VPN blocked? How Stealth mode gets through

Your VPN worked at home. Now you are on hotel Wi-Fi, an office network or abroad, and it will not connect, or it connects and nothing loads. That is rarely your VPN being broken. It is the network deciding it does not want VPN traffic.

The short version: try OpenVPN first, and if that fails too, switch to Stealth mode. Set Stealth mode up before you travel, not after you land.

Why a network blocks a VPN

There are two different kinds of block, and they need different fixes.

The blunt kind. Many hotel, office and campus firewalls only let through the ordinary traffic a web browser uses and drop most of the rest. WireGuard, the protocol Veystrix uses by default, only travels over a kind of traffic (UDP) that these networks often block outright. Nothing is "detecting" your VPN. It just never gets through the door.

The deliberate kind. Some networks, and some countries, inspect traffic and look for the recognisable shape of a VPN connection. A standard VPN, however good, looks like a VPN, and gets dropped.

What to try, in order

1. Switch to OpenVPN. Same subscription, same servers, chosen in your account. It travels over TCP, which the blunt kind of firewall lets through. On our network that is port 1194/TCP. This fixes most hotels and offices. 2. Switch to Stealth mode. If OpenVPN fails too, the network is probably looking for VPNs on purpose. Stealth mode is built for exactly that.

What Stealth mode does differently

Stealth mode uses a protocol called VLESS with a technique called REALITY. Instead of looking like a VPN, your connection looks like an ordinary secure (HTTPS) visit to an unremarkable website, because the opening handshake it performs is a real one with a real site. There is no distinctive VPN fingerprint to spot.

The trade-offs, said plainly:

• It is slower than WireGuard. Use it when you need it, not all the time.
• It uses a different app. On Android, v2rayNG or Hiddify; on iPhone, Shadowrocket or Streisand;

on a computer, Hiddify. Our setup guide walks through each one.

• It has fewer locations: four at the moment (Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore and Los Angeles).
• It covers more devices. Stealth mode and OpenVPN allow up to ten devices at once. WireGuard

allows one at a time, because an account has a single WireGuard key.

Before you travel

Install the app and add your Stealth mode link at home. In the places where you need it most, the app stores and download sites are often the first things that are unreachable.

What nobody can honestly promise

No VPN provider can guarantee a connection will work in a country that is actively trying to stop it, and anyone who does is selling you something. Blocking changes without notice. Stealth mode gives you the best chance we can offer, not a certainty.

Laws differ, too. Some countries restrict or ban unapproved VPNs. Check the rules where you are going before you rely on one, and follow them. If you are heading to China, read Will my VPN work in China? as well.

Where to switch

Sign in, open Your account, and choose Stealth mode (VLESS) under protocol. It is the same subscription at no extra cost, and you can switch back whenever you like.