Windows Installation

Please do not skip any of the steps!

Getting BolehVPN up and running consists of 2 easy steps:

  1. Installing BolehVPN-GUI: This is the program that establishes the VPN connection Choosing the Configuration you wish to use: Each configuration works differently and is specially optimized for different purposes be it for speed, security or convenience.
  2. Configuring your programs to use BolehVPN (only applicable for some configurations): Some of our configurations require additional configuration on the programs you wish to pass through the VPN.

These instructions are for Windows 7, 8 and 10 users

  1. First of all, download the installer from the link below.
    BolehVPN GUI 3.0.7
    Some antiviruses may detect this as a virus after you install but it is a false positive.
  2. Run the executable file that you have just downloaded. If you have User Account Control (UAC) on, click Yes. An installation window for the TAP adapter will also pop up. Please proceed with the installation. (We recommend you remove any previous installation of any TAP adaptors and/or BolehVPN clients if you haven’t done so)
  3. Once this is done, please run the GUI by selecting yes. Otherwise, double click on the BolehVPN desktop shortcut or launch it via Start > All Programs > BolehVPN > BolehVPN
  4. At this point, another UAC dialogue will open, asking for permission to make modifications. Click Yes. This will enable Windows to create a VPN route which requires elevated Windows administrator privileges.
  5. You will now be prompted to enter in your username and password. This is the same username and password that you use to login into our user portal.

  6. By default, the configuration files and certificates will be updated on every startup. This can be changed easily by going to the Settings tab. Here you can configure the GUI to your liking.

  7. Once it has successfully updated you will see a drop-down list with multiple server options. If some reason, the “Connect using” box remains greyed out and stuck at “Login …”, please contact us at support[a]bolehvpn[dot]net and we will get you sorted out.
  8. For starters, you can try connect via one of the FullyRouted servers to see if there are any glitches. Make sure you select OpenVPN under Protocol and select a FullyRouted server from the list and then click Connect.

  9. Give it a few moments and congratulations, you should now be connected!

    A log of a successful connection:

  10. Also, you can also access the client via the bottom right-hand status bar/system tray for your ease of use.

  11. Now before you go on, please click Disconnect and proceed to the next page to learn what each different configurations do as they work pretty differently!!

 

Credits & Open Source Software

BolehVPN-GUI is our proprietary program that merely acts as graphical user interface to simplify the VPN setup process.

Its backbone however is based off the following open source technologies and code which are freely available and open to inspection:

XOR Patch for xCloak by haggismn

You will have noticed several configuration options from the drop-down menu. This is probably the most important part of the setup since failing to understand what each configuration does may prevent you from getting the most out of BolehVPN.

In a nutshell, there are 6 main types as shown in the table below:

Proxied Fully Routed Surfing/Streaming TCP Server Cloak BolehGeo
 Locations of Servers

Canada

Germany

Netherlands

Switzerland

United Kingdom

Canada

France

Germany

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Singapore

Sweden

Switzerland

United Kingdom

Italy

Japan

Malaysia

United Kingdom

United States

Canada

Germany

Singapore

France

Italy

Japan

USA

UK

Canada

France

Germany

Italy

Singapore

United Kingdom

United States (surfing/streaming only)

Japan (surfing/streaming only)

Canada

Netherlands

Singapore

 Best Used For

Secure P2P

Routing specific connections through the VPN

Hiding location

P2P

Surfing Anonymously

Data Security

Hiding Location

Surfing Anonymously

Accessing/ streaming geo-specific Content (Hulu, Pandora, etc)

Hiding Location

Bypassing firewalls

Cloaks VPN traffic to look like normal traffic using regular ports such as port 80 and 443 (TCP and UDP)

Used in restrictive countries such as and Iran

Accessing/ streaming geo-specific Content (Hulu, Pandora, etc)

Protection 256-bit AES
SHA-512 HMAC
AES 128-bit
SSL
256-bit AES
SHA-512 HMAC
N/A
Additional Setup Programs need to be configured to use SOCKS Proxy Not Required Depending on name, will work like Proxied or FullyRouted Not Required

Each of these configurations have distinct purposes, therefore it is important to read through this section carefully to utilize this service to its maximum extent.

