Windows 10: Windows 10 VPNs not connecting; DNS Client disabled and greyed out; An error has occurred...

About 2-3 months ago my Windows 10 VPNs stopped being able to connect; when trying to edit the network connection, I get "an unexpected error occurred"; troubleshooting led me to discover that my DNS Client is disabled and greyed out so I am unable to restart it - tried all manner of resetting it to no avail.

URGENT assistance desperately required.

:)

 

Best FREE vpn client? Need to connect to my home VPN


I created a remote access VPN (l2tp/ipsec) on my router at my house. If I want to connect to my VPN server remotely ,what do you suggest as a good free vpn client?

I know windows 10 has a built in vpn client, but would I notice any improvments (speed, stability, etc) using like cisco anywhere connect or any other free vpn clients?

 

Windows 10 DNS-Server order when connected via LAN and establishing a VPN Connection

Hi Gil,

the internet Service Provider can't help me. It's Windows 10 related. Everytime when I establish a connection with Ethernet (LAN) to a network (does no matter which ISP), i get an IP and I can surf in the internet. But when I establish an VPN connection
on that Ethernet Connection, then my DNS will be set to the Ethernet Connection DNS-Server NOT to the VPN-Connection DNS-Server.

In this scenario my VPN-Connection gets a higher Metric as my Ethernet ( Cable bound LAN) connection.

Lan-Connection (Ethernet) Metric 5

VPN-Connection Metric 15

When I establish a WIFI connection to the same Router I can surf in the Internet. Then I establish an VPN-Connection an the DNS-Server will be set to the VPN-Connection configured DNS-Server.

In this scenario my VPN-Connection gets a lower Metric as my Wifi connection.

Wifi-Connection Metric 35

VPN-Connection Metric 25

Both Connections are preferred. So the connection with the better Metric wins.

It's not related to the ISP. He has nothing to do with the "automatic" Metric setting in my Windows 10 Client.

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Win 10: DNS resolution of remote network via VPN connection not working

Changing the metric worked for me, but my situation was a little different:

DNS resolution with my VPN had been working flawlessly with Win10 (first with Preview, then with RTM, always kept up-to-date) using Dell SonicWALL NetExtender (currently version 7.5.223)

Then this morning DNS resolution with my VPN stopped working suddenly. I hadn't explicitly made any changes or installed any updates or software. Perhaps an automatic update broke things.

Though the VPN still connected fine, and though the interface binding order HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\LanmanServer\Linkage\Bind was properly updated on connection of the VPN (i.e. the VPN's interface was added to the top of the list),
NSLOOKUP would use my LAN's DNS servers rather than the VPN's DNS servers. The VPN client was however showing properly-configured DNS servers.

In my case I was unable to open TCP/IPv4 properties for the "SonicWALL NetExtender" interface: the "Properties" button was displayed as being active, but clicking on it did nothing / did not open a properties dialog.

So instead I went to TCP/IPv4 properties for my Ethernet interface, clicked Advanced, and unchecked "Automatic metric", and assigned an arbitrary metric of 100.

After doing this DNS resolution once again works properly: When the VPN is connected the VPN interface's DNS servers are used. When the VPN is not connected, the Ethernet interface's DNS servers are used.