Viscosity manipulating Windows DNS settings

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Eric

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Post by Eric » Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:08 pm
Hi stivostenberg,

Are you able to provide us with some more information about how you got to this state with your DNS? 127.0.0.1 should not still be present after you disconnect from a VPN, this is not intended behaviour.

Regards,
Eric
Eric Thorpe
Viscosity Developer

Web: http://www.sparklabs.com
Support: http://www.sparklabs.com/support
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mbit

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Post by mbit » Fri Mar 04, 2016 6:18 pm
It's exactly the same issue I am having, glad to see I am not alone. Also had to switch back to OpenVPN...

swsjr

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Post by swsjr » Sat Mar 05, 2016 5:29 am
Eric wrote:
Hi swsjr,

Are you using static DNS settings when not connected to a VPN? Are these static DNS settings not being reapplied when you disconnect? Are you making any changes to Windows DNS while connected to a VPN?

Could you please post (or you may prefer to email us this information to keep it off a public forum) some further information to what is happening? Could you please post the following:

A copy of ipconfig -all before you connect.
The full output of your log and ipconfig -all after you connect
A copy of ipconfig -all after you disconnect.

To get ipconfig -all, go to Start, type cmd and press enter. In the command prompt window, type 'ipconfig -all' without quotes and press enter. Then right click in the cmd window, select Mark, you can then select all the output and press Enter to copy it.

To get a copy of the log, please see the following - http://sparklabs.com/support/kb/article/viewing-the-openvpn-log/

Regards,
Eric
Eric,

Thank you for the reply. I have responded via email to your questions and provided the ipconfig files and log.

Regards,

swsjr

Eric

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Post by Eric » Mon Mar 07, 2016 9:01 am
Hi swsjr,

Thank you for sending along that information, we are reviewing it now.

Regards,
Eric
Eric Thorpe
Viscosity Developer

Web: http://www.sparklabs.com
Support: http://www.sparklabs.com/support
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sparklabs

Eric

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Post by Eric » Mon Mar 07, 2016 1:29 pm
Hi swsjr,

Thank you very much for sending along this information. It's allowed us to identify a bug and correct it. Please try updating to the latest beta and let us know if the problem is resolved. To do so, go to Preferences -> General, tick Include Beta updates and click Check Now.

Anyone else who is also facing problems, we encourage you to try the beta as well, feedback is very much appreciated. If you continue to face issues, especially those who have a DNS address of 127.0.0.1 remaining on a disconnect when using Split DNS, please send along the information requested below, it would be a great help!
https://www.sparklabs.com/forum/viewtop ... t=10#p5986

Regards,
Eric
Eric Thorpe
Viscosity Developer

Web: http://www.sparklabs.com
Support: http://www.sparklabs.com/support
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sparklabs

stivostenberg

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Post by stivostenberg » Wed Mar 09, 2016 9:20 am
This is almost to the point of unusability. My system crashes periodically, a result of overloading it's puny memory. I am almost always connected via VPN to some site or another. Usually, after such a crash, my system is hosed, as not only is the DNS set to 127.0.0.1 , but I cannot reconnect to my VPN servers because they cannot look up the host!
I would recommend that iffen you intend to hijack DNS, you leave a secondary DNS from the original DNS so if Viscosity is not going to handle the request, somebody can.
Life is easier if there are multiple network adapters as I suspect it eventually pulls from those. Have somebody having problems with OpenVPN, and until last week I would have cheerfully pointed them to Viscosity, but these issues would utterly torpedo the non techy web designers and developers I am supporting.

Users unplug and plug in networks, and turn wireless on and off. Not sure what impact that has on the problem. I turned both Wired and Wireless on. Connect to OpenVPN (C). Both DNS change to 127.0.0.1.

Launch VPN to (P). Disconnect (C). Disconnect (P). Check my networks, and find my Wired has DNS back, and WIreless does not. Connect and Disconnect (P). WIreless still 127.0.0.1

release and renew IP addresses on all interfaces.. Wireless DNS still 127.0.0.1.

Try disconnect wired. Hosed. Cant resolve DNS to look up VPN host.

Plug wire in. Connect to (P). Works. All DNS set to 127.0.0.1. Unplug wire without disconnecting VPN. VPN does not reconnect, cant resolve VPN name. Disconnect VPN. Plug wire back in. Wired connection now stuck on 127.0.0.1. System dead. Launch VPN connection from Viscosity. I connect, and system back online. Disconnect, and wired is good, wireless is still 127.

Turn wireless OFF and ON. Should reset it, ay? Nope. Still 127.

Going to send along this round of troubleshooting data. Tomorrow, may try entirely from wireless, since it seems to have more issues.

Eric

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Post by Eric » Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:08 pm
Hi stivostenberg,

The issue here is the crash. When your computer comes back up, Viscosity takes on your DNS set with servers 127.0.0.1 as normal. While this isn't the case for you, we can't assume that something has gone wrong because there are a lot of users who are using loopback as their DNS for things like encryption services, development and proxies to name a few.

We are currently looking into a method that in a scenario like this, Viscosity can restore your original DNS settings pre-crash of a PC or Windows itself. It is intended behaviour that a dhcp renew or cycling an adapter does not restore DNS settings, as this can cause an unwanted DNS or traffic leak while connected.

The latest beta already has some improvements which you might like to give a try, stay tuned for a new beta soon that should hopefully have some functionality to address your particular scenario though. To get the latest beta, go to Preferences -> General, tick Include Beta updates and then click Check Now.

Regards,
Eric
Eric Thorpe
Viscosity Developer

Web: http://www.sparklabs.com
Support: http://www.sparklabs.com/support
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sparklabs

ljorg

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Post by ljorg » Tue Sep 26, 2017 12:26 am
This is still an issue in version 1.7.3 on Windows 10. If Viscosity crashes for some reason, DNS servers are not reverted to the original settings before the connection was established and name resolution will not work until DNS servers are manually edited.

Is there a fix f or workaround for this?

Eric

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Post by Eric » Tue Sep 26, 2017 3:18 pm
Hi ljorg,

We have several methods in place to deal with this issue now. The only problems we know of that still cause this are due to bugs in certain patch levels of .NET. Please try running a repair on .NET as a first option - https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/downloa ... x?id=30135

If Viscosity is crashing, please send us your crash reports and we can investigate them to prevent the issue occurring.

Regards,
Eric
Eric Thorpe
Viscosity Developer

Web: http://www.sparklabs.com
Support: http://www.sparklabs.com/support
Twitter: http://twitter.com/sparklabs

ljorg

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Post by ljorg » Tue Sep 26, 2017 8:52 pm
Eric wrote:
The only problems we know of that still cause this are due to bugs in certain patch levels of .NET. Please try running a repair on .NET as a first option - https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/downloa ... x?id=30135
Windows 10 is .NET 4.7, and that tool only fixes up until 4.6. It runs fine, but doesn't change fix the problem. We have investigated further, and if viscosity (or, indeed, Windows) crashes for any reason, the DNS settings are not reverted. We're currently implementing a button for users to click to restore the settings, but this is a really ugly solution.

Can't Viscosity override Windows DNS without changing the settings on the adapter? That's the root cause of this problem-
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