Network Icon and Connection Issues

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chris_childerhose

Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:16 am

Post by chris_childerhose » Thu Jul 28, 2022 12:25 am
Seeing with both 1.10.2 and 1.10.3 versions where the network connection seems to disconnect or show the globe icon in both Windows 10/11. Using the GA release of both OS.

My WiFi icon appears on my work laptop, but the Ethernet shows no connection and will toggle back on/off sporadically. Not sure if something changed in the latest release, as I know this happened before and was addressed but it might be an MS thing?

Just wanted to bring this up again.

James

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Posts: 2312
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:27 pm

Post by James » Thu Jul 28, 2022 1:42 pm
Hi Chris,

It's not unusual for this to happen for a minute or two after you connect a VPN connection: when you connect Viscosity flushes the computer's network cache, which triggers Windows to re-do its NCSI network probing which can take a couple of minutes. If Windows is indicating you don't have network connectivity when you do, it's safe to ignore.

If it's continuing to indicate you have no network connectivity the entire time you're connected to a VPN connection, then it generally means that Windows can't connect to the Microsoft NCSI test server. Typically when this happens it indicates the VPN network is blocking access to the Microsoft test servers, either by not allowing the test domains to resolve using DNS, or a firewall/route/proxy blocking the connection attempt (whether intentionally or inadvertently). You may like to try resolving the test domains in a web browser while connected to your VPN connection and see if it works. For more information and the test server/s used, please see:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/troubl ... atus-alert

Generally if you have no problem connecting to the test domains manually but the reported connectivity is erratic it often points to a problem with local firewall/security software not reacting to the VPN connection properly, or a problem with the network driver for that interface. You can find some troubleshooting information at the links below:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answer ... tatus.html
https://purepcs.co.uk/kb/microsoft-conn ... ffice-365/

Finally, I will add that Windows has had a history of NCSI bugs in the past, and it's also possible you're running into a Windows bug. For example:
https://borncity.com/win/2020/03/27/win ... et-access/

Cheers,
James
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chris_childerhose

Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2020 2:16 am

Post by chris_childerhose » Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:20 am
Thanks, James. My guess is a bug in Windows knowing MS. :lol:

I will check in to the links posted and do some testing. Hopefully, MS gets its act together. :D
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