Small home setup having conflict between multiple devices

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tester68

Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:47 pm

Post by tester68 » Sun Dec 29, 2013 11:00 pm
I have a limited knowledge on networking - but have read bits and pieces from the Open VPN manual to try and understand what I need to do.

Our current setup is a network of three devices. Two being Windows 7 computers and the third is an Android box.
All devices were on static IPs however after some recent problems I've decided to put everything back to Dynamic (DHCP is running) A) until I figure things out B) I heard that static can cause issues with default VPN setups.

Viscosity is the front end GUI and all settings have historically been at default (which I was also advised) and I am using Open DNS servers in Windows IPV4 configuration. My VPN service confirmed up to three devices allowed on one VPN account.

Currently if I have computer A) connected to a VPN address in one locale, say France and then I turn on computer B) which then connects to England, computer A gets intermittent or complete loss of web browser viewing. I get a lot of resolving hosts and then a failed to connect notice (or something similar). This works vice versa. If computer B was on and I switch on the Android device, once it connects, computer B suffers.

I looked into Viscosity's settings, and noticed a few things.

-Default DNS via my VPN seems to be Google DNS. I used the drop down box to change to disabled, and then did ipconfig /all. It confirms that VPN is now using my Open DNS addresses. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to have solved the problem.

-Routing: send all network traffic over VPN is disabled. I am a bit unsure on exactly what this does for someone in my scenario given how it's described in the OpenVPN manual. At first glance it seems like it's saying that any traffic on your network would be affected by THIS current VPN connection unless specified otherwise. Which means that whatever server VPN is connected to on the first device to use the VPN, would then affect all other devices. The thing is, that sometimes this seems to happen regardless of whether I enable to send all traffic over VPN. For instance, If I connect computer A to France, computer B may also be connected to France without Viscosity running at all on computer B. It's only when I connect the second or third device manually to a VPN server, that things go bad.

-LZo compression. On my Android device, I was told to use it, but it's not specified in Viscosity for the Windows PCs?

-General behavior on some of the devices is odd. Computer B can boot up, immediately connect to VPN and browse internet sites with no problem for few minutes. At that point, all websites stall with a resolving host message and then the connection is trashed until I disable the VPN. It then takes another few minutes before it starts working again without the VPN connected. Then I will put the VPN back on, it works for a bit, then falls apart again.

As you can see I'm in the ball park but it seems default settings across the board may not work for me.

To recap : I want to allow all three devices independent use of the VPN service, connecting to three different locations simultaneously. I believe once that's achieved, then there will no longer be any conflict and loss of connectivity.
I also want to confirm about the use of the Viscosity settings, and what exactly sending all network traffic over VPN will accomplish.

Thank you
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tester68

Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:47 pm

Post by tester68 » Mon Dec 30, 2013 9:34 am
Small self update.

I managed to identify that Computer A is working fine over the VPN as well as Computer C / android device is working fine over the VPN. I can make VPN changes and run them independently of one another without conflict.

It seems to be Computer B that has the problem. I boot into Windows 7, VPN connects and internet is working.
After about ten - twenty (sometimes an hour)minutes or so all websites stop with a downloading proxy/resolving host errors.

At first I assumed it was DNS related so I disabled manual DNS on my IPV4 configuration and let the VPN handle it. Unfortunately that hasn't solved it.

When I disable the VPN, the websites start working again and work indefinitely.


I have checked the VPN log and it shows this inactivity notice at the end:

Dec 30 01:45:43: [*.earthvpn.com] Inactivity timeout (--ping-restart), restarting
Dec 30 01:45:43: SIGUSR1[soft,ping-restart] received, process restarting
Dec 30 01:45:43: State changed to Connecting



I tried another wireless device and had the same results. Additionally, when on a wire connection, it seems the problem stops as well.

Eric

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Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 3:27 am

Post by Eric » Thu Jan 02, 2014 12:40 pm
Hi tester68,

The ping-restart means your connection has been terminated by the remote server. This can be a variety of reasons and it is best to contact your VPN Provider about this as they can narrow down why it is happening where as it is just guess work for us. Please see the following if you are unsure who your VPN Provider is - http://sparklabs.com/support/how_do_i_f ... _my_vpn_p/

Regards,

Eric
Eric Thorpe
Viscosity Developer

Web: http://www.sparklabs.com
Support: http://www.sparklabs.com/support
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tester68

Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:47 pm

Post by tester68 » Mon Jan 06, 2014 9:51 am
Hi Eric,

The facts were that it :

-Only happened over wireless connectivity
-Only one one of the three devices

Forcing the network to route all traffic over the VPN has solved the issue.

Thank you
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