Hi…I have been using OpenVpn for some time, and today I realized that when I connect to the VPN when my phone is on LTE the connection is made but then sites don’t load. My logs see the connection but that’s about it.
If im on a wifi connection the VPN is fine. This just seems to be an issue when I’m on an lte connection.
I see this with my 2 OpenVpn servers.
I’m curious if anyone else is seeing this behavior
Try going into settings and enable dns fallback
Are you talking about your own VPN server you have setup? If so I had this exact issue on Verizon but it would go away when roaming, so I think it had to do with the cellular network specifics. If I remember correctly it was some issue with IPv6.
It could have been a bad configuration too, cuz I have since moved to a different VPN server and software (still OpenVPN though) with a new configuration and it works fine on Fi over LTE
Update - I found this thread:
I just changed one of my VPN server’s MTU to 1380 - and VPN data over LTE is working for my phone. I’ll test my other VPN server in a bit.
So odd that my wife’s phone worked the whole time over LTE/VPN.
I have continued to do some testing and I have it narrowed down to either my Phone (Pixel 4XL) or my Fi / SIM Account.
I tested the VPN connections on my wife’s phone (also in my FI Family with her own number) and it worked fine.
Unfortunately, I don’t have another device to test my SIM on. It is just so odd that no data flows when connected through VPN and LTE - but works fine when on Wifi.
Im not over my Data quota - but it is almost as if I’m being capped when a VPN connection is being used.
I suppose I could take my SIM and put it into my Wife’s phone, but I dont want to introduce any additional account issues by swapping SIMS and devices.
I suppose I’ll eventually open a case with Fi to see if anything on my account is “tagged”, but I really dont think they can do much without me testing my SIM on another device.
Weird…I activated the Google VPN via the Fi app…then connected to my VPN and things work.
I deactivated the Google VPN and my traffic stops again through my VPN. This tells me its definitely an issue with how the carrier is handling my direct to OpenVPN connection
I really can’t help you here. But I stopped using Open VPN in favor of wire guard, because of configuration issues in Android and failure to parse things sometimes.
Do you have private DNS enabled in the Android settings? If so, it interferes with OpenVPN. Change the setting to automatic.
Ugh, thank you so much. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to figure out why OpenVPN works on wired / wifi connections but not on LTE. It would connect but no traffic would come back. I was convinced it was a PFSense issue but as it turns out adding the two lines below to custom options fixed it!
tun-mtu 1380;mssfix 1340;
Thanks - I checked that but no good…I just deleted the app and reloaded again too. It was a good suggestion though. Thank you
Yes - its my own…I have 2 that I use - 2 Different servers (different locations) with different OpenVPN configs - but both use OpenVPN and both have the same issue. I can try to create a new config, but once I do that I have to change the configs on multiple devices so I want to save that as a last resort.
They have been working for over a year - and then suddenly stopped this week. I’m convinced that its the way the cell network is handling the traffic - as everything works fine - except when on LTE. My monthly cycle ends in 2 days - So I’m willing to see if the cycle reset kicks anything.
Thank you for responding with your similar story - It makes me feel better that someone else has seen similar symptoms.
This is another great suggestion. I checked now and it was set to Automatic…I changed it to OFF and restarted, but unfortunately it didnt work.
I appreciate all the suggestions…and I’m hoping that a setting like this will trigger it.
Always glad when an old comment helps someone out.
YOU ARE MY HERO!!! I had just been dealing with OpenVPN being able to connect but not access anything on my Fi Pixel 7 for a year or so.
Just bumping this post to say thanks, you solved my problem with his post as well!
Thank you stranger. I was having the same issue and this resolved it for me. There’s no way I would have figured this out on my own.
Ok I must have lost that detail, that it used to work but now it doesn’t. Then I would guess the same, that it’s something to do with the cellular network.
I remember I could never get it working on Verizon a few years ago. But when I would roam on that Verizon plan it would work on other country’s network. I remember reading somewhere others had this issue because of IPv6 but I can’t really remember the details unfortunately.
It would work if I got a family member’s phone on the same Verizon plan and connect to their personal WiFi hotspot on their phone, then try to connect to the VPN server. So everything was still going solely through Verizon, but for some reason going on their hotspot it would work. It would also always work when using a commerical VPN (Nord VPN) on LTE as well. Now that I have Google Fi, it just works connecting to my own server though. Hope you are able to figure it out