Windows 10 manual VPN setup guide

VPN
1

NordVPN on Windows 10 has been extremely buggy for me. I’ve tried countless troubleshooting methods but nothing could fix it for me. I decided to look into manually setting up a VPN in windows so that I wouldn’t need to use the program at all. It was pretty difficult to find the right guide on the website but eventually an accurate enough Google search got me to this guide:

If you get an error saying “parameter is incorrect” after following the guide, follow these steps:

The downside to this is obviously you don’t get all the features that the third party client offers, such as cybersec and easily switching between servers. If you want to connect to different servers you have to copy the VPN in network adapters and edit the server address for each one. Also make sure when you choose a server, make sure you select ikev2 in the drop-down!

Hope this helps someone :slight_smile:

2

honest question, why go to all this trouble? the nord program offers an idiot-proof way to connect, so what’s the upside of adding a vpn manually? simply curious what the use case might be, especially seeing as how you’re missing out on the advanced features

3

It keeps giving me a “policy match error” even with all these steps

4

Another thing to note, I tried using OpenVPN client but kept getting Auth error most times so that didn’t work out either.

5

I did this registry edit and it fixed it for me.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RasMan\Parameters
Now right click on right side empty space and create a new DWORD (32bit) file named NegotiateDH2048_AES256
Right click on new created registry file and click on “Modify…“, then in the value data field enter the value of 2 and click OK.

6

VPN would not connect 9/10 times, gets stuck at connecting

7

split tunneling is something the NordVPN client app does not offer.

8

split tunneling is something the client app does not offer.

9

Make sure you’re using a ikev2 specific server. I think that was the reason I got this error before.

10

Glad I could help :slight_smile:

11

Are you on a home internet connection?

This sounds like a firewall stopping ports/UDP traffic. Check that “automatically choose best protocol” is enabled in settings before clicking connect.

12

Well, I’ll be…

Thank you! For some reason I assumed they all supported it!

13

I am on a home connection, automatic protocol is checked and I have manually allowed through firewall and antivirus.

14

please enlighten me?

15

Most of them do support it but they don’t work for some reason, I think it’s just not being pointed towards the right protocol or something.

16

It depends how deep you want to go but they do have support, so grab the diagnostics and send in a ticket. If you’re really bored, get out Wireshark and have a look while it connects.

It could be an issue with your network adapter, DNS server, or your ISP could be dropping packets for some reason (ie China/Iran)

17

I haven’t tried using Wireshark so perhaps that could solve it. I haven’t reached out for help as I’m not the account holder just have permission to use it. I’m really happy with the solution I’m using though it’s seamless and a quick and easy connect button in the task bar is all I really need the VPN for :slight_smile: