yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Gerolianis:
After downloading some larger files (osmand maps) my quota is getting near to today's limit and I get a permanent notification 'VPN/Sentry - Used 92%" - this comes in addition to the standard "Connected Used xxx of 100 MB"

Would it be possible to have this warning either removable or otherwise included in the "Connected" message, so VPN/S doesn't use so much space on the notification screen?

It's possibly a nice to have for others as well.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
People tend to dismiss warnings and to complain later, that is why the warning is prominent and persistent. The notification is currently shown after 70 % data usage, maybe it should be at 80 or 90 %, but that could result in warning too late. This problem is best solved by increasing your data usage limit anyway ;)
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Hurkamurka:
I think i was misunderstandable. I'd like to stay with my VPN provider, but still i'd like to use your app's firewall capability. That's why i asked if you're gonna support root permission in the distant future. If i understood this app (VPN Sentry) correctly it is like a vpn app, and you provide vpn access + firewall. But i'd like to use only the firewall options (with root) without that the app uses the android VPN connection.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
This doesn't change the answer. NetGuard will not support VPNs and VPN/Sentry depends on a custom VPN implementation which other VPN provider not (yet?) support.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] iwanttoknow:
It's ok.

You have only to precise :

- the explicit 'erase' option in the app, when it would be available,

- an explicit period of time by default after which data will be automatically erased.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I have implemented the erase option this morning and I will release a new version soon (likely tomorrow), after thoroughly testing some other changes. I will update the privacy policy accordingly as suggested. Thanks again for the feedback.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] iwanttoknow:
Not being technical enough, I try to contribute otherwise to your project.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Loader009:
Two suggestions:

1. Would you mind to remove any purchasing/individual information from the backup provided by your app?

This way we could kind of "share" the config... if there will be a way in the future to "correct" the uid to the phone's values.

2. Could you also implement a (hidden) merge option next or inside the import function?

This way we could modify a backup or create specific app rules on another device (PC) and merge them to the current list. (I don't have programming skills but I once did little programming with python and I know a bit how regular expressions work, so even if isn't me who provides such a program, it would be useful.)

(I haven't tested a modified backup file, so I don't know if a "merge" feature is kind of implemented or if a backup file without pirchasing information is valid.)
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
1. This is exactly what the export/import does

2. In practice almost nobody uses this (maybe one or two NetGuard users ever asked for this)
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Loader009:
Ok, it looks like my suggestions are of the rare kind.

I will try to think somehow different.

I was never good at thinking about something banal, when I tried, it often was quite simple and unnecessary...

Something else, the notification of VPN/Sentry inside of Island is a bit weird (no traffic amount showed) since today 8h ago. I think this will be solved with a reboot, it might be also something about Island, which is still in beta. So, nothing serious. Everything else works as expected.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Your suggestions are understandable and as developer I have not a single problem of implementing them, but I have learned that the vast majority of the people just want simple to use apps. Anything else results in many questions and bad ratings.

Did you subscribe to the unlimited data usage plan?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Loader009:
Yes, I understand your decision (that's why I wrote "hidden feature", to make sure that only advanced users may use them... but again, this is a minority).

I did subscribe the unlimited data usage plan. (See notification above.) It just happened out of nowhere, dunno why or what triggered this.

edit: I tapped again on the notification, but now I can see the data usage... it is strange because I did it earlier but nothing happened to the notification.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
The only strange thing is that two "Connected" notifications are shown. This is likely caused by a bug in Android. I have seen this happen with other apps too.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
The next version will have a darker lightning.

I am trying to keep the privacy policy as simple as possible and as readable as possible. The text the referenced privacy policy generator generates might be legally correct, but isn't as readable as I would like.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I have updated the privacy policy mostly as suggested, maybe you can take another look.

https://www.vpnsentry.net/privacy/

The data on the server and the device is keep synchronous. The server can't know when the app is erased or uninstalled, or in other words when the app is going to connect to the server again. This means that erasing the data on the server can lead to problems. Somebody can think an app or address is blocked, because the app shows this, but when the data on the server was erased this might not really be the case anymore. Since I want to keep the server load to a minimum to the benefit of everybody, I don't want to synchronize data each time. After the data has been erased there is no way for the server to know if it is a new or existing client. So, the data on the server cannot be erased without risking trouble. Therefore the privacy policy now says: "Data will be stored as long as service is provided", which is a definition of a time frame as well.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I have just released

beta

version 0.39

It may take Google's servers a few hours to make this release available everywhere.

