I have avast Secureline vpn. It has been working for several months but now says 'negotiation with vpn failed'. I have reinstalled vpn, restarted. Dec 24, 2018 - In case you are wondering, Avast SecureLine VPN is popular client. Went wrong and the connection through the SecureLine VPN failed.
In all fairness, we must start by saying that there is no such thing as a perfect VPN solution; not even the top ranking premium VPN services are all perfect in every sense. With that said, in this post, we are focusing on the Avast VPN problems we have found or experienced, and how to solve them.
This VPN provider has a strong presence in the cybersecurity industry
In fact, Avast has the largest market share – and its security products are also used by over 400 million users all over the world, these facts don’t necessarily mean that its VPN software is all hunky-dory.
Now, join us along as we present to you why Avast SecureLine VPN may not be working the way it is promoted and how you can solve these issues if possible at all.
Avast SecureLine VPN not working as expected
All that glitters ain’t gold, as the late singer, Prince, put it so correctly. This old saying proves to be true in this case, too, since it is quite possible that you will find your Avast SecureLine VPN not working in one way or other.
It is possible to experience, for example, your Avast SecureLine VPN not connecting, speed problems, issues in China, problematic support, no anonymous payment method, not to mention possible security and privacy issues.
Let’s see these areas in more detail to find out what the reasons for your Avast VPN not working could be and how to solve them.
Avast SecureLine VPN not connecting
Not being able to connect to VPN servers and dropping connections are probably the two most annoying problems you may have to deal with.
Unfortunately, we have found Avast SecureLine VPN not connecting to certain servers occasionally. What’s more, you could also experience issues with establishing connection if you have conflicting software installed on your device.
Let’s see how these Avast VPN connection problems may appear and what you can do to avoid them.
When you fail to connect to an Avast VPN server, there can be several reasons why it is not working.
#1 Software conflicts
It may not be obvious for you, but if you have an antivirus program installed like Malwarebytes or Comodo, or other VPN apps, you may have software conflicts. It is also possible that you have Avast Premier including Free Antivirus installed instead of the standalone SecureLine VPN software and this causes the conflict with a third-party antivirus application. In other words, you may end up with Avast SecureLine VPN not working when other cybersecurity apps are installed.
There are two things you can do in this case:
Now, select Exclusions on the left and click the browse button to locate the antivirus software you wish to exclude.
Once you have ticked the desired checkbox(es), click OK and then, click Add to add the file or folder to the exclusion list.
Once you are done with this side of the coin, do not forget about excluding your Avast product from the other third-party antivirus program. For example, this is what you need to do if you have Malwarebytes Premium:
Uninstall any other third-party antivirus and VPN software via Control Panel (if you are using Windows). For example, Avast SecureLine VPN cannot work properly if you have other VPNs installed.
#2 Overloaded servers
You may experience problems with SecureLine VPN not connecting when your chosen Avast VPN server is overcrowded. Due to the fact that this provider has only 54 servers for millions of users, it is quite possible to end up with “Connection has failed” errors.
Since this could be caused by too much traffic and wrong timing, you can simply try to select another location. Unfortunately, you may have to retry a couple of times until you can finally connect to a server.
#3 Problem on your end
It is possible that you have an internet connection problem on your end. You may have forgotten to pay your monthly internet fee and your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has killed your connection. You may have hardware issues like your WiFi or router is switched off. As simple as that. Worth checking right away if you can’t seem to establish connection to several Avast VPN servers in a row. As an icing on the cake, you can also try to restart your computer.
#4 Firewall configuration
If your firewall is configured wrongly, you may also find yourself being unable to connect to VPN servers. Make sure that it is set up properly. Check the manual of your firewall to help you with the possible changes.
#5 Invalid subscription
Finally, yet another reason for your Avast SecureLine VPN not working could be that your subscription could have expired or got cancelled for misuse. The latter might happen when you use your VPN in an inappropriate way as stated by the Privacy Policy and the Acceptable use policy. It is worth checking the Subscription settings in your app to see if it shows up valid. Since in such a case you would normally receive a notifying email, you may want to check your mails, too.
Speed problems
VPN connection speeds are not an exact science as we have emphasized a number of times before. Yet, there are certain factors that can contribute to poor performance. One of these is the low number of servers. Avast VPN has 54 servers in 34 countries, which, compared to premium VPN providers’ thousands of servers in 50 to 100 countries, is rather poor.
