Connection to OpenVPN; seems to drop routes after a while?

[mike3996]

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11; Android 12; Miui 13
• VPN Client Pro 1.01.30

I bought the OpenVPN package license to connect to a friend's private OpenVPN network (running ver 2.5.6) that runs tap mode with DHCP.

I am not much of a networking expert. So far, there's two kinds of (interrelated?) issues.

1. I have to fix my IPv4 address and subnet in the settings because DHCP is timeouting during connection.
2. With the IP fixed, I can connect and then immediately connect to a HTTP server under the VPN. But after a few minutes Chrome loses ability to connect, reporting timeouts. A reconnection of the VPN restores connectability, again only for a few minutes.

My friend maintains the endpoint and is probably able to provide some logs. He says that some UDP packets are being dropped.

The client log is not overly verbose but here it is:

Code: Select all

2023-02-10 16:51:57 VpnClientPro-google-api27-release-1.01.30 (23010130)
2023-02-10 16:51:57 Connecting request by user
2023-02-10 16:51:58 disabling NCP mode (--ncp-disable) because not in P2MP client or server mode
2023-02-10 16:51:58 WARNING: --keysize is DEPRECATED and will be removed in OpenVPN 2.6
2023-02-10 16:51:58 OpenVPN 2.4.9 android-arm64-v8a [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [EPOLL] [MH/PKTINFO] [AEAD] built on Feb  8 2023
2023-02-10 16:51:58 library versions: OpenSSL 1.1.1t  7 Feb 2023, LZO 2.10
2023-02-10 16:51:58 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled.  See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
2023-02-10 16:51:58 TapEmulator started
2023-02-10 16:51:58 TUN/TAP device  opened
2023-02-10 16:51:58 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]---snip---:1194
2023-02-10 16:51:58 UDPv4 link local (bound): [AF_INET][undef]:1194
2023-02-10 16:51:58 UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET]---snip---:1194
2023-02-10 16:51:58 WARNING: 'ifconfig' is present in local config but missing in remote config, local='ifconfig 10.5.0.0 255.255.0.0'
2023-02-10 16:51:58 [---snip---] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]---snip---:1194
2023-02-10 16:52:00 Initialization Sequence Completed

[admin]

1. I have to fix my IPv4 address and subnet in the settings because DHCP is timeouting during connection.
2. With the IP fixed, I can connect and then immediately connect to a HTTP server under the VPN. But after a few minutes Chrome loses ability to connect, reporting timeouts. A reconnection of the VPN restores connectability, again only for a few minutes.

1. This means that on the server side the DHCP server has not been configured correctly.
2. This could be due to connectivity issues.
   A possible solution could be to change the protocol from UDP to TCP

[mike3996]

I am happy/sorry/happy to say these issues were user error on my end.

"Pull configuration" setting is needed for DHCP and I didn't know from its terse description what it was for. Now I know.

The bigger issue, losing packets after ten minutes or so, was my home router that just needed a long-needed reboot. I did try the connection outside my router, using phone's data plan but my testing must have been too inconclusive and brief. By now I have tried the connection with and without a consumer zyxel in between and it stays up longer than 12 minutes, and is more reliable.