Besides a number of visible and invisible small improvements, this version adds an option to erase all local and remote data.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
Hi,

Can we know what "remote management" will do in the future?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
This will allow you to manage the device of someone else through a web interface.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
Hi,

There's a good chance i don't really understand the "global rules" window but:

I see url's there that i'm sure of that i blocked them for an app. In "global rules" they are shown as 'default'. Does this mean that another app is also using this URL and i did not blocked it for that app? Maybe it would be handy to also show which apps used an URL is this window?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Please see these FAQs:

https://www.vpnsentry.net/faq/#FAQ23

https://www.vpnsentry.net/faq/#FAQ21
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
Ok, thanks for your time. I will read and try to understand. Have a nice weekend! :)
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Let me know if you have questions and enjoy your weekend as well.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Loader009:
It's no bug, that is how the Island app works, as you said "think of it like another device", this can be transferred to all apps inside another work profile/in Island. Every app there has its own notification.

What I meant is the comparison between "connected - blabla MB of unlimited" and just "connected" without data usage shown.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] andygebb:
剛剛下載，
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
"Just downloaded,"

Please use English next time, other languages are not allowed on XDA.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] andygebb:
OK! Sorry, just finished downloading! Thank you
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
No problem.

Please let me know if the app works properly in China (assuming you are in China, given you wrote in Chinees).
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Primokorn:
I have always learnt that a firewall must block everything by default and the user only allows what he needs.

That's what I'd like to try with a dedicated profile: only set allow rules for each app. Is it something possible? No limitations on the number of exceptions?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Why not? Just create a profile with default Wi-Fi / mobile blocked.

The number of exceptions does not matter.

Blocking everything by default results in complaints and bad ratings ...
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Primokorn:
Yes I know. I can do it myself thanks to the profiles and I already created the profile.

Once the end of beta stage I'll give 5 stars for sure ;)
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] sulasno:
I wonder what happened to version 0.39

Normally it is available at playstore after reading any update on version
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I am wondering the same.

Anyway, I have just uploaded a new build with some additional improvements and published it again.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] feb8born:
Sorry for the delay, here are the logs. We had Diwali here. Happy Diwali :)

I found today, VPN/Sentry stopped working when going from wifi to data and sometimes it started working when I came to wifi, sometimes not. I have attached two logs. See if the info is sufficient or any further info is needed. Thank you!
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
What was the exact time of the problem?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] feb8born:
in logcat 2, it was persistent throughout and in logcat 3, it was not working initially, but started working at 20:57.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] sulasno:
It's up
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
It looks like you have another VPN app running, causing the VPN/Sentry VPN being revoked:

10-20 20:56:26.493 7189 7203 I vpnsentry.forward: Revoke
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] feb8born:
No other VPN service is running, I tried to disable and re-enable VPN/Sentry from Android settings to see if it will make things work. In 1-2 attempts, it didn't work and then I think in logcat 3, it worked.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
That is a good explanation.

Please try this: make sure VPN/Sentry is connected and works as it should, then switch connectivity causing the problem. Take note of the time and send a log file to me by tapping seven times on the title of the 'about' dialog. Describe the problem in short and mention the time.

Please upgrade to the latest version first. Maybe the problem has already been fixed ...
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] iwanttoknow:
Hi Marcel,

Just an advice if you permit :

Define words you want in the privacy policy, directly in the document. Don't make referings to others Web sites, because you don't control their updates. It's one of the rules for all legal documents.

My other points below :

...

This app encypts, sends and receives the internet traffic of your apps through one or more remote servers.

Is it useful to wrote this after :

'Those servers, in turn, selectively transfer the internet traffic to/from the internet.' ?

...

Just add BE below :

These indications will 'BE' stored for use by the in-app real-time logging function.

...

Data will be stored as long as service is provided.

Sorry Marcel but 'As long as service is provided' is ok if you define a limit duration of the contract. I didn't see it. So it's not GDPR acceptable.

...

I don't understand the sentence below :

No warrants have ever been served to VPN/Sentry or VPN/Sentry collaborators.

I hope it will be useful.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Thanks again for your suggestions!

About the storage duration: then it will be plan B: "Data will be stored for 30 years or for the duration service is provided, whichever is shorter", because I cannot erase data on the server without potentially causing trouble as explained before.

This is the trouble with all legal stuff, there is always a loophole. Therefore trust is better.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Loader009:
Uh, 30 years O_O

Well, I don't think that I will keep the subscription for this long, maybe cancel and subscribe it again every now and then :D

In germany 10 years is mostly enough even for small businesses. (I am no lawyer!)

Warranty which is said to be "lifetime" is also limited to 10 years in reality.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Service provided is something different than subscripted to a service, so it doesn't matter if you have a subscription and how long.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
Hi,

Since you probably know that Belgians are much much better in Dutch than people from The Netherlands i wanted to check the Dutch version. :) It seems our language is not yet implemented. Let me know if i need to double check something.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Currently there is only English. When everything is stable, I will make it possible to translate the texts.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Primokorn:
Hey

I don't understand why the connection can't be established. Wifi and mobile data are blocked by default and I only allow connections in the app addresses rules.

In the log I see that the connection is blocked because of the profile rules. However I allow the domain xda-developers.com thanks to a wildcard,which should take precedence over the profile rules.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
(Wildcard) addresses include the IP version (4 or 6), IP protocol (TCP, UDP, etc) and the port number, so you'll need to allow http, https and port 1883 in this case. You might want to allow *.xda-cdn.com:https as well.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I have just released

beta

version 0.40

It may take Google's servers some time to make this release available everywhere.

This version fixes hanging on connectivity changes, which seems to affect only some devices. Thanks [MENTION=4680401]feb8born[/MENTION] for helping me to find this bug (I couldn't reproduce this problem on my own devices).

Another change is that new addresses will be shown with a bold typeface for 10 minutes.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Primokorn:
Gotcha. I didn't know that rules are also related to the port.

I can't since it's not listed in the log.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I have written down a few advantages of using a VPN on the VPN/Sentry home page: https://www.vpnsentry.net/

Comments on this are welcome and I am curious if you have other/additional reasons to use a VPN.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] sulasno:
Read that using vpns can avoid exploits, eg KNACK
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Yes, decent VPNs will protect you against KRACK Attacks and similar security flaws. This is one of the listed advantages: https://www.vpnsentry.net
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
I planned to ask this in private but maybe better here:

For the moment i use 4G for all banking stuff (without any VPN). If you were me, would you fully trust VPN/Sentry to let these kind of apps go through? I *FULLY* trust you but i don't know who else makes use of this service, i also don't know the people who own the hardware etc etc. I'm only asking for an opinion, nothing more.

The only other service i ever tried was Tor but i gave up because it was far too slow. Also then i had the same questions. Also here it seems to be very safe.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I like to travel and in some places the internet isn't as reliable as I would like. This is one of the reasons I wanted a firewall with a VPN myself, so I can safely use the internet for the more risky stuff, like banking, and still have a firewall to reduce my battery and internet usage. I have had my VoIP credentials stolen and misused once, this won't happen me again! I hope this anecdotal answer tells you what you want to know.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
I have just released

beta

version 0.41

The remote management option was removed (I am not sure yet if I am going to develop this), the profile name was removed from the 'connected' notification too, since there were technical problems with it and a number of things were optimized/improved.

Please let me know if you have any problem, so it can be fixed.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
Where there problems with this Marcel?

EDIT: update already aarived here FYI
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Technically it is a challenge to keep everything synchronized, so it will be quite some work to get everything right and it will increase the risk for bugs. For now I want to keep VPN/Sentry as simple as possible and remote management doesn't really fit into this.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Droidphilev:
Ah, ok. I thought it was just the same window as in the app as everything happens on the server, that's why i asked. Thanks.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Everything happens on the server, but the app has a local copy of the rules, which should be updated when changing rules at another place. This sounds simple, but it isn't.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] iwanttoknow:
Hi Marcel,

Just adding two comments (in italics in the text) in Features :

Encrypt the internet traffic of all your apps, only from your terminal until VPN server

Hide your original IP address

It's the primary VPN definition but I only think that it's useful to specify it for those who do not know, in order to avoid bad deductions more particulary about encrypting the internet traffic from end to end.

Perhaps it's also necessary to specify to which public this new application is addressed, compared to "NetGuard - no-root firewall".
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
How about "Encrypt the internet traffic leaving your device" ?

I don't want to make (indirect) claims about evading restrictions, because I don't want to support illegal stuff, which is why I don't want to mentioning hiding IP addresses.

