OpenVPN and Android 4.4 Drops Cellular Connection
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Has any one had much luck with using one of the OpenVPN Android apps to connect to Pfsense via a Cellular (Not the phone's Wifi). I have noticed that I can connect via various OpenVPN Android apps, however the phone randomly drops the cellular connection. This usually occurs within the first min, and then continues to cycle between on and off until I terminate the VPN connection. Once the VPN connection has been stoped the cellular connection stay on as normal. . I have an Android 4.4 and have a seen a lot of posts on the Android boards, regarding this but with no solution. This issue though appears to be limited to Android 4.4 only though, as others with a lesser version dont appear to experience it. Was curious if others here have experienced it as well and had a work around. Thanks.
joe
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Hmmm, and how's this related to pfSense?
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1 - Where are you (just curious)
2. Who is your cell phone plan provider? (just curious)
3. I doubt it has anything to do with pfsense. More likely its got to do with my 1st two questions.
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Hi,
I am using Pfsense as the OpenVPN server. I am aware the issue is not with Pfsense as I can connect fine over Wifi but not cellular, so the issue defiantly lies with either the OpenVPN client, the Android OS (4.4) or the cellular carrier. I have using either OpenVPN Connect, Open VPN or OpenVPN Client for Android and all produce the same result, intermittent connectivity regarles of my location and signal strength. The phone will show excellent cellular reception, however when I attempt to connect it just starts to drop the data portion of the signal. If you turn the OpenVPN client off, all is normal again. Was just curious if others had experienced any similar issue with OpenVPN when they tried to connect to their instance of PfSense via an Android device. My carrier is Verzion, but have heard of others experiencing the same issue on other carriers. -
My experience with cellular broadband is its great if you are using it for facebook or something or to do a quick speed test to make you feel good.
However, they drop VPN alot, especially when moving. You will want your server set to allow IP changes and reconnects. That should help.
(I think mobile broad flakes out pretty much anytime you try to actually use it hard)
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Has any one had much luck with using one of the OpenVPN Android apps to connect to Pfsense via a Cellular (Not the phone's Wifi). I have noticed that I can connect via various OpenVPN Android apps, however the phone randomly drops the cellular connection.
Yep, exactly the same problem with a Droid Maxx and a Droid Turbo. It's not a pfSense issue- it happened with a different OpenVPN server, too.
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Were you able to correct the problem? I think it may just be the Android OS. I dont see the problem related to signal strength as the signal is strong. Fore what ever reason it randomly turns on and off the Mobile data. Thanks.
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https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/ticket/428
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Were you able to correct the problem? I think it may just be the Android OS. I dont see the problem related to signal strength as the signal is strong. Fore what ever reason it randomly turns on and off the Mobile data. Thanks.
I'm sure it isn't a signal strength issue. It doesn't appear to be a client issue either, since it's broken with different clients, but maybe they share the buggy code. Since it only occurs on cellular connections, I suspect it's a bug either in the OS or in the baseband/radio.
Out of curiosity, what phone are you using?
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Using Samsung S5 with Android 4.4.2 rooted Baseband Version G900VVRU1ANE9 and Kernel Version 3.4.0 Jul 17th, 2014
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Using Samsung S5 with Android 4.4.2 rooted Baseband Version G900VVRU1ANE9 and Kernel Version 3.4.0 Jul 17th, 2014
Well, as I said, I'm running a Droid Turbo (Android 4.4.4). It might be a Verizon issue, but I'd expect it to disrupt laptops/tablets that are tethered through my phone, which it doesn't do. I'd say its an Android bug, except that I think I'd hear others complaining. Maybe its a bug in the Qualcomm baseband firmware. In any event, I don't know of a wordaround.
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Some cell companies do block certain ports, try using a different port with udp.
I used AT&T prepaid and they did block other vpn connections.
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As an experienced cellular site service tech I can say that most all the carriers block ports for ssl, voip and vpn if you are on a "pre-paid" phone, specially AT&T. They (the carriers) claim that it consumes too much traffic so they only allow those ports for their "Contract" customers. Even at that they throttle the bandwidth which makes using vpn or voip sometime extremely difficult to use. Depending on how big your account is with the carrier you can force the issue with tech support and they will for the most part correct any issues you have. I have found that sometimes changing the port numbers will help, other times not, as the carrier will a lot of times only allow port 80 to pass. This problem is true also with "free wifi" at most places that use AT&T for their WiFi hotspots (can we say McD's) and if you ask the store managers why they don't allow the ports to pass, well you just have to ask one of them to fully understand their answers….. I have several AT&T pre-paid phones, and several Waliworld phones in use in my family and one Verizon portable hotspot. The Verizon hotspot does VPN great, the other phones are just worthless except for telephone calls and texting and half of the time one of them doesn't even get coverage ( I bet I don't have to name which one that is) and it cost more to use then the others do.....go figure.