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This post may sound pretty silly for you as specialists, but for me it is a serious question I cant find an answer to on the internet.

Basically, I wanted to encrypt my net connection - obviously, I've chosen VPN based on a comparison at https://thatoneprivacysite.net/.

Finally I found something which fits my needs well - https://www.azirevpn.com/ - their privacy policy is clear and they have flexible pricing.

But, after few days of analyzing the topic further, I noticed that they state:

Connect up to 5 devices simultaneously.

in one place, while in ToS they claim that:

AzireVPN does NOT log the number of your active sessions or total sessions.

So, how is it possible to restrict the amount of devices being currently used without logging how many of them are active at the moment? One guy told me it can be done through a "firewall-layer" based method, but this would mean that they are lying... or perhaps the term "active sessions" has a different meaning?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am still a rookie in security knowledge ;)

Best Regards, That Curious Guy

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    stealing is wrong even if you can get away with it. can you run more than 5? if not, they are lying, if so, you are violating the TOS, which is not a technical issue so much as a social/legal one.
    – dandavis
    Jul 26, 2016 at 18:56
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    @dandavis did you read the question? The question was related to how they could technically track a max of 5 connections if they claim to not log the active number of sessions, not "How can I get away with using more than 5 active sessions"
    – DKNUCKLES
    Jul 26, 2016 at 19:02
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    @DKNUCKLES: my point was that "who's to say they can"? Believe it or not, not every policy in a TOS is always mechanically enforced, so the answer might just be "they can't", hence my litmus.
    – dandavis
    Jul 26, 2016 at 20:19

1 Answer 1

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The system can see how many concurrent sessions you are running, that's the nature of the system you're using, but they don't record that information anywhere for archival purposes. So they can't, after you've disconnected, see that you were using 3 sessions simultaneously, so they don't "log" it.

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  • But this would means that they are monitoring active connections (which is still kind of logging, even if files are only stored temporarily, at least in my opinion). Nonetheless, thanks for answer!
    – That Curious Guy
    Jul 26, 2016 at 19:32
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    This would all happen in memory, no files would be recorded to any non-volatile storage medium in order to keep track of that, that's too slow. A VPN concentrator has to keep track of your session somehow in order to maintain your connections to the services you are accessing through it, it's easy to configure this to only allow so many concurrent sessions per user, but not record anywhere how many you used or the total you've ever made, etc.
    – Ryan Kelso
    Jul 26, 2016 at 19:39
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    Connections can be limited in any number of ways via software or hardware. Outbound connections to a specific IP from a router or ASA or managed switch, virtual switches with a maximum number of ports, and several other software only solutions. This does not mean they are retaining this information anywhere, just that they have a mechanism to implement the policy.
    – Mortesil
    Jul 26, 2016 at 22:16
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    @ThatCuriousGuy The VPN can't work without monitoring active connections. If it doesn't know what the active connections are then how can it tell if you're connected? And if it can't tell if you're connected how does it know to treat your packets as VPN packets?
    – user253751
    Jul 27, 2016 at 1:59
  • @immibis okay man, now I understand.
    – That Curious Guy
    Jul 27, 2016 at 16:56

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