VPN Stability Question

[mbmumford]

I have been using Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN for several years now, and almost constantly the VPN connection will drop after 0.5 - 12 hours of use. 

 

I'm assuming constant disconnection is not normal behaviour, however, PIA support has tried a failed to diagnose the true cause over the years (change MTU, uninstall/reinstall PIA, uninstall/reinstall network adaptor, update after update, etc).

 

This has occurred over 5 different Windows installs (Windows 8 x1, Windows 10 x4), on both physical & virtual machines. 

 

Rather than use the PIA application, should I expect any better stability if I setup a VPN connection in Windows, or even at the router level using the OpenVPN credentials PIA offers?

[Radium_Angel]

37 minutes ago, mbmumford said:

I have been using Private Internet Access (PIA) VPN for several years now, and almost constantly the VPN connection will drop after 0.5 - 12 hours of use. 

 

I'm assuming constant disconnection is not normal behaviour, however, PIA support has tried a failed to diagnose the true cause over the years (change MTU, uninstall/reinstall PIA, uninstall/reinstall network adaptor, update after update, etc).

 

This has occurred over 5 different Windows installs (Windows 8 x1, Windows 10 x4), on both physical & virtual machines. 

 

Rather than use the PIA application, should I expect any better stability if I setup a VPN connection in Windows, or even at the router level using the OpenVPN credentials PIA offers?

Same router through it all?

[mbmumford]

On 4/26/2019 at 5:41 PM, Radium_Angel said:

Same router through it all?

I use the ISP provided modem / wifi router (1Gb/s fibre). I have had the unit replaced 4-6 times in 6 years, and had the model of the ISP provided modem / wifi router changed twice. This continues to occur throughout all of these changes.

 

I'm planning to eventually buy a proper wireless router in the future for wifi quality issues (leaning towards a Linksys WRT3200ACM), however, the connection issues im experiencing are all when hardwired. 

[Radium_Angel]

2 hours ago, mbmumford said:

I use the ISP provided modem / wifi router (1Gb/s fibre). I have had the unit replaced 4-6 times in 6 years, and had the model of the ISP provided modem / wifi router changed twice. This continues to occur throughout all of these changes.

 

I'm planning to eventually buy a proper wireless router in the future for wifi quality issues (leaning towards a Linksys WRT3200ACM), however, the connection issues im experiencing are all when hardwired. 

There are still some possibilities here. Not saying any of these are correct, just throwing out food for thought:

 

(1) Your ISP is doing this.

(2) Your ISP-Supplied hardware is doing this for whatever reason.

 

When it drops connection...how much of a PITA is it to re-connect to the VPN?

[mbmumford]

1 hour ago, Radium_Angel said:

There are still some possibilities here. Not saying any of these are correct, just throwing out food for thought:

 

(1) Your ISP is doing this.

(2) Your ISP-Supplied hardware is doing this for whatever reason.

 

When it drops connection...how much of a PITA is it to re-connect to the VPN?

I have considered these options also.

 

Since I travel a lot for my job, a rather large pain. I have to keep another computer running simply so I can remote in and access the VM with PIA via the hypervisor interface to reset it. If I don't check to see if it is up, then it will remain offline until I do.

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, mbmumford said:

I have considered these options also.

 

Since I travel a lot for my job, a rather large pain. I have to keep another computer running simply so I can remote in and access the VM with PIA via the hypervisor interface to reset it. If I don't check to see if it is up, then it will remain offline until I do.

I'm wondering if your ISP is considering this, and is doing it to force you to upgrade to their "business" plan....(unless you already have a business plan, in which case nevermind)