I don’t know if this is the right place to put request, if not, I’m sure someone will tell me. Either way, I could use some help with the following.
Issue: I use the IVPN GUI based app on Fedora 39 and get a flaky connection. Some websites load, some don’t.
Examples:
Firefox / Brave: https: //duckduckgo .com - works
Firefox / Brave: https: //frame .work - works
Firefox / Brave: https: //knowledgebase .frame.work - does not load
Firefox / Brave: https: //1password .com - does not load
Firefox / Brave: https: //ivpn .net - does not load
Terminal: ping duckduckgo .com - works
Terminal: ping ivpn .net - does not work, and times out
Terminal: ping x.x.x.x - ip address of IVPN’s server - works
Without the VPN, I have a good working internet connection.
At first, this seemed like a DNS issue, hence that’s where I, together with IVPN’s support team, started searching. But we haven’t found a solution yet. And right now I don’t know if that is where we should look, hopefully someone here can tell me where to look.
Setup:
- Framework laptop 13" AMD + Fedora 39 workstation - official edition
- The system is installed this week, and includes bios 3.03
- After installation I only did the following, and nothing else:
- Updated Fedora (
sudo dnf upgrade) - Added the IVPN repo
- Installed their app as described on their website (
sudo dnf install ivpn-ui) - These details are to show that the installation is as vanilla as possible
- Updated Fedora (
- I use a router that connects to a cellular network (Netgear M1 nighthawk) - i.e. sim card in wifi out.
Things I tried and did not work:
- Both Wireguard and OpenVPN, but obviously the focus is on using Wireguard
- MTU related
- Tried many different MTU settings in the GUI client (ranging from MTU 1284 to 1420)
- The router doesn’t offer me the option to specify MTU / MSS settings
- I also modify MTU settings on the network adapter, like:
sudo ip link set dev wlp1s0 mtu 1380
- Tried V2ray and other obfuscation options
- All of the above on IPv4 and IPv6 (by toggling the ‘enable IPv6’ setting in IVPN GUI)
- All tests used ‘single-hop’ and not ‘multi-hop’
- All without using custom DNS services, and no special domain blocking settings on my router, nor on the laptop.
- Mullvad
- I installed Mullvad and got almost the same results
- the only difference is that instead of websites not loading and ping timing out, I get the message: “temporary failure in name resolution” - some websites still work, for example duckduckgo queries work, just like with IVPN
What does work:
- Using manual configuration of wireguard in the terminal works! (
wg-quick up ...)- Bot IVPN and Mullvad work this way
- This connection loads websites blazing fast, almost instantaneous. Hence, no signs of DNS or MTU issues.
- I use IVPN on a Macbook and Iphone on the same network and those always work.
content of /etc/resolv.conf:
nameserver 127.0.0.53
options edns0 trust-ad
search net
After all this, I received another reply from the IVPN team:
- They had installed Fedora 39 on their system and said that IVPN worked as expected
- They offered some ideas to force either IPv4 or IPv6, see following three options.
- I don’t really know what to do with the first two, so I tried option 3, without success.
Option 1: Preferring IPv4 might offer another solution:
Option 2: Prioritizing IPv6 is available on other Linux distributions via the /etc/gai.conf file, though I am not aware of anything like this for Fedora specifically:
Option 3: Run these commands to disable IPv6; a system reboot may or may not be required:
echo 'net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p
My take on IPv4 vs IPv6:
- I don’t prefer one over the other, I think both should work. I would only choose IPv6 due to it being the future.
- My Macbook seems to do fine with both. I am not an expert at this. But in the past the ‘enable IPv6’ option was unchecked in IVPN’s settings. Now I have it checked, and it confirms to be connected to a IPv6 enabled server. So from this I conclude that both work.
I received my Framework laptop a week ago, and because I don’t go online without a VPN connection, I haven’t been able to use it so far. All though the IVPN support team has been quick to respond, and offered many suggestions; after a week of much back and forth, I find myself without a solution and at my wits’ end.