Hello,
I have been testing a few VPN providers and all of them get me disconnected in around 10 minutes. I set up a connection, everything works, until after 10 minutes all pages stop loading and I basically don’t have internet. On my tablet, however, everything works. I have tested NordVPN, TorGuard, PureVPN, IVPN. All good providers, but I lose connection after time.
Since I lose connection on all of them I think the problem is with my PC. I have only one idea what might be wrong. I remember when installing IVPN they asked me to update my Windows with some security patch otherwise it won’t work. The thing is that I am using Windows 7 and from the day I installed it I completely turned off all updates. I am probably with the original Windows 7 without any updates. Could this be related to the connection dropping? If no, then what might be an obvious reason for every VPN to fail after 10 minutes which I can’t notice?
Thanks.
The 10 minute timing suggests that you’re blocking pings in your firewall. Just about all VPNs use UDP by default, and UDP is stateless, so the client and server ping each other to test the connection. If pings fail, the client reconnects. So check firewall settings. You could also try switching to TCP mode. That normally doesn’t depend on ping to keep alive.
Do it like a pro.
Install Wireshark
Connect VPN
start Wireshark
Monitor the interface that says something like PPP/SLIP/TAP
And you will be able to see the data packets without encryption. Just watch what happens when the connection terminates i.e. after 10 Min. Should give you some insight.
Should work with PPTP, and L2TP/IPSec. I never tried it with OpenVPN on Windows, but I know if it were Linux, I be able to do that and more.
I just tested what you said. My connection drops at exactly 4 minutes if connected with UDP. I am currently on TCP and passing 10 minutes.
You are right, but how come I am the only one with this problem. If UDP is by default wouldn’t many people have the problem I have. Also I know you explained why this happens, but I couldn’t fully understand. If the ping fails and the client reconnects I should have connection since it has reconnected or no…? Is there a way to fix it other than using TCP? Thanks.
Just installed it and I can’t understand anything, but when I run a speed test most of the packets turn purple and all of them are TCP protocol, however I am now connected to UPD.
Well, that’s a start 
What puzzles me is that VPNs work in your tablet. If I didn’t know that, I’d say that your ISP is doing something evil.
But if all is cool with the tablet, there must be something going on with your PC. Have you messed with the firewall? If you don’t think so, just try resetting it to defaults.
If you capture on the LAN adapter, you’ll see the UDP packets. When you capture on the TAP adapter, you see the traffic inside the VPN tunnel. And when you’re browsing stuff, that’s TCP.
I just tested on my tablet (Nexus 7 2013) and it was working good for around 11 minutes. I did 3 speed tests and the speeds varied a lot. It was jumping from 2 to 15 Mbit/s (my actual speed is 15 Mbit/s). Then my connection stopped. It was stuck loading a page. A minute later I pressed refresh again and it started working… However, on my PC I didn’t do any test and it just stopped. I am on the cheapest ISP in UK - TalkTalk, so I won’t be surprised if they are doing something evil.
No, I haven’t messed with the firewall. I don’t really know how to mess with it. I will reset it now.
In the sidebar comparison chart, look for VPNs with obfuscation. You said that you had tried IVPN. They offer obfsproxy. Ask their support how to set it up.
Actually, before going that far, you could try switching to TCP port 443. That’s used for HTTPS, and isn’t often blocked.
I spoke with TorGuard support and they told me to chage my DNS settings. I remembered that a while ago I had changed them for other purposes so I turned them to “Obtain DNS server automatically”. Nothing really changed, but I noticed that the same happens as with my tablet. If I run speedtest my connection just drops and keep loading for a minute, then it just loads the page and continues to work normally. It looks like UDP works, it just stops when overloaded I guess…? There must be something with speedtest.net. What might be happening?
Trying using speedof.me and testmy.net as alternative speed tests. I’ve always found speedtest.net to be unreliable for accurate results.
I’ve found that Speedtest doesn’t work well on some VPNs. And I like to avoid Flash. Maybe try one of the newer HTML5 test sites.
But anyway, VPNs shouldn’t drop when overloaded. But maybe your ISP is dropping high-volume UDP, as a load-shedding ploy. Again, try switching to TCP port 443, and see if that works better.
Just signed for PIA and the same happens. Connection gets really slow for some time on UPD and then restores back to normal. TCP is always slow with PIA. Overall it is very slow even when connected to server in my country. I don’t get what is wrong with my PC… Can the update thing fix anything? It is my only hope.
OK, I must have messed up something badly. After turning all VPN’s I have, my IP and location aren’t my real ones?? How is this possible? I have to reset the whole networking section on my Windows haha…
TCP generally works. On PIA the connection gets really slow if using TCP. UPD is slow as well with them. What bothers me is that probably all the services I have tested work perfectly and my PC is just crazy. I think about trying on a different PC.
It’s possible you’re having problems with a TAP driver which VPNs use. Here’s an article from OpenVPN’s site on managing TAP drivers in Windows. Uninstalling/reinstalling TAP drivers in the past have helped me resolve VPN issues although my problem was different than yours. I couldn’t connect at all. HTH
Could be the PC, for sure.
It works on another PC, but mine disconnects. So the problem is my PC. Should I just reinstall windows or install all updates or keep hunting the problem which I obviously can’t find?
If it won’t be too much hassle to backup and restore data, and install and configure apps, a clean install would be simplest.But why, if I may ask, didn’t you install any updates? Windows is a privacy nightmare, for sure, and I only use it when necessary. And some of my forum friends hack Windows down to the bare minimum, as a hobby. But just not updating puzzles me.
I use Windows 7, because 10 has too many privacy issues. And I don’t install any updates, because from personal experience I know that after installing updates my computer always comes up with some new issue or bug and something stops working. In my opinion the updates make a mess to Windows. I know it probably isn’t true and I should install them for better security etc., but I just don’t like them.
In my experience, you’re better off allowing all Windows updates. If you try to just allow the necessary ones, things can break. But Microsoft has been pushing some very invasive stuff on Windows 7 in recent months, and I can understand why you’d not want to update. I’ve seen some threads on https://www.wilderssecurity.com/ about locking down Windows 7.
