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Troubleshooting - unable to establish a VPN connection

  • Updated

This article helps you to troubleshoot when you have problems with establishing a VPN connection to your device (IXrouter / IXagent). If your device is offline, please consult the following article instead: Troubleshooting - unable to connect your IXrouter to the IXON Cloud.

The most common causes are:

If you get a specific error code at the bottom of your screen, look here:

Problem solved?

Problem solved? Good! If not, please contact us and send us your VPN client's log files:

Most common causes

Installation not found when the VPN Client is already installed

The certificate from the VPN Client is not trusted by the browser. As a result, the message "No installation found" is displayed when trying to set up a VPN connection.

  1. Open a new browser tab.
  2. Go to the VPN Settings page at https://localhost:9250/.
  3. Click "Accept and continue" to trust the certificate.

The TAP-adapter is outdated, disabled, or already in use

The TAP-adapter is a virtual adapter that's used to establish a VPN connection. Make sure that it isn't already in use, disabled, or that an older version (< version 9) has been installed after you installed the VPN client.

  • Open Network Connections in Microsoft Windows and look for a network adapter with "TAP-adapter" in its name or description.

Windows

Simultaneously press the windows key Windows_key.png and R to open the Run window. Enter "ncpa.cpl" to open your Network Connections.

The VPN client installs and uses version 9 of the virtual TAP-adapter to establish a secure VPN connection. Other software may have overwritten this by installing an older version.

  • Check the version of your TAP-adapter by viewing its description. If it says something along the lines of "TAP-adapter V9", then the version is correct. If not, please reinstall the VPN client.

The TAP-adapter needs to be enabled for the VPN client to establish a VPN connection.

  • Check the status of your TAP-adapter. If it shows "Disabled", right-click it and select "Enable".

Your computer only allows you to have one active VPN connection at a time.

  • Check the status of your TAP-adapter. If it shows that it's connected, then you already have a VPN connection active. Close your VPN connections and try to connect again. Alternatively, check the section The TAP-adapter is used by another VPN client.

The VPN client may be configured to use a specifically named TAP-adapter that is unavailable.

  • Check the "dev-node"-setting in the VPN client's advanced settings. If there is a name entered, make sure that a TAP-Adapter exists with that exact name (case-sensitive) or clear the "dev-node"-setting.

The TAP-adapter is used by another VPN client

Follow these steps if another VPN client is using the TAP-adapter. These steps describe how to install a new TAP-adapter, rename it, and configure the IXON VPN Client to use it.

Add a new TAP-adapter

  1. Download TAP-Windows Adapter V9.23.3: Windows 10 or Windows 7.
  2. Install it and check the component TAP Utilities during the installation process as indicated in the image.
    OpenVPN_setup.png
  3. Once installed, search your computer for Add a new TAP virtual ethernet adapter, and execute it. If you're unable to find it, manually navigate to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\TAP-Windows\Utilities, and execute the file there.

Rename the new TAP-adapter

  1. Open Network Connections again.
  2. There should now be a new TAP-Windows Adapter V9. It may carry another name, like Ethernet 2 or with a different number. Rename it to something recognizable, for example to: IXON VPN adapter.

Configure the VPN Client to use this new TAP adapter

  1. Open the VPN Client Settings by opening this link: https://localhost:9250/.
  2. Select Advanced Mode in the bottom left corner.
  3. Below OpenVPN, at dev-node, enter chosen the name for the TAP-adapter. In the above example, this would be IXON VPN adapter.

The connection is blocked by a firewall

If the above is all correct, then it's possible that something is being blocked by a firewall. This may be the computer's, company's or even country's firewall.

National firewall
If you are in a country that restricts VPN usage on a national scale (e.g. China), please consult our "VPN client settings"-article for the appropriate VPN client settings.

Computer/company firewall
 A computer/company firewall may possibly also block (some) traffic. A full overview of the ports and protocols used by the VPN client can be found in the "How does the VPN client connect? (ports & protocols)"-article.

Error codes

Error 113 / 213 / 313

If you get one of the following errors at the bottom of your screen:

Unexpected HTTP(S) response. (113)
Unexpected HTTP(S) response. (213)
Unexpected HTTP(S) response. (313)

The VPN Client can be blocked from communicating over the network. This can happen in a company network, where internet access is regulated. Some possible causes are:

Access to local ports is blocked by antivirus

See the article How does the VPN client connect to the IXON Cloud? (ports & protocols) for all ports that need to be available. To verify if antivirus is blocking access, a test could be done by temporarily disabling antivirus.

