VPN Disconnecting

[iDon]

Just recently i been getting this message from SoftEther saying the following.

** Connected with NAT traversal - might be unstable **

This VPN Client is connected to the VPN Server 'idon' by using the NAT Traversal (UDP Hole Punching) technology.

NAT Traversal allows the VPN Server behind the NAT-box to accept VPN connections from VPN Client without any port-forwarding setting on the NAT-box.

However, NAT Traversal-based VPN sessions sometimes become unstable, because NAT Traversal uses UDP-based protocol. For example, the VPN tunnel disconnects every 5 minutes if there is a poor NAT-box between the VPN Server and the VPN Client. Some large-scale NAT gateways in cheap ISPs sometimes cause the same problem on NAT Traversal. This is a problem of routers or ISPs. This is not a problem of SoftEther VPN software.

To solve the unstable tunnel problem, you should connect to the VPN Server's TCP listener port directly, instead of using NAT Traversal. To connect to the VPN Server directly by using TCP, a listener port of the VPN Server must be exposed to the Internet by a port-forward setting on the NAT-box. Ask the administrator of the NAT-box, or refer to the manual of the NAT-box to add a port-forwarding setting on the NAT-box.

If this message still remains despite the VPN Server is exposing a TCP port to the Internet, check the "Disable NAT-T" checkbox on the VPN Client connection setting screen.

Now ive never had this problem until today, i get back to my computer, which is a new computer btw with dual screens, and my vpn is set up as automatic start. and i see every once in a while a box with the message i posted. now io read it and it said its not a problem with SoftEther, that is a problem with the VDS. any suggestions?

[Edge100x]

The message is not very clearly written, but it seems to be saying that if you disconnect, it is a problem with your NAT (home NAT or CGNAT provided by your ISP), and not the VDS. It appears to be recommending that you switch to using a TCP connection.

[iDon]

The message is not very clearly written, but it seems to be saying that if you disconnect, it is a problem with your NAT (home NAT or CGNAT provided by your ISP), and not the VDS. It appears to be recommending that you switch to using a TCP connection.

not very cleraly written? thats the message its giving me, do you know why its doing that?

[Edge100x]

not very cleraly written?

Yes, their message is not well-written and doesn't describe the problem clearly. They seem to alternately be suggesting that the VPN Server is behind a "NAT-box" and that the client is behind the "NAT-box"; they don't describe why a disconnection would happen with UDP and not TCP; they don't say how to enable a "listener port of the VPN Server", and so on.

SoftEther is a complicated product to install and configure using the default distribution, and the included documentation in general is not very good, so this is consistent with that.

thats the message its giving me, do you know why its doing that?

I can only try to interpret what they have written. My suggestion is that you follow their recommendation on the course of action. I have extensive experience with configuring and testing our own services here, but I do not have experience with installing or troubleshooting SoftEther -- I've only read portions of the documentation.