PublicVPN.comSPAM update
Looks like the new spam filters are working; we're down to about 60–80 a day, which is mostly manageable. Support should be as speedy as usual.
Network maintenance, 10–Mar–07 and 11 –Mar–07 12AM to 6AM PST.
Our ISP is performing some network maintenance. There may be a few minutes of downtime during these time periods.
Support issues!
Due to large amounts of spam (thousands a day), support may be a bit slow. Sorry for the inconvenience; it may take a while to get to your emails.
Power maintenance, 24–Feb–07 and 25–Feb–07 7PM to 8PM PST.
Our ISP is adjusting the power load in the cages. There will be a few minutes of downtime during these windows.
Outage, 17–Feb–07.
There was a server outage for a few hours. The DNS bug on 20–Jan–07 was actually a natd problem, not a dns problem as we were led to believe. Apologies for all the outages this year; between software problems on the server and the infrastructure issues. We think the server has been stabilized, but only time will tell.
Outage, 21-Jan-07.
Our ISP seems to be having technical problems today, and our servers are unreachable. Please be patient as our ISP work through their issue.
Outage, 20-Jan-07.
The servers were down due to a hitherto unknown system bug related to DNS. The issue has been fixed. Sorry for the delay, it took a while to isolate the exact issue.
Scheduled ServerMaintenance on 12-Nov-06.
The servers will be offline from 12PM to 1PM PST on Sunday, November 12.
Outage, 19-Sep-06.
Intermittent connectivity issues and DNS problems made connectivity to the servers problematic. Those should be resolved now.
New Windows XP Setup Instructions Posted , 03-Aug-06.
A user discovered that Windows XP sometimes does not use the PublicVPN.com DNS server. This means that people around you could have seen your DNS queries, though they still wouldn't be able to see your data.
The Windows XP setup instructions have ben updated to show how to set connection-specific DNS settings, which stops this data leak. For more information, see http://www.publicvpn.com/support/WindowsXP.php#SetDNS
Maintenance, 26-Jul-06 5:00 AM EDT.
The system will be down for about 5 minutes at 5:00 AM EDT on 26–Jul–06. This will disrupt any active connections, so if you’re cut off please wait for 5 minutes and reconnect.
Server Outage, 16-Jul-06.
There seemes to be some kind of intermittent server problem that's causing connectivity problems. Another one happened today, between 12:51 PM and 3:50 PM.
Server Outage, 14-Jul-06.
The PublicVPN servers weren’t able to accept new connections for a few hours. The problem was resolved, and everything should be working.
MTU issues, 4/30/06
Lately, we seem to be having more MTU issues. If you can connect but can't seem to surf or collect email, then it's likely you've run into the MTU issue. To fix it, see the entry in the FAQ titled "I'm connected to PublicVPN.cpm, but I can't seem to collect email or download any web pages."
Outage, 4/26/06
Apparently the new server brought with it a new bunch of issues. The service was down for much of yesterday, but was back up by 9PM PDT. Apologies for the inconvenience that the outage caused.
New Server IP
While we don't recommend using the direct IP address of the server, in some situations (if you don't seem to have a working DNS server) you need to. The new server IP address is 198.145.252.69. If you're using the old IP address (207.173.206.73), please switch to the new one soon.
Server transition, 21–Apr–06 …
We've changed over to our new host, and gateway.publicvpn.net should be pointing to our new server. It'll take a few hours to propagate to everywhere. The transition should be competely seamless. However, if you run into any issues, please mail support@publicvpn.com immediately. While extensive testing was done, there may be glitches here and there.
The biggest benefit of the new server is a fix that allowed interoperability with Windows XP's NAT-T L2TP/IPsec. Previously, you needed a real IP address to connect via L2TP/IPsec. Now, you can connect via L2TP/IPsec when you're behind NAT.
One other change is that the byte totals are no longer available. That information was handy, but not that useful, and is not available anymore in this new version.
Upgrade in the works…
We'll be upgrading the VPN servers soon, stay tuned! The cutover should be pretty seamless, but if you’re using the IP address of the server (207.173.206.73) instead of gateway.publicvpn.net you should change back to the hostname.
Outage 03/19/06.
The VPN service is currently down for unscheduled maintenance. It should be accessible by 03/19/06 9am PST. support@publicvpn.com.
Outage for 39 minutes this morning.
A clumsy tech knocked the power cord out of my server this morning. The server was offline from 9:54AM PST to 10:36 AM PST on 02/13/06. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Eudora for Windows SMTP setup instructions!
We’ve just added setup instructions for Eudora for Windows. See the article “Eudora for Windows SMTP Settings” to the left.
BidPay no longer accepted as a form of payment
Western Union has discontinued their BidPay service, so payments using BidPay are no longer accepted.
New PublicVPN.com accepts e–gold and BidPay!
PublicVPN.com now accepts e–gold and BidPay as payment methods. These payment methods require extra support, so please email support to arrange payment via these methods.
New 10.4 Specific Instructions! 06-Jul-2005
New Mac OS X 10.4 instructions were added in the setup area to the left. While the instructions are the same, one of the screens changed in Mac OS X 10.4. So we redid the set for Mac OS X 10.4.
New Dashboard Widget! 24-Jun-2005
We here at PublicVPN.com have jumped on the Dashboard bandwagon! Click here to go to the new Dashboard widget page and download our widget, and check your PublicVPN.com connection status whenever your Dashboard is active. For Mac OS X 10.4 users only!
Can’t connect? 22-Jun-2005
If you’re finding that you can’t authenticate with PublicVPN.com, make sure your account hasn’t expired. Sign in, and look at the “Time Remaining” section.
Updated status page, 31-May-2005
The status page has been updated to make it more obvious when you are and are not connected. Thanks, Bruce!
New SMTP settings page, 25-May-2005
The SMTP settings page has been updated to reflect that port 587 is available for sending mail, along with the standard port 25. Also, direct IP address settings are given in the case that DNS is not available.
New connection status page, 24-May-2005
We’ve added a connection status page, so you can see if you’re connected to the VPN. Go over to http://www.publicvpn.com/support/status.php to see if you’re connected or not.
PublicVPN.com service update, 17-May-2005
The PublicVPN website had an outage from about 2 PM to about 4:30 PM PST due to issues with the web hosting server. VPN connectivity was not affected, though the account website was unavailable.
PublicVPN.com service update, 10-May-2005
The PublicVPN service provider had an outage today at about 3 PM PST. Connectivity before then may have been intermittent. Full service was restored by 3:30 PM PST.
