No internet

Romeo_Venus

Hi! I have recently faced a problem that sometimes my internet disconnects and I have no access to the internet whatsoever with or without VPN. I tried to restart my laptop, turn off the router - nothing helps. The only thing that more or less solved the problem is turning off the Private Internet Access from available devices. When I turn it on again - the problem is solved! It happens randomly and I still can't figure out why exactly those disconnects happen.It seems like PIN blocks my internet connection. It happens randomly 2-3 times a week. I cannot understand the pattern because it is working for the whole week non-stop and then suddenly disconnects. Please, help me solve the problem! I am currently in China where everything is blocked.

Romeo_Venus

I am using Windows 10 x64

bkdroid13

Sometimes, WiFi is connected, but no Internet error can be related to the Internet connection and not with any device. This may be due to broken cables, service interruptions or anything that does not depend on you.

Having said that, it is important to know if the problem comes from your Internet provider. To do this, check if the modem's "Internet" LED is working. Ideally, the power and DSL lamps should be on. Also make sure there is nothing unusual, such as the constant flickering of the lights.

If the LEDs are not lit or if you see flashing lights, contact your ISP immediately.

Omnibus_IV

To take it one step more, it could be your TAP adapter. Check to make sure it is still operating correctly. You may have to uninstall the TAP adapter and then reinstall again.
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/tap-windows-adapters-vpn-driver

[Deleted User]

Hello Romeo_Venus,

I was also going to mention the TAP Adapter but Omnibus_IV beat me to it! Also, bkdroid13 has good recommendations as well. I do want to add that connecting in regions like China are difficult as they block VPN use heavily. Can you inform us if there is a certain site and or time of day when the disconnection happens? Any information you can provide about the disconnection would be much appreciated. - PIA CS TEAM

Romeo_Venus

Hello guys! This problem started at the beginning of June, before everything was perfect. Now the only server I can connect to is Finland but the problem is that the speed is extremely slow there and it drops proportionally to the coming of night. At night here in China the internet speed drops from 90mb/s per second in the morning to some ridiculous 3kb/s at night. I understand that at night the internet speed drops it is quite common for China, but before everything worked fine. I cannot play my favourite MMORPG because of this. I suspect that Chinese government blocks the VPN somehow, however if the issue comes from PIA side I would be grateful if you check pls. Don't leave users in China in trouble.

[Deleted User]

Hello Romeo_Venus,

VPN connections are never suggested for use with real-time online gaming. By the very nature of how VPN technology works, it's going to increase your latency, not decrease it exponentially. When you're connecting to a VPN server, you're first bouncing your connection off of a remote server, before it ever goes out to the internet, or back again; doing this doubles the routing path necessary for your connection, thus doubling your ping times. 

After this, you then need to factor in encryption, which has to encrypt and decrypt every single packet of information that's being sent or received by you. That further increases your latency by a factor determined by the level of encryption used (the higher the level, the longer it takes to process; we use 128-bit, which has a processing factor of about 4x-8x per packet).
Thus, in the end, given what I've explained above, it is not at all uncommon to see ping times of 8x-16x+ your normal level, once everything is factored in. 

Again, this is in no way unique to our service; this is how VPN technology works, especially encrypted VPN technology. Sorry for any confusion or inconvenience this may cause. 

That said, you could try alternate server gateway locations to improve performance. You can also try different connection ports within our application:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/helpdesk/kb/articles/why-is-the-vpn-connection-not-working-or-slow-with-the-pia-app

Besides those changes, here are some other suggestions which may improve your connectivity: 

Firstly, please power down your computer, router, and ISP's modem, wait approximately 60 seconds, then power each device back up in reverse order; please allow about 1 minute between powering up each device, to ensure they sync correctly. 

Also, you can try updating your MTU setting, which may help your connectivity as well. Instructions on how to do so can be found in the following support article (please be aware that PIA does not support these settings, and any changes are used at your discretion and liability): 

https://support.zen.co.uk/kb/Knowledgebase/Changing-the-MTU-size-in-Windows-Vista-7-or-8

Furthermore: when connecting to PIA within China, we cannot guarantee the level of connectivity you may encounter. We are willing to troubleshoot by trying a few different options to get our services working. Please understand that while we do our best to provide assistance in these countries, we are essentially unable to guarantee services.

Our first option is to try the various protocols and ports as documented in this helpdesk article. Mainly, the TCP/443 combination as a standard HTTPS connection: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/helpdesk/kb/articles/i-have-trouble-connecting-or-the-connection-drops-frequently-changing-ports. If that doesn’t work, however, we can try setting up a manual OpenVPN connection using direct IP addresses to avoid DNS-based censorship. - PIA CS TEAM