VPN Connection Issues - New Install

[MajinB]

Context

I have recently signed up to VM after their Nexfibre XGSPON became available in the area. My internal routr installation took place earlier this week (17/09/2024). The purchase of the package was made about 2 weeks prior. The Hub installed is the 5x, so no modem mode. My old ISP is still active at the address within the cancellation notic period.

Problem

As soon as VM was up and running, the first thing I noticed was issues with my Personal Internet Access (PIA) VPN. It had trouble connecting, and if it did manage to connect, the connection would quickly drop. Rinse and repeat. 

The bigger issue arises when trying to work from home. I tried connecting with my work VPN (Cisco Secure Client) and it just does not connect. Either saying "Could not connect to server. Please verify internet connectivity and server address". Or simply display "Limited Access - DNS Failure". 

This is completely unnacceptable. 

Solutions Attempted

1. Connecting my personal PC back to old ISP router - PIA VPN Works fine.
2. Connecting Work laptop to old ISP router - Cisco Client VPN works fine.
3. Connecting those devices to a mobile hotspot - Both PIA and Cisco work fine on personal and work computers.
4. Connecting to VPN when connected to my virgin router - Fails to connect or DNS issues.
5. Setting DNS to Open DNS on my PC while connected to virgin router - Still does not resolve the issue.
6. Turning of parental controls from VM Security settings - Tried and does not resolve it.
7. Turning off virus protection from VM Settings - Tried and does not resolve it.

Next Steps/Questions

1. Is there a solution to this?
2. What solutions can I try beyond the ones already mentioned above?
3. Is my cooling off period from when I place the order, or would it be from the 17th, when the installation happened?

These issues are completely unnacceptable for such a large ISP. If I cannot even use my service to work from home, then there isno point in having the higher speeds compared to my old ISP. I would appreciate any help or advice, as otherwise I would like to cancel asap before my cooling off period finishes, as I do not want to be stuck with VM for 18 months with no ability to use VPNs or Work from Home.

Thank You.

[MajinB]

Thats right, from my personal laptop right now, it gives the same response as what you got in the above post when issuing that command.

[jpeg1]

The phone and WhatsApp operators are badly trained and talk nonsense. And they don't always record what they say.  Once you have cancelled, disconnect the Hub so they cannot claim you are using it beyond the 14 days.

If you want to be certain of the cancellation, send a recorded delivery letter with the account details to 

Virgin Media, Sunderland, SR43 4AA

They will send you a package to return the equipment. 

[Client62]

In that case VM DNS redirection from Child Safe and Virus Safe are not the problem for your VPN.

When you change your office laptop from the original ISP to the VM Hub 5x are you restarting that laptop to clear down its network connections.  Plus making sure its Wi-Fi is not still linked to the original ISP.

By restarting I mean use:    Shut down or sign out >>> Restart   

I explicitly do not mean use Shut down or sign out >>> Shut down  and do not mean use the Power button. 
These two options don't cause a cold reboot.

[MajinB]

Okay, so does that mean if the services disconnect on the 20th of October, there would be an early termination charge, even though I have notified them of cancellation within the cool off period?

[MajinB]

My PC is wired straight to the VM hub, and that was checked with restarts etc. The work laptop is via wifi, and the wifi was was switched while it was on to the VM router. I will try turning it on, connecting to VM router and restarting to see if VPN connects at all.

[MajinB]

@Client62 So a restart of the work laptop has yielded some results, though a bit intermittent. It has for the first time signed in without a constant dropping out. It did however fail a couple of times saying "Connection failed due to unsuccessful domain name resolution". Right now it is connected, I will experiment a bit more with my personal pc and PIA as well to see if that might improve somehow. Will keep you posted, and thank you for the advice and input so far.

[jpeg1]

Under Ofcom regulations there should be no cancellation charge if you cancel within 14 days. That's the whole point of the cooling off period. 

It has been reported on here that someone was charged a proportion of a monthly charge for the time they used the service before cancelling within 14 days. But I don't know how general that is.

There used to be documentation sent with the installation to spell out the cancellation procedure during the cooling off period. Did you get anything like that? 

[Client62]

It might be a good idea to turn off the original ISP's router and all associated Wi-Fi Repeaters
so the only option is to use VM's Hub 5x.

Were a laptop or PC to shift from one ISP's Wi-Fi service to the other during a VPN session the result be a loss of the VPN connection quite possibly with some very misleading error messages.

[MajinB]

Hey, so I did some additional checks with the other ISP access points off. 

The cisco client behaves the same, it still gives a DNS failure error sometimes, but after some attempts can get connected and appears to be okay foe the short time tested, will check this further for an actual day at work next week.

The PIA VPN on my personal PC however has the same issue as before. I checked the DNS as you suggested with the nslookup, and the response is initially the same before the VPN is connected. 

The VPN connects, works for a few minutes, then slows down, then eventually just drops. Almost like virgin detects it running and blocks or throttles it. So not sure how to alleviate this, even setting the VPN to Open DNS does not resolve the issue.

Thank you.

[Client62]

I've not encountered VM limiting my business VPN connections.

DNS failure is usually a sign that connectivity has failed. Which DNS the VPN is complaining about, the default one for the computer used prior to establishing the VPN session, or the DNS that exists within the VPN and is accessed from the remote end of the connection during the VPN session ?