What are common VPN Problems?

Is PureVPN still working?

No. It was working when I tested it this morning and still was working when I tested it this afternoon, but that's because I tested it at the same time each time. However, we can see that the service has stopped working (you'll see that in the details).

"A common misconception about VPN is that it protects you from surveillance from all governments (including that of your own), which it does not. If you live in a totalitarian or authoritarian state, a VPN cannot protect you from its ability to monitor, confiscate, or arrest you." - Jason R. Dixon, Co-Founder and CTO PureVPN

VyprVPN can run almost anywhere and is available on just about every device type, including smartwatches like the LG Watch Sport and Samsung Gear S3 and mobile phones, so you can take it with you wherever you go, no matter what device you use. There's a good chance you will have to look elsewhere for other VPN options, as VyperVPN tops our list with a good mix of speed, safety, cost, and convenience.

Private Internet Access, the first provider on this list, is another one of the major players that is a good choice for business users and anyone who needs to hide their IP address. They have servers in over 40 countries and are based in the US, UK, and Australia, which makes them a safe choice for those wanting privacy. In addition, this VPN has excellent connection speeds and great customer support. There are also various special features offered, including a dedicated website blocker and ad-blocker, as well as the ability to access censored content through their OpenVPN protocol.

When connecting to the Internet, your computer is assigned a numerical identifier called an Internet Protocol (IP) address. This IP address is used by every computer on the network to identify your computer to a remote server when data is transferred. You may think that once a VPN creates a secure tunnel between your computer and a remote server, you can safely use the Internet as if you were directly connected to the remote server, but there is still a problem with the IP address you use to connect to the Internet. Because your IP address is hidden, other devices or servers cannot directly communicate with you.

However, you will not want to use a VPN that relies solely on third party cloud storage.

Why is my VPN still not working?

- Part 1

In previous posts, I briefly covered how to set up and use VPNs and some of the more common issues that can occur. This post will cover some of the common reasons why a VPN setup might not work or may stop working.

The first issue is that we don't really know what we are connecting to. How do we know that our target is VPN secure? If you haven't performed the initial scans on the target, how do you know that it has not changed or you are only checking from a location that isn't encrypted? If a scan comes back as 'clear' and an IP address appears on the network, you should assume that what is seen is true. If the IP address has changed, there are many places that the system could be located including a friend's house, a work/home hotspot, etc.

The following steps will help to check that the target is secured from the outside. From the RDP-Tunnel client, do a port scan of the target on all ports. Note that this will usually tell you the status of both the port and if it is closed.

Do a whois for the IP address if the port seems to be open. Try both IPv4 and IPv6. If we have IPv4 but no reply for IPv6 and vice versa, then that would be a hint that the target isn't using VPN.

Do the ping tests again from the client side and the router/gateway that is connecting you to the target. Does the result drop? If so, then the target is probably clear as the result is being blocked.

Check the connection logs in the Windows firewalls. If it doesn't say that anything is being blocked or dropped, it may be that the Windows firewall isn't allowing the connection. The firewall needs to be configured to allow the RDP-Tunnel connections.

These steps aren't very exhaustive. You could run a third party port scanner, do whois on the IP address of the target, do ping tests, run wireshark on the connection. There are lots of ways to check out the state of the target. However, for many of these issues, you can rule out some other sources with a simple test.

What are common VPN Problems?

There are two types of VPN users: the common and the expert. Those in the expert group know more about VPN than anyone else, they've worked with VPNs for years, they can't stand slow VPN speeds, or their connection fails randomly. In fact, many people who are experts in a particular technology will sometimes be called something like a 'superuser', 'ninja' or just an 'expert' to let you know that they are probably pretty good at using it.

The rest of us have other problems to deal with, often because we don't know enough about VPN to get rid of them. But, as the old saying goes.

"If you don't ask, you won't find out". We are all human, but I wouldn't recommend it. We want to use VPNs, even when we should really stop and think for a moment, maybe read a manual or even a FAThat's why we get confused by VPNs. There are thousands of different ways in which things can go wrong with VPN, and a lot of them are pretty hard to sort out, let alone understand.

So, what are the common problems? I've decided to collect all the best answers in one place, with descriptions of what caused them. And then I think, maybe, someone less expert can add some more answers on top. I expect there are lots of more answers, but this will be the most exhaustive list I've managed to find.

I'm really not trying to write 'A Beginner's Guide To Using VPNs' because that would be almost impossible to do. Instead, I hope that this post will serve as a reference when an expert user is faced with any problem, whether it is common or uncommon. And that, if the problem turns out to be common, they can find it in this post, so that they may feel a little more confident in their approach. So, what are the common problems when using VPNs? Let's take a look.

Why do my computers and mobile devices not work when I connect to VPNs? There are many reasons why your device may fail to connect to a VPN server. One example is if you are trying to connect to a closed network (as covered later) while on a public Wi-Fi network, then your device will not pass over any traffic to any VPN.