THE IMPORTANT NOTICES ABOUT SOFTETHER VPN

FUNCTIONS OF VPN COMMUNICATIONS EMBEDDED ON THIS SOFTWARE ARE VERY POWERFUL

THAN EVER. THIS STRONG VPN ABILITY WILL BRING YOU HUGE BENEFITS. HOWEVER, IF

YOU MISUSE THIS SOFTWARE, IT MIGHT DAMAGE YOURSELF. IN ORDER TO AVOID SUCH

RISKS, THIS DOCUMENT ACCOUNTS IMPORTANT NOTICES FOR CUSTOMERS WHO ARE WILLING

TO USE THIS SOFTWARE. THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE VERY IMPORTANT. READ AND

UNDERSTAND IT CAREFULLY. ADDITIONALLY, IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO USE THE DYNAMIC

DNS, THE NAT TRAVERSAL OR THE VPN AZURE FUNCTIONS, READ THE SECTION 3.5

CAREFULLY. THESE FUNCTIONS ARE FREE SERVICES PROVIDED VIA THE INTERNET, ARE

NOT GUARANTEED, AND ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE USED FOR BUSINESS OR COMMERCIAL

USE. DO NOT USE THESE SERVICES FOR YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMERCIAL USE.

1. VPN Communication Protocols

1.1. SoftEther VPN Protocol

SoftEther VPN can perform VPN communication. Unlike traditional VPN protocols,

SoftEther VPN has an implementation of the newly-designed "SoftEther VPN

Protocol (SE-VPN Protocol)" . SE-VPN protocol encapsulates any Ethernet

packets into a HTTPS (HTTP over SSL) connection. Therefore SE-VPN protocol can

communicate beyond firewalls even if the firewall is configured to block

traditional VPN packets by network administrator. SE-VPN protocol is designed

and implemented to comply TLS (RFC 5246) and HTTPS (RFC 2818). However, it

sometimes have different behavior to RFCs. If you are a network administrator

and want to block SE-VPN protocols on the firewall, you can adopt a

"white-list" policy on the firewall to filter any TCP or UDP packets on the

border except explicitly allowed packets towards specific web sites and

servers.

1.2. NAT Traversal Function

Generally, if you use traditional VPN systems you have to request a network

administrator to make the NAT or firewall to "open" or "relay" specific TCP or

UDP ports. However, there are demands somehow to eliminate such working costs

on network administrators. In order to satisfy such demands, SoftEther VPN has

the newly-implemented "NAT Traversal" function. NAT Traversal is enabled by

default. A SoftEther VPN Server running on the computer behind NAT or firewall

can accept VPN connections from the Internet, without any special

configurations on firewalls or NATs. If you want to disable the NAT Traversal

function, modify the "DisableNatTraversal" to "true" on the configuration file

of SoftEther VPN Server. In order to disable it on the client-side, append

"/tcp" suffix on the destination hostname.

1.3. Dynamic DNS Function

Traditional legacy VPN system requires a static global IP address on the VPN

server. In consideration of shortage of global IP addresses, SoftEther

Corporation implements the "Dynamic DNS Function" on SoftEther VPN Server.

Dynamic DNS is enabled by default. Dynamic DNS function notify the current

global IP address of the PC to the Dynamic DNS Servers which are operated by

SoftEther Corporation. A globally-unique hostname (FQDN) such as

"abc.softether.net" ( "abc" varies as unique per a user) will be assigned on

the VPN Server. If you tell this unique hostname to a VPN user, the user can

specify it as the destination VPN Sever hostname on the VPN Client and will be

able to connect the VPN Server. No IP addresses are required to know

beforehand. If the IP address of the VPN Server varies, the registered IP

address related to the hostname of Dynamic DNS service will be changed

automatically. By this mechanism, no longer need a static global IP address

which costs monthly to ISPs. You can use consumer-level inexpensive Internet

connection with dynamic IP address in order to operate an enterprise-level VPN

system. If you want to disable Dynamic DNS, specify "true" on the "Disabled"

items of the "DDnsClient" directive on the SoftEther VPN Server configuration

file. * Note for residents in People's Republic of China: If your VPN Server

is running on the People's Republic of China, the DNS suffix will be replaced

to "sedns.cn" domain. The "sedns.cn" domain is the service possessed and

operated by "Beijing Daiyuu SoftEther Technology Co., Ltd" which is a

Chinese-local enterprise.

