Notice

A newer version, for every system (12 November). Run your install line again, as shown below, with your invite code. Your computer now chooses by itself which of our servers it connects through: the one that answers faster. It changes only when another has been clearly better for a couple of minutes, and at a quiet moment, so that open connections are not cut. If you chose a server yourself (hulyscale exit entry or hulyscale exit exit), run that command once more after the upgrade: it now holds your computer to that server, at once and without a restart. Until then your computer may choose the other one. More under the entry.

On Windows, an upgrade no longer leaves your computer without the Internet for half a minute: about a second now. On Linux and Mac this version also carries the fixes of 11 November: on Linux, a moment at each restart of HulyNet, a fraction of a millisecond, when a packet could leave around it, from your own address; on a Mac, IPv6, which sometimes stopped working after a restart, until the next one.

HulyNet has moved to a new version, and the old one is switched off (10 November). If your computer has no Internet while HulyNet is on, give it its own connection back first: sudo hulyscale stop (on Windows, hulyscale stop in a terminal opened as administrator). Then run your install line again, with your invite code:

curl -fsSL https://yl5ako37.nothing.md/install.sh | sudo sh -s -- YOUR-CODE

On Windows, in a terminal opened as administrator:

powershell

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm https://yl5ako37.nothing.md/get.ps1))) YOUR-CODE

Your computer now connects through whichever of our servers answers, and moves to another if one fails. If anything goes wrong, sudo hulyscale stop gives your computer its own connection: then write to us in the testers’ chat.

If you use HulyNet on a Mac without administrator rights (as a SOCKS proxy): that way has ended. Turn the SOCKS proxy off in System Settings, remove it with the line below, and install with sudo as above.

curl -fsSL https://yl5ako37.nothing.md/install.sh | sh -s -- --uninstall --purge

How HulyNet differs

People ask us for “the OpenVPN file”. There is none: HulyNet is a different technology. Here is how it differs from what you may know, and where others are ahead for now.

1 In short

A network, not a tunnel to one server. Your computer joins a network that spans countries, and each connection leaves it where it is served best: a site in Russia from Russia, the rest from another country.
Nothing to import. No .ovpn file, no QR code, no vless:// link: one line installs the program with all its settings, and the invite code only registers your computer with us.
The key is made on your computer and never leaves it. It cannot be forwarded, lost with a file, or lent to someone else.
The whole computer goes through HulyNet, DNS too, and if the connection breaks, nothing leaks. That is built in, not a setting of an app.
Computers connect directly when they can, and otherwise through our relay (a server that passes the traffic on), over HTTPS.
Not disguised yet. The traffic is encrypted (QUIC, the protocol HTTP/3 runs on), but a careful observer can tell HulyNet by how its connections begin. Disguise is our next step; here VLESS with REALITY is ahead for now.

2 Side by side

	What you get	What an observer sees	In Russia now¹
HulyNet	one line and an invite code	QUIC to our server; how it begins is recognizable for now	what we are testing with you
OpenVPN	an `.ovpn` file with keys	the recognizable OpenVPN protocol	usually blocked
WireGuard	a file or QR code with a key	recognizable WireGuard packets	usually blocked
AmneziaWG	a file or QR code with a key	WireGuard, hidden behind random packets	made against blocking; results vary
VLESS + REALITY	a `vless://` link or subscription	ordinary HTTPS to a popular site	the most resilient, but blocking waves reach it too
Tailscale	a login with Google, Microsoft, GitHub…	recognizable WireGuard	not made against blocking

¹ From reports by users and researchers, 2023–2026 (sources at the end of the page). They vary from provider to provider and change over time. During mobile-internet shutdowns with whitelists, almost none of these work, HulyNet included.

3 OpenVPN

The classic VPN: the OpenVPN app, and an .ovpn file holding the server’s address and the keys. Whoever gets a copy of the file can connect as you. All traffic goes to one server, and whether anything leaks when the connection drops depends on the app. OpenVPN’s protocol is easy to recognize, and since 2023 users of several Russian providers have reported ordinary OpenVPN connections being blocked.

HulyNet: no file and no shared secret: the key is on your computer only.

4 WireGuard

A fast, simple VPN, built into Linux. Its settings are a short file or a QR code with a key. WireGuard does not try to hide: its packets are recognizable by their shape, and the same reports say ordinary WireGuard is blocked in Russia like OpenVPN.

HulyNet: a different protocol (QUIC), a key that is never sent anywhere, and computers that connect directly when they can.

5 AmneziaWG

WireGuard from the Amnezia VPN team, changed against blocking. Before a connection begins it sends random “junk” packets, adds random bytes and alters packet headers, so that a filter does not recognize WireGuard in it. You connect with a file or a QR code with a key, as before.

HulyNet: we have no disguise of this kind yet. But there is no file with a key either, and the whole computer and its DNS are protected by default.

6 VLESS and REALITY (Xray)

A proxy protocol from the Xray world, made against censorship. REALITY makes a connection look like ordinary HTTPS to a real, popular site: the server borrows that site’s handshake and certificate, and shows the site itself to anyone who checks without the key. You connect with a vless:// link or a subscription in an app such as v2rayN, Hiddify or NekoBox; the link is the key. It is the most resilient way in Russia now, but reports say blocking waves reach it too: some setups, and nearly all of them during whitelist shutdowns.

HulyNet: REALITY is ahead here: HulyNet does not pose as someone else’s site yet. But HulyNet is not a proxy for some apps: it is a network for the whole computer, with no link that can be forwarded.

7 Tailscale

HulyNet’s closest relative in design: a private network of your devices, which connect directly, or through relays when they cannot. An “exit node” can carry all traffic. You log in with a Google, Microsoft, GitHub or other account, and Tailscale’s coordination server hands out the devices’ public keys and addresses. It is built on WireGuard and was not made against blocking.

HulyNet: no account, and no central server handing out keys: a network’s owner lists the computers that may use it (for testers, our server), and computers announce their own addresses. A different transport (QUIC, through the iroh library), and we build HulyNet as a network that spans countries, for places that block too.

8 Sources

How the other technologies work, from their own documentation:

Amnezia: AmneziaWG
Xray: REALITY
Tailscale: DERP servers

What is blocked in Russia, from reports by users and researchers on the net4people forum:

Found something inaccurate? Tell us in the testers’ chat, and we will fix it.