New User problems

[Marlick]

I am having several problems trying to get Hideaway to work, despite a fair amount of experience with computers and having used a different VPN for several years. It is not clear what I'm doing wrong.

I have tried installing the program which was purchased and downloaded yesterday on my laptop and my desktop, both running Windows 7 64 bit.

The first installation was on my laptop and I was able to validate the installation and set up a new rule for the pale moon browser. There was an error in specifying the program and I corrected that. Now when I start hideaway it stalls on loading rules.

There appears to be no way of changing the settings or rules before the program starts. Setting an exception in Windows firewall or disabling it temporarily have no effect. There was no advantage in uninstalling and reinstalling the program.

Installation on the desktop after shutting down the laptop had these and other problems. In particular although I could login and the program recognised my laptop as one of my devices, it asks for a authentication code and announces itself as running as a trial version.

I still get stuck on loading rules on either computer – I only run them one at a time.

A separate problem is the fact that hideaway opens for itself a window on the desktop which cannot be removed by clicking on the X icon as normal. I don't leave windows open unnecessarily and certainly do not want to advertise whether I am using a VPN or not.

Can anyone point me to a solution?

[nick.bolton]

Hi there

You might have made a mistake with entering one of the rules and it can't load them at start up. For example, putting the whole process path in a rule instead of just the process name (eg Outlook.exe). We'll take a look and see what's up and fix it for you and let you know when done.

You need a separate license for each profile, from the FAQ's.

Each license key allows a single user to use HideAway on one computer, but the license is concurrent. This means you can use HideAway on multiple computers, but when you use your license on a 2nd computer, HideAway will pause functioning on your 1st computer. If you wish to use HideAway on more than one computer at the same time, then you will need to purchase additional licenses.

I'm not seeing that behavior you describe where clicking X doesn't remove it to the system tray. It should do this so it's hidden. What Windows version are you using?

Thanks
Nick

[Marlick]

Hi Nick

Thanks for the reply: that's exactly the mistake I made. There is no obvious way for me to correct it here.

I only want to use the program on one computer at a time and the laptop was switched off when I tried to use the desktop. Although my login is recognised and the laptop is listed as a device with the title I gave it, the desktop asks for a licence code and then says the one I have is already in use.

I am using windows 7 Professional 64 bit on both computers. Clicking the X icon only takes the focus away from the hideaway window.

Thanks

Jim

[Marlick]

Hi Nick

Thanks. The laptop is now working and while I haven't got to the desktop I can access that profile here. The only profile which is not shown as trial however is Master and that was not used when I set it up. Using the program on different computers one at a time is important.

The cancel button is still not working however.

Jim

[Marlick]

Hi Nick
It seems my ISP is using a transparent DNS. Do you have a recommended way of avoiding that?
Thanks

Jim

[nick.bolton]

Ok, see this for managing icons on the taskbar and system tray for Win 7, this should let you move your Hideaway taskbar icon to the system tray
http://www.howtogeek.com/75510/beginner ... windows-7/

The Master profile is the default profile used when you first setup HideAway so you'll need to use that on each computer.

Interesting about transparent DNS, this is how it works https://dnsleaktest.com/what-is-transpa ... proxy.html
Does the default DNS Leak rule in HideAway work for this?

[Marlick]

Thanks, but the problem is not with the icon which is hidden on the system tray already. It is with the window on the desktop for hideaway which remains in place and visible (unless covered by another open window) when the X icon is clicked. The hideaway icon does disappear from the bottom of the screen and reappear when you click on the title bar of the open hideaway window. The icon in the taskbar is available all the time - although it is one of the hidden icons there.The minimise and maximise buttons in the hideaway window work properly: it is only the X button that does not. Presumably there is some program I run which conflicts but I don't get this behaviour with anything else. This is a curiosity rather than a major problem but you might like to know about it.

There is no problem about me using the master profile at all times. Presumably there is no point in having any others and I should delete them?

The DNS leak rule is exactly the sort of feature I was hoping you could point me to. What works otherwise is disabling DHCP and specifying both an IP address and DNS server in the network connection settings. Setting this rule instead and specifying Google's DNS server appears to be all that is necessary. When I route my traffic through Denmark and run the DNS leak test, the DNS servers are shown as Google's in Finland. Many thanks.

As far as I can see the programme is now working properly for me and I'm grateful for your help especially as I was not getting very far on my own. Documentation could be more accessible but no doubt this will build up over time.

It seems Hideaway is better, faster, cheaper, less inclined to fall over, and possibly more secure than the VPN I previously used. ( I had not learned about transparent DNS before). So my thanks and congratulations to you and your colleagues.

Jim Williamson

[nick.bolton]

Thanks Jim for the kind comments. Good you have it working all now, but odd about the taskbar problem. We're actually changing the User interface part in the next version so hopefully that will resolve that issue.

Our next version is well on the way and has many improvements, so we'll let you know in due course when it's ready.

Regards
Nick

[chalkyw64]

I have just bought HideAway, and - after finding out the hard away about the KAV issue - now have it up and running.

However, I too have the "close button issue" - whereby clicking the close button does nothing, and clicking the minimise button leaves a large icon on the taskbar (despite it already being "hidden" in the system tray).

I also have 2 instances of "HideAway.exe" running in the Task Manager (one using approx. 22,000K and the other 30,000K) - is this normal?

[nick.bolton]

I see you're correct about the close X issue on Windows 7, we can replicate it here. We'll have this fixed in the next version.

You will have 2 instances of HideAway running as it uses Google Chrome's graphics engine and that spaws two processes.

[chalkyw64]

Thanks - good to know 2 instances are normal - and even more so that the X fix will be in the next update.

[chalkyw64]

Currently HideAway opens its window centre screen on startup and has to be minimized manually (Windows 7). Since there are no GUI options in the Settings tab, is there a way to configure it so that it automatically minimizes when starting up?

[rusticdog]

You are logged into HideAway when you exit ? When HA starts it checks for an account, and should start minimised into the tray as it will autoically logon again.

If you logout of HideAway though, it will start on screen.


At least, that's how it supposed to work Can you confirm that it's not playing nice.

[chalkyw64]

Hi rusticdog - I can definitely confirm that it's not playing nice!

During startup HideAway opens a window centrescreen, logs in and displays a list of rules. Its window remains open on the desktop, so I have to manually minimize it (the close button doesn't work due to the bug mentioned earlier in this thread [Windows 7 only?]) to the taskbar.

When I later shut the computer down I do not log out of HideAway - so am definitely still logged in. However, the next time I power the computer up the HideAway window opens as before and remains open until I manually minimize it.

[rusticdog]

Right, I expect it's the same issue. If HideAway isn't responding to the Close [X], then it may too not be responding to the minimise command we would issue on startup. Hopefully the version the guys are working on now will solve this, the plan is to get the UI completed this coming week and if possible authentication, from there we can do a beta version.