VPN Network Unconfigured Connecting iPhone or iPad over USB

[Bryan]

This may be a problem with MacOS but I figure I'd report it here first since there may be a setting that I'm unaware of that would fix this. I've confirmed this happens on two separate devices and two types of handhelds. Connecting to the VPN works and the correct settings are present from DHCP: IP Address, Routes, DNS Resolvers.

After plugging in a handheld device all of those settings disappear and MacOS now has two extra network interfaces. The VPN tunnel appears to be connected still though but since the interface has been unconfigured the connection does not function.

MacOS Ventura 13.2.1
Mac Mini M1 / MacBook Pro Intel
Viscosity 1.10.5 (1626)
OpenVPN Server 2.5.1-3 (debian 11)

Thanks

[James]

Hi Bryan,

I recommend giving the latest beta version a try and see if you encounter the same thing. It has some improvements for similar situations on macOS 13.
https://www.sparklabs.com/support/kb/ar ... -versions/

If you're still running into the same issue, and would like us to take a closer look and see whether anything can be done from your VPN connection's perspective, please send along the details listed in the following article and we'll take a closer look. You may prefer to send these via email rather than posting publicly.
https://www.sparklabs.com/support/kb/ar ... ort-staff/

Cheers,
James

[Bryan]

The beta was causing random and frequent disconnects so I downgraded back to stable. However, I am still seeing this weird behavior even when not plugging in another Apple device.

Seems random so far, sometimes I'll be connected for hours and other times it happens seconds after I connect. The only indicator in the logs with "verb 5" set is:

2023-04-26 09:53:13: DNS change detected, restoring DNS settings

But in fact, the DNS settings are gone with the rest of them.

[James]

Hi Bryan,

We're working on putting an updated beta build together to hopefully address this. It should be available soon - please keep an eye out for it.

However I should add that there will be instances where Viscosity is unable to maintain the VPN connection when connecting a new underlying network connection: if the new connection has a higher Service Order (in System Settings) than your existing network connection, it may cause the VPN connection to disconnect or drop out as the encrypted VPN connection traffic may have been interrupted or is now travelling over a different network interface. Some setups will handle this fine (UDP and IP floating enabled on the OpenVPN server), however others may not.

Cheers,
James