The Private Internet Access (PIA) desktop client offers a variety of widgets and advanced settings to customize your VPN experience.
Servers/Regions and Favorite
The most commonly adjusted setting for most users is the region they are connecting to. To access a complete list of the region selections available to you, click the VPN Server widget. Clicking the VPN Server selection presents you with a full list of servers.
You can minimize or expand countries with the arrow next to a country's name. The latency shown next to each region is an indicator of the efficiency of the pathway between your device and the server. By default, the application is set to Choose Automatically, which is the option visible at the top of the server list; this option connects to the server with the lowest latency. The heart next to each server indicates the region as a favorite, which adds the option to the Quick Connect menu. Clicking the left-pointing arrow at the top left of this interface returns you to the settings interface.
IP Widget
The IP widget displays your actual IP, and when connected, also displays the IP you are being masked with. If you use the port forwarding feature, the forwarded port also shows here.
Basic/Expanded Display
Returning to the Default Display, there is an arrow at the bottom that opens the Expanded Display. This is used to customize the Default Display and change advanced settings.
Clicking this displays the Expanded Display. There is a switch that can be toggled in the top right of each widget to mark it as favored. If a widget is marked as favored, it also shows in the Default Display.
Performance Widget
The Performance widget shows your history of data that flows through the application. Every five seconds the display updates, showing how much was downloaded over the past five seconds. The numeric display at the bottom of the widget shows live download and upload traffic, as well as the duration of the connection. This is the traffic that has occurred and is occurring, not a speed test.
Usage Widget
The Usage widget shows the total amount you have downloaded and uploaded since establishing the connection.
Subscription Widget
The Subscription widget displays the status of the subscription logged into the app.
VPN Snooze Widget
The VPN Snooze widget allows you to specify a planned pause of the VPN connection, temporarily stopping the connection and starting it again after the duration specified.
Quick Setting Widget
In this section, we cover each of the options available in the Settings widget, which includes all the extra features available in the PIA client application.
Desktop Notifications
Desktop notifications provide pop-up text boxes in the corner of your screen to notify you of any changes to your connectivity, such as an unexpected disconnection.
MACE
MACE is a DNS-based ad blocker that blocks known advertising and malware domains. As it operates at the DNS level, it can only block entire domains and as such, does not block ads that are served from the same domain as legitimate websites. Inversely, it can also in some situations end up blocking an entire website because it tried blocking an ad. A famous case of this is https://www.google-analytics.com/ which is used by the sponsored links in Google searches. As a result, some users complain about not being able to access Google results. More details about MACE are available here.
Port Forwarding
The port forwarding feature can be used to potentially optimize torrent performance. To use this feature, you must connect to a server on which port forwarding is enabled.
With the port forwarding feature enabled, expanding the VPN Server widget shows which servers can be utilized for the feature in brighter white text, while those that cannot port forward are grayed out with an icon indicating the feature is unavailable from that region.
Once connected to a supported server, the application displays the forwarded port assigned to your connection.
Allow LAN
If your network is properly configured to support LAN communication, enabling the Allow LAN feature allows you to do so while the VPN is connected.
Debug Logging
The Debug Logging feature is important if you experience problems, as it allows the application to collect connectivity and functionality logs. These logs are not traffic logs; PIA does not monitor, restrict, or block web traffic on our servers or your system. The logs this feature generates are exclusively for troubleshooting purposes and contain no information that identifies a user upon submission.
Light Theme
The Light Theme feature inverts the color scheme of the PIA client and is purely cosmetic.
More Settings...
The More Settings… option opens the most extensive menu of the client, containing all the settings available in the Expanded Display as well as further advanced settings.
Preferences
General
The first section of the settings interface is General, which controls the basic functions of the VPN and some graphical settings.
- Launch on System Startup: This will ensure that the application is launched upon boot.
- Connect on Launch: This will instruct the VPN to attempt to connect to a specified region on connect.
- Show Desktop Notifications: This was already explained in the section above.
- Language: will specify what language the application interface displays.
- Theme: This allows for selection of Dark or Light, demonstrated in the explanation of the Light Theme option above, and System (Windows only and automatically sets the theme based on how it is set in Windows).
