How to Set Up a VPN for Your Parents When You Live Far Away: Sign-In by Code From Your Dashboard, No Password or Card of Theirs

In short: your parents need neither your password, nor a card of their own, nor a subscription link. You add their phone as a device in your own dashboard and pay from your balance; all they do is install the ProxysVPN app and type eight characters that you read out or send in a messenger. Below: what you do, what to say to them on the phone, and how to help afterwards, including when they change phones.

How it works

• No password, no card. The app signs in by code as that one device only: the password, the email and the dashboard sign-in stay with you.
• You pay. Your parents' device is paid from your balance like your own: they have nothing to top up.
• You manage it. You can name the device “Mum”, reset its binding when they change phones, or delete it, all from your dashboard — no trip to their home.
• No links. A long subscription link is easy to paste in the wrong place; a code is eight characters.

Step 1. What you do

1. 1Sign in to your dashboard and press “Add a device”. On the “Which device are you connecting?” screen choose what your parents have — a phone, a tablet, a computer or a TV — and the plan, “Basic” or PRO.
2. 2Name the device so you do not confuse it with your own: ⋯ → “Rename”, for example “Mum, phone”.
3. 3Send your parents a link to the app. Android: ProxysVPN on Google Play. iPhone and iPad: TestFlight from the App Store first, then the ProxysVPN invitation in TestFlight. A computer: the download page.
4. 4When the app is already open on their side, press “Code for the app” on the device card and then “Copy code”. The code is valid for 10 minutes, so take it at the very end, not in advance.

Step 2. What to tell your parents

You can read this to them on the phone word for word:

1. 1“Tap the link I sent you and install the ProxysVPN app.” For an iPhone: “first install TestFlight, then open the second link and tap Install.”
2. 2“Open ProxysVPN and tap ‘Enter a code from the website’.”
3. 3“Paste the code I send you, or type it in — it is eight characters — and tap ‘Connect’.”
4. 4“Tap ‘Turn on’. The phone will ask whether to allow the VPN — allow it.” On an iPhone the system also asks for the phone's passcode, the one they unlock it with.

The app asks “Where are you?”. With “I am in Russia”, Russian sites, banks and government services open directly; with “I am abroad”, all traffic goes through the VPN, Russian sites included. Tell your parents which of the two fits where they are.

If you are next to their computer or TV

You do not have to type the code at all. Open ProxysVPN on that device: on the sign-in screen it shows a QR code. In the dashboard on your phone, press ⋯ on the device card → “Scan the code in the ProxysVPN app” → “Scan QR from the screen” and point the camera at it: the app on that screen signs in by itself. It is handy when you are visiting.

How to help afterwards

• They changed the phone or reinstalled the app. In the dashboard, on their device, ⋯ → “Reset device binding”, then a new “Code for the app” — and the same conversation as above. The paid period and PRO are kept.
• It stopped working on every device at once. Look at the balance in the dashboard: if it ran out, top it up and access comes back.
• Only one thing does not open. Ask them to pick another country in the app, or the WataFast row — the automatic mode that picks the country and the protocol by itself.
• Nothing helps. The device has a ⋯ → “Not working? Backup link” item with the common causes; or write to support from your own account and we will look at their device through it.

What it costs

The app itself is free; what you pay for is the subscription: $1.50 per device per month, taken from your balance, with nothing charged to your card automatically. Top-ups start at $5. An account opened on the Russian site is priced in roubles instead: an account keeps the currency it was opened in, whatever card tops it up. Your parents' device is a device of your account like any other, with its own row in the dashboard.