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Hop User Guide: iOS

The Hop Connect client app for iOS

The Hop Connect app for iPhone and iPad lets you access your Hop servers from anywhere. Hop Connect establishes a VPN connection for you, and routes all your Internet traffic through your chosen Hop server.

Getting Started

Things you’ll need

A Mac running as a Hop server (see User Guide: Mac).
An iPhone or iPad which travels with you, running the Hop Connect app.

Installing & Running Hop Connect

Open the Hop app, and sign in.

Browse your running Hop servers. When you want to connect to a server, touch its circle icon to start the connection.

Hop will begin connecting to the server. When the connection succeeds, the server has a solid blue glowing ring and a VPN icon is displayed in the status bar. If the connection fails, the ring will glow orange.

Tap the icon again to disconnect. The blue connection ring goes away, and the VPN badge disappears from the status bar.

Accessing someone else's Hop server

If a friend has shared their Hop server with you, you can use the Hop Connect app to connect to it, and use their home Internet connection anywhere.

If you're only accessing your own Hop servers, you don't need to do this, as your own servers all appear whenever you're logged in via your account. However, if someone has sent you a Hop link or a Hop code (in the format XXXXXXXX-XXXXXXXX), you can add their server to your list of devices.

In Hop Connect's main screen, the rightmost icon is an "+ Add Device" button. Tap that button and you'll be able to type or paste in a Hop code or URL, sent to you by another Hop user. When you click Add Device, their Hop server device will be added to your list, and you'll be able to connect to it as long as the link is valid.

Scroll all the way to the right to access the "+ ADD DEVICE" button.

On the Add Device screen, enter the Hop code you received from your friend.

Connecting using OpenVPN

If Hop Connect isn't working, you can try an OpenVPN connection.

By default, Hop Connect for iOS connects you to the RVPN backend running on your Hop server. If for some reason the standard VPN connection is not working, you can try connecting to the OpenVPN backend. (Hop Mac servers run both backends concurrently.)

Tap and hold (long press) on the server's icon to access this menu.

Pressing and holding down on a server's circle icon for more than a second will bring up the menu shown here. The Connect option tries to connect to the server in the standard way (RVPN). This is the same as simply tapping on the server's icon to open a connection.

If regular connections aren't working, you can try Export OpenVPN conf file to attempt an OpenVPN-based connection. To do this, you'll need a third-party OpenVPN client app. The de facto standard client for iOS is called OpenVPN Connect. It is a free App Store download. You'll be able to open the OpenVPN conf file exported by Hop in OpenVPN Connect, and make a VPN connection from within the OpenVPN Connect app.