Q/A The neglected SPN #2128
Description
These are just my general gripes with SPN after being a continuous supporter for 2 years and using it on and off. Feel free to close this issue after taking the feedback.
After Safing was acquired by IVPN last year, there hasn't been any official announcements concerning the future/roadmap of SPN yet.
I'm not aware of any other channels of communication, so here are my questions.
1. Are there any plans to add more servers into the network?
Currently, there are 32 Safing nodes and 9 community nodes. The vast majority are located in Europe and in the US. Asia has some. South America and Africa have none.
2. Are there any plans to start prioritizing SPN stability improvements?
For example, issues like #2049 (IPv6 sometimes fails) are quite common and they severely impact the usability of SPN.
Some other things I've noticed:
A. The connection speed is really unstable. Sometimes it's ok, sometimes it's a slug. The following is a sample cloduflare speedtest in "Balanced" SPN mode.
B. Sometimes, when selecting a specific exit country in a location that has a Safing SPN node, the connection sometimes fails.
3. Are there any plans to add support for simultaneous usage of VPN & SPN at the same time?
Currently, if SPN module is active no VPN will work. You are forced to choose one or the other.
4. Are there any plans to prioritize adding support for other "respected" VPN providers?
It has been almost 5 years since Mullvad compatibility issue #313 was opened.
ProtonVPN #1246 seems to not be able to work with Advanced kill switch.
And according to Safing Wiki and #1070, even IVPN is not fully compatible.
If SPN worked flawlessly, the incompatibility of portmaster with the VPNs would be somewhat acceptable but in it's current state it's a very frustrating state of things. Every time I come back and try to use SPN (and by extension Portmaster), I end up uninstalling it due to a combination of the issues I mentioned.