WireGuard VPN – How to Install and Use It with VPNCity

When innovation knocks, what do you do: let it in or shut the door? 

I can almost hear our VPNCity developers shouting COUNT US IN!!

Being forever-curious and creative geeks, we at VPNCity are always open to innovation. There’s no better innovation in the VPN industry right now, than the ability to combine high-speed connection and top-notch security.

Today VPNCity is delighted to announce the release of a new VPNCity integration – WireGuard – yet another advanced cybersecurity solution.

What is WireGuard VPN?

WireGuard is a new VPN protocol that brings major changes to the VPN industry.

Modern, extremely fast, and insanely precise in its architecture, WireGuard uses state-of-the-art cryptography and is backed by thorough research. With this combination, it overshadows the current leading protocols – OpenVPN and IPSec. WireGuard consists of only 4,000 lines of code, making it easy to deploy, audit, and find bugs. To compare: OpenVPN runs on 400,000 lines of code, meaning that WireGuard would make up only 1% of the massive OpenVPN’s architecture.

What are advantages of WireGuard?

The emergence of WireGuard, a new VPN tunneling protocol, seems like a breath of fresh air in the industry, so let’s go over some key features together. 

Updated encryption

As explained on the WireGuard website, WireGuard aims to be an ‘upgraded version of outdated protocols‘, such as OpenVPN and IPSec’. 

WireGuard uses the following protocols and ciphers:

• ChaCha20 for symmetric encryption, authenticated with Poly1305
• Curve25519 for ECDH (Elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman, a key agreement protocol for establishing a shared secret over an insecure channel)
• BLAKE2s for hashing and keyed hashing
• SipHash24 for hashtable keys
• HKDF for key derivation
  

You can learn more about WireGuard’s modern cryptography on their official website.

Simple and minimal code base

WireGuard undeniably stands out in terms of its code base, which is currently no longer than 4,000 lines. 

This is in sharp contrast to OpenVPN or OpenSSL, which combined consist of over 600,000 lines. IPSec is also bulky at around 400,000 total lines with XFRM and StrongSwan together.

What are the advantages of a smaller code base?

• Easier to audit, and therefore easier to find vulnerabilities, which helps keep WireGuard secure
• Smaller attack surface in comparison to OpenVPN and IPSec
• Better performance

Performance improvements

Speed can be a limiting factor of VPNs – for various different reasons. WireGuard is designed to establish connections and handshakes faster, and significantly improve the overall performance. 

All in all, WireGuard protocol aims to outperform other protocols in terms of:

• Speed
• Longer battery life with phones and tablets
• Reliability
• Faster connection and reconnection (faster handshake)

Cross-platform ease of use

WireGuard works across following platforms:

WireGuard Mac OS
WireGuard Android
WireGuard iOS
WireGuard Windows
WireGuard Linux

However, whilst WireGuard offers many exciting advantages, it currently comes with some noteworthy drawbacks.

It is important to note that WireGuard is still under heavy development, and not yet recommended for general use. 

Nonetheless, WireGuard might still be ideal for some users, depending on their threat model and specific needs. 

So if you’re one of the curious ones and want to test it yourself, you can!

We have now released our WireGuard integration with VPNCity.

All users now have the ability to fire up a WireGuard VPN with VPNCity by clicking on the WireGuard tab inside your control panel. 

To install and use WireGuard VPN click here or follow these steps:

• Head over to My Account
• Enable WireGuard on your account (click enable!)
• Choose one of the many Cities that offer Wireguard
• Either Scan the QR code direct in the Wireguard App or download and load the configuration
  

We believe that WireGuard has the potential to be a game-changer in the VPN industry. But we’re nothing without your feedback – please let us know about your experience, and if you want WireGuard to be a built in function of VPNCity in the future!