1.4. VPN over ICMP / VPN over DNS functions

If you want to make a VPN connection between SoftEther VPN Client / Bridge and

SoftEther VPN Server, but if TCP and UDP packets are prohibited by the

firewall, then you can encapsulates payloads into "ICMP" (as known as Ping) or

"DNS" packets. This function can realize a VPN connection by using ICMP or DNS

even if the firewall or router blocks every TCP or UDP connections. VPN over

ICMP / VPN over DNS functions are designed to comply standard ICMP and DNS

specifications as possible, however it sometimes has a behavior not to fully

comply them. Therefore, few poor-quality routers may be caused a

memory-overflow or something troubles when a lot of ICMP or DNS packets are

passed, and such routers sometimes freezes or reboots. It might affects other

users on the same network. To avoid such risks, append the suffix "/tcp" on

the destination hostname which is specified on the VPN-client side to disable

VPN over ICMP / DNS functions.

1.5. VPN Azure Cloud Service

If your SoftEther VPN Server is placed behind the NAT or firwall, and by some

reason you cannot use NAT Traversal function, Dynamic DNS function or VPN over

ICMP/DNS function, you can use VPN Azure Clouse Service. SoftEther Corporation

operates VPN Azure Cloud on Internet. After the VPN Server makes a connection

to the VPN Azure Cloud, the hostname "abc.vpnazure.net" ( "abc" is a unique

hostname) can be specified to connect to the VPN Server via the VPN Azure

Cloud. Practically, such a hostname is pointing a global IP address of one of

cloud servers which are operated by SoftEther Corporation. If A VPN Client

connects to such a VPN Azure host, then the VPN Azure host will relay all

traffics between the VPN Client and the VPN Server. VPN Azure is disabled by

default. You can activate it easily by using VPN Server Configuration Tool.

1.6. UDP Acceleration

SoftEther VPN has the UDP Acceleration Function. If a VPN consists of two

sites detects that UDP channel can be established, UDP will be automatically

used. By this function, throughput of UDP increases. If direct UDP channel can

be established, direct UDP packets will be used. However, if there is

something obstacles such as firewalls or NATs, the "UDP Hole Punching"

technology will be used, instead. The "UDP Hole Punching" uses the cloud

servers which SoftEther Corporation operates on Internet. UDP Acceleration can

be disabled anytime by setting up so on the VPN-client side.

2. VPN Software

The notes in this section are not specific to SoftEther VPN or VPN Gate, but

apply to general system software. SoftEther VPN Client, SoftEther VPN Server,

SoftEther VPN Bridge, and VPN Gate Relay Service will be installed on your

computer as system services. System services always run in the background.

System services usually do not appear on the computer display. Then your

computer system is booted, system services automatically start in the

background even before you or other users log in. To check whether

PacketiX-related system service is running, check the process list or the

background service list of your OS (called as "Services" in Windows, or

"Daemons" in UNIX.) You can activate, deactivate, start, or stop system

services using the functions of the OS anytime. PacketiX-related GUI tools for

managing system services communicate with these system services. After you

terminate these management GUI tools, PacketiX-related system services will

continue to run in the background. System services consume CPU time, computer

power, memory and disk space. Because system services consume power, your

electricity charges and amount of thermal of your computer increase as result.

In addition, there is a possibility that the mechanical parts of the life of

your computer is reduced.

2.1. SoftEther VPN Client

If you use SoftEther VPN Client on Windows, the Virtual Network Adapter device

driver will be installed on Windows. The Virtual Network Adapter is

implemented as a kernel-mode driver for Windows. The driver is

digitally-signed by a certificate issued by VeriSign, Inc. and also sub-signed

by Symantec Corporation. A message to ask you want to sure install the driver

might be popped up on the screen. SoftEther VPN Client may response the

message if possible. SoftEther VPN Client also optimizes the configuration of

MMCSS (Multimedia Class Scheduler Service) on Windows. You can undo the

optimizations of MMCSS afterwards.

2.2. SoftEther VPN Server / Bridge

If you use SoftEther VPN Server / Bridge on Windows with "Local Bridge"

functions, you have to install the low-level Ethernet packet processing driver

on the computer. The driver is digitally-signed by a certificate issued by

VeriSign, Inc. and also sub-signed by Symantec Corporation. SoftEther VPN

Server / Bridge may disable the TCP/IP offloading features on the physical

network adapter for Local Bridge function. In Windows Vista / 2008 or greater

version, VPN Server may inject a packet-filter driver which complies Windows

Filter Platform (WPF) specification into the kernel in order to provide IPsec

function. The packet-filter driver will be loaded available only if IPsec

function is enabled. Once you enables IPsec function of SoftEther VPN Server,

the built-in IPsec function of Windows will be disabled. After you disabled

IPsec function of SoftEther VPN Server, then the built-in IPsec function of

Windows will revive. In order to provide the Local Bridge function, SoftEther

VPN Server / Bridge disables the TCP/IP offloading function on the operating

system.

2.3. User-mode Installation

You can install SoftEther VPN Server and SoftEther VPN Bridge as "User-mode"

on Windows. In other words, even if you don't have Windows system

administrator's privileges, you can install SoftEther VPN as a normal user.

User-mode install will disable a few functions, however other most functions

work well. Therefore, for example, an employee can install SoftEther VPN

Server on the computer in the office network, and he will be able to connect

to the server from his home. In order to realize such a system by user-self,

no system administrative privileges are required in the view-point of

technical. However, breaking rules of the company to install software on the

computer without authority might be regarded as an unfavorable behavior. If

you are an employee and belong to the company, and the company-policy

prohibits installing software or making communications towards Internet

without permission, you have to obtain a permission from the network

administrator or the executive officer of your company in advance to install

SoftEther VPN. If you install VPN Server / Bridge as User-mode, an icon will

be appeared on the Windows task-tray. If you feel that the icon disturbs you,

you can hide it by your operation. However, you must not exploit this hiding

function to install VPN Server on other person's computer as a spyware. Such

behavior might be an offence against the criminal law.

2.4. Keep Alive Function

SoftEther VPN Server and SoftEther VPN Bridge has Keep Alive Function by

default. The purpose of this function is to sustain the Internet line active.

The function transmits UDP packets with a random-byte-array-payload

periodically. This function is useful to avoid automatic disconnection on

mobile or dial-up connections. You can disable Keep Alive Function anytime.

2.5. Uninstallation

The uninstallation process of SoftEther VPN software will delete all program

files. However, non-program files (such as files and data which are generated

by running of programs) ) will not be deleted. For technical reason, the exe

and resource files of uninstaller might remain. Such remaining files never

affects to use the computer, however you can delete it manually. Kernel-mode

drivers might not be deleted, however such drivers will not be loaded after

the next boot of Windows. You can use "sc" command of Windows to delete

kernel-mode drivers manually.

2.6. Security

You should set the administrator's password on SoftEther VPN Server / Bridge

after installation. If you neglect to do it, another person can access to

SoftEther VPN Server / Bridge and can set the password without your

permission. This caution might be also applied on SoftEther VPN Client for

Linux.

2.7. Automatic Update Notification

SoftEther VPN software for Windows has an automatic update notification

function. It accesses to the SoftEther Update server periodically to check

whether or not the latest version of software is released. If the latest

version is released, the notification message will be popped up on the screen.

In order to achieve this purpose, the version, language settings, the unique

identifier, the IP address of your computer and the hostname of VPN Server

which is connected to will be sent to the SoftEther Update server. No personal

information will be sent. Automatic Update Notification is enabled by default,

however you can disable it on the configuration screen. The setting whether

turned on or turned off will be saved individually corresponding to each

destination VPN server, by VPN Server Manager.

2.8. Virtual NAT Function

A Virtual Hub on SoftEther VPN Server / Bridge has "Virtual NAT Function" .

Virtual NAT Function can share a single IP address on the physical network by

multiple private IP address of VPN Clients. There are two operation mode of

Virtual NAT: User-mode and Kernel-mode. In the user-mode operation, Virtual

NAT shares an IP address which is assigned on the host operating system.

Unlike user-mode, the kernel-mode operation attempts to find DHCP servers on

the physical network. If there are two or more physical networks, a DHCP

server will be sought automatically for each segments serially. If a DHCP

server found, and an IP address is acquired, the IP address will be used by

the Virtual NAT. In this case, an IP entry as a DHCP client will be registered

on the IP pool of the physical DHCP Server. The physical default gateway and

the DNS server will be used by the Virtual NAT in order to communicate with

hosts in Internet. In kernel-mode operation, a Virtual Hub has a virtual MAC

address which is operating on the physical Ethernet segment. In order to check

the connectivity to Internet, SoftEther VPN periodically sends DNS query

packet to resolve the IP address of host "www.yahoo.com" or "www.baidu.com" ,

and attempts to connect to the TCP port 80 of such a resulted IP address for

connectivity check.

2.9. Unattended Installation of Kernel-mode Components

When SoftEther VPN will detect a necessity to install the kernel-mode

components on Windows, a confirmation message will be appeared by Windows

system. In this occasion, SoftEther VPN software will switch to the Unattended

Installation mode in order to respond "Yes" to Windows. This is a solution to

prevent dead-locks when a remote-administration is performed from remote

place.

2.10. Windows Firewall

SoftEther VPN software will register itself as a safe-program. Such an entry

will be remain after the uninstallation. You can remove it manually from the

Control Panel of Windows.

3. Internet Services

3.1. Internet Services which are provided by SoftEther Corporation

SoftEther Corporation provides Dynamic DNS, NAT Traversal and VPN Azure server

services on the Internet. These services are free of charge. Customers can

access to the services by using SoftEther VPN software, via Internet. These

service will be planned to be available from Open-Source version of "SoftEther

VPN" which will be released in the future.

3.2. Sent Information and Privacy Protection

SoftEther VPN software may send an IP address, hostname, the version of VPN

software on the customer's computer to the cloud service operated by SoftEther

Corporation, in order to use the above services. These sending of information

are minimal necessary to use the services. No personal information will be

sent. SoftEther Corporation records log files of the cloud service servers for

90 days at least with the received information. Such logs will be used for

troubleshooting and other legitimate activities. SoftEther Corporation may

provide logs to a public servant of Japanese government who are belonging to

courts, police stations and the prosecutor's office, in order to comply such

authorities' order. (Every Japanese public servants are liable by law to keep

the information close.) Moreover, the IP addresses or other information will

be processed statistically and provided to the public, not to expose the each

concrete IP address, in order to release the release of research activities.

3.3. Communication Data via VPN Azure Service

Regardless of the above 3.2 rule, if the customer sends or receives VPN

packets using VPN Azure Cloud Service, the actual payloads will stored and

forwarded via the volatile memory of the servers for very short period. Such a

behavior is naturally needed to provide the "VPN relay service" . No payloads

will be recorded on "fixed" storages such as hard-drives. However, the

"Wiretapping for Criminals Procedures Act" (The 137th legislation ruled on

August 18, 1999 in Japan) requires telecommunication companies to allow the

Japanese government authority to conduct a wire-tapping on the line. VPN Azure

Servers which are physically placed on Japan are subjects of this law.

3.4. Comply to Japanese Telecommunication Laws

SoftEther Corporation complies with Japanese Telecommunication Laws as

necessary to provide online services via Internet.

3.5. Free and Academic Experiment Services

SoftEther provides Dynamic DNS, NAT Traversal and VPN Azure as academic

experiment services. Therefore, there services can be used for free of charge.

These services are not parts of "SoftEther VPN Software Products" . These

services are provided without any warranty. The services may be suspended or

discontinued by technical or operational matters. In such occasions, users

will not be able to use the services. A user have to understand such risks,

and to acknowledge that such risks are borne by a user-self. SoftEther will

never be liable to results or damages of use or unable-to-use of the service.

Even if the user has already paid the license-fee of the commercial version of

SoftEther VPN, such paid fees don't include any fees of these services.

Therefore, if the online services will stop or be discontinued, no refunds or

recoveries of damages will be provided by SoftEther Corporation.

3.6. DNS Proxy Cloud Servers

In some regions, when a user uses Internet, a DNS query sometimes broken or

lost when it is passing through the ISP line. If SoftEther VPN Server, Client

or Bridge detects a possibility that the accessing to the actual VPN server

might be unstable, then DNS queries will be also transferred to the DNS proxy

cloud servers which are operated by SoftEther Corporation. A DNS proxy cloud

server will respond DNS queries with answering correct a IP address.

4. General Cautions

4.1. Needs an Approval from Network Administrator

SoftEther VPN has powerful functions which don't require special settings by

network administrators. For example, you need not to ask the administrator to

configure the existing firewall in order to "open" a TCP/UDP port. Such

characteristic features are for the purpose to eliminate working times and

costs of network administrators, and avoid misconfiguration-risks around the

tasks to open specific exception ports on the firewall. However, any employees

belong to the company have to obtain an approval from the network

administrator before installs SoftEther VPN. If your network administrator

neglects to provide such an approval, you can consider to take an approval

from an upper authority. (For example, executive officer of the company.) If

you use SoftEther VPN without any approvals from the authority of your

company, you might have disadvantage. SoftEther Corporation will be never

liable for results or damages of using SoftEther VPN.

