OpenVPN W10 socket protect error

[Jippy]

Hi everyone

I have a strange one where I can't get one computer out of 6 or 7 machines so far to connect to my VPN hosted through my Synology NAS. All the machines run Windows 10 Home and are either a desktop machine I custom assembled, or a variant of a Lenovo Yoga or Thinkpad laptop. I was also able to connect my Android phone without issue, there is just this one machine (one of the Lenovo's) that just won't connect.

I have tried allowing an exception to the firewall, disabling the firewall altogether, disabling the anti-virus, checking all the settings against the other machines, flushing the DNS, disabling IPv6 and short of throwing the computer in the bin and buying a new one, tried just about all else.

The log is showing a "socket_protect error (UDP)" and it just attempts to reconnect, brings this error, disconnects, attempts again, rinse and repeat. It has declining so quickly that it feels like it is a firewall issue, however as I mentioned, I disabled that and it did not change anything. The log on the server end is not even showing an attempt by this username to log in which helps cement the suspiction it is being blocked at the local machine end.

It is frustrating that it is just this one machine so far in isolation doing this.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is causing this?

My configuration (although I doubt this is the issue as it is working on all the other machines):

View OriginalVPN Config

dev tun
tls-client

Remote was here and removed

# The "float" tells OpenVPN to accept authenticated packets from any address,
# not only the address which was specified in the --remote option.
# This is useful when you are connecting to a peer which holds a dynamic address
# such as a dial-in user or DHCP client.
# (Please refer to the manual of OpenVPN for more information.)

#float

# If redirect-gateway is enabled, the client will redirect it's
# default network gateway through the VPN.
# It means the VPN connection will firstly connect to the VPN Server
# and then to the internet.
# (Please refer to the manual of OpenVPN for more information.)

#redirect-gateway def1

# dhcp-option DNS: To set primary domain name server address.
# Repeat this option to set secondary DNS server addresses.

#dhcp-option DNS DNS_IP_ADDRESS

pull

# If you want to connect by Server's IPv6 address, you should use
# "proto udp6" in UDP mode or "proto tcp6-client" in TCP mode
proto udp

script-security 2


comp-lzo

reneg-sec 0

cipher AES-256-CBC

auth SHA512

auth-user-pass
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIDSjCCAjKgAwIBAgIQRK+wgNajJ7qJMDmGLvhAazANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQUFADA/
MSQwIgYDVQQKExtEaWdpdGFsIFNpZ25hdHVyZSBUcnVzdCBDby4xFzAVBgNVBAMT
DkRTVCBSb290IENBIFgzMB4XDTAwMDkzMDIxMTIxOVoXDTIxMDkzMDE0MDExNVow
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Ob8VZRzI9neWagqNdwvYkQsEjgfbKbYK7p2CNTUQ
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIEkjCCA3qgAwIBAgIQCgFBQgAAAVOFc2oLheynCDANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADA/
MSQwIgYDVQQKExtEaWdpdGFsIFNpZ25hdHVyZSBUcnVzdCBDby4xFzAVBgNVBAMT
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KOqkqm57TH2H3eDJAkSnh6/DNFu0Qg==
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

</ca>

[oconf=][/oconf]

[makiavelli]

Hello,

I have exactly the same issue on my home network as well. I have OpenVPN server configured on EC2 instance, and only 1 out of 3 machines can't connect to it. All 3 machines are running macOS Catalina 10.15.3 OS and all 3 machines are using native OpenVPN Connect client software

Here is the log from the client side software:
Transport error: socket_protect error

There are no logs falling on server side

[Jippy]

I have sorted my machine out, I don't know what went wrong. I just uninstalled and reinstalled OpenVPN, nothing different about how it installed, used the same certificate and config file, it connected. Very strange! Have you tried that makiavella? It seems very basic "turn it off and on again" type stuff but surprisingly, it actually worked this time!!!

[cika8]

Hi there.
I had the same problem. It's OpenVPN on Synology server, and we have 10 clients on it. We configured VPN on all 10 clients, and everything was perfect, no drops, disconnects, etc...
After few days I wanted to connect to VPN - it stucks (trying to connect)... Checked everything, Firewall, router, asked IT on workplace, asked ISP, even tried to make hotspot from another ISP, installed ProtonVPN to give me another IP and the result is that I couldn't connect to VPN with 4 different IPs (even I tried with another OpenVPN account).
After that I installed OpenVPN on Android and successfully connects from Mobile? With same ISP, same IP which PC uses (I mean dynamic IP, not private) and same config file, same account.
When I went to log it says: "Transport Error: socket_protect error (UDP)" and spent 2h on Google what is that and how to solve.
Finally, I uninstalled OpenVPN and installed again, loaded config file and everything is working now... How?
After me, 2 clients experienced the same problem, but they could connect via hotspot or another ISP.
Can someone check is there any problem with UDP protocol or driver or VPN or something else?

View OriginalClient config

dev tun
tls-client

remote X.X.X.X 1194

pull

proto udp

script-security 2

comp-lzo

reneg-sec 0

cipher AES-256-CBC

auth SHA512

auth-user-pass

client-cert-not-required

<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----

...

-----END CERTIFICATE-----

</ca>

Thanks & Regrads.

Edit: The last version of OpenVPN connect is used, 3.2.2 (1455)
OS is Windows 10 (20H2), with latest updates.

[stipa]

It seems that product in question is OpenVPN Connect, which is a proprietary product by OpenVPN Inc and not a community project. Please contact OpenVPN Connect support.

[cika8]

Thanks!
It seems that problem is fixed by switching to fiber optic cable (instead of previous satellite, same ISP) in workplace. Everything is now working good (on every client).
I know that this is not related to topic, but maybe it will be useful for someone.

Wish you happy New year!

[Titiviking]

Check if the service is disabled or not.
Newer installations of the OpenVPN client rely on an agent installed as a service.
By default it is set to Automatic. However when putting it to manual and rebooting, I faced the same errors.

Reinstall would remove the service and reinstall it with automatic startup. That is why reboot seems to 'fix' it.

Service:

Code: Select all

OpenVPN Agent agent_ovpnconnect                          Running             Automatic           Local System
OpenVPN Connect Helper Service                                               Manual              Local System

[axsdenied]

Good tip on checking the service, that worked for me. That said, the service was already set to automatic so why wasn't it running? Did the service crash?

[DesertShadow]

I get the socket protect error AND the service is running... Any other ideas?

[wesowens13]

I had the same problem on my MacOS with the M1 running Ventura.
It ended up being that a service was set to run at startup by OpenVPN Connect that was required in order to connect. I normally disable startup services by default on my MAC, and this was causing the issue.
Fix:
1. Go to "Login Items" in the Settings for the Mac.
2. Enable the OpenVPN Client Option in the Menu.
3. Restart

I now can run OpenVPN without errors and I've tested it over multiple restarts. Much better than uninstalling and reinstalling the App everytime.

I tried starting the service manually and running the program, but I have not found a manual way to fix the issue. I'm sure there is a way to start the service through a terminal and then set it up as a script. I was able to get it to work if I don't use OpenVPN Connect and instead run the openvpn command installed through homebrew, which is easier than writing a new script to start the service.

[jordan.stevens]

Thank you! Life Saver!

[jery]

same error socket protecion 30