Using any VPN on this PC causes severe lag to entire network

Alex 20

It started 2 days ago. The second i open any website or a youtube video, or start any app that uses bandwidth, all computers and devices in my apartment, including PC im using it on, suffer extreme lag which basically disables everyone from using internet; The ping to google jumps from 25 to 300+, next second to 1000-3000+.
I tried 2 different VPNs, different locations, resetted my network settings, run CCleaner, reinstalled VPN, nothing helped.
Happens only when im using VPN from this one particular PC (win10) (tried on another, everything works fine).

My internet speed without VPN is 33 MBs ( 260+ Mbs) per second for downloads, and 3,3 MBs for uploads.

Reza-Ameri 16,971 Reputation points

2023-09-17T15:32:46.4966667+00:00

Are you using Windows VPN?

Have you checked the Event Viewer?

Was there any relevant error?
Alex 20 Reputation points

2023-09-17T18:12:13.9566667+00:00

Using ProtonVPN. Same problem if using Windscribe.
Event Viewer doesnt seem to contain anything helpful for this:
An error: On that day it happened (i believe): there was a failed HDD defrag attempt (0x8900002A)
And 2 warnings for Proton , an unsupported restart event. (might be caused when i tried to close it)
Alex 20 Reputation points

2023-09-17T18:57:09.24+00:00

In event viewer under "windows protocols" -> "system" there appears this error whenever i connect to a VPN server, saying "An initialization error occurred because the driver could not be built." in german:
"Es ist ein Initialisierungsfehler aufgetreten, da der Treiber nicht erstellt werden konnte. Verwenden Sie die Zeichenfolge "000000000100320000000000D71000C013010000250200C00E000000000000000000000000000000", um die Schnittstelle zu identifizieren, die nicht initialisiert werden konnte. Sie stellt die MAC-Adresse der Schnittstelle mit dem Initialisierungsfehler oder die GUID (Globally Unique Interface Identifier) dar, wenn NetBT keine Zuordnung von der GUID zur MAC-Adresse herstellen konnte. Wenn weder die MAC-Adresse noch die GUID verfügbar waren, dann stellt die Zeichenfolge einen Clustergerätenamen dar. "

I played with settings, and noticed that sometimes the issue dissapears, however it is not tied to a specific protocol or settings like dis/enabling VPN Accelerator, but instead pure randomness.

Changing settings and (or?) reconnecting has a small(!) chance that it actually starts to work. However its very unreliable, esp. since VPN automatically redirects clients to different servers.

Accepted answer

Reza-Ameri 16,971 Reputation points

2023-09-18T20:09:32.2733333+00:00

They are using different protocols like OpenVPN, WireGuard , TCP, have you tried using different protocols and see if that make any different?

Try open start and search for feedback and open the Feedback Hub app and report this issue.

I advise you to contact the ProtonVPN support, have a look at:

https://protonvpn.com/support/

For Windscribe, you may contact:

https://windscribe.net/contact-support
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Alex 20 Reputation points

2023-09-19T05:39:29.2566667+00:00

The issue seems to be fixed by changing to "OpenVPN - UDP" protocol. Thank you.

Reza-Ameri 16,971 Reputation points

2023-09-19T19:31:04.37+00:00

You're welcome, glad it was helpful.
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