4.2. Observe Laws of Your Country

If your country's law prohibits the use of encryption, you have to disable the

encryption function of SoftEther VPN by yourself. Similarly, in some countries

or regions, some functions of SoftEther VPN might be prohibited to use by

laws. Other countries' laws are none of SoftEther Corporation's concern

because SoftEther Corporation is an enterprise which is located and registered

in Japan physically. For example, there might be a risk that a part of

SoftEther VPN conflicts an existing patent which is valid only on the specific

region. SoftEther Corporation has no interests in such specific region outside

Japan's territory. Therefore, if you want to use SoftEther VPN in regions

outside Japan, you have to be careful not to violate third-person's rights.

You have to verify the legitimacy of the use of SoftEther VPN in the specific

region before you actually use it in such region. By nature, there are almost

200 countries in the World, and each country's law is different each other. It

is practically impossible to verify every countries' laws and regulations and

make the software comply with all countries' laws in advance to release the

software. Therefore SoftEther Corporation has verified the legitimacy of

SoftEther VPN against the laws and regulations of only Japan. If a user uses

SoftEther VPN in a specific country, and damaged by public servants of the

government authority, SoftEther Corporation will never be liable to recover or

compensate such damages or criminal responsibilities.

5. VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project

(This chapter applies only on SoftEther VPN software package which contains

the extension plug-in for VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project.)

5.1. About VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project

VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project is an online service operated for just

the academic research purpose at the graduate school of University of Tsukuba,

Japan. The purpose of this research is to expend our knowledge about the

"Global Distributed Public VPN Relay Server" (GDPVRS) technology. For details,

please visit http://www.vpngate.net/.

5.2. About VPN Gate Service

SoftEther VPN Server and SoftEther VPN Client may contain "VPN Gate Service"

program. However, VPN Gate Service is disabled by default.

VPN Gate Service should be activated and enabled by the voluntary intention of

the owner of the computer which SoftEther VPN Server or SoftEther VPN Client

is installed on. After you activate VPN Gate Service, the computer will be

start to serve as a part of the Global Distributed Public VPN Relay Servers.

The IP address, hostname and related information of the computer will be sent

and registered to the directory server of VPN Gate Academic Experiment

Project, and they will be published and disclosed to the public. This

mechanism will allow any VPN Gate Client software's user to connect to the VPN

Gate Service running on your computer. While the VPN session between a VPN

Gate Client and your VPN Gate Service is established, the VPN Gate Client's

user can send/receive any IP packets towards the Internet via the VPN Gate

Service. The global IP address of the VPN Gate Service's hosing computer will

be used as the source IP address of such communications which a VPN Gate

Client initiates.

VPN Gate Service will send some information to the VPN Gate Academic

Experiment Service Directory Server. The information includes the operator's

information which described in section 5.5, logging settings, uptime,

operating system version, type of protocol, port numbers, quality information,

statistical information, VPN Gate clients' log history data (includes dates,

IP addresses, version numbers and IDs), log records of destination HTTP/HTTPS

hostnames or IP addresses and port numbers of VPN Gate communications, and the

version of the software. These information may be exposed on the directory.

VPN Gate Service also receives a key for encoding which is described on the

chapter 5.9 from the directory server.

5.3. Details of VPN Gate Service's Behavior

If you enable VPN Gate Service manually, which is disabled by default, the

"VPNGATE" Virtual Hub will be created on the SoftEther VPN Server. If you are

using SoftEther VPN Client and attempt to active VPN Gate Service on it, an

equivalent program to SoftEther VPN Server will be invoked on the same process

of SoftEther VPN Client, and the "VPNGATE" Virtual Hub will be created. The

"VPNGATE" Virtual Hub contains a user named "VPN" by default which permits

anyone on the Internet to make a VPN connection to the Virtual Hub. Once a VPN

Client connects to the "VPNGATE" Virtual Hub, any communication between the

user and the Internet will pass through the Virtual Hub, and

transmitted/received using the physical network interface on the computer

which SoftEther VPN Server (or SoftEther VPN Client) is running on. This will

cause the result that a destination host specified by the VPN Client will

identify that the source of the communication has initiated from the VPN Gate

Service's hosting computer's IP address. However, for safety, any packets

which destinations are within 192.168.0.0/255.255.0.0, 172.16.0.0/255.240.0.0

or 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 will be blocked by the "VPNGATE" Virtual Hub in order to

protect your local network. Any packets which destinations are within

169.254.0.0/16, 224.0.0.0/4 or 100.64.0.0/10 will also be blocked for just in

case. These packet filters except DNS, ICMP and ARP packets. Therefore, if you

run VPN Gate Service on your corporate network or private network, it is safe

because anonymous VPN Client users will not be permitted to access such

private networks. VPN Gate Service also serves as relay for accessing to the

VPN Gate Directory Server.