When you add the tens of millions of users into the picture who may use this VPN service at the same time as you, this can easily be the cause of overloaded servers all over the place. Yet, you may get lucky in your region and connect to a chosen server without any issue at all as well as reach relatively good speeds for your needs.
If you are experiencing low speeds from the moment you connect to a server, chances are you are way too far physically from the Avast VPN server location. For example, if you are situated in New Zealand and try to connect to the Netherlands server, your connection may not be the fastest available.
This Avast VPN speed problem can be avoided if you try to connect to another server that may be closer to your location or one where the time difference would mean that way fewer people are using the net.
Support problems
It may not be so obvious why Avast VPN support problems are such a big deal that we need to mention them here. However, we must add right away that a VPN service without a decent and friendly 24/7 live chat support is as good as a pianist without fingers.
Let’s say you are experiencing Avast VPN connection problems and can’t seem to find a solution. What would you do? The first and best thing to do, after you have made sure that the problem is not on your end, is to contact the support team via live chat. At least, that is usually the fastest way to sort out your possible technical issue.
Avast VPN has no live chat support.
This is a real drawback; no wonder why many users complain about not finding or getting proper help with their issues.
So what can you do if you are facing Avast VPN problems? Where can you turn?
First of all, you can browse the Support page, which has a search field as well as categorized topics (Product Activation, Sales & Billing, and Refund Request) to help you with frequently asked questions.
Second, you can visit the Avast forums to find solutions to your issues.
Third, if you need specific help, press the Contact Us button at the bottom of a FAQ page. This is how you’ll be able to submit a support ticket to the support team after going through a number of questions and providing the requested data.
Finally, there is a toll-free telephone number to call 24/7 to “get help for all your device problems.” It seems that this is the only and the fastest way for you to talk to a human support agent.
To be frank, when it comes to support, Avast VPN may not be the most effective. You will find lots of complaints in forums and review comments from Avast users who couldn’t help their technical issues even after contacting the support team.
China problem
The simple truth here is that Avast VPN does not work in China. So, if you are a traveler going behind the Great Firewall or located in China, this VPN will not be of help.
The only solution for this problem is to do your research properly if you need the best VPN for China. Right now, there is no way for you to use Avast SecureLine VPN in China.
Payment problem
When purchasing your SecureLine VPN, you are offered basically two payment methods: Credit/Debit Card or PayPal. While these are the most usual and most often used ways by all other VPN services, we do have privacy concerns. Why?
Our Avast VPN payment problem is based on the fact that there is no anonymous payment method available. In other words, you cannot pay for your subscription by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Dash, or Ethereum, or gift cards. This means that you can be linked to a VPN account personally, which is not the best practice when you want to stay as anonymous online as possible.
If you need complete privacy, it may be best to look for another VPN that offers anonymous payment methods. This Avast VPN problem cannot really be solved any other way.
Security & privacy issues
If a VPN solution has issues with its security and privacy, it should be forgotten right away when your anonymity is of importance to you. Let’s see what kind of security and privacy problems you can face if you are using Avast VPN.
First of all, this VPN solution does not have an impressive line of online security and privacy features. Practically, all it offers is very basic: IPsec and OpenVPN on UDP as well as AES-256 (bank-grade) encryption. Although these protocols are considered the best and fastest in general, other VPN services have a wider variety.
What is even more worrisome, Avast VPN claims to have no logs of your connections and internet usage, yet, their own Transparency Report on the official website reveals some troublesome statistics. According to this report, there were 28 cases last year when authorities from different countries required data disclosure and in one case, Avast provided personally identifiable data.
Speaking of data sharing, we find it important to also talk about another VPN service from Avast called HMA! or HideMyAss! In connection with this service, there were 102 data requests in 2017 and Avast provided valuable information like true IP addresses, email addresses, and billing information in 40 cases.
So, the biggest question remains as a cliffhanger:
Are you or are you not safe and anonymous when using Avast VPN?
Even if this provider is transparent about its data disclosure, we don’t think that your online security and privacy are in the best hands. The only solution for such privacy issues regarding logging and sharing data is to do your research to find a more reliable and strictly no logs policy VPN service.
Comments are closed.
|
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |