Nexus is the engine powering some of Surfshark’s most exciting privacy and connectivity features. Essentially, Surfshark’s server infrastructure makes the VPN operate as one unified network rather than a collection of individual servers.
That architectural decision makes it possible for Surfshark to offer the additional privacy of constantly rotating IPs without needing to reconnect mid-session. As a result, you get enhanced privacy that doesn’t interrupt your browsing while you fiddle with VPN settings.
The great thing about Nexus is that it all works seamlessly with the existing Surfshark client, so you might not even be aware of some of the features working away in the background.
I’ll explain why I use Nexus and how you can benefit from it, but to really appreciate exactly how Nexus upgrades Surfshark’s services, let’s quickly review how most VPNs work.
What makes Nexus different from how other VPN providers operate?
When you connect to the internet through a VPN, your traffic is routed through an encrypted connection that makes it harder for your internet provider to see what you’re doing online. Plus, websites and services you access only see your VPN server’s IP address, not your home IP.
That keeps advertisers from knowing where you’re connecting from. But once you’re connected to a VPN server, most VPN providers keep you connected to the same server for your whole session. Every site you visit will see the same IP address, which creates a trackable thread of your internet activity — at least until the next time you reconnect to a different VPN server.
In a traditional VPN setup, each server is configured independently and considered a separate resource. The VPN server handles all of the network logic behind your connection, so you can’t use another server to route your traffic without either disconnecting from your current server or starting a new VPN-to-VPN tunnel.
Nexus removes that constraint by letting Surfshark route your traffic dynamically across its whole network without dropping your session. Nexus separates the control layer of the network and its logic rules away from the data layer, which actually handles routing your traffic across all of its servers.
When you connect to Surfshark, it’s irrelevant whether you’re connecting to a server in New York or the Netherlands. All you’re doing is connecting to an entry point on the Nexus network, which then routes your traffic internally to its destination. That could be another server in a multi-hop chain you’ve requested, another IP in Surfshark’s pools for Multi IP or just your chosen exit location.
That makes it possible for Surfshark to offer VPN features that other providers would struggle to implement, such as redirecting traffic from one VPN endpoint to another without breaking the VPN connection, assign a new IP for every site you visit or chain any two servers together, all without sacrificing convenience for airtight privacy.
All of Surfshark’s 4,500-plus servers in 100 countries use Nexus, so you can theoretically request a new server anywhere in the world every time you open a new web page using Multi IP. However, changing servers may affect the speed of your VPN connection, especially if you’re going from a VPN server near your physical location to one on the other end of the planet. In my experience, Surfshark tends to assign servers in a way that won’t suddenly tank your speeds, but your mileage may vary.
The innovative features Nexus is powering
Here’s a quick rundown of how these Nexus-enabled features work and where you might use each one.
Rotating IP
Rotating IP changes your IP address on a timer, which triggers roughly every 5 minutes. This happens seamlessly in the background without any need to check the app. You won’t notice the switch between servers because your session stays live the whole time, even when your IP is being swapped over. When you’re given a new IP, websites see a new connection which means if there’s nothing else identifying you, you’re essentially a “new user.”
However, Rotating IP is just one piece of the privacy puzzle. Your browser still may have cookies cached that will identify you even after your IP changes, so it’s best to employ Rotating IP alongside an ad blocker and deny unnecessary cookies, especially if they’re from third-party sites. Rotating IP is available on Windows and MacOS, with additional customization on Mac.
Multi IP
Multi IP gives you a different IP address for each individual site or service you access instead of rotating it every 5 minutes. I use Multi IP alongside a browser-based ad blocker as well as Surfshark’s Clean Web for extra DNS-level protection against advertisers and malware. Using these features in combination with private browsing tabs and an ad blocker plugin on my browser makes it harder for advertisers to correlate browsing activity across different websites.
Although I’ve seen warnings that Multi IP and Rotating IP can trigger IP-based lockouts on some sites, I’ve found that Multi IP doesn’t normally interrupt my browsing sessions. However, when picking from a worldwide server pool, I’ve had to jump through extra authentication stages when logging in from a new country. Also, if you’re using a bank app, Multi IP might trip your bank’s anti-fraud detection. Currently, only Mac users have access to Multi IP, but I hope Surfshark brings this feature to Windows and other platforms in the future.
Dynamic MultiHop
Dynamic MultiHop is Surfshark’s version of what other VPNs call “double VPN” or just multi-hop. Traditional multi-hop allows you to chain two or more VPN servers in a series of encrypted tunnels to add additional levels of privacy to your internet connection (generally at the cost of a slower connection). It’s usually used in situations where you need additional protection from surveillance or don’t necessarily trust the jurisdiction in the endpoint you’re connected to.
However, most VPN providers only offer a limited number of static multi-hop connections because of how their network infrastructure is set up. Surfshark instead gives you the entire list of server connections to choose from, which Nexus helps make possible. That way, you can connect to a low-latency server close to you or in a jurisdiction with data laws you prefer before chaining an endpoint anywhere in the world.
Everlink
Everlink keeps your VPN connection running even if the VPN server you’re currently using is taken offline. You won’t notice it’s running, as it entirely works in Surfshark’s backend. It’s not a replacement for a kill switch, which safeguards your activity by cutting your internet connection if your VPN drops, but it improves the reliability of your VPN connection.
Normally, if a VPN server goes down for maintenance or becomes overloaded, there would be a momentary lapse in your internet traffic while your VPN client reconnects. In the worst case, you might even have to reconnect manually. Everlink works as a self-healing backup layer that seamlessly switches the VPN server you’re connected to, rerouting your traffic in real time to a nearby server in the same region without dropping your connection.
Everlink is on by default as long as you’re using the WireGuard protocol and works with every VPN app Surfshark offers.
FastTrack
Surfshark constantly optimizes the route your traffic takes through its network using FastTrack to make sure that your internet connection is as fast as possible. Essentially, the Nexus SDN allows Surfshark to periodically test multiple routes and select the best path through its distributed server network.
As FastTrack is baked into Surfshark’s server infrastructure, you won’t need to enable it in your client settings — it automatically happens whenever you connect to a server with the FastTrack icon. At the moment, FastTrack is only available on macOS for servers in Sydney, Seattle and Vancouver, but we expect that Surfshark will roll out FastTrack on more servers in the future.
Dausos
Dausos is Surfshark’s own proprietary VPN protocol powered by Nexus. Surfshark claims that Dausos offers speeds up to 30% faster compared to other industry-standard protocols.
Dausos leverages the Nexus network to provide a unique VPN tunnel for every user instead of sharing a tunnel between multiple clients, which means there’s no traffic cross-contamination between separate Surfshark users. It also features adaptive performance, so if you jump between Wi-Fi and a mobile hotspot, Dausos will automatically adjust for optimal performance based on your current network quality.
It’s also fully quantum-resistant thanks to the AEGIS-256X2 encryption protocol, which Surfshark says no other VPN provider currently offers. Unfortunately, Dausos is only available on the macOS version of Surfshark, available from the Apple App Store.
Conclusion
The great part about Nexus is that it operates in the background, powering innovative features not available with other VPNs. You also benefit from it even if you’re not using it for rotating your IP, as it’s also potentially one of the reasons why Surfshark’s speeds have gotten better (and more consistent) over the last few years.
Even if you’re just using Surfshark for streaming foreign libraries, Nexus is optimizing the traffic sent inside Surfshark’s server network to make sure you’re getting the best connection speeds.
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