topic Re: EE and VPN Connection. in Broadband & Landline

EE and VPN Connection.

jester212 — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:50:15 GMT

Good day.

I am hoping someone here can assist, as the EE customer service Tech that i spoke to dissmissed my issue.

I work from home 1 day a week and to enable me to do this i must connect to my office server via a windows VPN connection. I had no issues doing this until i switched my Full Fibre service to EE. Ever since then i have had several issues in establishing a connection.

My first port of call is normally via my employers IT company and they go through there troubleshooting guide but to date they cannot find an issue with any of the settings or VPN credentials. They have indicated that it would seem something from the ISP side is dropping or blocking a connection. So they recommended that i contact my ISP and raise the issue with them. I called EE this morning and only to be told that they do not support VPN connections and were exteremly unhelpful.

To add to the confusion if i disconnect my laptop from my home Wifi and connect via my mobile phone hotspot (Which is EE 5G) i can connect to the VPN without an issue.

My network adapater has been reset, router hub has been reset and power flushed, i have a desktop that is connected via ethernet cable and a lapotop via wifi and none of these can connect to my works VPN.

So is this a case of EE blocks certain VPN connections or don't support it at all? It is exteremly frustrating to be told it isnt supported or there is something wrong with my hardware when there cleary isn't.

Any help would be grately appreciated.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

ObservedFox — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 18:48:34 GMT

I am experiencing same issue.

I have been on the EE4G Hub since October and not experienced any issues until about a week ago.

Now it cannot connect and I need it for work. Having to use my mobile data when at home to work.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Mustrum — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 19:16:01 GMT

@jester212 I suggest going back to your companies IT team, and get more information from them. They should be able to tell if and what they can see when you try and connect - this is not something that the Broadband Care Team can do.

The fact that you are able to connect to the Internet and other sites is all you can expect from EE., not your companies VPN system.

EE does not block VPN traffic, but the whole point of using a VPN is to secure traffic between you and the end point, in this case your company.

You company should be able to give you some info about ensuring you can connect to them, using simple ping and tracert commands.

HTH.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

ObservedFox — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:24:49 GMT

Hello Jester,

Just did an update for Global Protect VPN and everything now seems to be working!

Thought this might be the same issue for you, I hope you get yours up and running soon!

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Epicfuzzball — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:24:44 GMT

Hey @jester212

I work in IT and came across this issue too. You need to ask EE when you router connects to the internet of it uses ipv4 or ipv6. If it uses ipv6 then chances are your vpn will never work as majority of vpn clients don’t like ipv6. Using your mobile phone internet properly means it makes a connection using ipv4 which is why your vpn client marked when using your mobile phone internet.
I hope that this helps. Happy to answer any further questions 😊

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Epicfuzzball — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 18:26:07 GMT

Hey @ObservedFox

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Mustrum — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:31:38 GMT

No need to ask EE, just log into the router to see if it is activated.

It will depend on the service, as IPV6 is only available on recent provisions, that said IPV4 is also available. I would expect the VPN client to use an appropriate protocol to connect to a corporate VPN. Still worth mentioning to the IT team though.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

tinkerbell1979 — Wed, 28 May 2025 16:17:17 GMT

IT don't know anything apart from the IPV6 , but we have disabled that and it still doesn't work.

The old BT router worked, so what's changed ?

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Curator134 — Thu, 29 May 2025 04:54:55 GMT

This is a damned LIE every time I use my VPN my EE connection drops like a lead balloon. EE and BT both disconnect you when you use a VPN.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

bobpullen — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:58:11 GMT

@Curator134 wrote:
This is a damned LIE every time I use my VPN my EE connection drops like a lead balloon. EE and BT both disconnect you when you use a VPN.

Patently false. I both host, and connect to, VPN’s on my EE connection without issue.

@tinkerbell1979 one thing that may have changed is your IP address and your VPN provider may be treating it differently. Worth powering your router off for 30 mins or so, then back on, in the hope you’re assigned a different IP address.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Mattowen1981 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 23:44:24 GMT

How is this marked as a solution when EE have confirmed to me over the phone they have a known higher order network issue with vpn routing for cloudflare. The vpn active creates horrific packet loss and makes it unusable. Cloudflare is a market leader so not having them working with your network is a problem as more and more people will be moving to their warp vpn for work purposes. As an internet provider you cannot hide behind the can you access websites and is the speed over your guarantee to dismiss an issue with your fundemental backbone network. VPN since covid has become an essential service and pushing people to their company IT when its clear the issue is the EE network (as no other provider presents this problem) is going to be detrimental to you sustaining your user base. I have this issue, you have accepted its a known issue with the network but months have gone by with no fix. You will be loosing me when my contract ends and a raft of other users as i know some significant parts of the public sector are looking to move to cloudflare warp. This is not a solution as should not be marked to mislead people and take the ownership of the the issue away for EE as it is 100% your problem with your network.

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

Mattowen1981 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 23:47:25 GMT

Its not false EE are aware of the issue and its with the network. BT are fine as are other providers. Looks like the only way forwards is to leave

Re: EE and VPN Connection.

bobpullen — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 16:11:33 GMT

@Mattowen1981 - the EE and BT core infrastructure is to all (relevant) intents and purposes practically the same!

I could be wrong but I don't think the other contributors to this thread are/were using Cloudflare either.

What hub are you using? I'm not too familiar with Cloudflare WARP but does it offer any control over traffic prioritisation? There are discussions elsewhere around these parts of problems affecting certain EE hubs when applications try prioritising the traffic they generate - wonder if that's somehow playing a part, rather than the network itself 🤔