NordVPN and Plusnet Incompatible

[#1]

Our NordVPN has stopped working properly on our mobile phones and laptops since we moved our fibre broadband from EE to Plusnet using the standard Plusnet Hub One router. The internet and VPN connections keep dropping on the devices and we are unable to connect to the scanner of our HP LaserJet Pro MFP printer and Philips Hue hub over WiFi with the VPN on. The Plusnet Customer Service team was unable to help when I called them, claiming that VPNs were not supported. I attempted the various workarounds recommended on this forum and by NordVPN: reinstalling the VPN, reconfiguring the DNS servers, buying a static IP from Plusnet. None of those worked consistently. My recommendation is to avoid Plusnet if you use a VPN. This is disappointing as VPNs are growing in popularity due to online privacy and consumer protection from sophisticated digital marketing techniques becoming more and more important.

[#2]

I don't have any issues using NordVPN on my PN connection with iPhone, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPad or Raspberry PI.
Also had PIA before that and was OK.

[#3]

I am glad to hear you have not had any issue. The question would be why is this working for you and not for us. Our router, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iPhones settings are set to default.

[#4]

Sorry to hear you're having issues connecting to your VPN.

I've been looking into this and I'm struggling to identify what may be causing this.

Can you try switching the broadband firewall off from Here?

Failing that are you able to try a different VPN just to rule out an issue with NordVPN?

[#5]

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@HertsUser wrote:

I am glad to hear you have not had any issue. The question would be why is this working for you and not for us. Our router, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iPhones settings are set to default.

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Are you using a Hub1? If so you'll need to split the 2.4GHz and 5 Ghz  WiFi bands to get the apple kit to play nicely. 

That could be the cause of your issues.

[#6]

Hi Gandalf, thank you for your reply. I did switch off the firewall as requested but I am still unable to connect to the scanner integrated in the HP printer. Disabling NordVPN solves the issue but defeats the purpose of having a VPN. I would like to stress that I had no issue whatsoever with the same devices and NordVPN when using EE.

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us.

While I appreciate that disabling NordVPN and not using a VPN isn't a solution you're after, have you tried using a different VPN? This will narrow down where the problem lies.

It may also be worth de-syncing the 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies as @dvorak has suggested. Instructions on how to do this can be found here: https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Devices-stop-working-on-5-GHz-connection-Wifi-drops/m-p/1395...

[#8]

I am afraid de-syncing the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wireless frequencies has not worked either.

[#9]

I switched from the macOS NordVPN IKE app to the NordVPN (OpenVPN) app as suggested by the NordVPN customer support team and this solved the scanner issue. I also switched off the Kill Switch and Cybersec options on our iPhones and I am checking whether this solved the connectivity issues. I will report back in a few days.

I have reverted our Apple devices and Plusnet Hub One to their default settings.

[#10]

I'm glad to see you've managed to find a potential solution.

Let us know how it goes.

[#11]

I am afraid I could not get my Plusnet fibre broadband to work with NordVPN. The iPhones kept having connectivity issues thru the WiFi. NordVPN does not offer the ability to change the VPN protocol on their iOS app from IKEv2 to OpenVPN and vice versa and Plusnet seems to be incompatible with IKEv2 from my experience. In conclusion I have asked NordVPN to cancel my contract and to give me a refund which they have agreed to do and I am grateful to them for that. I wished I had known of the risk before switching from EE to Plusnet. I have spent many precious hours troubleshooting networking issues unsuccessfully.