Surfshark and Kerry Wan/ZDNET
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Surfshark has launched a brand new VPN protocol that guarantees higher safety and barrier-breaking speeds.
- As an alternative of sharing a tunnel with different consumer site visitors, Dausos gives every consumer with their very own tunnel.
- Preliminary checks reveal promise, but it surely is not fairly there, but, by way of efficiency in comparison with WireGuard.
Surfshark has unveiled Dausos, a brand new digital non-public community (VPN) protocol designed to enhance consumer-grade VPN speeds and safety.
What’s Dausos?
Named after the Lithuanian phrase for heaven and as a nod to ascendence, Dausos is Surfshark’s proprietary VPN protocol, which the corporate hopes will set it aside from the likes of WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 as a purpose-built protocol designed for client VPN use.
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The corporate says that whereas many protocols utilized by VPN networks in the present day weren’t initially designed for client use — and had been as a substitute merely tailored to be match for goal — Dausos has been particularly constructed for this activity.
What makes it completely different?
In response to Surfshark, Dausos makes use of AEGIS-256X2 as a substitute of the broadly used AES-GCM, however the important thing distinction is that it gives a separate, devoted site visitors tunnel for every consumer. Usually, you’d share these tunnels with different VPN consumer site visitors, however by forging particular person paths, the hope is that Dausos creates a cleaner, extra streamlined expertise and reduces the potential threat of site visitors contamination or publicity.
In a Reddit thread, Karolis Kačiulis, Main System Engineer at Surfshark, stated:
“When customers share a tunnel, one consumer’s site visitors load can intrude with one other’s, which means your packets get dealt with slower as a result of the server is busy processing different customers’ packets. With Dausos, every consumer will get a devoted tunnel, in order that downside goes away.”
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Surfshark says this protocol might present as much as 30% sooner speeds than different protocols, together with WireGuard — the protocol Surfshark, together with most different VPN suppliers — makes use of by default.
Moreover, the usage of AEGIS-256X2 encryption is a safety enchancment and might also assist defend in opposition to future assaults as a post-quantum answer.
Backing Dausos claims
Introducing any new main encryption know-how or protocol all the time carries dangers, so to again up its claims, Surfshark engaged unbiased auditor Cure53 to conduct an evaluation.
“With no findings rated at Important or Excessive severity inside the precise Dausos protocol itself, the audit outcomes mirror a secure and resilient platform,” the evaluation (.PDF) reads. “The Surfshark crew demonstrated a major dedication to safety by remediating the vast majority of the findings instantly following the testing section.”
This does not imply it has all been honest winds, nevertheless, as upon launch, some testers discovered Dausos didn’t carry out effectively with residential connections. Nonetheless, Surfshark quickly developed and deployed a repair, which seems to have resolved the problem.
Set up, testing, and remaining ideas
For the time being, Dausos is just out there on macOS, though Surfshark plans to roll out the protocol to different platforms sooner or later.
To check out the brand new protocol, guarantee your app is updated with the newest model. Nonetheless, it will not seem below your VPN’s protocol choice tab if in case you have downloaded the Surfshark app immediately from the VPN supplier’s web site. As an alternative, go to the Apple App Retailer and obtain the Dausos app, which is in beta.
Charlie Osborne/ZDNET
I examined the brand new protocol in opposition to my preliminary unprotected connection and WireGuard, and located it labored effectively throughout the board for looking the Web and streaming on each Netflix and YouTube, so it appears the preliminary teething points have been ironed out.
Everytime you use a VPN, you might be introducing a intermediary between your system and a web-based service, and so you need to anticipate a drop in speeds — though when your preliminary connection is comparatively quick, chances are you’ll not discover the distinction.
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I discovered that Surfshark with WireGuard enabled lowered obtain speeds by 35.54% and add speeds by 6.30%. In contrast with Dausos, obtain speeds decreased by 38.25% and add speeds decreased by 4.88%.
Total, WireGuard nonetheless carried out higher for obtain speeds, whereas Dausos edged forward in add velocity retention. (As connection and environmental elements all fluctuate, think about this solely a snapshot of what chances are you’ll anticipate — as your expertise may very well be fully completely different.)
Backside line
Dausos has potential, and given the marginal efficiency variations in comparison with WireGuard, I would advocate attempting it out, particularly since we’re prone to see enhancements because the beta protocol continues to be refined. And if it entices you additional, it is good to know that it’s free and out there to all Surfshark subscribers.
Will it ever turn out to be open supply so the VPN and safety business can profit as an entire? When this query was posed to Kačiulis, he stated that it isn’t doable throughout the early launch section — however Surfshark “see[s] the advantages of it and it is one thing we’re actively discussing.”
“We’ll hold you up to date as we proceed to judge our open-source technique,” the engineer added.
