current version of Softether VPN client manager 4.22 does not depend on the number of components since the program is distributed under the terms of an open license, you can download it on the developer’s website, select the required components, or use the already assembled packages offered by experts.

privacy policy

Users who decide to download the Softether VPN client will be most concerned about how well it provides anonymity on the Internet and with what means traffic is encrypted. The system uses AES 256-bit and RSA 4096-bit encryption. But since the product team is positioning itself as a team of volunteers, without stating its real goals, some experts do not recommend choosing this offer. Using client computers, with their consent, in the form of proxy servers does not guarantee security.

 

Advantages and disadvantages

Softether VPN manager has both advantages and disadvantages, and since the product is specific and unusual for the VPN market, its characteristics will be just as unusual.

Benefits

the possibility of using several protocols, these include L2TP / IPsec, OpenVPN, MS-SSTP, L2TPv3, EtherIP-servers, the developer also proposed its own protocol "SSL-VPN"; unlimited traffic; the product is distributed under a free license; the technology of creating a program eliminates the possibility of blocking its use in Russia.

disadvantages

Most servers are located in the Far East, in Japan and South Korea, the data transfer speed will not be very high. At the same time, users mark frequent breaks of connections; installation complexity. Users often cannot understand what is better, download the Softether VPN gate plugin, or install the client; many of the operations for building the system from components have to be done manually using the command line; there are suspicions that there is spyware in the program; It’s not clear from the user’s manual how to use the Softether VPN client manager to connect remote VPN servers.

Installation and Setup

Download Softether VPN in Russian at the developer site. Configuring Softether VPN is done differently, depending on what software is installed on your computer, for example, for Windows, vpncmd will be bundled with the VPN Server Manager, on UNIX it will be installed with the server. Going to the developer's site, you need to select the necessary components, get a link, download the Softether VPN client manager in Russian and unpack the archive.

Next, the system will put a number of questions in front of the user, everything needs to be answered "yes." In the vpncmd management console, you need to check the compatibility of your system with Softether VPN. After confirming the operation, you need to start the program and configure the Softether VPN client.

Users in Russia are not in a hurry to choose this program, despite the fact that it can be used to build your own local protected networks. Even the support of Pavel Durov did not influence her popularity. The widespread use of software prevents the complexity of installation and configuration and low connection speed.