How to test VPN applications for VPN leaks

If you are using VPN perhaps you will hear for the VPN leaks.

I spent 3 days to test VPN applications for Desktops or Mobiles and identify VPN leaks that maybe has.

I will not say which is the best or the worst but i will explain how can test your VPN to be sure that is working correctly and keep safe your online privacy.

A vpn application has a VPN leaks when your real public ip become visible event though your VPN is active.

Your VPN must mask your real ip address when it’s active. Unless the VPN is useless

The most common VPN leaks are the followings:

• IP Address leak
• Dns Leak
• WebRtc Leak

Which tools to use to identify VPN Leak

You can find lot of free tools in the internet for basic or more advance test VPN Leaks.

Find out some good tools that can use when you want to test your VPN

How to test VPN Leaks

It’s not difficult to do a test VPN and identify any leaks. You can use one of the above tools and proceed with the following test which explain what are any of the leaks and you can identify it.

Test your VPN for IP Address Leaks

IP Address is a unique number that gets from your ISP(Internet Service Provider) to verify your identity in the Internet.

IP Address leaks is when you are using a VPN but instead to mask your real public ip address is still visible.

To identify the IP Address leak is the easier from other Leaks.

You ca do it with two different ways.

Let’s proceed with the first one.

Disconnect your VPN if it is active and open the Chrome or any browser that you use.

Open the google and type “my ip address”.

The ip address that you will see is your real public ip address that get from your ISP.

The VPN must mask your real public ip address and take another one base on your VPN provider.

So connect with your VPN and type again in your browser “my ip address”

If your ip address is the same as previous then you have ip address leaks.

Because it doesn’t mask your real ip address. That means no online privacy.

Also the VPN it’s not working as suppose to be.

The other way that you can test for IP Address leaks is to use one of the above sites.

Be sure that you are remember your real public ip address. If you don’t you can type my ip address in your browser without connected with the VPN.

Open one of the above links. Let’s go with the https://ipleak.net/

Wait a few seconds until your IP Address appear

It will very easy to identify if this is your real public ip address or not.

Test your VPN for DNS Leaks

DNS or Domain Name System is a system that converts the website name like onlinesecurityworld.com to an IP Address like 202.50.147.78.

When you are connecting in the Internet you get the DNS from your ISP(Internet Service Provider). All the translation are done in the DNS of your ISP.

Someone can identify your Location from the DNS that provided by your ISP.

Remember as i wrote in previous post the Location is the ISP Location and not exactly your Physical Address of your Home.

However ISP can collect all the information from the DNS and create a browsing history of your profile and sell it in advertiser company.

However to test VPN for DNS Leaks you can do it as follow:

Disconnect your VPN

Let’s open once again the https://ipleak.net/ or can select any available tool that you prefer.

Write down your DNS that has from You ISP.

Now connect with your VPN.

Do a refresh of the page and check the DNS.

Are the same or not?

If the DNS are different then your VPN works without any DNS leaks.

Test your VPN for WebRTC Leaks

A simple user maybe confuse with the WebRTC Leak.

WebRTC statnds from Web Real Time Communication

Base on https://webrtc.org/

you can add real-time communication capabilities to your application that works on top of an open standard. It supports video, voice, and generic data to be sent between peers, allowing developers to build powerful voice- and video-communication solutions. The technology is available on all modern browsers

So far all is understandable?

Because the technology is available in all modern Browsers you can expose the real IP Address through WebRTC API.

if the VPN will not protect you from a WebRTC leak then the website that you will visit can track your real public IP Address through WebRTC request while using a VPN

For this reason It’s essential to test VPN for WebRTC leaks

From the list with the tools that you can use i published sites that can test only for Webrtc leaks.

So with your VPN Connected open the https://www.expressvpn.com/webrtc-leak-test and find the results.

If it says Potential leak then unfortunately your VPN has a WebRTC leak.

What you can do if identify VPN Leaks

Identify IP or DNS leak

If you will identify an IP or DNS leak you can’t do a lot.

The easier way is to change the VPN Provider to protect your online privacy.

Identify WebRTC Leak

In case that you will identify WebRTC leaks you can do more than in IP/DNS leak.

One solution is to stop using the specific Browser and start use a Browser that doesn’t support WebRTC.

Here you can find a list of the browsers which support WebRTC. Try to find any browser except those to use

• Google Chrome (desktop & Android)
• Mozilla Firefox (desktop & Android)
• Safari
• Opera (desktop & Android)
• Microsoft Edge
• Vivaldi
• Brave
• Chrome OS
• Firefox OS
• iOS (mobile Safari)
• Blackberry 10
• Tizen

Another one solution is to disable the WebRTC in the browser that use.

You can find instructions of how can do it in How to Fix WebRTC Leaks (All Browsers) by NordVPN

However the recommended and quicker solution is to change the VPN Provider.

Conclusions

We use VPN to protect our online privacy.

It’s very important to be sure that either the VPN can protect our online privacy. Test VPN it takes a few minutes for any kind of user.

These minutes can be done the difference between privacy and exposure.