- Tray Icon Style: This allows users to select a particular icon based on needs.
- Dashboard Appearance: This allows you to choose how the application displays when the GUI is open. The GUI is attached to the icon when Attached to Tray is enabled. A window will detach the GUI from the tray and allow for a more mobile experience.
Protocols
The next section is Protocols. This section contains specific settings that can be altered to either troubleshoot a connectivity issue or provide additional support and security.
- Protocol: The protocol toggle allows you to choose between the Wireguard and OpenVPN protocols.
- Transport: This setting will allow you to specify the use of UDP or TCP. In general, UDP will usually provide the best performance for most users, but TCP may be necessary for certain networks.
- Data Encryption: There are four available options, GCM and CBC for both AES-128 and AES-256 encryption. PIA exclusively uses encryption that has not been cracked and is known to be secure. All of these options will provide you security, but the higher levels of encryption will have a greater impact on performance.
- Remote Port: This setting allows specification of the specific port to be used in association with the connection type. For security reasons, the PIA VPN service only allows traffic on certain ports. Some users may need to specify a certain port for performance issues related to restrictions on the network they are connecting from.
- MTU: This option determines the maximum packet size allowed through the tunnel and offers three settings: Auto, Large Packets, and Small Packets. Auto detects automatically and is best for most connections. Large Packets can be considered the most efficient if the connection is reliable. Small Packets is less efficient but is best for unreliable connections.
- Data Encryption: Upon changing the Data Encryption setting, the available options within Data Authentication will change. The GCM Data Encryption settings must utilize GCM Data Authentication.
- Local Port: By default, the application will randomly select the local port used; the vast majority of users will never need to modify this setting. Advanced users operating with highly restrictive firewalls may utilize this setting to specify a port that will work with their configuration.
- Use Small Packets: This setting will cause the connection to modify the MTU setting of the connection, effectively changing the packet size of the traffic occurring over the connection — this can be used to resolve packet loss issues.
- Try Alternate Settings: When checked, the application will by default, change the connection type and remote port until a connection is established.
Network
The Network section allows you to choose to use PIA DNS servers, your device's existing DNS, Handshake DNS, Built-in-Resolver, or a custom DNS server. You can also toggle the Port Forwarding and Allow LAN Traffic features here.
Privacy
The Privacy section allows access to the VPN Killswitch feature, which prevents web traffic outside the VPN tunnel. You can also turn MACE on or off.
Dedicated IP
The Dedicated IP tab is where you will see the Dedicated IP you have purchased either through the client control panel or when you first signed up for the application. For more information regarding Dedicated IPs, please see the article Do you offer dedicated IP addresses?
Automation
The Automation tab allows you to determine how the VPN reacts to certain conditions, such as whether it should connect to open Wi-Fi networks, protected networks, or your home network. More details about this feature are available here.
Split Tunnel
The Split Tunnel feature allows you to exclude specific applications or IPs so they operate outside the encrypted tunnel. You can read more about our Split Tunneling feature here.
Multi-Hop
Use the Multi-Hop and Obfuscation checkbox to create a circuitous route and run your connection through two different servers, one being a proxy.
Account
The Account section contains details about the subscription of the account you are logged into.
Help
The final section is Help. In addition to being another location to toggle the Debug Logging feature, you can also find a shortcut to the Support Portal and see the version of the application you are using. In the Help tab, you will also find the following features:
- Disable Accelerated Graphics (Windows and Linux only): Checking this box will disable the app's graphical effects the can have a higher impact on CPU usage.
- Receive Beta Updates: When checked, you will be prompted, within the application, to install the latest beta version when it becomes available.
- Show service communication messages: When toggled to the off position, this will limit the communication you receive from the application
- Help Improve PIA: This feature helps ensure the service performance by sharing anonymous connection stats with PIA. The reports do not contain any personally identifiable information.
Submit Debug Logs
If you select the Submit Debug Logs option, you can enter details about what you are experiencing. When you click Send, a Reference ID is generated. Click Copy to Clipboard and paste this ID in your response to customer support.