In order to make VPN Gate Service familiar with firewalls and NATs, it opens

an UDP port by using the NAT Traversal function which is described on the

section 1.2. It also opens and listens on some TCP ports, and some TCP and UDP

ports will be specified as the target port of Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)

Port Transfer entries which are requested to your local routers. UPnP request

packets will be sent periodically. Some routers keep such an opened TCP/UDP

port permanently on the device. If you wish to close them, do it manually.

VPN Gate Service also provides the mirror-site function for www.vpngate.net.

This is a mechanism that a copy of the latest contents from www.vpngate.net

will be hosted by the mirror-site tiny HTTP server which is running on the VPN

Gate Service program. It will register itself on the mirror-sites list in

www.vpngate.net. However, it never relays any other communications which are

not towards www.vpngate.net.

5.4. Communication between Internet via VPN Gate Service

VPN Gate Service provides a routing between users and the Internet, by using

the Virtual NAT Function which is described on the section 2.8. VPN Gate

Service sends polling Ping packets to the server which is located on

University of Tsukuba, and the Google Public DNS Server which is identified as

8.8.8.8, in order to check the latest quality of your Internet line. VPN Gate

Service also sends and receives a lot of random packets to/from the Speed Test

Server on University of Tsukuba. These quality data will be reported to VPN

Gate Directory Server, automatically and periodically. The result will be

saved and disclosed to the public. These periodical polling communication are

adjusted not to occupy the Internet line, however in some circumstances they

might occupy the line.

5.5. Operator's Information of VPN Gate Service

If you activate VPN Gate Service on your computer, the computer will be a part

of the Global Distributed Public VPN Relay Servers. Therefore, the Operator's

administrative information of your VPN Gate Service should be reported and

registered on the VPN Gate Service Directory. Operator's information contains

the name of the operator and the abuse-reporting contact e-mail address. These

information can be inputted on the screen if the VPN Gate configuration.

Inputted information will be transmitted to the VPN Gate Directory Server,

stored and disclosed to the public. So you have to be careful to input

information. By the way, until you specify something as the operator's

information, the computer's hostname will be used automatically as the field

of the name of the operator, by appending the "'s owner" string after the

hostname.

5.6. Observe Laws to Operate VPN Gate Service

In some countries or regions, a user who is planning to activate and operate

VPN Gate Service, he are mandated to obtain a license or register a service

from/to the government. If your region has such a regulation, you must fulfill

mandated process before activating VPN Gate Service in advance. Neither the

developers nor operators of the VPN Gate Academic Experiment Project will be

liable for legal/criminal responsibilities or damages which are occurred from

failure to comply your local laws.

5.7. Protect Privacy of Communication

Most of countries have a law which requires communication service's operators,

including VPN Gate Service operators, to protect the privacy of communication

of third-persons. When you operate VPN Gate Service, you must always protect

user's privacy.

5.8. Packet Logs

The packet logging function is implemented on VPN Gate Service. It records

essential headers of major TCP/IP packets which are transmitted via the

Virtual Hub. This function will be helpful to investigate the "original IP

address" of the initiator of communication who was a connected user of your

VPN Gate Service, by checking the packet logs and the connection logs. The

packet logs are recorded only for such legitimate investigates purpose. Do not

peek nor leak packet logs except the rightful purpose. Such act will be

violate the section 5.7.

5.9. Packet Logs Automatic Archiving and Encoding Function

The VPN Gate Academic Experiment Service is operated and running under the

Japanese constitution and laws. The Japanese constitution laws demand strictly

protection over the privacy of communication. Because this service is under

Japanese rules, the program of VPN Gate Service implements this "Automatic Log

File Encoding" protection mechanism, and enabled by default.

