Question is NordVPN screwing up my connection ?

[miltk]

i'm encountering a connection issue of late....
i have verizon gig service and have had it for a long long time.

i subscribe to NordVPN on a dedicated computer with just Firefox as default browser and NordVPN.
lenovo mini w/windows11.

i have four mini's and two Lenovo SFF computers (Windows 7 and Windows 10).
The only troublesome computer is the dedicated mini with NordVPN.

When i switch between computers, all I do is switch the cable using a 4port usb (it has one external ssd and a usb/ethernet adaptor).

My connection with the mini PC and NordVPN installed is spotty. Firefox and NordVPN both have a problems reaching sites. sometimes it's wonky - sometimes it's fine.

Everything else in the house has good internet eg other computers, wifi, the tv, roku...........it's just this one box! I've tried switching ports.

help!...thx all

 

[bill001g]

Do you know if it is related to switching between the pc. Does the one running NordVPN have issues mostly after you switch or does it have issues even after it is working correctly.

You really should avoid USB ethernet to begin with. Maybe buy a small ethernet switch and leave the ethernet active all the time. I assume you doing this to switch keyboard and mouse ?

Your problem sounds like a generic DNS issue. Maybe there is some issue with the DNS that NordVPN is using. I am unsure how NordVPN overrides the dns. I would change the IPv4 setting in the ethernet port to use 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1. You can disable IPv6 support at the same time but I don't think NordVPN uses IPV6 anyway.

You can also try the DNS setting in firefox. These were used before windows supported encrypted DNS. Again I would set 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1. These should over ride even nord dns settings but only for the browser traffic.

 

[miltk]

Do you know if it is related to switching between the pc. Does the one running NordVPN have issues mostly after you switch or does it have issues even after it is working correctly.

You really should avoid USB ethernet to begin with. Maybe buy a small ethernet switch and leave the ethernet active all the time. I assume you doing this to switch keyboard and mouse ?

Your problem sounds like a generic DNS issue. Maybe there is some issue with the DNS that NordVPN is using. I am unsure how NordVPN overrides the dns. I would change the IPv4 setting in the ethernet port to use 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1. You can disable IPv6 support at the same time but I don't think NordVPN uses IPV6 anyway.

You can also try the DNS setting in firefox. These were used before windows supported encrypted DNS. Again I would set 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1. These should over ride even nord dns settings but only for the browser traffic.

the connection is finicky and i used to jiggle the connector to fix as if the connector is bad, but it started acting unfixable last night, hence this post.

EXAMPLE: i'm using a computer for just stuff in general.

then i want to use the nord computer.
in order to make it convenient and not a pain in the A, i have all the devices(mouse,keyboard,ext ssd, usb ethernet) connected to a 10port sabrent.

i turn off one computer, switch the sabrent over to the nord computer. i switch the hdmi over to the nord computer.

when the nord computer starts up nord has been having a prob starting up and connecting to the internet, as well as firefox. i check everything else in the apartment and the internet is fine.

if my usb ethernet is the prob it's only a prob on the nord computer

 

[bill001g]

USB ethernet can be tricky at times. You have 2 levels of drivers the USB ones and then a virtual ethernet port.

I would test it without nord for a while. That would show you if it was some kind of hardware issue or some other issue that is related to the pc or if it only does it when nord is active then it is related the nord configuration.

If you find nothing interesting maybe try to leave a constant ping run to 8.8.8.8. If you have issue but no loss to 8.8.8.8 it is likely something more complex than the nordvpn. Normally I would recommend you ping your router IP at the same time. This generally would mean the problem is with the pc but I am unsure if you can ping the router IP with the nord vpn client loaded.

Be aware vpn clients can make a mess out of your machine. I am not sure about nord but I have had others that did not cleanly uninstall and I had to reinstall windows because I could not find what had been changed.

 

[lantis3]

Why not power off the usb ethernet since Sabrent USB hub has power switch for individual devices or just unplug it?

 

[miltk]

i took out the usb ethernet and everything is fine so far. no probs at all

i have a question though. this whole thing with the usb ethernet....i switch out this sabrent(usb ethernet, ext ssd's, wifi dongle, printer, keyboard)setup on on all computers and was getting 900mb downloads, and everything else is fine.

it was ONLY on the nord computer when i had these connection issues. firefox,chrome,edge could not connect. so my question is,,,,what was the deal here and how was nord screwing this up?

 

[bill001g]

I never run vpn clients on my machine anymore after having them mess thing up so bad I had to reinstall windows. It is hard to say exactly how these are intercepting the traffic. Best option if you are going to run a vpn client is use one of the open clients that are not from the vpn company. You can then configure it to use nord, nord is one of the few that have instructions on how to configure stuff like this.

Not sure if that will work any better. USB ethernet is actually very complex compared to a onboard ethernet. The onboard ethernet is directly supported by the motherboard chipsets. It is not all hardware but there is much less software involved than USB.