Surfshark has a lot of great features, but this is why Nexus is one of my favorites

Nexus is the engine that powers some of the Surf Shark The most exciting privacy and communication features. Essentially, Surfshark’s server infrastructure creates… VPN It operates as one unified network rather than a collection of individual servers.

This architectural decision allows Surfshark to provide additional privacy to constantly rotating IP addresses without the need to reconnect mid-session. As a result, you get enhanced privacy that doesn’t interrupt your browsing while fiddling with your VPN settings.

The great thing about Nexus is that it works seamlessly with your existing Surfshark client, so you may not be aware of some of the features running in the background.

I’ll explain why I use Nexus and how you can benefit from it, but to really appreciate how Nexus upgrades Surfshark’s services, let’s quickly review how most VPNs work.

What makes Nexus different from how other VPN providers work?

When you connect to the Internet through a VPN, your traffic is routed through the VPN Encrypted connection This makes it difficult for your ISP to see what you are doing online. Additionally, the websites and services you access only see your VPN server’s IP address, not your home IP address.

This prevents advertisers from knowing where you are calling from. But once you connect to a VPN server, most VPN providers keep you connected to the same server throughout the entire session. Every site you visit will see the same IP address, creating a traceable chain of your online 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 is considered a separate resource. The VPN server handles all the network logic behind your connection, so you can’t use another server to route your traffic without disconnecting from your current server or starting a new VPN-to-VPN tunnel.

Nexus removes this limitation by allowing Surfshark to dynamically route your traffic across its entire network without dropping your session. Nexus separates the network control layer and its logical rules away from the data layer, which actually routes your traffic through all of its servers.

When you connect to Surfshark, it doesn’t matter whether you’re connecting to a server in New York or the Netherlands. All you do is connect to an entry point on the Nexus network, which then routes your traffic internally to its destination. This could be another server in the Multi-Hop chain you requested, another IP address in Surfshark’s Multi IP pools or just the exit location you chose.

This allows Surfshark to offer VPN features that other providers might struggle to implement, such as redirecting traffic from one VPN endpoint to another without breaking the VPN connection, assigning a new IP address to every site you visit, or linking any two servers together, all without sacrificing convenience for total privacy.

All of Surfshark’s 4,500+ 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 with Multi IP. However, changing servers may affect the speed of your VPN connection, especially if you’re moving from a VPN server close to your physical location to one located on the other end of the planet. In my experience, Surfshark tends to set servers in such a way that your speeds don’t suddenly drop, but your mileage may vary.

Innovative features that Nexus is working on

Here’s a quick summary of how these Nexus-enabled features work and where you can use each one.

Periodic IP

IP address rotation changes your IP address on a timer, which runs approximately every 5 minutes. This happens seamlessly in the background without you having to check the app. You won’t notice switching between servers because your session remains live all the time, even when your IP address is switched. When you get a new IP address, websites see a new connection, which means that if nothing else identifies you, you’re essentially a “new user.”

However, Rotating IP is just one piece of the privacy puzzle. Your browser still has cached cookies that will identify you even after you change your IP address, so it’s best to use a revolving IP address alongside an ad blocker and reject unnecessary cookies, especially if they’re from external 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 along with a browser-based ad blocker as well as Surfshark’s Clean Web to provide additional DNS-level protection against advertisers and malware. Using these features with private browsing tabs and ad-blocking plug-ins in my browser makes it difficult for advertisers to correlate browsing activity across different websites.

Although I’ve seen warnings that Multi IP and Rotating IP can lead to IP-based locks on some sites, I’ve found that Multi IP doesn’t typically interrupt my browsing sessions. However, when choosing from a global server pool, I had to go through additional authentication stages when logging in from a new country. Also, if you are using a banking app, Multi IP may hamper your bank’s anti-fraud detection. Right now, only Mac users have access to Multi IP, but I hope Surfshark brings this feature to Windows and other platforms in the future.

Dynamic multi-hop

Dynamic MultiHop is Surfshark’s version of what other VPNs call it “Double VPN” Or just multiple jumps. Traditional multi-hop allows you to connect two or more VPN servers in a series of encrypted tunnels to add additional levels of privacy to your Internet connection (generally at the expense of a slower connection). It is typically used in situations where you need additional protection from surveillance or do not necessarily trust the judicial authority on the endpoint you are connecting to.

However, most VPN providers only offer a limited number of stable multi-hop connections, due to how their network infrastructure is set up. Instead, Surfshark gives you a full list of server connections to choose from, which is what Nexus helps make possible. This way, you can connect to a low-latency server close to you or in a jurisdiction with data laws you prefer before connecting the endpoint anywhere in the world.

Everlink

Everlink keeps your VPN connection running even if the VPN server you are currently using is offline. You won’t even notice it’s running, because it runs entirely in the Surfshark backend. It is not a substitute for Kill switchwhich protects your activity by disconnecting you from the Internet if your VPN goes down, but improves the reliability of your VPN connection.

Typically, if a VPN server goes down for maintenance or becomes overloaded, there will be a temporary interruption in internet traffic while your VPN client reconnects. In the worst case, you may have to reconnect manually. Everlink acts as a self-healing redundancy layer that seamlessly switches the VPN server you’re connected to, redirecting your traffic in real-time to a nearby server in the same region without interrupting your connection.

Everlink is turned on by default as long as you’re using the WireGuard protocol and works with every VPN app Surfshark offers.

Fast track

Surfshark is constantly optimizing the path your traffic takes through its network using FastTrack to make sure your internet connection is as fast as possible. Essentially, Nexus SDN allows Surfshark to periodically test multiple paths and choose the best path through a distributed server network.

Since FastTrack is built into Surfshark’s server infrastructure, you don’t need to enable it in your client settings – this happens automatically when you connect to a server using the FastTrack icon. Right now, FastTrack is only available on macOS for servers in Sydney, Seattle, and Vancouver, but we expect Surfshark to roll out FastTrack to more servers in the future.

Dosa

Dosa Surfshark’s own VPN protocol powered by Nexus. Surfshark claims that Dausos provides up to 30% faster speeds compared to other industry-standard protocols.

Dausos leverages the Nexus network to provide a unique VPN tunnel for each user rather than sharing the tunnel between multiple clients, which means no cross-contamination of traffic between separate Surfshark users. It also features adaptive performance, so if you move between Wi-Fi and a mobile hotspot, Dausos will automatically adjust performance for optimal performance based on the quality of your current network.

It’s also complete Quantum resistance Thanks to the AEGIS-256X2 encryption protocol, Surfshark says No other VPN provider currently offers it. Unfortunately, Dausos is only available on the macOS version of Surfshark, which is available from the Apple App Store.

conclusion

The great part about Nexus is that it runs in the background, providing innovative features not available with other VPNs. You can also take advantage of it even if you’re not using it to rotate your IP address, as it’s also likely one of the reasons why Surfshark’s speeds have been better (and more consistent) over the past few years.

Even if you only use Surfshark to stream foreign libraries, Nexus optimizes the traffic sent within the Surfshark server network to make sure you get the best connection speeds.