The VPN Gate Service is currently configured to encode packet log files which

has passed two or more weeks automatically, by default. In order to protect

privacy of communication, if a packet log file is once encoded, even the

administrator of the local computer cannot censor the packet log file. This

mechanism protects privacy of end-users of VPN Gate Service.

You can change the VPN Gate Service setting to disable this automatic encoding

function. Then packet log files will never be encoded even after two weeks

passed. In such a configuration, all packet logs will remain as plain-text on

the disk. Therefore you have to take care not to violate user's privacy.

If you are liable to decode an encoded packet log files (for example: a VPN

Gate Service's user illegally abused your VPN Gate Service and you have to

decode the packet logs in order to comply the laws), contact the administrator

of the VPN Gate Academic Experiment Service at Graduate School of University

of Tsukuba, Japan. You can find the contact address at

http://www.vpngate.net/. The administrator of VPN Gate Service will respond to

decode the packet logs if there is an appropriate and legal request from court

or other judicial authorities, according to laws.

The Packet Logs Automatic Archiving and Encoding Function may be disabled

according to technical or administrative reason.

5.10. Caution if You Operate VPN Gate Service in the Japan's Territories

When a user operates VPN Gate Service in the Japan's territories, such an act

may be regulated under the Japanese Telecommunication Laws if the operation is

a subject to the law. However, in such a circumstance, according to the

"Japanese Telecommunication Business Compete Manual [supplemental version]" ,

non- profitable operations of communications are not identified as a

"telecommunication business" . So usual operators of VPN Gate Service are not

subjects to "telecommunication business operators" , and not be mandated to

register to the government.

5.11. VPN Gate Client

If SoftEther VPN Client contains the VPN Gate Client plug-in, you can use it

to obtain the list of current operating VPN Gate Service servers in the

Internet, and make a VPN connection to a specific server on the list.

VPN Gate Client always keeps the latest list of the VPN Gate Services

periodically. Be careful if you are using a pay-per-use Internet line.

When you start the VPN Gate Client software, the screen which asks you

activate or not VPN Gate Service will be appeared. For details of VPN Gate

Service, read the above sections.

5.12. Caution before Joining or Exploiting VPN Gate Academic Experiment

Project

The VPN Gate Academic Experiment Service is operated as a research project at

the graduate school on University of Tsukuba, Japan. The service is governed

under the Japanese laws. Other countries' laws are none of our concerns nor

responsibilities.

By nature, there are almost 200 countries in the World, with different laws.

It is impossible to verify every countries' laws and regulations and make the

software comply with all countries' laws in advance to release the software.

If a user uses VPN Gate service in a specific country, and damaged by public

servants of the authority, the developer of either the service or software

will never be liable to recover or compensate such damages or criminal

responsibilities.

By using this software and service, the user must observe all concerned laws

and rules with user's own responsibility. The user will be completely liable

to any damages and responsibilities which are results of using this software

and service, regardless of either inside or outside of Japan's territory.

If you don't agree nor understand the above warnings, do not use any of VPN

Gate Academic Experiment Service functions.

VPN Gate is a research project for just academic purpose only. VPN Gate was

developed as a plug-in for SoftEther VPN and UT-VPN. However, all parts of VPN

Gate were developed on this research project at University of Tsukuba. Any

parts of VPN Gate are not developed by SoftEther Corporation. The VPN Gate

Research Project is not a subject to be led, operated, promoted nor guaranteed

by SoftEther Corporation.

5.13. The P2P Relay Function in the VPN Gate Client to strengthen the

capability of circumvention of censorship firewalls

VPN Gate Clients, which are published since January 2015, include the P2P

Relay Function. The P2P Relay Function is implemented in order to strengthen

the capability of circumvention of censorship firewalls. If the P2P Relay

Function in your VPN Gate Client is enabled, then the P2P Relay Function will

accept the incoming VPN connections from the VPN Gate users, which are located

on mainly same regions around you, and will provide the relay function to the

external remote VPN Gate Servers, which are hosted by third parties in the

free Internet environment. This P2P Relay Function never provides the shared

NAT functions nor replaces the outgoing IP address of the VPN Gate users to

your IP addresses because this P2P Relay Function only provides the

"reflection service" (hair-pin relaying), relaying from incoming VPN Gate

users to an external VPN Gate Server. In this situation, VPN tunnels via your

P2P Relay Function will be finally terminated on the external VPN Gate Server,

not your VPN Gate Client. However, the VPN Gate Server as the final

destination will record your IP address as the source IP address of VPN

tunnels which will be initiated by your P2P Relay Function. Additionally, user

packets which are transmitted via your P2P Relay Function will be recorded on

your computer as packet logs as described on the section 5.8. After you

installed the VPN Gate Client, and if the P2P Relay Function will be enabled

automatically, then all matters on the 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9,

5.10, 5.11 and 5.12 sections will be applied to you and your computer, as same

to the situation when you enabled the VPN Gate Service (the VPN Gate Server

function). If your P2P Function is enabled, then your computer's IP address

and the default operator's name which is described on the section 5.5 will be

listed on the VPN Gate Server List which is provided by the VPN Gate Project.

