Windows 7 - cannot browse internet after connecting

[redtopia]

We just setup an OpenVPN Access server on AWS using the prebuilt AMI. We are using the unlicensed version and installed all the updates.

The problem is that when i connect to the VPN using the OpenVPN Connect app, I am unable to access the internet. The VPN looks like it's connected, both in the client (or in the browser) and on the server. But I have no access to the internet.

I cannot ping the default gateway for the VPN, so I'm not even sure that I have a good connection or if ping is just turned off. I cannot go to https://123.123.123.123/admin (the server admin page) - the page doesn't load, though I am an OpenVPN admin user.

On my machine, Windows Firewall is turned off. I did bypass the chrome warning about the insecure connection when using the browser to connect.

There is another Windows 7 user who is connecting successfully with no problems.

[redtopia]

UPDATE: I can go to the admin page when I am not connected to the VPN. Looking at the log files, it appears that I am being authenticated successfully, but then when the VPN is established, I lose all connectivity. I cannot ping the VPN gateway, which should be possible according to the other Windows 7 user who has no problems.

It appears that there may be a problem with the TAP Adapter. Any recommendations for troubleshooting?

[redtopia]

UPDATE 2: I can now access the internet... In the properties for my wireless adapter, I clicked on properties for TCP/IPv4, then clicked on Advanced, and then unchecked "Automatic metric" and gave the Interface metric a value of 15. This changed my route table so that the wireless card was given a higher priority than the TAP adapter.

I'm still trying to figure out how why I cannot ping the VPN gateway.

[novaflash]

Try adding this line to Advanced VPN > Server config directives;

push "route-metric 1000"

And save settings and update running servers. Undo the change you made to your wifi interface and try connecting and see what happens.

[redtopia]

UPDATE - SOLVED

All I needed to do was lower the metric of my LAN adapter as I specified in UPDATE 2. I verified that nobody can ping the VPN gateway, but once connected, I can ping other IP addresses for the users who are also connected. To do this, I made a change to the user permissions - "Allow access from" - all other VPN clients. I just changed that for testing.

[redtopia]

@novaflash - I tried your suggestion and that works... thanks! (PS, at first I didn't realize I had to restart the server)

[novaflash]

It only works for the server config directives, and it will force the routes pushed by the server into a much higher route metric, which should result in a similar situation to lower the metric on your network interface. The difference will be visible in route print output on command line.

[redtopia]

Thanks... I didn't see the button at the top of the page to restart after I made the change. I restarted and it worked... I can see the TAP adapter has a much higher metric now.

[novaflash]

Good. Now manually adjusting your route metric on your adapters should no longer be necessary.

[redtopia]

Thank you very much!