Share via

No Internet Connection When VPN Is Connected

Anonymous
2019-11-30T11:51:44+00:00

This particular issue has been going on for almost a month now. My companies IT department is still trying to figure out the root cause. Below is a list of isolation / troubleshooting i've done.

Issue: Once connected to the work VPN (successfully) the internet connection on the Windows 10 machine disconnects and does not allow any network traffic. 

OS: Windows 10 Home - Version:  1909 (OS Build 18363.476)

Computer: Razor Blade 2019

  • Latest drivers installed
  • Latest Windows updates installed
  • System Wide issue

Troubleshooting / Isolation

  • Cellular Data: Verified the Windows machine can connect to a hotspot and successfully browse the internet. (No VPN involved)
  • Cellular Data + Work VPN: Verified the Windows machine can connect to the hotspot & successfully connect to work VPN and successfully browse the internet.
  • Home WiFi: Verified Windows machine can connect to the home wifi network and successfully browse the internet (No VPN involved)
  • Home WiFi + Work VPN: Verified Windows machine can connect to home WiFi. It can successfully connect to work VPN. However once the work VPN is connected, the home WiFi network indicates (No Internet Access)
  • Ping Test + Work VPN: Verified I can successfully ping (work) websites and even the work VPN URL successfully without any packet loss. However once I go to ping (non-work) related addresses like google.com, apple.com etc. there is packet loss.

At this point I decided to test my work VPN on my iPhone & Apple Mac.

  • iPhone: Home WiFi + Work VPN: Verified the iPhone successfully connects to home WiFi network and the work VPN and can successfully browse the internet.
  • Mac: Home WiFi + Work VPN: Verified the Mac successfully connects to home WiFi network and the work VPN and can successfully browse the internet.

Isolated: Only the Windows machine seems to be affected. I even verified this issue occurs on multiple Windows user accounts on the Windows 10 machine.

  • Windows 10 is fully updated to the latest November Windows 10 update and issue persists
  • Deleted and Added the VPN configuration several times and issue persisted.

Third Party VPN Client Test:  Tested with Nord VPN and the Windows machine successfully connected to the home WiFi network & the Nord VPN connection successfully connected to a random server and successfully browsed the internet.

  • Disabled IPV6 on VPN & WiFi network configuration (Per IT Support guidance) and issue persisted

*Currently updating to Windows 10 Insider Preview 19033.1 (vb_release) to see if this might fix anything pertaining to Windows 10 VPN. 

Thanks for any additional guidance / suggestions / help that the community offers.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Internet and connectivity

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

5 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2019-11-30T22:13:40+00:00

    Hi there, apologies for the delayed reply.

    Thanks for providing the traceroutes. From the output it seems that when the VPN is connected all of your internet traffic including non-work traffic is sent through the VPN (then out to the internet through your work network).

    If you haven't done so already I would recommend to turn Windows Defender Firewall off on your computer and then re-try the VPN on your home WiFi to rule that out as a possible cause. There's a support article here on how to do that if needed: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/402854...

    Otherwise it would be worth checking the settings on your home router to see if the firewall running on there is set to block any specific types of VPN traffic. Also ask your IT guys to check the network/firewall logs on the work network when you're trying to connect to the internet with the VPN on, as your internet traffic is being sent via the work network they should be able to see if it's getting through successfully.

    Steve

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2019-11-30T15:16:43+00:00

    Hello Steve,

    Thank you for the response. Attached are the results for the latest test.  First image is with VPN off, and second image is with VPN ON.

    Correct. It only occurs when this Windows 10 machine is connected to my home WiFi network. If I connect it to Hotspot, no issues at all using my work VPN + hotspot connection.

    I even traveled to my friend's place in the Bay Area (2hrs) or so away and my work VPN worked just fine on his home wifi network.

    So not exactly sure if I still need to configure something within Windows 10 or if I need to start looking into router or ISP settings.

    But as I mentioned earlier, my iPhone & Mac are configured with work VPN and connect to my home WiFi network and both of those devices can browse the internet just fine. So once again that isolated things back to the Windows 10 machine itself.

    I just recently upgraded to: Windows 10 version 2004 (latest insider preview) and the issue persists even with that update. 

    Thanks!

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2019-11-30T12:59:54+00:00

    Hello Steve,

    Thank you for your quick response.

    Here is a breakdown of my Ping tests ON VPN and OFF VPN

    ON VPN

    • Ping 8.8.8.8 - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping google.com - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping: apple.com - Request timed out.  75% loss 1 received
    • Ping: cnn.com - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping: yahoo.com - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping: microsoft.com - 100% loss 0 received

    OFF VPN 

    • Ping 8.8.8.8 - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping google.com - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping apple.com - Request timed out. 100% loss 0 received
    • Ping: cnn.com - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping: yahoo.com - 0% packet loss 100% received
    • Ping microsoft.com - 100% loss 0 receivedI ran the "route print" command ON and OFF of VPN. So the results are attached as images.  Not exactly sure why the ping was failing for apple.com & microsoft.com. Especially with VPN OFF. When its OFF I was able to visit both websites successfully, even though the ping failed on packets.

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2019-11-30T12:21:48+00:00

    Hi there! I'm Steve, an Independent Advisor and a Windows user like you. I'm happy to help with your query.

    That sounds quite frustrating! From the issue described it sounds like there might be a routing configuration issue when you're connected to the VPN.

    When you're connected to the VPN, whilst you can't ping URLs (e.g. google.com), are you able to ping internet IP address such as 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS)?

    Also if you run the command "route print" both when connected to the VPN and disconnected do you see a different default route (0.0.0.0) between the two?

    Was this answer helpful?

    5 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2019-11-30T14:36:45+00:00

    Thanks for providing those screen shots. It seems that the ping test results were successful for both the IP and URL when on the VPN so the ping requests are able to make it through to the destination and there's no issues with DNS resolving the URL address.

    Just to confirm, do you only see this issue on your home WiFi? When your Windows 10 machine is connected by cellular hotspot and on the VPN internet access works OK?

    Please can you try one more command on and off the VPN and post the results: "tracert google.com"

    Steve

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments