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Pangea

VPN for school and college wifi

Campus filters do not work from a list of banned addresses. They read the shape of your traffic, which is why a normal VPN app fails even when its server is perfectly reachable, and why picking a different server changes nothing. Pangea disguises its traffic as ordinary HTTPS and works through five transports until one holds.

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What actually blocks you

Deep packet inspection

The filter reads the shape of the connection. A plain WireGuard or OpenVPN handshake has an obvious fingerprint, so it is dropped on sight regardless of which server you pick.

Port and protocol rules

Everything except 80 and 443 is closed, so VPNs on their usual ports never get out. Traffic that looks like ordinary web browsing is the only thing that passes.

DNS interception

The network answers your DNS queries itself and redirects the blocked ones. Your device follows those answers unless the tunnel is up first.

Certificate inspection

Managed devices may carry a certificate that lets the network read HTTPS. On a device the school owns and administers, no VPN changes that.

What the app does instead

Five transports, tried in order. The first one that holds is the one you keep. There is nothing to configure; auto mode does this on every connection.

Auto mode finds the way

The app tries each transport in order until one connects. Or pin one in the Connection Method setting.

  1. 1VLESS+REALITYBorrows a real site's handshakeBlocked in this example
  2. 2CloakHides in ordinary HTTPSBlocked in this example
  3. 3ShadowsocksNo TLS to inspectBlocked in this example
  4. 4Hysteria2Built for throttled networksBlocked in this example
  5. 5NaiveProxyIndistinguishable from ChromeConnected. Open internet.
Connected. Open internet.

Read the full explanation

Before you start

  • Windows and macOS apps. On iPhone you connect through Shadowrocket, a £2.99 App Store app; Android is on the waiting list.
  • Three server locations: London, Amsterdam and New York. More on request.
  • On a laptop your school owns and manages, administrators can see what is installed. That comes down to the device, not the network.
  • Using a VPN is legal in the UK and most other places. Your institution will have its own acceptable use policy, which is a separate matter.

Questions

Why does my school wifi block my VPN?
Almost always deep packet inspection. The filter recognises the handshake pattern of common VPN protocols and drops the connection, so switching servers or ports does not help. Getting through requires traffic that does not look like a VPN in the first place.
Will the school know I am using a VPN?
From network traffic alone, our transports are built not to be identifiable as a VPN. A school-managed device is a different question. Administrators there can see installed software whatever the network sees.
Does it work on Chromebooks?
Not currently. Pangea ships a desktop app for Windows and macOS, and works on iPhone through Shadowrocket. There is no Chrome OS build.
Is it against the rules to use a VPN at school?
Often yes, under an acceptable use policy, even where it is entirely legal. Read your institution's policy. We cannot tell you what it says, and a VPN does not change what happens if you breach it.

If you are somewhere else

Try it on the network that is blocking you

Five days free, no card needed. Try it on the network you actually need it for.

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