General VPN noob question

Hello, i am using private internet access vpn. I had the setting for DNS leak protection enabled. However when i reverted to a normal connection, I would sometimes lose my connection all together. I would run the wireless trouble shooter, which said DCHP was disabled.I was told by PIA staff , this was a common problem. In order to get around this, I was told to disable the setting, go to properties in my IPV4 connection, and manually enter the server address. This would offer the same protection as the DNS leak setting, without causing connection problems.
I notice now with my normal wireless connection, that the virgin media parental controls , do not work now, although , i am still blocked from pirate bay.
Can someone explain this please.Obviously, it;s the parental controls I am concerned about
Thanks in advance

 

When you're using VPNs for better privacy and anonymity, it's important to prevent two sorts of information leaks: 1) the IP address that websites see:, and 2) the DNS servers that your connections are using. In order to prevent the first sort of leak, you must ensure that all traffic is blocked if/when the VPN link dies. In order to prevent the second sort of leak, you must ensure that your connections through the VPN don't use your ISP's DNS servers.

In order to block these leaks, "more secure" custom VPN clients reconfigure your wired and wifi connections, basically so they won't work if/when the VPN link dies. If all goes well, those changes get reversed when you disconnect the VPN. But if something goes wrong, you'll have no working connection.

I'm guessing that Virgin Media implements parental control by using its private DNS servers. PIA's advice to disable DNS via DHCP, and hard code DNS servers, is good, because you can specify reliable third-party DNS servers for use while the VPN is disconnected. However, it seems that doing so has broken the Virgin Media DNS setup. Maybe you could specify Virgin Media's DNS servers in your wired and wifi connection properties. But even if that worked, it's risky to use any DNS servers that are associated with you in any way, because there's a chance that they'll get used through the VPN, and leak information about your identity.

 

Thanks very much for your detailed answer, I appreciate it