The MacOS ProtonVPN app got updated today for me. After the update, on running the application, I get a huge pop-up window asking me to “Enjoy the fastest connections by enabling custom protocols”.
This is something completely out of the blue and I am unable to find any information on what these protocols are. I am very wary of allowing MacOS’ security preferences to provide a blank cheque to any app.
I tried to ignore setting this up but every subsequent attempt at connecting to a VPN on the Mac times out. Timeout errors do not manifest in other devices (iPad, android) when attempting to connect to the same servers.
Help requested: Could someone provide an eli5 explanation, please, on what these custom protocols are? And why they (assumedly) are deemed necessary for the VPN connection to not time out?
I am on a Proton Unlimited account, if that helps any. Many thanks.
It allows you to decide the VPN protocol to use : Wireguard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, (Stealth?). Usually a Smart Protocol is available and used by default and will find the best protocol for you.
These protocols are just different ways for a VPN providers to connect to a VPN servers, providing different capabilities and performances. Some of them might be blocked by a government (or company firewall) and therefore having different protocol allows better connections in different and various cases.
I guess that if you do not accept the dialog, maybe ProtonVPN tried to use an old-invalid value and can not initiate the wanted VPN tunnel.
but if this is something added in aug 2021, then it doesn’t seem to be relevant. I’ve had protonvpn only since early 2022 ans this is the first time I’ve encountered this dialog?
I’ve checked this out, it does not seem relevant to the scenario posted in the OP.
It’s a pity. I really liked ProtonVPN but I guess I will have to switch over once the subscription period expires. I simply cannot allow unexplained unfettered access to security settings.
Thanks, though, for taking the time to research. Deeply appreciate that regardless of the outcome.
edit: the screenshare links seem to be broken. sharing a temporary onedrive folder link for now (expiring 23:59 UTC on Jan 3rd) with all screenshots.
thanks for looking into this.
Can you share a screenshot of the message appearing?
in above linked folder. Screenshot 1: initial popup.
Screenshot 2: with the app’s requested security settings.
Screenshot 3: server AU-17 timing out in MacOS.
Screenshot 4: connecting without issue to server AU-17 on android.
Can you try to disable Smartprotocol and manually use one of the existing ones?
i tried to do this, but it does not work unfortunately. every time i try to switch the protocol in the app’s settings, Screenshot 1 (from above in this response) pops up again and the setting automatically reverts back to “Smart”.
The earliest user inquiry to the “Enjoy the fastest connections by enabling custom protocols” prompt we can find on our end is from September 2021, which is in line with what u/fusetim wrote above.