I have been using this old Pritunl client (1.2.2615.73) for more than 8 months now and I have no issues at all. This DNS issue just started today. Basically, when I connect to our VPN via Pritunl, I cannot access any google domains anymore (eg. google.com, google.ca, youtube). But I can access other sites like bing.com.
When I try to ping google WITHOUT VPN, this is what I get
$ ping www. google. com
PING www. google. com (142.251.46.228): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 142.251.46.228: icmp_seq=2614 ttl=57 time=23.411 ms
$ host google. com
google. com has address 142.251.16.102
google. com has address 142.251.16.100
google. com has address 142.251.16.101
and when I try to ping google WITH VPN, this is what I get
$ ping www. google. com
PING www. google. com (172.253.122.99): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
$ host google. com
google. com has address 172.253.115.101
google. com has address 172.253.115.139
google. com has address 172.253.115.138
It seems like the VPN is changing the DNS server and I don’t know why. Also, it seems I am the only one having this issue in our company so I don’t think this has anything to do with the VPN server itself.
Below are things that I have tried but they didn’t fix anything.
I rebooted my Mac laptop (Catalina - 10.15.7) and rebooted my Asus (RT-AC68U) router.
I uninstalled and re-installed the Pritunl client to version 1.2.3128.59 but it still didn’t work.
For testing purposes, I used the Windscribe VPN services and connected to it through its VPN client and there is no issue at all.
One thing that I tried that was peculiar was when I connected my laptop to my iPhone via Bluetooth and the iPhone is either connected to the Asus router Wifi or to my cellular provider, the VPN DNS issue does not show up meaning I can go to google/youtube without any issues.
I’m wondering if there is some Pritunl cache that I can remove or something?
Let me know if there are some things that I can try.
By default the Pritunl server will use the 8.8.8.8 DNS server, the Pritunl client will configure this DNS server when connecting. The DNS server option can be cleared in the server settings to disabling configuring a DNS server on the client.
[~]$ ping -D -s 2000 app.pritunl.com
PING app.pritunl.com (129.213.195.176): 2000 data bytes
ping: sendto: Message too long
ping: sendto: Message too long
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
ping: sendto: Message too long
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
ping: sendto: Message too long
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
[~]$ ping -D -s 1472 app.pritunl.com
PING app.pritunl.com (129.213.195.176): 1472 data bytes
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=82.801 ms
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=82.765 ms
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=84.306 ms
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=84.629 ms
With VPN enabled,
[~]$ ping -D -s 2000 app.pritunl.com
PING app.pritunl.com (129.213.195.176): 2000 data bytes
ping: sendto: Message too long
ping: sendto: Message too long
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
ping: sendto: Message too long
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
ping: sendto: Message too long
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
[~]$ ping -D -s 1472 app.pritunl.com
PING app.pritunl.com (129.213.195.176): 1472 data bytes
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=84.729 ms
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=84.414 ms
1480 bytes from 129.213.195.176: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=83.811 ms
Results seem identical to me. And notice that the IP didn’t change for both tests. But when I ping google.com, the IP of google.com still changes (if I am on VPN vs. if I am not on VPN).
Is there a way for me to forcibly change the client to use a specific DNS server and not from the Pritunl server itself?