topic Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked in Broadband & Landline

Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:03:38 GMT

I have a similar problem to previous posters but cannot see a cut and dried resolution.

I've been with EE since the middle of June 2022 and initially everything was fine until about 4 days in when my wife's (works from home) connection through our home BB network stopped allowing her to stream data with her employers services via Palo Alto's Global Connect VPN. It connects but something is preventing data being transferred.

She uses a company provided laptop and has tried to connect with LAN (via TP-Link Powerline sockets) and WiFi (on auto-connect and by specifying 2.4 or 5.0 GHz bands) and neither work. She can connect just fine using her company Android mobile phone hotspot using O2 mobile network and also using my iPhone mobile hotspot using EE mobile network.

After many calls with EE customer services they sent out an Openreach engineer who confirmed that my home network and everything connected to it was working correctly and there was no fault on the line.

Previous occurrences on this Community have suggested replacing the EE Hub but I cannot see any evidence that this actually solved anything but we gave it a try with EE (eventually) sending out a new Hub. New Hub connected and it worked! Until 4 days later when the connection via the VPN was blocked again!

Called EE again and they tested everything and there was nothing that they could see that was causing the problem. Wife's employer's IT are adamant that it is not their software/hardware causing the issue. I am sure (and supported by both EE and wife's company's IT that my network is not causing the issue.

I suggested connecting the original EE Hub to see if it was still showing a problem and got agreement from EE. Connected the original router and it works! I am, however, fully expecting this to stop working again in about 4 days.

Nothing else on my home network is affected. I have multiple devices connected on both LAN and WiFi with the most demand being through the TV (LAN - streaming services), iPads (WiFi - streaming services) and PlayStation 5 (LAN - online gaming/streaming services).

Prior to switching to EE we were with Vodafone BB under the same circumstance with regards to BB use but had no problems connecting to the VPN - this only seems to occur since joining EE.

I know the EE people are trying their best but if they cannot fix this issue long term I will have to terminate my contract and find another ISP which is unfortunate as apart from this one issue I have no problem whatsoever with EE.

Can anybody please help?

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

Chris_B — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:21:03 GMT

@NijiK EE can not fix an issue when there is no issues when they try to find an issue. Your issue starts with the VPN. Can you try a different VPN at all/if possible ?

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:27:22 GMT

Which router? What is the lease time of its DHCP?

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:33:22 GMT

Well, there clearly is an issue and it appears not just to be with Global Protect and probably everything to do with EE!

As I said, this issue only appeared when we changed to EE. 2 years on Vodafone - no problem. < 1 week on EE - problem.

Other users using different VPNs also encounter this problem. VPN users on other ISPs don't encounter this problem.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:39:18 GMT

As stated in my initial post ... EE Smart Hub.

I don't know about the DHCP or lease.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 12:52:13 GMT

You never mentioned "Smart". "Hub" can be rather generic. Hence I had to ask.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:50:59 GMT

My apologies - I thought I’d put ‘smart’ hub. Obviously I’m not as smart as the hub apparently is! 🤣

mill have to check the lease time when I get home from work tonight.
Both routers have been factory reset by the way with no change and port forwarding has also been ruled out. Everything connects using IPv4. VPN also uses IPv4.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 13:53:09 GMT

Don't you believe it! 😉

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 21:31:42 GMT

Ok, lease is set at 1 day 0 hours.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 23:19:40 GMT

So it's not that but you might try raising it.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:10:07 GMT

What should I set it to? Max is 21 days.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:11:46 GMT

Over 4 days, say a week.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 01:25:12 GMT

Ok. Set to 7 days now.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 10:21:04 GMT

I notice that in the Hub Manager/Advanced Settings/Broadband that the VPN tab (Port Clamping) is set to OFF and that the Dynamic DNS tab is also set to OFF. Would either of these help if I turned them ON?

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 10:43:35 GMT

Not unless you are employing a VPN or a DDNS service respectively.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:12:54 GMT

Well, the wife is using Global Protect VPN to connect to her work which is where the problem lies. Is this not the same thing?

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

XRaySpeX — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 11:42:31 GMT

Sorry, I hadn't noticed / forgot.

Well, it is a VPN. So you could try Port Clamping, whatever that means, I dunno.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 09:35:48 GMT

Ok, I've now set the 'Port Clamping' to ON in the VPN tab.

I may now have to wait until next week to see if the connection drops again as it usually fails after approx. 4 days from Hub install.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 11:14:45 GMT

Unknown to me until just now the VPN failed to allow traffic again this morning. Wife will try to connect again sometime this afternoon with the new settings.

Re: Global Protect VPN connects but data stream blocked

NijiK — Sun, 31 Jul 2022 21:26:02 GMT

Well, it’s all gone SNAFU again! No data is being allowed to go through the VPN as before. I’m through with swapping the EE Smart Hubs back and forth so tomorrow I will ask EE to give me the information necessary to use the old Vodafone Hub and we will see if that does anything different. If it works for more than 4 days then it will mean that there is a problem with the configuration of the EE S/Hub which EE should be able to sort out. If it doesn’t work any differently then it will mean it is a problem with EE’s network. If it is the latter then I will sadly have to go back to Vodafone as my ISP.