❓ Frequently asked questions

1. VPN does not connect, does not work. What to do?

In some cases, additional steps may be required to connect to a VPN.
This may be relevant if you use a VPN in countries where the authorities block VPNs, and also with technical restrictions on some ISPs in any country.

Please try each of these steps:

1. Reboot your device.

Please don't skip this step - it might actually help!

2. Select different locations on the main screen of the application, then reconnect.
You need to select at least 5-7 locations in sequence and attempt to connect after each change.

3. Select different protocols in the app settings, then reconnect.
You must sequentially select each of the protocols, and after each switch, try to connect again.

4. If you have another VPN turned on, turn it off, then restart the Red Shield VPN app and reconnect.

If you're having connectivity issues in the Windows app, please follow the additional solutions in the following answer.

2. VPN does not connect, does not work on Windows.

Please follow these steps before contacting support.

  1. Ensure that no antivirus and firewall applications are running except the built-in Windows defender.
    The Red Shield VPN application cannot operate simultaneously with most other VPN services, even if those applications are turned off.
    After uninstalling such applications, you must reinstall the Red Shield VPN application, restart your computer, and try connecting again.

    Please do not contact support until you have completed this step - we will provide the same response.

  2. If you have another VPN or censorship bypass tool enabled (including GoodbyeDPI), turn it off and close it completely.
    Then close (including in the tray - menu in the lower right corner) Red Shield VPN, open it again and reconnect.
    We recommend uninstalling other VPN applications, then restarting your computer.

  3. Try restarting your PC.

  4. Try reinstalling the application.

  5. Try selecting different protocols in the application settings, then reconnecting.
    You need to select each protocol in sequence and attempt to connect after each change.

  6. Try selecting different locations on the application's main screen, then reconnecting.
    You need to select at least 5-7 locations in sequence and attempt to connect after each change.

3. What is Red Shield VPN and what is it for?

In some cases, additional steps may be required to connect to a VPN.
This may be relevant if you use a VPN in countries where the authorities block VPNs, and also with technical restrictions on some ISPs in any country.

Please try each of these steps:

1. Select different locations on the main screen of the application, then reconnect.

2. Select different protocols in the app settings, then reconnect. You must sequentially select each of the protocols, and after each switch, try to connect again.

3. If you have another VPN turned on, turn it off, then restart the Red Shield VPN app and reconnect.

4. Make sure that there are no anti-virus applications and Firewall on the computer.
Simultaneous work of such applications with VPN is impossible.

5. Try reinstalling the app.

6. Try restarting your computer.

4. How to start using a VPN? How can I pay for it? Is your VPN free? Is there a trial period?

Unfortunately, we cannot provide a trial period, but you can request a refund no later than 14 days after payment if you are not satisfied with the service.

To start using Red Shield VPN, you need to pay for a subscription. You can do this in the "Subscription" section of the apps or in the Personal Area.
You can see all available payment methods during the payment process.

Red Shield VPN is a paid service. Unlike free services, most of which analyze your traffic and sell information about it to third parties, the Red Shield VPN business model is based on direct payment: we pay for the necessary resources from the funds received from the subscription.

5. I paid for a subscription, but it didn't renew.

This most likely means that you are logged in (or registered) to a different account than the one you used to pay for your subscription.

Please open the application menu or the "Profile" section of the Personal Area where there is a subscription, and the application menu or the "Profile" section of the Personal Area where there is no subscription, and compare the name of the accounts.

Please check each symbol.

6. Does Red Shield VPN work in countries where governments block VPNs?

The authorities of some countries such as Russia, China, UAE, Turkey and others block VPN protocols and services.

The technologies we developed and use in Red Shield VPN allow users to connect from some of these countries.

If you are located in one of these countries, please use the Red Shield VPN apps instead of manual configurations - this will make the connection more likely to be successful.

We can say with confidence that our service remains available to users from Russia most of the time.

You can try using the service in other regions where VPNs are blocked by authorities. If something goes wrong - we have a refund offer on request within 14 days after payment.

7. The connection on Android is sometimes disconnected and has to be reconnected manually.

Some Android smartphone manufacturers optimize battery consumption by killing background processes of applications, including VPN.
Unfortunately, neither the application developer nor the smartphone user can completely solve this problem.

However, you can try some steps to improve connection stability:

1. In the Red Shield VPN application settings, enable the "Disable power saving" option.

2. In Android settings, under power management, disable automatic power management for the Red Shield VPN app and enable all permissions, including the ability to run in the background.