I also don't want to specific a public, because it is better to specify features, so everybody can choose for themselves.

Thanks for your suggestions.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] ik8vwa:
How is it that this app can be downloaded from the play Store even if it contains ads filters? With NetGuard we had to download it via github, is it a new policy?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
It might be a grey area, but VPN/Sentry filters on a remote server, while NetGuard filters on device. So, you could argue that NetGuard violates the rule that an app is not allowed to affect other apps and VPN/Sentry does not. Also, VPN/Sentry is in beta testing phase, so not yet released officially to the Play store and I might make the option to enable ad blocking available in a special way only.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] ik8vwa:
Ok thanks. I am a registered NG user and I am very satisfied with it. I will not update it to the latest version since I don't understand well all the changes. Anyway this new app is what I consider the natural evolution of NG and was much needed. In fact when I am on untrusted wifi networks, I disable NG and activate a Vpn (Private Tunnel) plus an app for early warning in case of arp spoofing.

I hope you will be able to engineer Sentry in such a way that servers' reliability, redundancy and speed will be given top priority, not forgetting full security.

I'll be looking at how it evolves and in the meantime will stay with my beloved NG plus (in case) the Vpn.

Good luck with this new adventure.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] iwanttoknow:
I don't see what could be "support illegal stuff" by specifying "only from your terminal until VPN server". So IMO "Encrypt the internet traffic leaving your device" is not precise enough. About "hiding IP addresses", I understand you.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Don't worry, there will be no problem in updating to the latest NetGuard version and NetGuard will be properly maintained and supported, but as I already said in the NetGuard forum, most of my effort will go to VPN/Sentry now. VPN/Sentry is young, but has already more to offer than NetGuard, see also this FAQ: https://www.vpnsentry.net/faq/#FAQ16

Rest assured that "reliability, redundancy and speed will be given top priority, not forgetting full security".
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
The illegal stuff was about hiding IP addresses only. "Encrypt the internet traffic leaving your device" is correct and I want to keep the feature list as brief as possible, so maybe this should be explained further in the FAQ.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] yadida08:
Hi Marcel,

on version 0.40 and 0.41 bug "VPN / S has stopped working".

I can not even get you a log.

I type 7 times on "About" and VPN stops working, the saved file is empty. When I open VPN the application is activated but I have nothing that reports it in the taskbar.

At version 0.41 here is what I got at the time of the update:

"VPN / S is already installed on this device. If you need assistance, get help trying to solve the problem (error code: -1)

I deactivated then reactivated VPN without success ... always the same problem.

[IMG="Screenshot"]https://img4.hostingpics.net/pics/908496Screenshot20171022141745.png[/IMG]
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
That is not good obviously.

I see only one crash report in the Google developer console, but that crash isn't related to VPN/Sentry itself (but due to a bug in Android).

Can you please try to reproduce the problem and capture a logcat using adb on your PC? If you don't know how to do this, you can easily find several guides using your favorite search engine. Please contact me directly if you need help with this.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Icetea:
ok, i was a beta tester for ~10min now. After the first start, i see that all apps are allowed to connect into the I-.net. Why that?

Anyway, i prefer NG for my personal future use.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
NetGuard allows everything by default too, so there is no difference.

This is to prevent people from complaining about internet not working anymore ...

Why do you prefer NetGuard over VPN/Sentry? VPN/Sentry has more features than NetGuard, see here, and also encrypts your internet traffic, protecting your from things like man-in-the-middle attacks and security flaws like KNACK Attacks.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Icetea:
after pressing the "unlimited data" button , i get a notification about costs of ~5€/monthly.

At this moment, my exploratory spirit was directly stopped.:D

I know, everything will have its price, but i don’t need it for my use. Sorry, a good idea, but i am parsimonious. ;)

BTW: had tried to pay for NG color option, but it was not available. Can't pay in store. But after uninstalling NG and again reinstalling , i was able to buy this option!

Any idea, what reason this could have? Tried this with v 2.141 and 2.138 - same problem. Only reinstalling should fix the problem for a while. But now it isn’t possible again.:confused: Anyway, i have the orange/grey theme now.:laugh: So all available options are completed.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
It appears that this crash is caused by Xposed or an Xposed module, so there is nothing wrong with VPN/Sentry.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] M66B:
Play store purchases only work in apps installed from the Play store.

BTW, this is better discussed in the NetGuard XDA thread.