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Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design

Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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Graham J wrote:
> Every ordinary user I know always works with apps like a browser 
> full-screen, so losing the focus isn't a issue.
> 
> They don't seem to have understood that Windows means having the option 
> for more than one window open on a screen.
> 
> What was it we had before Windows?  MS-DOS ???

What's interesting is the irony of invoking MS-DOS (single-tasking) and
Borland Sidekick (a crude, pop-up text utility used to fake multitasking)
on a system satirically called "Windows" that behaves as if there is only
one chromium window running at a time (which is really a chromium issue).

While "windows" on Windows is the ironically paradoxical joke here, 
what's also ironically paradoxical about Aloha VPN is it's blazingly fast.

Yet, it's so fantastically Superman-fast because it's badly designed!
What a paradox!

It should be shocking to everyone, if I'm right that there isn't a single
real Windows VPN browser review on the entire Internet, that isn't a shill.

Having extensively tested the Windows VPN browser, here's my review of it.
 a. Blazing speed
 b. System-wide hijack
 c. Silent, random drops
 d. Broken routing & DNS
 e. No integration with Windows security model
 f. Structural, not performance, failures

Blazing speed:
 a. Apparent throughput: 
    Measured TCP/UDP transfers through Aloha's tunnel show very high 
    bandwidth and low latency compared with many consumer VPNs, where
    downloads and streaming feel near-native.
 b. Why it looks fast: 
    Because Aloha forces all traffic through raw routed paths without 
    encapsulation overhead (no full TAP/TUN encapsulation, no extra kernel
    filtering), packets bypass many normal VPN processing stages that add 
    CPU or queueing delay.	 

System-wide hijack: 
Aloha on Windows doesn't behave like a browser VPN-it rewrites the whole
routing table, so all traffic (not just browser traffic) is forced through
its tunnel, without using proper Windows VPN primitives (virtual adapter,
NDIS miniport, WFP, NLA, NCSI, etc.).

Silent, random drops: 
The tunnel collapses unpredictably, with no kill switch, no route lock, no
OS-level awareness. When it drops, Windows just sends everything out over
your normal connection-instantly exposing your real IP mid-session.

Broken routing & DNS: 
After a drop, routes and DNS are left in a half-broken state: leaks,
stalls, orphaned routes, resolver races, and users needing route -f to
recover.

No integration with Windows security model: 
Because it doesn't use official VPN APIs or register as a VPN interface,
Windows can't apply VPN-aware firewall rules, DNS policies, or "VPN
required" policies. The OS literally doesn't know a VPN is supposed to
exist.

Structural, not performance, failures: 
The instability isn't just "it's slow" or "it disconnects sometimes"-it's
architected in a way that guarantees unsafe behavior: no kill switch, no
IPv6 handling, no TAP/TUN-style queue, no WFP callout, no proper adapter,
no documentation. 	 
-- 
Knowledge is knowing what is, while experience is knowing what will happen.

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Thread

PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-09 09:59 +0000
  Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Hank Rogers <Hank@nospam.invalid> - 2026-04-09 16:43 -0500
    Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-04-09 23:32 -0700
      Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-08 21:38 -0600
        Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> - 2026-06-09 08:09 +0100
          Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-06-09 13:05 +0100
            Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-09 13:03 -0600
          Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-09 13:19 -0600
            Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2026-06-09 16:29 -0400
              Re: PSA: Windows Aloha browser system-wide IP leakage & dangerous design Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-06-09 14:59 -0600

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