In Flight WIFI, VPN issues
Oct 3, 2019, 12:09 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: AUS
Programs: DL Flying Colonel
Posts: 4,023
In Flight WIFI, VPN issues
The last few times I have tried, have not been able to connect to the paid inflight WiFi using a VPN.
Anyone have insight or suggestions.
Apologies if this is already covered in another post, search was not very helpful.
Anyone have insight or suggestions.
Apologies if this is already covered in another post, search was not very helpful.
Oct 3, 2019, 12:38 pm
#4
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SNA
Programs: Bonvoy LTTE/AMB, AmEx Plat, National EE, WN A-List, CLEAR+, Covid-19
Posts: 4,963
I've used both Wireguard (UDP) and OpenVPN VPNs while aboard; the issue is most VPN endpoints are UDP, and because of the nature of the comm link, I suspect a lot of UDP packets get thrown away (or lost/delayed), killing your thruput.
If you can switch to using TCP, that should work for you.
If you can switch to using TCP, that should work for you.
Oct 3, 2019, 12:43 pm
#5
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SNA
Programs: Bonvoy LTTE/AMB, AmEx Plat, National EE, WN A-List, CLEAR+, Covid-19
Posts: 4,963
Wait- did you mean "Connect to a VPN while using the inflight WiFi", or did you actually mean "Connect to the paid WiFi while using a VPN"? If the latter, that's not going to work. Disconnect from your VPN first, then pay (or authenticate if you get it for free), then re-connect to your VPN. It's no different from say, a hotel's or cafe's Login Portal page where you need a working connection first before you can pass any traffic.
Oct 3, 2019, 5:36 pm
#6
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Verdi, NV, SFO & Olympic (aka Squaw )Valley.
Programs: Ikon Pass Full + AS Gold + Marriott Titanium + Hilton Gold. Recovering UA Plat. LT lounge AA+DL+UA
Posts: 3,823
Wait- did you mean "Connect to a VPN while using the inflight WiFi", or did you actually mean "Connect to the paid WiFi while using a VPN"? If the latter, that's not going to work. Disconnect from your VPN first, then pay (or authenticate if you get it for free), then re-connect to your VPN. It's no different from say, a hotel's or cafe's Login Portal page where you need a working connection first before you can pass any traffic.
Oct 3, 2019, 5:53 pm
#7
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SNA
Programs: Bonvoy LTTE/AMB, AmEx Plat, National EE, WN A-List, CLEAR+, Covid-19
Posts: 4,963
Oct 3, 2019, 6:17 pm
#8
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Denver, CO
Programs: UA Silver, Bonvoy Gold, Hyatt Discoverist
Posts: 21,529
Worked fine with my company's VPN client (FortiClient) on my flight this afternoon. I did have issues trying to trigger the wifi splash page initially.
Oct 3, 2019, 6:18 pm
#9
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 908
Someone I know has a work laptop that you can't login to unless you've first connected it to a wifi network and authenticated the VPN in the bottom right corner of the windows login screen. Makes it impossible to use the computer on any network that requires a login via a connection page.
Oct 4, 2019, 12:16 pm
#10
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Verdi, NV, SFO & Olympic (aka Squaw )Valley.
Programs: Ikon Pass Full + AS Gold + Marriott Titanium + Hilton Gold. Recovering UA Plat. LT lounge AA+DL+UA
Posts: 3,823
Oct 4, 2019, 12:25 pm
#11
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: SNA
Programs: Bonvoy LTTE/AMB, AmEx Plat, National EE, WN A-List, CLEAR+, Covid-19
Posts: 4,963
Yes, hence the need for a VPN- but in many places you have to authenticate locally outside the VPN to be able to pass traffic thru the VPN; I'm just surprised they don't have a solution for the ubiquitous Portal Page.
Oct 7, 2019, 7:47 am
#12
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Allen, TX (DAL)
Programs: Southwest Hilton Diamond
Posts: 97
Yea that is just poor implementation, and I am a long time Corporate IT Security guy. The way I get around it in hotel rooms is I use a TP Link Nano router and connect it to the hotel wireless and use my iPhone to connect and get past the captive portal and log on. Then my work laptop connects to my router SSID and I VPN directly from it.