BolehVPN is one of the few VPN providers that offers a wide range of options all in one package.

a. Proxied


Server locations: Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK

All these configurations are in a proxied setup which means you will need to set up your software before using the VPN. Any software that is not configured will go through your regular unprotected internet connection. Proceed to Step 4 to learn how to configure your software when you are ready.

Pros

      • Does not affect other latency sensitive applications like MSN/surfing/gaming therefore you can do all your other tasks without feeling any slowdown. VPNs in general add latency to your connection.
      • Works well for most purposes and well seeded torrents
      • If properly configured, an interruption of your connection to our VPN servers will not leave you exposed.

Cons

      • You will not be fully connectable and will appear as firewalled. This is inevitable as it uses a proxy. This might reduce your ability to connect to peers and is relevant when the seeder/peer ratio is bad or there are very few people on the torrent. This also gives you LowID with Emule
      • Requires the program you wish to pass through the VPN to have SOCKS Proxy support and be configured appropriately.
      • Some programs due to faulty programming do not use the VPN proxy exclusively and may still use your regular connection for certain connections. Therefore this is not suitable for those who wants complete privacy.
      • Slightly higher overhead due to usage of a SOCKS proxy.

b. Fully Routed

Server locations: Canada, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, UK

‘Fully Routed’ is different where all your data is automatically routed to the VPN. This means everything including surfing, internet messengers (Skype) and any other software that requires an internet connection will have go through the VPN.

You do not need to configure your programs to use the VPN if you use this.

Pros

      • Offers a high degree of privacy/security for your internet enabled applications
      • Painless setup since once you are connected to the VPN; you need not configure anything else
      • May work better with poorly seeded trackers

Cons

      • Increases latency/lag on all other applications that means surfing, Skype and everything else that uses the internet will have a longer response time due to the additional route your internet connection has to take.

c. Surfing/Streaming

Server locations: United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Italy, Japan

The Surfing/Streaming servers CANNOT be used for P2P but is especially good for streaming US-only content such as Hulu, Pandora, Veoh and such.

Note that there are SurfingStreaming-TCP options that are intended only for people with firewalls that do not allow UDP connections. Please stick with the non-TCP servers if possible as they are faster and more stable unless absolutely necessary.

Specifying a proxy is unnecessary. It works similarly as the ‘Fully Routed’ configurations where you could just connect and start surfing!

However certain internet-enabled programs might not work while this setting is applied.

d. Cloak

Server location: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Japan, United States, United Kingdom

In order to bypass the strict internet firewall in countries such as China and Iran, we have prepared the Cloak configurations, an improvement over our older Cloak-Routed configurations.

Please take note that the Cloak configuration also has suffixes that determine the type of connection it will make, which corresponds to the other 3 configurations mentioned above.

For Cloak-Proxy, proxy settings must be configured and this can be viewed in Step 4.

e. TCP Servers

Server location: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, United States, United Kingdom

The TCP servers suffixes in some of our configuration allow you to bypass corporate/campus firewalls. This should be only used if you are unable to connect to our servers due to a firewall. This works on the majority of the firewalls but there are still setups out there that can block it. You can also use this if you suffer from a poor internet connection with packet loss. Please note that the TCP protocol will not be as fast as the other UDP servers.

These servers work as Proxied, FullyRouted, SurfingStreaming, xCloakRouted, or xCloakProxy servers based on the name, meaning you would need to configure your software to use proxies in order to divert the traffic through the VPN only if you use the Proxied TCP servers. You can see this is done in the next step.

f. BolehGeo


Server location: Canada, Netherlands, Singapore

BolehGeo allows you to access sites that are restricted to US address without the use of a VPN. In other words, the lag and overhead inherent from using a VPN are eliminated, thus faster streaming speeds can be observed. This also means that you won’t be getting the privacy and security benefits that would otherwise be present with the use of a VPN.

Please take note that this feature is strictly for making your computer appear from the US on geo-specific media sites.

We have tested this list of streaming services and found that they work well with this new feature.

1. Hulu
2. Netflix
3. Hulu Plus
4. HBOgo
5. Pandora
6. Fox
7. Crunchyroll
8. CBS
9. Youtube

Do let us know if there are any geo-restricted sites for the US that you would like to see added to this list and how this works out for you! Remember to clear your cookies before trying out the sites!

Now it’s time to configure your programs!

If you are using  any ‘Proxied’ server, you would need to configure your programs to go through the VPN (unless you don’t want them to).

Fully Routed and Surfing/Streaming configurations do not require these additional steps as all your data will be redirected through the VPN automatically once you are connected.

Click on a button below to view the program’s configuration.

Torrent Clients

We highly recommend qBittorrent for Windows users due to it’s simplicity.

      

If your program is not listed here, do not fret! As long as your program supports Socks Proxies, you only need to enter the following details in the relevant fields:

  • Hostname: 10.10.10.1
  • Port: 1080
  • Type of Proxy: Socks 5
  • No authentication

Browsers

         

For other browsers and download managers, you will need to configure the HTTP proxy. You can also opt for SOCKS proxy if needed.

  • Hostname: 10.10.10.1
  • Port: 808
  • Type of Proxy: HTTP
  • No authentication

You can also always drop by our Support Forums to ask for help in configuring a particular program.

To have additional privacy at the cost of speed, you can combine BolehVPN with TOR.

Please note that it is not recommended to P2P over TOR.

There are two ways each with their respective pros/cons:

Using BolehVPN with TOR

Download and launch TOR browser bundle. Open BolehVPN client and go to Proxy Settings and enter in the following parameters:

 

  • Proxy type: Socks
  • Server: 127.0.0.1
  • Port: 9150

Connect to BolehVPN with one of the TCP connection options. We are currently looking at expanding our server options that support TCP. Please note that TCP is slower than UDP. TOR does NOT support UDP at the moment.

Advantages

  • Additional privacy layer (our VPN server will not see your real IP address but the IP of the TOR exit node)
  • Option to connect to web sites under TOR protection, even to those sites which refuse TOR connections
  • Usage of TOR even by the programs which don’t support it
  • Access to TOR from all the applications transparently: no need to configure each application, one by one
  • Avoidance of any traffic discrimination from TOR exit nodes (packets are still encrypted when they pass through TOR exit node)
  • Major security layer in the event you pass through a compromised/malicious TOR exit node (packets are still encrypted when they pass through the TOR exit node)

Disadvantages:

  • Poor performance

Using TOR over BolehVPN

This setup is not as beneficial as the above but it is useful if you wish to hide TOR traffic from your ISP provider. If you wish to connect over TOR over BolehVPN:

  • Connect to a Fully-Routed BolehVPN server
  • Launch Tor

All the applications configured to connect over TOR will connect over TOR over BolehVPN. All the applications not configured for TOR will simply connect over the VPN. 

Implications

  • Our servers can see your real IP address.
  • Our servers can not see your traffic content, real origin and real destinations.
  • The TOR entry-node will not see your real IP address, it will see the exit-IP address of the Air server you’re connected to.
  • Your are not protected against malicious TOR exit nodes if you send/receive unencrypted traffic to/from the final host you connect to.

If you do need help, there’s a few options available for you.

  1. First of all, have a read through our FAQ and see if there’s an answer to your question there. 
  2. If you don’t find an answer, submit a support ticket and we’ll get back to you. Do note that we’ll need the logs from the Log tab of the BolehVPN client, as well as info about your system (antivirus / firewall status).
  3. Register for and check out our support forum for other info, or make your post here for help.