You can change these strings by editing the "vpn_gate_relay.config" file

manually. Note that you need to stop the VPN Client service before editing it.

The VPN Gate Client will automatically enable the P2P Relay Function on your

computer if the VPN Gate Client detects that your computer might be located in

regions where there are existing censorship firewalls. If you want to disable

the P2P Relay Function, you must set the "DisableRelayServer" flag to "true"

on the "vpn_client.config" file which is the configuration file of the VPN

Client. Note that you need to stop the VPN Client service before editing it.

The VPN Gate Client does not recognize the particular regulation of your

country or your region. The VPN Gate Client activates the P2P Relay Function

even if your country or your region has the law to restrict running P2P relay

functions. Therefore, in such a case, you must disable the P2P Relay Function

on the VPN Gate Client manually by setting the "DisableRelayServer" flag if

you reside in such a restricted area, in your own responsibility.

SoftEther VPN and VPN Gate (where applicable) are provided, distributed and

operated under the responsibility of SoftEther Corporation (Corporate Number:

1050001016519, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan). These projects were researched and

developed in collaboration with Tsukuba University, a national university in

Japan.

THIS SOFTWARE IS DEVELOPED IN JAPAN, AND DISTRIBUTED FROM JAPAN, UNDER

JAPANESE LAWS. YOU MUST AGREE IN ADVANCE TO USE, COPY, MODIFY, MERGE, PUBLISH,

DISTRIBUTE, SUBLICENSE, AND/OR SELL COPIES OF THIS SOFTWARE, THAT ANY

JURIDICAL DISPUTES WHICH ARE CONCERNED TO THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS CONTENTS,

AGAINST US (SOFTETHER CORPORATION OR OTHER SUPPLIERS), OR ANY JURIDICAL

DISPUTES AGAINST US WHICH ARE CAUSED BY ANY KIND OF USING, COPYING, MODIFYING,

MERGING, PUBLISHING, DISTRIBUTING, SUBLICENSING, AND/OR SELLING COPIES OF THIS

SOFTWARE SHALL BE REGARDED AS BE CONSTRUED AND CONTROLLED BY JAPANESE LAWS,

AND YOU MUST FURTHER CONSENT TO EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION AND VENUE IN THE COURTS

SITTING IN TOKYO, JAPAN. YOU MUST WAIVE ALL DEFENSES OF LACK OF PERSONAL

JURISDICTION AND FORUM NON CONVENIENS. PROCESS MAY BE SERVED ON EITHER PARTY

IN THE MANNER AUTHORIZED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR COURT RULE.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,

FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE

SUPPLIERS, PROVIDERS, OPERATORS, AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR

ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT

OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE

USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

IMPORTANT NOTE: USE OF THIS SOFTWARE AND SERVICE BY INDIVIDUALS TO WHOM THE

CONSUMER CONTRACT ACT APPLIES IS NOT ALLOWED. THIS SOFTWARE IS INTENDED FOR

PROFESSIONALS AND IS NOT DESIGNED FOR PURELY BUSINESS-UNRELATED CONSUMERS.

THIS SOFTWARE AND SERVICE MAY BE USED ONLY FOR BUSINESS, COMMERCIAL,

NON-PROFIT, ORGANIZATIONAL OPERATIONS, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES OR

OTHER NON-CONSUMPTIVE PURPOSES. THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE BY

CONSUMERS. THIS SOFTWARE MAY NOT BE USED BY ANY INDIVIDUAL TO WHOM THE

CONSUMER RIGHTS PROTECTIONS IN THE CONSUMER CONTRACT ACT OF JAPAN OR

EQUIVALENT LAWS OF OTHER COUNTRIES APPLY. IF AN INDIVIDUAL USES THE SOFTWARE,

THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE FOR BUSINESS PURPOSES.