OpenVPN breaks NIC on connection drop

chgill

Issue:
Had OpenVPN on my old Dell laptop, rock solid connection, never an issue. On my new HP Elitebook (company issued) if the OpenVPN connection drops my connection to the internet is broken. I get the globe icon in place of my normal network icon and I cannot get back online without restarting the laptop. I am using a HP dock that has the ethernet jack built into it.

What I have tried:
1. I disabled HP LAN/WAN switching service, this seemed to work for a few days, but now I have had to restart as many as 4 times a day due to internet connection being broken.
2. Deleted the TAP NIC from device manager, this will make the internet work again without restarting, but obv. breaks the vpn connection. And I have to reinstall OpenVPN to get TAP NIC back.
3. Reinstalled OpenVPN, made no difference.

Version: OpenVPN 3.3.1 (2222)

This has to be an issue with the HP dock/Elitebook/OpenVPN combo. We have a lot of these Elitebooks in our company, but I am the only person using a dock with ethernet connection.

TinCanTech

chgill wrote company issued

Please tell your company support channel.

chgill

TinCanTech wrote
chgill wrote company issued
Please tell your company support channel.

They sent me here.

TinCanTech

We do not provide free support for Company owned hardware.

Go to your manager and report them for not doing their job.

openvpn_inc

Hello chgill,

It is known that these programs that come with laptops that are intended to make connections 'smarter' can cause problems with VPN connections. For example this automatic switching from WLAN to LAN only when a LAN connection is detected is a typical problem case. When the OpenVPN connection goes online it triggers such 'smart' software to turn off WLAN, assuming that the VPN connection is now your LAN connection to the Internet. Which it is not.

You are currently on the public community forums where other users of OpenVPN can assist each other.

If you want the OpenVPN Inc. company support channel, try https://openvpn.net/support

But regarding your problem... this really seems like a problem with software on your laptop that's interfering with your connections. If possible try to disable or remove that, and see if that solves the problem. In many cases it does.

Kind regards,
Johan