Knowledge base · MaskNet

How MaskNet works under the hood

The MaskNet connection is a cascade: you enter through a MaskNet server in Russia and exit in the location you chose. Smart routing sends the traffic of Russian services — Gosuslugi, banks, marketplaces — outside the VPN tunnel: they see your Russian IP, and there is no need to turn MaskNet off. Each location has several servers, and availability is checked every 20 seconds. This section explains how it is built.

Using MaskNetMaskNet technology
Modern protocols, smart routing, distributed infrastructure and MaskNet's own engineering.
Using MaskNetRussian and international services — without constantly turning MaskNet off
Why banks, Gosuslugi and Russian websites work without turning MaskNet off.

How the connection is built

The MaskNet connection is a cascade: you enter through a MaskNet server in Russia and exit in the country you chose. Your operator sees only a connection to a Russian server, so a foreign-traffic fee doesn't apply to it. Traffic between your device and MaskNet servers is encrypted.

Smart routing

Smart routing sends the traffic of Russian services — Gosuslugi, banks, marketplaces — outside the VPN tunnel: they see your Russian IP, and you don't need to turn MaskNet off. This traffic doesn't count against the plan's limit. How this works alongside foreign services — in Russian and international services — without constantly turning it off.

Reliability and our own DNS

Each of the 10 locations has several servers, and availability is checked every 20 seconds: if a server fails, traffic is moved to another server in the same country with no action from you. MaskNet's own DNS resolvers outside Russia handle lookups for foreign sites, with answers arriving over encrypted DoH. You can check that the connection is protected with our leak test. Technical details are in MaskNet technology.