Question After my ISP upgraded my router, why can't some PC apps access the Internet ?

[coltonious]

First off, I'd like to say that I know this has been asked before, but I didn't notice a thread of it since windows 7, so I thought a more up to date version would be apt, especially since I'm on windows 11.

Hey, all! After having issues with my modem/router combo for months, my ISP sent a dude in to just give me an eero router connected to my modem. Things seem to be moving faster consistently, but, for some reason, when I don't have my VPN on, my PC is only able to connect to some things, and not others. I currently have the PC connected through Ethernet, because of something else I'm about to get into.

Another issue that stemmed from the same router may be tangentially related. When I first got the router, I wanted to use WiFi on my PC(s). When I tried to connect, though, they could also only connect to everything if I had my VPN on. Otherwise they would connect to the router but not get WiFi. So, to attempt to fix that, I tried messing with some network settings on the PCs. Since I don't really know what I'm doing in there, I don't believe I actually even changed anything from the norm, but I could've messaged something up.

One of my two PCs is a server PC, which I had previously messed with some network settings on to use it as a server. It worked for a long time before this new router, though, so I don't think that made a difference. My primary PC, though, is just a gaming PC, and I do not believe I changed any of its network settings ever. Even while trying to figure out the original (the WiFi issue, not the Ethernet issue) issue, I reset the network settings a couple times so I assume it would have reset everything to default, including any self done DNS or IP changes.

I'm getting super frustrated because I somehow got the gaming PC working for a bit, but I had to turn my VPN on for something, and when I turned it off the Internet went back to not working.

Any advice on how to fix this is appreciated. I'll happily answer whatever questions are necessary to help

 

[bill001g]

Some of the vpn clients can make a mess out of your machine and are almost impossible to completely uninstall.

What this sounds like though is a dns issue. The default configuration is to use your router as a proxy dns server to your ISP DNS server. Both those options tend to have more issues than using a large DNS server provider like google or cloudflare.

What I would do is go into your network setting and make sure you have DHCP enable but in the bottom part of that screen set it to manually use a DNS server. Best ones to use tend to be 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8. You should also be able to set it to be a encrypted DNS using either of those servers. Makes it a bit harder to intercept what web sites you are using.

While you are in changing things disable IPv6, it tends to cause people issues and provide little of benefit.

What is strange is wifi connectivity being affected, maybe I misunderstand what you mean by not getting wifi. Generally you can connect to your router with wifi even if you were to unplug the internet. It wouldn't do much other than say allow you access to your local lan but this connection process happens at a much lower level than vpn would affect.

I have had to reinstall windows to get rid of a vpn client. After that I only run vpn on my router. The open source vpn clients are much better than the installers you download from the vpn site but you must configure them manually. The strange thing is the vpn clients that cause the most issue are also from the companies that do not provide good information on how to manually set the vpn parameters.

 

[coltonious]

Some of the vpn clients can make a mess out of your machine and are almost impossible to completely uninstall.

What this sounds like though is a dns issue. The default configuration is to use your router as a proxy dns server to your ISP DNS server. Both those options tend to have more issues than using a large DNS server provider like google or cloudflare.

What I would do is go into your network setting and make sure you have DHCP enable but in the bottom part of that screen set it to manually use a DNS server. Best ones to use tend to be 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8. You should also be able to set it to be a encrypted DNS using either of those servers. Makes it a bit harder to intercept what web sites you are using.

While you are in changing things disable IPv6, it tends to cause people issues and provide little of benefit.

What is strange is wifi connectivity being affected, maybe I misunderstand what you mean by not getting wifi. Generally you can connect to your router with wifi even if you were to unplug the internet. It wouldn't do much other than say allow you access to your local lan but this connection process happens at a much lower level than vpn would affect.

I have had to reinstall windows to get rid of a vpn client. After that I only run vpn on my router. The open source vpn clients are much better than the installers you download from the vpn site but you must configure them manually. The strange thing is the vpn clients that cause the most issue are also from the companies that do not provide good information on how to manually set the vpn parameters.

I'm sorry. I really don't know what I'm doing with network settings. What window are you saying I should do this in? "Network & Internet> Ethernet" or "network connections.ethernet.properties"?

 

[coltonious]

Update: I woke up and browser was still not connecting. I turn on vpn to see if i can at least use browser with it on, it still doesn't connect. I turn vpn off, browser and everything works again. I'm very confused

 

[bill001g]

It is the first one. You will find a tab called IPv4 all the setting like this are in that area.

This is really starting to look like the vpn has damaged your machine. I would completely uninstall it and see if things get better.
This is similar to the issue I had when I was swapping between 2 vpn clients and the only way I got it fixed was a complete windows reinstall.