3. Set up Kill Switch. Please use this option carefully.

In the Android settings, in the VPN connections section, select the Red Shield VPN connection and enable the “Always-on VPN” and “Block connections without VPN” options.

Important: when using this method, you must disable the VPN by turning off these options.

Also, enabling these options will block access to the Internet if there are problems with the VPN, and can also block access when the device is rebooted. In this case, the options must be disabled.

8. Can I set it so that only certain applications work through the VPN?

This feature is supported by the Android application and is called "Split Tunneling".
In apps for iOS and macOS, this feature cannot be implemented due to limitations of the operating system.

9. What does the country or city mean on the app dashboard?

This is a Location - a place (country, city) where our servers are installed, to which you connect and from which you will access the Internet after connecting to the VPN.

You can choose a different location if it is important to you that the service you are accessing determine your location in the right way.

Important: we cannot guarantee correct location detection by each service.

Many services create their own IP-to-location databases that we cannot change.

In addition, some services determine the user's location by many factors other than IP.

10. How to connect to another location?

Click on the name of the location on the main page of the app, select your preferred location from the list and connect again.

11. I connected, but some resource is locating me incorrectly!

You can verify that the connection is established and traffic is passing through the VPN by checking the banner at the top of our website: https://redshieldvpn.com.

The server you connect to is always physically located in the country that matches the location name
For example, if you connect to the "Austria" location, this means you are connected to servers in Austria, and your traffic exits in Austria.


Unlike many other VPN services, we do not have "virtual locations", where the server is in one country, but its IP address geolocation indicates another.
Some of our locations have DoubleVPN implementation by default - they are marked on the website and listed under the "Other" section in the applications, but even in this case, your traffic exits in the selected country.


If you see an incorrect location displayed on any "location determination" resources, you can contact the resource to correct the information.



If you want to learn more about how IP address geolocation works, read the text below.

User location determination in services occurs through databases that link IP addresses to regions (GeoIP). GeoIP databases come in two types:

  1. Created by specialized companies such as MaxMind, IP2Location, IPinfo, and others.
    Almost all small services and some large services use these companies' databases to determine the visitor's location.
    Owners or lessees of IP addresses can correct location information in these databases. In most of them, the exit IP addresses of our servers are determined according to the location name.
    If you notice an incorrect location determination in any of these services, you can contact the resource to correct the information.

  2. Created by large services such as Google.
    Most large companies create their own databases based on a lot of information: the actual location of the user's device, the language set by most users, cross-analysis, and more.
    As a rule, no one, including the owner or lessee of IP addresses, can make corrections in such a database.
    Therefore, unfortunately, neither we nor any other service can influence location determination in such services.

12. Why does a site or service not work through one location, but works through another?

This can happen for two reasons:

1. The authorities of the country in which the location is located block access to the site or service.

2. The site or service itself blocks access from IP addresses of any country or IP addresses of VPN services.

Unfortunately, we cannot influence this in both cases.
Please use another location to access this site.

13. Are Netflix and other streaming services available through your VPN?

Our service does not take any actions to bypass the restrictions of streaming services.
Despite this, we know that in some locations, streaming services detect the use of VPNs and block access, but in others they do not.
Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it.

14. Are dedicated or residential IP addresses available?

Unfortunately no.

15. How to connect a new device? How many devices can be connected at the same time?

You can connect up to 10 devices to one subscription. Each WireGuard manual configuration is considered a device.

Install the Red Shield VPN app on your device and log in with your username and password to use the subscription on another device.

16. Poor speed, VPN works slowly, high ping (latency)?

Try connecting to 5-10 different locations that are geographically closer to you and are not in the "Other" section of the application.

Also try selecting different protocols in the application settings (not all protocols are available in regions where the authorities block VPN).

VPN technology is designed so that Internet traffic from your device to the resource you are accessing and back passes through a VPN server in the location you have selected.

If the low speed persists in different 5-10 locations, then the reason is one or more of many factors:
- the quality and load of the connection from your device to the router and provider
- the quality and load of the channels and equipment of your provider
- the quality and load of international channels along the entire chain from your provider to the data centers where our servers are located

Unfortunately, we cannot influence any of these factors.
We understand the desire to contact support about this, but we honestly warn you that we cannot do anything about it.
At all :(

A small part of the locations are intended for access to local resources that are not accessible from the outside, but not for downloading large amounts of data:
- Kazakhstan
- Georgia
- Belarus
- Ukraine
- Uzbekistan
- Thailand
- Turkey

Due to the high cost and limited Internet channels in these countries, the bandwidth (speed) is limited in these locations.
Unlike many other services, we do not deceive users with "virtual locations" whose servers are located in other countries, with cheaper Internet traffic, but "have IP addresses of the location country", since this often does not solve the problems that a VPN should solve.
The traffic of all our locations comes out in the country by the name of the location.

