I switched from Nord… who apparently bought SurfShark… and the only issue I had with Nord (for the most part) was slower speeds. Sometimes a site wouldn’t work either.
SurfShark started out strong. I bought the 3.5 year membership at the lowest price, saved about 1/2 the money I was paying for Nord overall.
But now, I can’t connect to about 1/2 of the sites I regularly visit with the VPN enabled. Ive’ tried switching to multiple servers too. Amazon, reddit, google many times, yahoo, youtube sometimes, etc… to name a few big ones… that all almost never work while connected to SurfShark. On top of that, my speeds are about 1/3 of my max speeds.
I am pissed that I saw such great performance for a week and bought in to it. I feel cheated. My daily routine now is that I have to constantly switch VPN off to use most of the sites I visit. Same with games… most games wont work with VPN on.
I have tried all the tips/tricks that moderators/et all have shared here. None work. I don’t understand why switching to a different server sometimes works but usually doesnt. But given the 10s of millions Surfshark is clearly pulling in from all their “3 year deals”… I am pissed off that I barely use the damn thing now and that I have to multiple times a day enable/disable the damn connection. In fact, the only time I ever really use it is if I am using a torrent app. And I read recently that THAT doesnt even protect us very well if at all. So WTF is the purpose of SurfShark as a VPN if you cant even mask your IP safely?
I hear Mullvad is a good VPN… but worried like any others that seem to grow big like Nord and Surfshark, it will likely be a problem too.
Are there any other VPN options that work consistently, aren’t going to suddenly be blocked by sites like Amazon, etc?
Can’t VPN company’s “rotate” their IPs that mask the IPs to our ISPs somehow… like maybe have 1000s of IPs owned, and rotate their server IP used so that sites like Amazon dont black list their IPs so that they no longer work?
Hi there, thanks for your feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience you had due to issues with speed and website accessibility while using Surfshark. If you could get in touch with our support team at or via live chat on our website https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us, we would like to take a look at your case and find a way to improve your experience.
I am not denying your issues, but I am currently connected to Surfshark/Los Angeles and am posting this on Reddit while on SS… I also logged into GMail, Amazon and YouTube without issue. I also did a speed test and got 12ms ping, and I am reaching 90% of my speed with Spectrum.
I extensively tested within my 30 day refund window of a 27 month deal, and had no issues…even connecting to Canada and the UK so I could watch geo-locked auto racing.
Ditto. I’ve had a gut full of SS. Lately if I send a message on Messenger it shows as ‘sent’ but isn’t received until I disable the VPN. The panel keeps concurrently showing ‘Connected’ with “You are not connected to the internet”.
Was a regular struggle to get YouTube to work while connected to Australian servers. Always had to switch to USA servers and with that loose 50% or more in speed.
Could not convince surfshark that it was a configuration issue on their end as they kept asking me to change/try things on my end.
Switched to StrongVPN and speed and access has been phenomenal for over 12 months now.
I’m using wireguard client to connect to various servers. I was blocked from reddit and truth social today. I was connected to an m247 Datacentre and that provider gets blocked alot. So I switched servers by reconnecting and it was ok. I also feel your frustrations esp when I just want to perform a basic google search. Apparently even static ip plans are getting blocked too. I’ve tried some other European servers successfully that haven’t been blocked yet or detected by Google Captchas. Also make sure you’re not leaking DNS. Most browsers now enable Dns over HTTPS. This causes a dns leak. SS has an article how to turn off the secure DNS option so your traffic goes through the vpn not leaked by your browser.
Most of these issues I see some common things: they have every setting turned on.
Disable rotating ip
Disable clean web
Disable invisible on LAN
Disable NoBoarders
Reconnect to fastest connection or static or dedicated
Run a speed test with your choice like OOKLA or something.
I’ve only had some hiccups with Surfshark and I’ve been using them for over 2+ years and also purchased a dedicated IP and nothing has been so bad where I needed to switch providers.
You can’t just rotate the IP address because they would get all get block eventually, even if they get 1000 address from provider, the chance of them being used before and maliciously should be quite high, and therefore would be ban already by sites, because people will abuse vpn. Most vpn will get block by big sites, they are made to block vpns. If you want somthing that wont be block, get a vps server and put wireguard on it, fastest speed and can mask IP very well with no leak if config correctly. They also cant rotate their IP to our ISP, that just not how it work (from what I know, might be wrong). Had you tried Australian server. I mean this is the cheapest VPN option out there (that is kinda popular). If you want privacy, go for IVPN, OVPN, or perfect privacy. They are not surfshark competitor because they are focus on privacy instead, and they are much more expensive, therefore not a competitior of surfshark, mods. All in all, it really depends on how much money you willing to spend, if you need speed on the cheap, go for a vps, if you need privacy in a VPN then go for those 3.
I live in Singapore and I frequently use an online marketplace app called Carousell. The strange thing is that when I connect from overseas servers, such as those in Japan or Australia, I can access the app. However, when I use servers from Singapore, I get blocked. Is this normal?
Yah… I dont get it. For example, amazon worked initially, as did reddit. Lately though I cant reach either while on vpn. It makes no sense. And yet… sometimes I forget to disable vpn and it works… but VERY slowly. Like… pictures and stuff take FOREVER to show up if at all, but text will show up. So it is VERY hit or miss and usually hard miss. I’d love for SurfShark to answer why this is so random but mostly doesnt work.
We’re sorry to hear about the issues you’re experiencing with Surfshark. It sounds like there might be a conflict causing these connectivity problems. Please reach out to us directly at [email protected] or through our live chat on the website https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us, so we can assist you further and help resolve this issue.