OpenVPN over WiFi causes WiFi to disconnect from AP

fplatel

Hello
I have a new laptop running on windows8.1 x64, previously I had one with Win7 x64 and openvpn was running fine.
Now each time I connect to my vpn, it connects successfully but after something like 2 mn my Wi-Fi got disconnected from the Wi-Fi AP. If I try to reconnect to the wi-fi network, the Wi-Fi adapter just disconnects as soon as it is connected.
When this occurs, I disconnect the OpenVPN connection and Wi-Fi goes back online immediately.
I have found a similar post in the forum but no solution and it was posted more than one year ago : https://forums.openvpn.net/topic14711.html

Does anybody have any hints about this issue ? I have removed the tap adapter and recreated it, it didnt make any change.

Thanks in advance for your help
Fabrice

Traffic

Have you tried the full solution offered in your link:

I made sure to run the installer while on WiFi only.

Otherwise, do you have another Wireless AP you can test with ?

FYI: I run OpenVPN Server and clients over wireless networks and have zero connectivity problems.

fplatel

Thank you for your answer, I have installed the latest version of OpenVPN Client (2.3.9), I have disabled all network adapter (physical or virtual) except wifi, before installing the software.
Unfortunately I still have the same issue, I tried not only on my personal network but it was the same when I was traveling and I was using WiFi over hotspots.

Traffic

Can you test using wired ethernet ?

jasonming

I am having the same issue as stated above. However, connect via wired connection has no issue. Could please help to advise?

Traffic

If you want to use wifi then completely disable your ethernet device ..

jasonming

Traffic wroteIf you want to use wifi then completely disable your ethernet device ..

Thanks for your advise. Tried to disable the ethernet, but it is still the same. It seems like the TAP adapter that OpenVPN installed will causing a drop in wireless network but not the wired network. Could you advise?

FalconTent

Please post your config files and log files at --verb 4.

md123

After many hours of troubleshooting, found out that this has nothing to do with OpenVPN but everything to do about windows.

1) does openvpn work over a wired connection?

No => fix your open vpn configuratin
Yes => continue to 2.

2) does openvpn connect over a wifi connection but fails after 1 mn?

No => then stop reading this thread.
Yes => then windows is disabling your WIFI because it detected a new LAN connection. Yep. Happens to Windows 10 and other versions of windows. Didn't use to be a problem, but apparently an update of windows causes the VPN connection to appear as a physical LAN device, and trips the BIOS.

3) restart and check your BIOS for the following:
- device options: WLAN / LAN switch: if on, turn it off.
- Wireless options -> check for LAN/WLAN, and turn off the settings or mess with them.

4) restart windows. do not connect to Openvpn yet. Enable your wifi, connect through wifi, then plug an ethernet cable and confirm that you have a DUAL network with both connections active: is wifi still on after connecting an ethernet cable?

No => Go back to 3) and keep messing with your bios.
Yes => go to 5.

5) unplug the ethernet cable, stay connected to wifi. connect through openvpn.

At this point, openvpn should work.

NOTE: at this point, your computer will always have wifi on when you plug an ethernet cable. So you will need to turn off wifi manually at times.

jj1358

Hello and sorry for coming back to an old post.

I've been facing same issue since a week on a Lenovo T430 laptop with Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise. Following the proposal to connect via cable resolved the problem and network connection would not drop, otherwise WiFi connection was disconnecting after about 2 minutes and had to disconnect VPN for WiFi to reconnect. I have also tried to find any option in BIOS for WLAN/LAN switch but there wasn't any.

The solution finally came from WiFi driver and this article from Intel: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000005972.html. Since my driver was very old did not support changing settings I've upgraded to latest from here https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26785/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-IT-Admins and after that (without even rebooting my PC) WiFi stopped dropping after OpenVPN was connected. Additionally I didn't have to perform the steps in the first article from Intel, issue was resolved already after the upgrade of driver so it seems that latest driver has this option disabled by default.

Hope that helps
Yiannis