We monitor all parameters of all nodes under our control around the clock and almost never allow them to be overloaded.

When you are connected to a VPN, you can check the speed to our server: https://st.redshieldvpn.com:444.

17. Where can I check connected devices?

You can view and manage devices connected to your account in the "Profile" section of the Personal Area.

18. Why does my smartphone drain faster when using a VPN?

A VPN is a resource-intensive task that includes maintaining the tunnel, redirecting traffic to it, and encrypting the data transmitted through it.

19. Can I set up a VPN connection without using your apps?

You can set up a VPN using the WireGuard or OpenVPN protocols on any device that supports these protocols. All the necessary connection data can be obtained at myrsv.org.

However, if you are located in Russia or another country where the government restricts VPN access, we do not recommend configuring the connection manually, because blocking bypasses are supported in our apps, but are not supported by OpenVPN and WireGuard apps or routers.

20. What is the difference between Red Shield VPN and browser plugins also called VPNs?

Browser plugins are proxies and only route traffic from the browser through their nodes, while VPNs route all traffic from the device.

When using browser plug-ins, all other data your device transmits or receives passes directly and may be intercepted and stored by third parties.

For example, when using plugins, DNS requests are transmitted in the clear, in which governments or providers can see all the resources you access.

21. Why pay for a VPN when there are free services?

There are two business models that VPN services operate on:

1) You pay for the service with money.

2) You pay for the service with your data.

There is another, very rare case - when the service has one or more sponsors - usually, these are large companies or governments. In this case, the service shares your data with them, that is, it can be attributed to the second model.

Free VPNs sell your data to anyone and regularly leak user databases because their business model doesn't have a reputation to uphold. They close the brand that allowed the drain, and the next day they open under a new one.

Our service offers a fair deal: you pay for the subscription with the money that we use to support and develop the service.

22. What are the RedLink and RedLink Shadow protocols in your apps?

These are our implementations and combinations of various protocols such as WireGuard and others.

23. Are torrents available through your service?

Torrents may be unavailable in all or some locations to avoid claims from copyright holders.

24. What information do you store about my account?

We store the information necessary for the operation of the service: email, country, hashed password, data required to connect to the VPN, payment history.

You can get all this information in the "Profile" section of myrsv.org by requesting data under the GDPR. In the same section, you can completely delete your account.

25. I want to commit crimes with Red Shield VPN. How will this end for me?

Red Shield VPN hides your IP address from the resource, however, it does not ensure your anonymity.
The use of Red Shield VPN is subject to the laws of the United States, Panama and the country in which you are connecting to the server.
We cooperate with the authorities of the countries in which our companies are registered in strict accordance with their laws.
We store minimal data about our users and do not store data about connections and traffic at all, however, according to the relevant decision of the US or Panama court, we will be forced to transfer the data we have of interest to the court.

If we detect activity that harms other users of the service or resources on the Internet - for example, the use of our servers for SPAM, DDoS and other malicious activity, we will block your account without the possibility of a refund.

26. How can I delete my account?

You can completely delete your account in the "Profile" section in the Personal Area.
If your account has an active subscription, then all information about it will be deleted and a refund will not be possible.

27. Can I set up a VPN connection on a router?

You can set up a VPN connection on almost any router or other device that supports the OpenVPN or WireGuard protocols.
You can get the configurations to set up in the Personal Area.
The WireGuard configuration for Mikrotik is available in the menu of the created WireGuard-config.

28. Does my router support the OpenVPN or WireGuard protocols required for connection?

You can find out about protocol support by your router from its documentation or Google.
If the router is connected via OpenVPN, it must support modern cipher and auth.

29. How are devices connected to the router counted?

We consider one router as one connection, regardless of the number of clients connected to it.
However, we limit connection parameters such as pps (packets per second), so we do not recommend connecting more than 2-3 devices to the router.

30. Can you help me set up a connection on my router?

Unfortunately, we do not advise on connecting routers.
You can get all the necessary data for connecting the router on the myrsv.org.
The WireGuard configuration for Mikrotik is available in the created WireGuard configuration menu.