What can we do to ensure that OpenVPN NOTIFIES the user with a CLEAR WARNING when the connection drops?

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woodrock
OpenVPN User
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Joined: Sun Jun 04, 2017 1:59 am

What can we do to ensure that OpenVPN NOTIFIES the user with a CLEAR WARNING when the connection drops?

Post by woodrock » Sun Sep 03, 2017 10:58 am

How can a Windows user be NOTIFIED when an OpenVPN connection is summarily dropped?

NOTE: Your first response will naturally be that "it does"; but it doesn't - so allow me to explain that:
a. Sometimes the openvpn daemon log window "just closes", in which case you have no warning that you no longer are on VPN (unless you notice you're down by one window).
b. Sometimes the openvpn daemon log window "stays open", in which case you still usually have no overt warning because you have to constantly open the window to look at the last messages, which you're just not going to do every second of every moment that OpenVPN is running in the background. So you're going to miss the warning in the openvpn daemon log window that you're no longer protected by VPN.

It's my humble opinion that this question is relevant to every single VPN user.

While anyone can have this problem of the VPN connection summarily dropping without them noticing that loss of encryption, I have the problem in spades because I use an unreliable-on-purpose free public vpn service. So, for me, the problem is even worse but everyone has this problem - which is why it's important to flesh out possible solutions.

For privacy reasons (and not necessarily for security reasons), I use the freely available openvpn configuration files from vpngate in Japan.

These free *.ovpn config files are often reliable but just as often highly unreliable (this is, on purpose, it seems, based on the charter, as described in the vpngate.net government censorship discussions).

Given that the files are often unreliable, there is no problem when a connection won't work (which happens, roughly, to about 1/3 of the connections attempted), which is why I have set up a system already well described here to attempt to start up scores of ovpn files in sequence, but to only have a single ovpn configuration file win in the end (and for the rest to automagically die so that only one connection attempt remains open after a minute or two).

That all works fine for the RELIABLE connections, but it still leaves the problem of the unreliable connections that summarily drop.
In fact, even for reliable vpn connections, for whatever reason, the connection "can" drop.

I'm told by some that the "socket" will prevent privacy leaks because it will be open, but in practice, that's definitely NOT the case.

For example, a web page that originally connected with VPN will happily connect without VPN, instantly giving away your privacy (and security) because the subsequent connection apparently uses a new "socket" which is NOT encrypted.

While I care about privacy only, and not data security, both are lost when a public-server VPN connection summarily drops.
Even with a private server, the problem remains, so EVERYONE has this same problem (as far as I can tell).

What can we do to ensure that OpenVPN NOTIFIES the user with a visual or audible WARNING when the connection drops?

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