Having connectivity issues with the ProtonVPN Windows client? Read on for a checklist of things to solve your situation.

For Windows, ProtonVPN is available in the form of our own ProtonVPN Windows application. It provides the easiest to use interface and you can connect with just a single click. However, in certain scenarios, you might experience some connectivity issues when connecting to the ProtonVPN, and any VPN for that matter. There are a number of factors which can cause these issues and below you will find the solution to the most common scenarios.

Cannot log in to the Windows Client

Symptom: The login of the ProtonVPN Windows client shows an error after clicking login which looks like the following

Cause: This message is shown whenever the ProtonVPN client cannot connect to our authentication server to check your username and password. This is often caused by a missing internet connection (e.g. wifi disconnected, bad connection, no mobile data, or similar)

Solution: Make sure you are properly connected to the internet. Depending on your provider and device, contact your network administrator if needed.

VPN connection fails due to TAP driver error.

Symptom: Starting and logging in to the ProtonVPN Windows client work fine, however, when connecting to a server, the connection fails.

Cause: The TAP adapter might be corrupted during usage or while installing it on to your system. Also, you might not have all of the required security updates on Windows to use it.

Solution:

A – Reinstalling the TAP driver.
Please go to Device manager > Network adapters > find TAP-ProtonVPN windows adapter and right click to uninstall it.

Then , install the driver for your appropriate Windows OS version from these links:

https://protonvpn.com/download/ProtonVPN_TAP_win10.exe
MD5 hash: 2a5a9547305e9fdaf76c26adf31e3897

https://protonvpn.com/download/ProtonVPN_TAP_win7.exe
MD5 hash: d529837894ca9b1f2b691b17660ea28f

B – Updating windows with latest security updates. (this is the most common issue for Windows 7 users).

VPN Connection fails due to badly configured network adapter

Symptom: Starting and logging in to the ProtonVPN Windows client work fine, however, when connecting to a server, the connection fails.

Cause: The TAP Adapter is improperly configured such that the ProtonVPN client cannot correctly establish a connection.

Solution: A solution for this issue is to make sure the DNS addresses in the TAP-adapter to be automatic.

Navigate to Control Panel -> Network and sharing center -> Change adapter settings
Right click on the TAP-Windows Adapter V9 adapter and select Properties.
Uncheck IPv6, select IPv4 and right click for Properties. Finally make sure that both IP and DNS servers are set to automatic.

VPN Connection fails due to authentication failure

Symptom: Starting and logging in to the ProtonVPN Windows client work fine, however, when connecting to a server, the connection fails. The Windows application logs indicate “Auth Fail”

Cause: Likely due to hitting maximum number of connected devices and/or too many recent connections (attempts) that were not properly terminated.

Solution:

Make sure that you are not exceeding your connection limit. Different plans have different number of connected devices. Make sure that you do not have a device in the other room that is still connected. Check out our plans for more details about the different options.
Wait about 5 minutes, and retry connecting to a different server. Our servers periodically “clean up” old and inactive sessions. If you’ve had a connection that was not closed properly (think, wifi dropped, device crashed or similar), our infrastructure will detect and close such connections after a certain waiting period.

VPN is disconnecting / DNS is not resolving

Symptom: Establishing a VPN connection works fine however Browsers do not resolve any URLs.

Cause: This symptom can be caused by an improperly configured DNS settings which do not get updated.

Solution: Enter the following commands into the CMD (command prompt). Please note that you’ll need to have administrator rights for this step.

Make sure you are running on the latest VPN client version. To update:
- In the ProtonVPN client, open the File menu and click on Update
Click the Start icon -> open the Search -> write “cmd” -> and click enter. When you access the CMD, enter the following commands one-by-one:
- ipconfig /release
- ipconfig /flushdns
- ipconfig /renew
- netsh interface ipv4 reset
- netsh interface ipv6 reset

After you’ve entered the mentioned commands, restart your computer just to be sure and try to connect to the VPN.

Still having connectivity issues?

If none of the above methods provide a solution for the issue that you are experiencing, please contact our VPN specialists through the following link:

https://protonvpn.com/support-form

In your report, please include the connection logs, so our support team can isolate the issue and provide you an adequate solution.

You could find the connection logs in the following pathway on your computer (the following are hidden folders):