Internet Connection Issue #2

KrispeeIguana@lemmy.ml to Linux@lemmy.ml – 14 points –

I seem to have a problem with internet connectivity. I use NetworkManager with Proton VPN on an Arch KDE system. The wifi and VPN stay connected, but every once in a while the upload and download rates will go down to, at most, a few hundred KiB/s. The issue can be solved temporarily by disconnecting and reconnecting the VPN, but as I've had a similar issue without the VPN before, I do not know whether this is a VPN issue or a NetworkManager issue.

9

You must isolate the problem to figure it out.

Try with another device using the VPN and try with your computer without the VPN.

Also I would suggest to check if this isn't related to your wifi or router configurations/setup. Once I had a router that sucks a lot and for once in a while I had to reconnect or even restart the router to make it work again

All of my other devices are either Windows or Android for convenience. The VPN works on Windows, but I can't isolate this issue via that route as those devices are old and have their own issues.

I have tried running my system without vpn and this specific issue hasn't appeared from yesterday until now. It is making me feel a little uncomfortable not having it on though.

I'm going to try another suggestion, then I'll come back to this one if it still doesn't work.

I had issues with the Proton VPN app on my desktop, but my laptop had no problems despite them both using Linux Mint. However, I had no problems with Proton if I set it up via OpenVPN, and Proton has a great guide on doing that.

Thank you. I also have strange anomalies with ProtonVPN and my EndeavourOS setup. I have been meaning to go the OpenVPN route as it allows port forwarding whereas the ProtonVPN app on linux doesn't. I only recently moved over from Mullvad because reasons, and it's been an annoying transition.

This kinda sounds like a TCP retransmission issue. Do you have a server available somewhere? Can you run iperf3 in both ways and see the retransmission rate?

You may also want to run TCP with both CUBIC and BBR for this test since that may also isolate shallow buffers versus corrupted packets.

Proton on Linux is annoying to say the least. I've got it mostly working on my distro and without a DE. Have you checked the protovnpvn_reconnector service, assuming you're on systemd? It's kind of odd that it just slows to a crawl but maintains connection.