hi Joe
I’m not saying it’s perfect but VST connect definitely works (for most !) - it’s difficult to debug people’s specific issues as everybody has a slightly different setup.
You say you are using a VPN - I assume that’s to bypass the need for a PRO licence - so you’re making life more complicated there - who knows what problems that is bring to the table. Why not try a 30 day demo of PRO then you can dispense with messing around with a VPN.
Obviously everyone likes to come onto forums like this to vent, and I understand, but if you really want to get this thing working (and there’s nothing else quite as good as this at the moment IMO) then best to post with specific questions or issues and the devs and users will do their best to get you running.
START SIMPLE - ditch the VPN and see what happens.