A proxy server is used

If a proxy server is used to access the internet, this needs to be configured for the VPN Client too. The VPN Client settings can be accessed by browsing to https://localhost:9250/ as described in the article VPN Client settings.

A company firewall is blocking the connection

Make sure that all domains that are used by the VPN Client are reachable. See the article How does your device connect to the IXON Cloud? (ports, protocols & servers) for more information. This article describes possible solutions to create an exception in the company firewall.

The root certificate is outdated

On Microsoft Windows, root certificates are updated by Windows Update. When the root certificate is outdated and it is not possible to run Windows Update, these steps can be followed to update the root certificate manually.

  1. Download the root certificate isrgrootx1.der.
  2. Right-click the file isrgrootx1.der and select Install Certificate.
  3. Select Local Machine as the Store location.
  4. Select the Trusted Root Certification Authorities as the Certification store.
  5. Close and re-open the internet browser.

VPN Client 1.2.0 or higher is used on Apple macOS and a connection is made to an older device

From Apple macOS 10.15, it is no longer possible to use TAP connections (layer 2). Instead, TUN connections (layer 3) need to be used. The possibility to use TUN connections is introduced in the following IXON products:

  • VPN Client 1.2.0
  • IXrouter3
  • IXrouter2 firmware 2.13
  • IXagent 0.4.5

Therefore, it is not possible to use VPN Client 1.2.0 or higher on macOS 10.15 (or higher) and connect to these products:

  • IXrouter1
  • IXrouter2 with firmware lower than 2.13
  • IXagent version 0.4.0 or lower (not to be confused with the package version).

As a workaround, a computer with Microsoft Windows or Linux can be used to set up the VPN connection. This can also be a virtual machine on macOS.

Error 710

If you get the following error at the bottom of your screen:

OpenVPN: OpenVPN encountered an error. (710)

Then please upgrade to the latest version of the VPN Client to resolve the issue. On Apple macOS and Linux this error can occur when the OS is outdated. For example, when using MacOS 10.14.

Error 741

If you get the following error at the bottom of your screen:

OpenVPN: initialization completed with errors. (741)

Then please follow these next steps to resolve the issue.

  1. Download the script winsock_reset.bat.
  2. Right-click the downloaded file and select "Run as administrator"
  3. Restart your computer

If the above steps did not help, then antivirus software may be unnecessarily blocking your communication.

  1. Try to establish a VPN connection without having your antivirus software active, or contact your IT administrator for help.

Error 743 / 744

If you get any of the following errors at the bottom of your screen:

OpenVPN: no TUN/TAP adapter available. (743)
OpenVPN: exiting due to fatal error. (744)

Then please follow these next steps to resolve the issue.

Windows

There is likely no TAP-adapter available that the VPN Client can use. The TAP-adapter is the virtual network adapter that is used to establish a VPN connection.

  1. Check that your TAP-adapter is up-to-date, enabled, and not in use.
  2. Reset the current configuration by going to https://localhost:9250/ and selecting RESET in the bottom left corner.

If the problem persists, please follow the steps below.

  1. Uninstall the VPN client.
  2. Uninstall the "TAP-Windows 9.xx.x" program on your computer.
  3. Install the VPN client.

macOS

These next steps help you in pinpointing the cause and resolving the error.

  1. You may already have a VPN connection active on your computer. If so, please close down that connection and try again.
  2. The kernel extension may not (yet) have been approved. Please take a look at our installation guide for the exact details: macOS VPN client installation.

If the problem persists, please follow the steps below.

  1. Uninstall the VPN client.
  2. Install the VPN client.

Error 746

If you get the following error at the bottom of your screen:

OpenVPN: reconnection attempt failed. (746)

Then your device (IXrouter/IXagent) might have lost its VPN connection or went offline entirely while you were connected. Check if your device is back online and has a VPN connection. If so, you should be able to reconnect again.

Is the device offline?
Please consult the following article: Troubleshooting - unable to connect your IXrouter to the IXON Cloud.

My code isn't listed

If your error code is not listed on this page, please contact us and send us your VPN client's log files.

VPN client log file location

To help us support you, we sometimes need the log files from your VPN client.

On Windows and macOS you simply copy and paste the following locations in your file browser.

Windows %ProgramData%\IXON\VPN Client\Logs
macOS /Library/Logs/IXON/ VPN Client

On Linux the log files can be accessed using journalctl, for example:

journalctl -u vpn_client