14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla officially announced its very own VPN service earlier this year, and the company promised it would bring support for other platforms at some point in the future.
While no specifics were provided, Mozilla is still working on the official clients for Linux and Mac, so nobody knows for sure when users would be able to connect to the VPN service if they’re running one of these two platforms. Fortunately, the dev community lends Mozilla a hand, so while everybody is waiting for the company to bring Mozilla VPN to Linux and Mac, here’s a third-party tool that does that and even a little more.
As discovered by GHacks, the app is called MozWire, and it is available on GitHub as an open-source project. It’s not aimed only at Linux, but at several other platforms too, including Windows, where the official Mozilla VPN client is also offered.
“MozWire is an unofficial cross-platform client for MozillaVPN, finally giving Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and others (all platforms supporting the WireGuard protocol) users access to this VPN provider. MozWire also supports Windows,” the official description published by the developer explains.
While you can find all instructions to install and run this unofficial Mozilla VPN client on Linux and macOS on the GitHub page linked above, what you need to know is that the app also comes with a series of other features not available in the official app.
For example, one of the cool features that Mozilla isn’t offering is support for multihop servers, and the developer explains that their app has also been specifically created to allow users to choose the remote port, thus making it possible to bypass firewalls. Again, this is something that’s not available in the official Mozilla client, but I think the company should add this at some point in the future given it’s quite important functionality for lots of users behind firewalls.
Additionally, MozWire also supports native WireGuard clients that are available on the platforms where the app is deployed.
At this point, Mozilla VPN is only available on Windows 10, Android, and iOS in a few regions, like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia. Support for both Mac and Linux is still listed as coming soon on Mozilla’s website.
“The new VPN clients are compatible with Android (version 6 and up), Windows 10 (64 bit), and iOS. Mac and Linux clients are coming soon,” Mozilla explains.
Mozilla VPN is available with a $4.99 per month subscription, and it offers support for over 280 servers in more than 30 countries. One subscription can be used for 5 devices, and Mozilla promises that it doesn’t log any network activity when clients are connected to VPN.
“We don’t log, track, or share any of your network activity. We adhere strictly to Mozilla’s Data Privacy Principles, and we only collect the most minimal data required to keep the VPN healthy and operational,” Mozilla explains. “WireGuard protocol encrypts your network traffic protecting all your private information. Compared to existing VPN protocols, WireGuard’s lightweight code is easier for security analysts to review and audit - making it a more secure option for the VPN. In addition, your online activities can stay anonymous because we never log, track or share your network data.”
At the time of writing, Mozilla VPN continues to be available only on Windows, Android, and iOS, and the company hasn’t shared any specifics as to when it plans to roll out the Linux and Mac clients. At the same time, the organization did not reveal when it plans to expand Mozilla VPN to more regions besides the ones mentioned above.