How to secure a vanishing DSL connection with VPN?

I am still pondering what VPN to subscribe to,being in doubt between Xerobank and a couple of others, but I have now a problem : my connection has begun to vanish for periods ranging from 30 seconds to 2-3 minutes about five or six times a day and this is going on since a couple of months,in spite of my protests.

Has a VPN service like Xerobank orCotze or HideMyAss an inbuilt mechanism to safeguard from such occurrences or it has to be done at firewall level?

Can a rule be made to protect from sudden connection loss in Comodo firewall ,for instance?

Not having used VPN ever,any help very welcome.

 

I don't believe that you can prevent loss of the ADSL connection, except by fixing whatever's broken. Contact tech support at your ISP. If they won't help, get a new ISP. Perhaps something is just misconfigured. You might need a different line to the DSLAM, or a new modem/router. Or perhaps your ISP is just messing with you

 

Thanks for answering hierophant,I will surely check my DLink(wired) router and phone again to my ISP but what I was trying to ask for is really if there's a way to prevent the sudden leak of info which might occurr when you're using a VPN and the connection is abruptly lost for whatever reason.

From reading various posts i gathered that idea, or is it wrong?

I assume that :
1-you turn on pc and are online
2-you turn on your VPN
3-you go wherever you want under the VPN umbrella
4-suddenly connection is lost and ,as a consequence, VPN is lost,too, giving a chance to watch,sniff or find out what you were doing to the likes such as your ISP,for instance.

Is it so,or the VPN will in any case stand and protect?

 

This doesn't adequately explain your problem.

The connection can be dropped at the computer also.

Are you using Linux or Windows?
What Kernel/Distro or Version?
What program tells you that the connection is vanished?
Is the computer connected through wired or wireless?
What ISP is your connection through?

If your computer is compromised then a VPN solution will be useless.
Malware will use the transport channel you have set up to communicate.

 

Hi Searching,I run two pcs and a notebook,usually:
pc1-Windows7, pc2-XPpro & Ubuntu 10.04 , notebook-Vista,plus an occasional use of an lcd-pc with Xubuntu.
All these are wired to a DLink router, 2542B, and only once in a while I use the notebook wirelessly via a DLink AccessPoint DAP1160.
When disconnections take place I see it from the router lights and the systemtray icons in all computers.

This morning I erased Ubuntu from pc2 (the disk was showing signs of activity when switched off) and put a previous XP image in place ,temporarily running only one OS.
I realised, looking up in AddRemove, there was an unnecessary Windows Networking component which apparently is a Router client I had not paid attention to as I was constantly using Ubuntu, so I promptly removed it.

Computer 1 Windows7-64 or the Vista notebook never gave trouble and work perfectly.

Router setup ADSL-wise was sort of automatic and manual IPs never gave trouble,just to pinpoint I did nothing fancy there.

I think you should give me a full day tomorrow before we proceed as I need to check if what I see is for real as I didnt have a single disconnection since today at midday right after the removals I mentioned before.......

The router light was constantly green all day long!

 

There are many posts on Wilders re securing traffic after VPNs go down (for whatever reason). The best/easiest is using different routing-table configurations for connecting without/with the VPN. That's also been throughly discussed here. If you're comfortable editing your firewall rules, that may be the best approach. It's especially elegant in Linux. Again, search Wilders. Null routing DNS lookup is another approach, and it won't block connections to numerical IP addresses.

 

I will have a look for sure.
As to' Null routing DNS lookup' you provided me with more study to do,but it looks promising, if i can do it.
I already use OpenDNS,which are obviously different from those of my ISP, will this be enough to prevent any info leaked to my ISP in case of a VPN-connection sudden blackout?

 

Just follow these instructions.

 

Thanks a lot hierophant,most usefull ad hoc info!

 

With Xerobank, if there is a break in internet connection Xerobank doesn't alow a connection.

 

Good to know even without the special settings from hierophant instructions above you run no risks.

 

VPN isn't going to secure your router/modem.
It will secure your comunication over that device.

When I had DSL and played online games the modem rebooting often.
There were a lot of people having this problem at the time that I was, 07-08.
Quite annoying.

Router or AP Reboot or Crash

 

This forum is definetely the best one!!
Hierophant,Searching and now PooseyII you all provided a different,but equally usefull solution.

@Searching- i understand you're trying to go to the very root of the problem, but it will take some time for me to find out if it is a router (DLink modem&Router) problem or a sheer ADSL one. Fact is that until a few months ago,until a had a ISP-made modem and a separate DLink router, I had NO disconnectionsat all for years,apart one or two days in a year when maintaining.
Router settings seems ok,though,and i wouldnt know what to change.
Disconnections happen randomly, its no router reboot, lasting a few seconds to 1 minute max .perhaps 2-5 times per day.... it does not seem a router problem to me,but an ISP one, as ,namely, the first time i complained they admitted there were 'works along the line'...
But I'll recheck again all data and perhaps try another setup or even another Router.....


@PooseyII, I've downloaded the program, saw there were two progs for the last version, one for windows and one for OpenVPN, as I am going to use a VPN with XP Pro what is the right one to use?
Also, should I use the latest version or-running it in a XP pc- a previous version might be best?
thanks

 

thanks for your suggestions PooseyII, no problem, i will use the latest version.
As to the possibility of directly connecting to DSL unfortunately it's not feasible as i just sent back to the ISP their modem and I guess there is no other way to do it.

All the DSL hardware including wires has been checked and its ok.

I've spotted through speedguide.com tests some not really perfect things according to them,namely:

MTU is 1400 when it should be 1500
(but it is the router which is limiting to that figure and I cant use 1500 on XP,which needs less,1480 perhaps- other pcs with 7/Vista/Ubuntu can run a 1500 MTU I guess)

RWIN is 65700 when it should be perhaps 261120,with a 2-14MBs speed.

Apart from these speedguide advices I think of also removing from my computers network cards the specified DNSs and try again to have them in the router instead.

I will change these asap ,perhaps on monday when I can allow myself a possible downtime.

Am I wrong in thinking that a slight MTU-RWIN variation cannot have the disconnecting effects I suffer from?